You Are Here: Call for Nominations 2009
2009 New York State Webmasters' Guild Best of the Web Award
The NYS Forum recognizes annually the innovative use of web technology, during the past year, by state and local government in two categories - Web Applications developed by: 1) state agencies, and 2) local government groups. To be eligible for nomination, sites must be functioning and available on the web at the time of submission of the nomination or, in the case of seasonal or other similar sites not always available, the site must have been functioning and available within the past 12 months. Nominated sites must have been developed either by public sector staff or with the direct involvement of public sector staff. Agency Intranet and other internal sites are eligible for this award but judges must be able to access and review the sites. Sites nominated must be in compliance with NYS Office for Technology Statewide Technology Policy P04-002 (http://www.oft.state.ny.us/policy/p04-002/index.htm 
) and NYS Mandatory Technology Standard S04-001 (http://www.oft.state.ny.us/policy/s04-001/index.htm ).
Submissions must include documentation verifying site Accessibility compliance. Reports from the NYS IT Accessibility tool (http://nysf.hisoftware.com/index.htm ) for 5-10 randomly selected pages from the submitted site will satisfy this requirement
A panel of judges will review each site, verify each site for compliance with State Policy and Standards for Accessibility, and select one state and one local government site. The award will be announced at The NYS Forum's Annual Meeting in September.
Evaluation Criteria:
Innovative Use of Technology - Web Sites in general are an innovative use of technology. This criteria refers to how the web site makes use of the technologies available to its developers to achieve its purpose. This does not necessarily mean the most technically proficient web site but rather refers to the site that uses technology in unique and creative ways to achieve its purpose.
Value to the Client - Public Sector Web Sites must provide identifiable value to their users. The content must be relevant and timely. This criteria will evaluate the content delivered to the users, how relevant that content is and how the web site ensures the timeliness of that content.
Cost Efficiency to the Agency - Delivering Services over the web should be efficient both to the developer and to the users targeted. This criteria will evaluate that efficiency for both groups. This is not a strict "cost justification" exercise but rather an evaluation of how the site improves the service or services being delivered.
Recipients of last year's award were (links open in a new window): Westchester County Government for http://www.westchestergov.com and Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance for http://www.otda.state.ny.us.
Nominations for Best of the Web must be received no later than August 10, 2009.
Nominations can only be submitted online at www.nysforum.org/about/awards/2009/webform.aspx.