NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 6, 1999

TOWN OF CARY WEAVES A "GOLDEN" WEB

CARY, NC – North Carolina’s "Technology Town" has been given the 1999-2000 Golden Web Award by the International Association of Web Masters and Designers, a private organization dedicated to the recognition of creativity, integrity and excellence on the World Wide Web. Using a 10-point scale with 10 being the highest rating, individual members of the group evaluate the design, originality, and content of the websites submitted for consideration. Sites that accumulate 21 or more points become "Golden".

The IAWMD is dedicated to Internet education and awareness, anti-Spam awareness and support, and fighting child access to Internet pornography. The group strives to achieve these goals through member activity, free site evaluations, a newsletter, and the web awards program.

"We very proud to receive this recognition for our efforts," said Cary’s Webmaster Neil Ghodke.

The Town’s website was originally developed in May of 1997 for the primary purpose of sending information to Town Council electronically and, thus, eliminating the distribution of paper packets used by most governments. Since that time, everyone—citizens, media, Town staff and elected officials—has been able to get Council meeting agendas and supplemental materials online at the same moment--about seven days prior to most meetings. With computers at their table, the Council members even use the web agenda materials during their actual meetings at Town Hall.

With nearly 50,000 files, the Town of Cary’s site is today a leader in local government web services. In addition to the agenda materials, current features include:

• an electronic mailing list service with nearly 1,000 subscriptions
• a web calendar of events
• special in-depth sections on Town projects, such as the Town’s recent "adoption" of Princeville, NC
• current job listings with applications
• agenda materials for all Town boards, commissions, and committees
• Town government news releases
• feedback mechanisms for the site or any aspect of Town government

During this fiscal year, the Town plans to add online utility billing as well as online parks, recreation, and cultural resources registration. In addition, the Town is working to bring to the site many of its several hundred layers of mapping information—geographic information system.

Unlike most local governments in the nation, Cary has a full time webmaster that works with the Town’s Management Information Services team to handle the technical and design aspects of the site, along with a full time Public Information Officer that works with Town staff and Town Council on the content portion of the site. In addition, Cary’s Information Services Advisory Board—a Council-appointed citizen’s group—acts as a focus group for the site, offering comments and new ideas on ways to keep the site current and useful to its many types of users.

"The web is the Town’s primary communications vehicle," said Cary’s Public Information Officer Susan Moran. "While we continue to use a number of different ways to reach our citizens, more people in Cary have access to the Internet than they do to cable television, and the number of web users is even approaching the number of folks who have telephones."

A 1998 study by the Town indicated that about 78 percent of Cary residents had access to the Internet at home or at work. More recent studies suggest that this number has risen, possibly as high as 90 percent.

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