BOW 2007

Secretary of Technology Announces National Web Awards
~ Virginia receives more honors than any other state ~

RICHMOND - Secretary of Technology Aneesh P. Chopra today announced that Virginia’s Web site and three state agencies have received prestigious Digital Government Achievement Awards from the Center for Digital Government.

The Center recognized the state’s official Web site, http://www.virginia.gov/, managed by the Virginia Information Technologies Agency, as a top Best of the Web winner.

Other state honorees include the Council on Virginia’s Future, the Virginia Department of Transportation and the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy.

Additionally, Fairfax County ranked first in the nation in the county category and Virginia Beach received an honorable mention in the city category of Best of The Web.The Digital Government Achievement Award (DGAA) is a national program that recognizes outstanding agency and department Web sites and applications that enhance information interactions, transactions and/or services. The Best of Web awards program recognizes the most innovative, user-friendly state and local government portals based on their innovation, Web-delivery of public services, efficiency, economy, and functionality for improved citizen access.

“Across Virginia, we are using information technology to develop innovative and cost effective tools to improve customer service, management and business processes,” said Secretary Chopra. “These prestigious national awards for our state Web site, our agencies and our localities demonstrate our commitment to improve citizen service and the way we manage government by working smarter, not by spending more.”

Virginia.gov, the state’s official Web site, moved up in the Best of the Web rankings from fourth to third place among the 50 states. This year, all Virginia agencies worked closely with Virginia.gov in a pioneering partnership with Google to simplify and improve citizen access to government information via the Web, and this honor clearly reflects their work. (Read the Governor’s press release about the Google partnership.) Other changes to the state Web site enhanced the user experience through the most current advancements in technology, best practices and design. Virginia.gov is the only portal in the nation to have ranked in the Best of the Web top five every year it has been eligible to compete since 2001; it is managed by the Virginia Information Technologies Agency through a public-private partnership with Virginia Interactive.

"2007 was an amazing year for our Best of Web and Digital Government Achievement Awards,” said Cathilea Robinett, Executive Director of the Center for Digital Government. The competition was fierce and there were many applications and portals that were top notch. It’s clear that America’s state and local governments are unrelenting in their pursuit of excellence for the citizens they serve.”

Thanks to its three outstanding agency project wins, Virginia received more honors than any other state in the 2007 recognition program.

The Council on Virginia’s Future was honored with the Digital Government Achievement Award in the Government to Citizen category for its Web site, “Virginia Performs,” http://www.vaperforms.virginia.gov/. Virginia Performs is a performance accountability system which ties rich data from many sources directly to the business of state government, greatly improving the way Virginia measures progress and reports results. It provides seamless transparency, supports broad policy decisions in pursuit of long-term objectives and engages citizens in informed dialogue about Virginia's future.

The Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy was honored with the Digital Government Achievement Award in the Government to Business category for its WaterTrans application for the Division of Mined Land Reclamation (DMLR). It provides the division and its customers with information critical to the development, permitting, regulation and operation of surface mining operations in Virginia. This application provides DMLR staff and customers, with the most up to date information in an easy-to-use and integrated fashion and is part of DMME's long-term commitment to provide cost effective information management tools that bring value to the agency and its customers.

The Department of Transportation’s Integrated Project Management system (iPM) was honored with the Digital Government Achievement Award in the Government Internal category. It is a joint technology and business effort that provides a state of the art integrated platform to manage transportation projects. iPM collects data from multiple applications and presents it as meaningful information via Web pages. iPM has improved access to project information, simplified existing work processes, improved data quality and accuracy, enabled changes in business processes, and ensured simplistic system maintenance and usability.Winners will be acknowledged at the 11th Anniversary Awards Gala in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 21, 2007. More information is available online at the Center for Digital Government’s Web site, http://www.centerdigitalgov.com/surveys.php?survey=cdg_bow.