Maintaining his own Weblog, updated weekly, where he ruminates on issues both public and personal, keeps Washington, D.C., Mayor Anthony Williams in communication with city residents.
"I believe a blog can serve a useful purpose in connecting me and the citizens I serve," Williams said.
That the mayor personally uses the city's own award-winning portal illustrates the multiple information sources and services for residents available on the government's Web site.
"One of the most important engines we have to drive our city's transformation is information technology," said Williams. The district uses wireless technology for public safety, homeland security and countless other applications. In 2005, the district government won two Public Technology Institute 2004 Solutions Awards for its efforts.
Williams highlighted some noteworthy district achievements in technology. "From our response to Y2K to more recent security challenges in the post-9/11 period, our technology office has risen to the occasion at every turn," he said. "I'm extremely proud that our Web site went from 20 pages to 150,000, consistently wins awards and allows residents to perform up to 150 different services online."
Cost and practicality are top priorities for Williams. "I'm also very excited about DC NET, our effort to replace 30,000 government phone lines citywide with fiber-optic cable -- saving taxpayers $10 million a year."
Looking forward, Williams said he hopes to put a growing amount of information online, as well as increase online access to make those resources available to everyone.
Williams and his staff consistently adhere to the District's IT vision of "a city of access, where every person who lives, works, visits or does business in D.C., can readily obtain government services or information. In a true city of access, all government processes work, and all government systems function reliably and efficiently."
