620 House and Senate Websites Evaluated in the 111th Congress Gold Mouse Project
WASHINGTON, DC — The website of U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) was recognized by the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF), for having one of the best websites in Congress. CMF analyzed all 620 congressional websites, including those of all Senate and House members, committees (both majority and minority sites) and official leadership sites. Senator Casey’s site, http://casey.senate.gov, was one of only 135 websites commended by CMF in its 111th Congress Gold Mouse Project.
“I am honored to accept the Bronze Mouse Award,” said Senator Casey. “I consider my website my virtual office and I hope that casey.senate.gov helps provide Pennsylvanians easy access to vital information and services.”
The 111th Congress Gold Mouse Awards are part of CMF’s Partnership For A More Perfect Union, which seeks to improve the quality of communication between members and their constituents. For this project CMF partnered with researchers from the Harvard Kennedy School, Northeastern University, University of California–Riverside and the Ohio State University to study how members of Congress can use the Internet to improve communications with their constituents and to promote greater participation in the legislative process.
“One of the key reasons for the awards is to highlight best practices so offices can improve their sites by learning from those already excelling in online communications,” said Beverly Bell, CMF’s Executive Director. “Websites like Senator Casey’s serve as a prime example that we hope other congressional offices will follow.”
“Senator Casey’s website shows that he understands how to meet the needs of his state online,” said Bell. “The Congressional Management Foundation congratulates Senator Casey for having a website that is among the best on Capitol Hill and we are pleased to present Senator Casey with the 111th Congress Bronze Mouse Award.”
“The 111th Congress report shows that websites continue to be a critical channel through which members and congressional committees can communicate with, and hear from, citizens. The Internet is a vital tool for elected officials and the public to use in the give-and-take of ideas and opinions that has characterized the American form of government since its founding” Bell said.
Websites were graded on how well they incorporate five core principles that CMF identified through extensive research as critical for effectiveness: know your audience, provide timely and targeted content that meets their needs, make the site easy to use, foster interaction both on and offline and add value through innovation.
Using these core principles, an evaluation framework was developed by CMF and their research partners, which would be fair and objective while still taking into account important qualitative factors that affect a visitor's experience on a website.
The 111th Congress Gold Mouse Project report, a full listing winners and other comparative data is available on CMF’s Partnership For A More Perfect Union website at www.pmpu.org.
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