Plugged In, Tuning Up: An Assessment of State Legislative Websites
March 2001

Introduction

This report represents a collective independent assessment of central online "entry points" for the 50 U.S. state legislatures, and is not intended as a scientific critical review of every website for each state legislature or associated entity. Findings are based on visits to websites between July and December 2000, when legislatures were out of session. Visits were designed to locate easily accessible content and features within a short window of time to emulate average public user visits. Given the rapidly developing nature of the Internet, and the ongoing efforts of state-level information technology to provide the public with the best content and features possible, many sites are in a continual state of development, which may mean some of the numbers in this report will be quickly out of date.

In an attempt to provide useful information for follow-up research and public assessments of the resources featured in this report, a number of states have expressed interest in providing updated information on their online resources. As this initial report serves only as a snapshot of activity during a specific period of time, we will work to incorporate an additional document of states' responses to this online version throughout the month of April 2001. OMB Watch maintains responsibility for the contents of this report, including errors and omissions. Questions or comments should be directed to Matt Carter and Ryan Turner at ombwatch@ombwatch.org