Going for the gold

The gold mouse report is certainly an interesting article. In rating the different web sites of various elected officials such as senators and congressmen they have several criteria that are used that I think do truly matter for freedom of information reasons. The people are supposed to be able to access how their elected officials have voted and what they have voted and not voted on. If a website is not kept up to date and has information from a year ago (as some of them apparently do) this process is blocked. Another huge factor that is a necessity is a search engine for their webpages. How else is the average citizen supposed to be able to navigate through a website and find bills or resolutions that have been associated with their representatives. I found it interesting that senate web pages did much better than congressional ones. Another interesting fact was that Democrats web sites got higher grades in 2007 after getting majorities in both houses, (as slim as it is) than when republicans got the majority in the legislature in in the 90s. The book points out that this might have happened because of the websites being already established previously and the only work that was done was simple modernization revisions installing some web tools like search engines. A lot of what scores highly seems to be aesthetic value such as looking professional with high definition pictures for a background homepage. Some of the other categories are more necessary such as ease of navigation, access to representative's activities, press clippings, press releases etc. The article says that the results overall are disappointing but i see this again simply as a product of the different generations in power. Many staffers are not web experts and that job has to be outsourced to consultants which can increase the time needed to update web pages (having an overall negative affect) Many generations are now growing up with the internet, (most of generation y) and when or if they decide to go into public service this problem will most likely be solved to a much greater extent as they will have invaluable knowledge as to the most efficient ways to use the internet. Government websites should continue to work towards Golden mouse awards as that will truly ensure that citizens will be connected to the political process and further motivate participation in elections.