HAWAII.GOV WINS “BEST GOVERNMENT WEBSITE” AWARD

HONOLULU – The State of Hawaii’s main web portal (Hawaii.gov) was named “Best Government Website” today as part of the Web Marketing Association’s 2014 WebAwards (webaward.org). The annual competition is recognized as the premier industry-based Website award program in the world.

More than 1,500 entries from 40 countries were judged in 96 industry categories on design, ease of use, copywriting, innovation, content, interactivity, navigation and use of technology.

“This award proves our amazing transformation into the digital age that we started for Hawaii three years ago is ahead of schedule,” Gov. Abercrombie said. “We are so proud of the entire team that has represented us in this achievement for the state.”

“We are continuously gaining momentum to better serve the people of Hawaii online instead of waiting in line,” said State Chief Information Officer (CIO) Keone Kali. “We are focused on the implementation phase of the transformation plan and this is just one example of the solid and innovative work our team is doing.”

The newly designed Hawaii.gov was developed via a collaborative effort with Hawaii Information Consortium, LLC (HIC), Hawaii’s state Internet Portal Manager and the Office of Information Management Technology (OIMT).

“This award represents the amazing vision and leadership of the Gov. Abercrombie, the partnership of departments and a relentless commitment to excellence by OIMT and HIC,” said the Governor’s Chief Advisor on Technology and Cybersecurity, Sanjeev “Sonny” Bhagowalia, who launched the modernized Hawaii.gov as Hawaii’s first CIO. “I commend Keone Kali, OIMT Program Manager Karen Higa and Russell Castagnaro and his HIC team for this monumental achievement of excellence.”

Hawaii.gov was re-launched in 2013 as a comprehensive update to the state’s main web portal. It was released in conjunction with upgrades to webpages across all state departments and agencies, enhanced mobile, touch and speech capability, increased consistency, and improved accessibility. The update was part of the OIMT’s award-winning Business & Information Technology/Information Resource Management (IT/IRM) Transformation Plan unveiled in 2012.

Another highly visible change from the plan includes the launch of data.hawaii.gov, the state’s new data portal for access to state government information, in turn leading to increased transparency, driving civic innovation, and engaging participants in a more collaborative form of government.

The state’s progress in the use of technology across state government was recognized earlier this month with a B+ grade in the Center for Digital Government’s biennial Digital States Survey. This grade is the “best-ever” score for Hawaii proving that its positive progress to the top tier of digital states is unmistakably trending upward and was a major improvement from a B- in 2012.

In addition, Hawaii was recently one of six states (Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma and Utah) to receive a perfect score in this year’s State Open Data Policies and Portals report by the Center for Data Innovation. Hawaii also earned a 2013 Federal 100 award from Federal Computer Week magazine (the only state government in the nation to receive such an award that year) and the 2014 Government Innovator of the Year award from the Government Technology Research Alliance.

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LINK: GovTech Magazine