TO: CVF-NEWS FROM: Kim Alexander, CVF President DATE: June 21, 2002 RE: CVF-NEWS roundup: Webbies, Oracle, Gov't web sites
Hi Folks,
I've been traveling the past few weeks and am catching up on a few important items. In this edition of CVF-NEWS:
* And the Webby Goes To...... * Audit committee chair issues closing statement on Oracle scandal * Pew Internet Life project reveals how Americans use government web sites
And the Webby Goes To......
This week I had the pleasure of attending the 6th Annual Webby Awards in San Francisco. Though the party was much smaller than past years, it was just as fun as ever. And while CVF didn't take home another Webby Award this year, we were cheering on our friends at the Center for Responsive Politics, whose awesome web site, http://www.opensecrets.org, took top
honors in the Politics category this year. I'm also happy to report that in the Government & Law category, which I chaired as a nominating judge, the Library of Congress' web site took home the Webby this year.
A full list of winners plus news articles and photos are accessible on the Webby Awards' web site, http://www.webbyawards.com. Congrats to all!
Audit committee chair issues final statement on Oracle scandal
This week the chair of California's Joint Legislative Audit Committee, Assemblyman Dean Florez, concluded his committee's investigation into the Oracle contracting scandal and issued a statement providing an overview of the committee's efforts. Florez' statement is available on the Bakersfield Californian's web site, http://www.bakersfield.com/top/story/1275068p-1391282c.html
Unfortunately there is very little official information available on the Legislature's or Governor's web site regarding the Oracle scandal. While the audit committee took hundreds of hours of testimony it is currently only available in transcript form. Those interested in learning more about the Oracle scandal can peruse news articles linked from CVF's "What We're Reading" section of our web site, http://www.calvoter.org/reading.html , or take a look at the Bureau of State Audits' original report that started the investigation which, fortunately, is available online. The title of the report is: "Enterprise Licensing Agreement: The State Failed to Exercise Due Diligence When Contracting With Oracle, Potentially Costing Taxpayers Millions of Dollars", and it is online at: http://www.bsa.ca.gov/bsa/summaries/2001128.html
Pew Internet Life project reveals how Americans use government web sites
We've been reading with great interest a report published back in April by the Pew Internet Life project that examines how Americans are using government web sites. The study found that 68 million American adults have used government agency Web sites, up from 40 million who had used government sites in March 2000. The survey estimates that:- 42 million Americans have used government Web sites to research public policy issues;
- 23 million Americans have used the Internet to send comments to public officials about policy choices; and
- 14 million Americans -- an estimated one out of every five Internet users -- have used government Web sites to gather information to help them decide how to cast their votes.CVF, along with many other groups in the nonprofit sector, have been working for years to improve the quality and quantity of election and government information on the Web. The Pew survey findings show how citizens are increasingly turning to government web sites to seek information and help. Overall the survey found that American Internet users are more satisfied with the quality of information available at federal and state sites, while local sites were found to be lacking. More details about this survey are available online at http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=57 .
Have a great weekend, and happy first day of Summer!
-- Kim Alexander, California Voter Foundation
kimalex@calvoter.org, (916) 452-7706, www.calvoter.org
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This page was first published on June 21, 2002 | Last updated on June 21, 2002
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