Great .gov sites, round two
Connecting state and local government leaders
We're looking for a few more great government Web sites to highlight.
So much can change in a year! Last July, when we compiled our first annual Great .Gov Web sites compilation, we wanted to defeat the stereotype that government Web sites were staid, unexciting places. We found 10 innovative and useful sites that could hold their own with what was being offered elsewhere on the Web. And we saw how government Web design teams moving beyond the static Web-page-as-a-brochure approach and toward offering more transactional-based services that citizens could use.
This year, of course, with federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra's charge to expose more government data, government Web sites have been getting more exposure than ever. And recently introduced sites such as Recovery.gov have been pushing the envelope as far as making more government information more easily understandable.
"It boggles the mind that the coolest things on the Web are being done by the U.S. federal government," one of our associates from the IT industry told us.
So, for GCN's July 27 print edition, we would like to profile 10 more great government Web sites. We're not running a formal "Best Of" contest (there's just too much good Web work going on in government for us to compile the definitive list). Rather, this story will be a virtual walkabout to see some of the interesting work that you and your peers are doing.
If you know of a federal, state or local government-run site that we should take a look at (including your own — don't be shy!), please drop us a line, either at jjackson@1105media.com, or in the comments section below.
The sites we're looking for could be great in any number of ways: They could be displaying government data in innovative but easy-to-comprehend ways. They could be saving citizens time and effort by offering services. Or they could be allowing people to participate in the process of government by providing a social forum to discuss the issues. Or they could simply be nicely designed sites, ones that are the envy of Web designers or Web programmers. If it is interesting, we want to see it.
We have no official entry form, so just a link would be needed, along, perhaps, with a few words about what features of a particular site we should examine most closely. Deadline is next Wednesday, July 15.
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