2007 Gold Mouse Report
The report itself is an old school 3.5Mb PDF, it is the contents that are more interesting. In compiling the report, the authors reviewed 618 websites, covering every single House and Senate Member, committee, and leadership websites of the United States Congress.
It is the trends that it reported that make it an interesting read, of the 618 websites:
- 25% offered RSS feeds,
- 56% offered video,
- 11% offered podcasts.
These are fairly interesting statistics given that the websites are not centrally managed, with most managed by staff of the individual Congressman or Senator. It also shows that American politicians are far more internet savy than their Australian counterparts. The web is used as a tool to communicate with their constituents, unlike Australia where with the exception of Andrew Barlett, politicians see it as a repository of media releases, policy statements and videos (both polictical and embrassing, no wonder they want to make the internet safe for children.
My next task is to have a look at the 4 sites, that have consistently earned gold stars for the last 4 reports.