Markey's Energy Independence and Global Warming Web Site Wins Gold Mouse Award

Select Committee Website Leading the Way in New Media Communications and Social Networking

The Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, chaired by Congressman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass), was recognized this week by the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF), for having one of the best Web sites in Congress. 

Chairman Markey, whose Select Committee website has previously been honored by the Webby Awards, won the Golden Dot for best eGov site, a Pollie Award and a W3 award from the International Academy of the Visual Arts was proud to add the Gold Mouse Award to the list.

“Our goal has always been to use technology to break new ground in Congressional communication, and we are honored to be recognized by the CMF with the Gold Mouse Award.” said Chairman Markey. “Fostering two-way communication and boosting transparency has helped the Select Committee connect with the public as we search for clean energy solutions.”

The CMF analyzed all 620 congressional Web sites, including those of all Senate and House Members, committees (both majority and minority sites), and official leadership sites. 

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. “Web sites like the Select Committee’s serve as a prime example that we hope other congressional offices will follow.”

Web sites 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 Web site.  

The 111th Congress Gold Mouse Project report, a full list winners, and other comparative data is available on CMF’s Partnership For A More Perfect Union Web site at www.pmpu.org.

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