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TechnologyDaily Mobile
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| Of Mice And Members |
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On the positive side, 16 percent of the 2006 freshmen class received A's. "Because of the size of this class being 64 members strong, it was surprising that so many of them were so quick to get out of the gate with a new Web site," Hysom said. The foundation began reviewing sites in June.
While the bottom performers stuck to their old ways, the top performers continued to succeed. Sixty-one percent of the member sites that garnered B's last year either maintained their status or improved to become award winners.
The foundation determined the characteristics that constitute effective congressional Web sites by evaluating past and present sites, getting input from constituent focus groups, and conducting interviews with congressional staff, among other things. Then the foundation judged every 2007 site based on the degree to which it incorporated each characteristic, including audience, design, innovation, interactivity -- online and offline -- and up-to-date content.
Democratic Sens. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico and Patrick Leahy of Vermont, and Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., now have won Mouse distinctions each of the four years they have been awarded, in 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2007.
Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, was cited as one of eight members who have "cultivated outstanding Web sites with remarkable dependability" by winning awards three out of four times.
According to the report, Craig's information technology director, Mark Shonce, said, "Our team takes a different approach because we recognize that the senator's site is a tool that helps us solve problems and reach constituents in new ways."
Honda's online communications director, Rob Pierson, who is also president of the House Systems Administrators Association, explained that his boss is a four-time winner partly because he represents a large portion of Silicon Valley, where constituents assume that their congressman is going to have a comprehensive and navigable site.
In addition to offering news feeds, downloadable audio and Spanish translations, the site incorporates the Facebook online social network, the YouTube video-sharing site and the Flickr photo-sharing site.
The report notes that sites "are slowly adopting next-generation Internet technology," with 14 percent more House members and 16 percent more senators offering news feeds this year compared to last year. Two percent more representatives and 9 percent more senators are making audio subscriptions available.
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