Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Mike Enzi’s, R-Wyo., Web site ranks in the top 20 percent of Congress for the information it contains, its user friendly press resources and overall appearance and function, according to the Congressional Management Foundation.
“I am proud that my Web site has been recognized as one of the Hill’s best in 2007,” said Enzi. “
The Congressional Management Foundation named Sen. Enzi’s Web site (www.enzi.senate.gov) one of “The Best Web Sites on Capitol Hill” as part of the foundation’s 2007 Gold Mouse Awards. Of the 618 congressional Web sites evaluated, only 104 sites– including Enzi’s– received an “A” grade, placing the senator’s site in the top 20 percent of Congress. Within the Senate, the Enzi site ranked 23rd overall out of 99 total sites.
www.enzi.senate.gov is one of this year’s Web sites that the foundation lauds as a model for other congressional home pages in the “2007 Gold Mouse Report: Lessons from the Best Web Sites on Capitol Hill.” In the report, the senator’s site received a Bronze Award for overall site quality and was one of only six Bronze Award winners specifically honored for excellent press resources. The site also received high marks in the following attribute categories:
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Current Issues
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Navigation and Communication Technology
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Promoting Accountability to Constituents
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Media Communication
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Web Site Usability
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Timeliness of the Content
Senator Enzi (right) and Elly Pickett, Press Secretary (center), receive the Bronze Award from Collin Burden of the Congressional Management Foundation.
In evaluating the sites for the Gold Mouse Awards, the foundation identified five building blocks as the basis for creating a successful online presence and used these following five principles to assess each site: audience, content, usability, interactivity and innovation. For the 2007 awards, all Web sites were evaluated between July and September 2007. The foundation evaluated Sen. Enzi’s site on July 27, 2007.
The Gold Mouse Awards were funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant and were conducted in partnership with
According to the organization’s Web site, the Congressional Management Foundation is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that is “dedicated to promoting a more effective Congress.” Over the past two years, the foundation’s Gold Mouse Awards have recognized the top Web sites of senators, representatives, congressional leadership and committees based on how well each site provides for constituent needs and functions as an online office. As part of the foundation’s larger “Connecting to Congress” research project, the Gold Mouse Awards’ goal is to identify best practices and help congressional members improve their sites to better serve the needs of the public.