Press Release

Oakland County Web Video Center Wins National Award

Pontiac, Michigan - Oakland County’s new multimedia Video Center, on www.oakgov.com, was recently honored with an Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties.

Oakland County is using multimedia as a new way to communicate with citizens at home and around the world. The County’s podcast series and collection of short videos make County news and information more accessible to a greater number of citizens.

"We are taking advantage of the increasing popularity of online videos as a way to get news and information, as we reach out to our residents and business owners in new ways. Videos and podcasts allow us to bring County government programs and services to a larger audience, expanding our ability to serve more citizens," said Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson.

The Oakland County Video Center allows citizens to browse an index of recent videos, or search for videos by subject category or keyword. Clicking on a video title will launch that video within a media player on the County’s web site. Web users can also easily send an email link to the video, or subscribe to be automatically notified of new videos using RSS. Built-in functionality allows site visitors to share the video on any of several popular social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, or create a bookmark for the video within their web browser or any of several bookmarking services such as Digg, Del.i.cio.us, or Reddit. Selected Oakland County videos are also available on YouTube and iTunes.

“Our citizens are increasingly turning to the web to get what they need from local government. With our new Video Center, we are able to answer the requests for access to more information online. Multimedia allows us to provide better service to more people,” said Phil Bertolini, Oakland County CIO and Deputy County Executive.

There are currently more than 32 online services available via the Oakland County public web site www.oakgov.com.