Levin’s Web Site, http://levin.senate.gov, Wins Silver Mouse Award

WASHINGTON – The Congressional Management Foundation today honored the Web site of Senator Carl Levin, D-Mich., as one of the best in Congress, awarding a Silver Mouse to the site, http://levin.senate.gov. In their report, The 2006 Gold Mouse Report: Recognizing the Best Web Sites on Capitol Hill, the Congressional Management Foundation analyzed 615 congressional Web sites and awarded a Gold, Silver or Bronze Mouse to 85 sites. Nineteen senators won an award with three receiving a Gold Mouse, seven a Silver Mouse and nine a Bronze Mouse.

“My Web site is designed to provide the people of Michigan with easy access to information about constituent services, my legislative record and my positions on issues,” said Levin. “I thank the Congressional Management Foundation for this award and for reminding us how important it is to maintain a Web site that communicates clearly with our constituents.”

The Gold Mouse Report and Awards are part of the Congressional Management Foundation’s research project, “Connecting to Congress,” funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. For this project CMF partnered with researchers from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, University of California-Riverside and 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 purposes of the awards is to highlight best practices so offices can improve their sites by learning from those doing a good job,” said Beverly Bell, executive director of the Congressional Management Foundation. “Web sites that garnered an Award in 2006 illustrate the best practices that we hope can serve as examples for others to follow.”

Web sites were graded on how well they incorporate five basic building blocks that extensive research has identified as critical for effectiveness: audience, content, usability, interactivity and innovation. The Congressional Management Foundation and their research partners used these building blocks to develop an evaluation framework that would be fair and objective, while still taking into account important qualitative factors that affect a visitor's experience on a Web site.

The report points to Levin’s site as one example of their fifth building block, innovation, specifically a feature on his site that improves communication: “Sen. Carl Levin’s Web site provides excellent constituent services by streamlining and simplifying the process. His section on contacting the office has an innovative design that gives constituents the ability to initiate requests for all the services a congressional office provides – from flag requests to comments on the Web site itself – all in one easy-to-use customized Web form.”

A full copy of the report, The 2006 Gold Mouse Report: Recognizing the Best Web Sites on Capitol Hill, is available on the Congressional Management Foundation’s Web site at www.cmfweb.org.