Congratulations to the Best of the Web 2003 Winners:
State Portal Category:
1st Place: Utah
2nd Place: Maine
3rd Place: Indiana
4th Place: Washington
5th Place: Arkansas
City Portal Category:
2nd Place: Virginia Beach, Va.
3rd Place: Boston, Mass.
4th Place: Phoenix, Ariz.
5th Place: Dallas, Texas
County Portal Category:
1st Place: Montgomery County, Md.
2nd Place: Santa Clara County, Calif.
3rd Place: Fairfax County, Va.
4th Place: Marion County/Indianapolis, Ind.
5th Place: King County, Wash.
BEST GOVERNMENT APPLICATIONS
A new category in this year's Best of the Web contest is Applications, which are defined as agencies, departments and individual government services, and transactions. Winners in this category are:
1st Place: Commonwealth of PA Application for Social Services
2nd Place: Louisiana Film Commission
3rd Place: Montana Online Wildlife Licensing
4th Place: Virginia Tax Online
State Constitutional Officers:
1st Place: Georgia Secretary of State
2nd Place: Texas Comptroller
3rd Place: Maine Secretary of State
3rd Place: Washington Secretary of State
State Legislature: Minnesota
State Judiciary: North Carolina
City Applications:
1st Place: Seattle, Wash., Democracy Portal
2nd Place: Portland: Housing Connections
3rd Place: Richmond, VA: Citizen Service Request
4th Place: Nashville, Tenn.: Citizen's Guide to the Budget
County Applications:
1st Place: Iowa State County Treasurers Association Portal for all Iowa counties
2nd Place: Hillsborough County, Fla.: Remote Access Portal
3rd Place: Miami-Dade County, Fla.: My Neighborhood
4th Place: Maricopa County, Ariz.: Drug Free Arizona
Best of the Web, Education
Two additional categories in the contest are K-12 and Higher Education. Results from the education categories can be found at the Center for Digital Education.
2003 Best of the Web Contest Overview
Increasingly, today's government and education Web sites are providing windows of efficiency for a wide range of services. The Center was looking for government and education Web sites that provide solutions and communicate well with citizens, businesses or educational communities.
Contest Rules
Applicants must be from a state or local government, or K-12 or higher education institution. Web sites must be actively functioning at the time of submission. First-place winners from last year's contest were excluded from entering in 2003 to make room for a new round of winners.
Contest Judges
The panel of judges included representatives from the following organizations: Center for Digital Government, Center for Digital Education, Government Technology magazine, NYWired for Education, Inc., State Technologies, Inc., and 2002 Best of the Web contest first-place winners.
Contest Eligibility Guidelines
1. A visible privacy statement
2. Actual online services (beyond downloading PDFs), so that citizens can complete transactions online from start to finish.
3. A written policy or program demonstrating your implementation or plan to implement Web accessibility standards, such as the W3C Level One guidelines or Section 508 accessibility standards.
Contest Criteria:
1. (20%) Innovation and use of Web-based technology to deliver government or education services:
What is new or cutting edge about the site?
2. (50%) Functionality (ease of use) and improved access
What steps have you taken to ensure customer satisfaction, easy navigation, and clean appearance?
How intuitive is the interaction between government and citizens or between the educational institution and its students, teachers and parents?
Where is your accessibility plan? Please state where we can find it.
Where is your privacy and security statement? Please state where we can find it.
3. (15%) Efficiency or time saved:
How is what you are doing shaping government or education efficiencies?
What has this website/application done to streamline services or business?
Give specifics on how you have measured the efficiencies and time saved.
4. (15%) Economy or money saved:
Was innovative funding or a public/private partnership developed?
How much did you save? What long term, continual savings have you projected?
