Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani today announced that the City's two-year old official World Wide Web Site "NYC.gov" (www.ci.nyc.ny.us) won the "gold" medal or first place in the national "Best of the Web" competition. The web site, spearheaded by the Department of Information Technology & Tele-communications (DOITT), took home top honors and a $15,000 first prize from the field of 257 competitors representing 44 states. Last year, the fledgling web site placed third in the same competition.
"'Whether you are a resident in need of government services, a business person interested in government contracts, or a tourist planning your next vacation 'NYC.gov' provides access to information on the City. We all know that New York City is the Capital of the World -- and the Internet helps to make the best City in the world even better. The use of the most modern technology not only showcases New York City to the world, it provides a critical link for New Yorkers who want to access their government.
"On behalf of the City, I congratulate DOITT Commissioner Ralph Balzano, Deputy Commissioner for Information Utility Avi Duvdevani and Mayoral Internet Coordinator Diane Bondareff for taking first prize in a field of tough competitors," Mayor Giuliani said.
"The Mayor gave me one mandate, 'Bring City Hall to the people," Commissioner Balzano said. "The web site delivers that by introducing the City and its services to the novice user while bringing more comprehensive access such as printable forms, records and hearing notifications for the person who wants a comprehensive use. I congratulate our Department's top technical team and I look forward to next year's competition."
The public sponsors of the contest are the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the Council of State Governments, the University of California at Davis, Government Technology Magazine and State Technologies, Inc. The private sponsors are Cisco Systems, Oracle, and Silicon Graphics. Evaluation criteria included innovative use of Web-based on-line technology to deliver government services in a user-friendly, efficient and economic fashion.
The "NYC.gov" mission statement is to provide the public with quick and easy access to information about New York City agencies, programs and services, through links to over 200 external web sites. In addition, the City's home page also provides information about cultural, educational, and recreational activities in New York City.
NYC.govwas first launched in October, 1995 and in July, 1996 underwent a major re-design. Since that date, over 20 million requests for information were processed for nearly 320,000 visitors. The site contains over 4,500 files and features from over 40 City agencies.
Visitors to the web site can find the following information.
The site is managed by the Office of New Media (ONM), a matrix management organization under the direction of Director of Communications Cristyne F. Lategano and comprising staff from the Mayor's Office of Operations and DOITT.
The city of Seattle won second place and a $10,000 prize, and Indianapolis rounded out the top three, earning a $5,000 award.