By way of BeSpecific, a wonderful weblog, comes a pointer to some overdue recognition for the Louisiana State Legislature web portal.
The Center for Digital Government, which describes itself as “a national research and advisory institute on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government,” ranks Louisiana’s legislature the third most digitally-advanced in the country, in the CDG’s 2003 Digital Legislatures Survey.
[Caveat] Nevada was first, and North Dakota and Minnesota were tied for second, so that technically makes Louisiana fourth, I believe. But who wants to carp over technicalities?
From the article: “The Digital Legislatures Survey is the first study of its kind that will be used as a bellwether for electronic government and provide models for best practices. In August, all 50-state legislative offices were invited to participate in the survey. Officials responded to a set of 12 questions and ranked their offices according to a four-point scale, providing URLs and background data for final verification and validation. Questions ranged from online access to legislation and elected officials to legislative technology support and operations. A ranking was established based on the multiple-choice criteria selections.”
I can certainly vouch for the ease with which one can monitor the progress and evolution of a bill during the frenzied session days. I took it for granted that this ease of access was standard operating procedure in all states, but this clearly is not so. Congratulations to those responsible for the creativity, logic, hard work, and meticulous quality control that make the legislature’s portal so accessible and accurate.