Ventura Superior Court has been named as one of the recipients of the 2009 Granicus Digital Governance Awards in the category of Excellence in Governmental Efficiency for its “Workshops on the Web” program.

The award was presented July 24 at this year’s Granicus User Conference in San Francisco.

The Granicus awards recognize government agencies for excellence, innovation, creativity and leadership using digital technology to improve transparency, public participation and efficiency. It’s a competition among 550 government agencies that use Granicus streaming media tools to interact with the community. Agencies being honored demonstrated the most compelling use of Granicus technology.

“Workshops on the Web” presents video programs from the Ventura Superior Court’s series of Family Law SelfHelp Workshops through the court’s website, ventura.courts.ca.gov. The programs are available at no cost to anyone with access to the Internet.

Self-represented litigants can view the workshops from home any time of the day or night at their own convenience and pace. They no longer must travel to the courthouse or take time off from work to attend a workshop.

They can jump ahead to specific information within a program and repeat that information as much as they like. Related documents, such as court forms, are synchronized to appear next to the workshop video content.

In addition to user convenience, providing the workshops online creates additional time for the family law facilitator to assist other users of the court’s Family Law Self-Help Center. The video library is constantly being expanded and will soon include other programming, such as family mediation orientation and general information about the court.