Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Best Web Sites on Capitol Hill

Beantown Web maintains a policy of not discussing politics. This posting is an exception. Feel free to contact your Senator or Representative to discuss the findings presented in this story.

There are 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and 100 members of the U.S. Senate. The websites of these 535 members of the U.S. Congress were graded by the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF). A press release is available for review.

The most common grade issued: "D"

Less that 14% of websites received an "A" rating. The 85 best websites received one of three Mouse Awards as follows:
  • 18 Gold Mouse Awards (A-plus)
  • 27 Silver Mouse Awards (A)
  • 40 Bronze Mouse Awards (A-minus)
Two Bronze Mouse Awards were issued to Massachusetts Congressmen:
Massachusetts Senators not receiving awards:
Massachusetts Representatives not receiving awards:
The Congressional Management Foundation did not release the grades of any students other than the "A" students.

If you are not from Massachusetts you can identify your U.S. Senator and your U.S. Representative and then check to see if he or she was one of the 2006 CMF Mouse Award Winners.

"One of the key purposes of the awards is to highlight best practices so offices can improve their sites by learning from those doing a good job," said a CMF resprsentative.

Websites were evaluated based on how well they incorporate five basic building blocks of web communication effectiveness:
  • audience
  • content
  • usability
  • interactivity
  • innovation
A downloadable report (pdf) presents a nice 20-page discussion on "Building a Successful Web Site" using the five basic building blocks listed above.
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