Broken links, outdated information and mysterious abbreviations are just a few of the problems.
Years ago, it took days to get our hands on basic government documents. We’d call someone who could send them to us, hope they would follow through and then wait for the U.S. Postal Service to do its job. When they didn’t arrive in a week or so, we’d repeat the process.
These days, like many other researchers, journalists, policymakers and citizens, we rely on the troves of reports, budgets, data and plans that state and local governments post on their websites. This isn’t just an executive branch phenomenon. State legislative websites now provide more information online than anyone would have thought possible 20 years ago, including such helpful items as access to meeting minutes and summaries of proposed bills.
But the postings often leave users more frustrated than grateful. Many of us feel that this promised land of facts is more of a mirage than an informational oasis.
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DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
4 comments:
Incompetent government employees with bosses who only care about their own careers.
It's akin to the way that laws are written, so complex that the ordinary citizen cannot decipher it means. KICS (Keep It Complicated Stupid)!
I am in favor of the POTUS' plan to make all laws being written to be no more than one page! Simple English and understandable to the masses.
The government has become my enemy over the last 8 years with obama in charge.
Ironically, government pays a lot of money for their sites but they all too often have a design by committee - a group of people who aren't design inclined. They lack the aesthetics that people have come to appreciate in viewing websites and opt to make them look as sanitized as possible.
As for the broken links, seldom does legislators see the value of having a real webmaster on staff to upkeep their sites. They think the IT department should suffice when IT people know networking and hardware/software programs. They aren't webmasters and there's a vast difference.
Government in general, doesn't hold an appreciation for social media because to them, it's a new area untapped by legislators. If they did utilize it, they would find their jobs much easier because they could interact with the public more efficiently and effectively.
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