Connecting state and local government leaders
Readers offered their own suggestions of government Web sites that are doing a great job of providing services and connecting with citizens.
GCN’s July 27 issue featured 10 great government Web sites, holding them up as examples of federal, state and local organizations were putting Web technology to some cutting-edge uses.
But by no means do we presume that these are the only 10 great government sites. Readers offered their own suggestions of sites that are doing a great job of providing services and connecting with citizens. True, in some cases, they suggested the sites of their own agencies, but that doesn’t mean those are not worth checking out.
Related story:
Great dot-gov Web sites: 10 sites that take online government to the next level
Some of the reader suggestions:
“I'm not normally a 'rah-rah' kind of guy, especially for our own agency, but our Web people do a pretty danged good job for both external and internal users. Metro's stated purposes are well delivered and our pages provide a wealth of information about the agency's offerings. www.oregonmetro.gov.” --Chari Anang
“The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Human Resources (OHR) is pleased to announce the new look and exciting new features of the public OHR Web site! The redesigned site is more user-friendly and has features such as two-level tabbed navigation, left-hand contextual navigation, and a top 10 quick links section that reflects the most visited pages on the site. The site is being launched Friday, July 17 at 5pm, so please take a moment to view it on or after that date on: http://hr.od.nih.gov.” -- Jennifer Levithan
“Check out DisasterAssistance.gov, which launched 12/31/2008 as a one-stop shop to help disaster survivors. Since launch, the site has had over 262,000 visitors providing assistance from 17 federal agencies. More than 4,200 results are produced when performing a Google search for “www.disasterassistance.gov” And many major organizations provide a direct link to DisasterAssistance.gov, including: DHS, OPM, DoEd, SBA, DOL, SSA, DOS, Treasury, HUD, USDA, American Bar Association, Disability Rights California, National Disaster Legal Aid, National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD).”
“NOAA is best by far. Better than the commercial weather Web sites as well. http://www.noaa.gov/.” -- G. Holubec
“The FDIC Web site is packed full of helpful up-to-date consumer and market information. There are helpful plain-English FAQ's and interactive applications available to answer nearly any question a bank, investor or consumer may want to know concerning insured deposits, as well as comprehensive information about the FDIC's mission and services during these difficult times. The site is kept current and fresh with new information posted daily: www.fdic.gov.” -- Mike Bartell
“http://www.federalreserve.gov/.” -- Robert VanOrmer
“Web Manager University could also be helpful to Visual Information folks, Audiovisual Production teams and Public Affairs Officers within government because they all have a stake in communication as a strategy on behalf of an agency.”
“I would also be very interested in seeing your picks for government-related Web sites that are not run by official representatives of the gov't. Here are some of my picks: GovTrack - http://www.govtrack.us/, LittleSis - http://littlesis.org/, NPR's Dollar Politics - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105878862.”
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