In one of his recent blog entries, Randy Hollenbeck made a great point about the City of Cudahy’s municipal website:
The City’s website http://www.ci.cudahy.wi.us/. I like to think of it as “The People’s Website.” If you look at it, it meets the basic needs of a city website created in the late 1990’s.
As I commented on Randy’s blog, I’ve often lamented how user unfriendly the City of South Milwaukee’s website is, and I’d like to see it brought into the 21st century. The internet is an amazing wealth of information, and I’d like to see all municipalities take full advantage of their internet portals as a way of getting information to their citizens as effectively as possible. Besides, user friendly municipal websites will only serve to increase government transparency, and that’s never a bad thing.
Zach…I could not agree more. Several years ago (if not more) I asked for more information to be entered in on the City of South Milwaukee’s website. I was told if I needed more information I could always come down to city hall and get a copy of the minutes of the numerous meetings (at a cost I believe but maybe not). Well…I have news…it’s NOT always that easy for some of us to go to city hall. I think they are lazy and they don’t want to be bothered or they are actually trying to make it difficult for information to get out to the citizens. How do you think we can fix this problem in South Milwaukee?
Anon, I know Erik Brooks was talking a lot during his campaign for alderman about improving the city’s website, so hopefully he’ll take the lead and get something done about it now that he’s been elected.
I don’t know if you noticed but it looks like the City of South Milwaukee’s website is being updated. I sure do hope they start adding more information in the minutes of the meetings. I am always curious about what other SM residents are thinking…so it would be good if they would add more details in the section where the citizens are able to voice their complaints or comments to the Common Council.
Anon, I did notice that the city’s website seems to be undergoing some construction, so hopefully they’re working hard to bring it into the 21st Century!