This time it’s the National Policy Research Council, a Washington-based think tank, and “Computerworld” magazine that have given the service Web site an A- and placed it in the top five of government sites.
An article in “Computerworld” said the highest grades went to Web sites with a wide range of services that could easily be found on the home page, “instead of being buried several pages deep.”
Michigan’s site has nearly 300 online services available. It gets an average of 35.8 million page views per month. And 60 million PDF documents are downloaded from the site annually, according to the magazine.
Nebraska’s site had 40.4 million hits last year. It supported 146 state and local government entities.
The site offers quick contact with online services through the home page, said Brian Stevenson, Nebraska.gov general manager.
“A lot of people don’t realize what type of services are available,” he said.
Users can access any state agency through the site.
And if you can’t get to the governor’s office or the state Capitol, you can click to take a virtual tour.
The site is not yet bilingual, because the staff has not had a lot of inquiries about making it so, Stevenson said. “But we are open to those things,” he said.
Nebraska.gov has been redesigned four times since it was launched a decade ago. The latest update came in the summer of 2005.
Brown University also ranked Nebraska’s site in the top 20 of state sites, listing it 19th, up from 23rd the previous year.
Brown evaluated Web sites for the presence of such electronic features as databases, audio clips, video clips, foreign language content or language translation services, disability access, privacy policy, number of online services, comment forms, PDA accessibility, and readability level.
In the Brown ranking, Texas placed first and Michigan fourth.
Nebraska placed 14th in 2005 as one of the 25 most digitally advanced state governments in the nation as identified by the Center for Digital Government.
The Nebraska site is a public-private partnership, Stevenson said. Nebraska Interactive LLC contracts with the Nebraska State Records Board.
Nebraska.gov, which is not a state agency, employs 12. They work at 301 S. 13th St.
Autor(en)/Author(s): JoAnne Young
Quelle/Source: Lincoln Journal Star, 02.12.2006
