DC City Council

Jun 27, 2008 at 10:14 AM
5 comments

The DC City Council has a website from 1997. I'm not joking. Maybe Chairman Vincent Gray hasn't heard of the internet, but at least some of the other members should care about having a good website. The Council is supposed to be the representative branch of the DC government, but their website certainly doesn't make it easy for us ordinary citizens to learn much about the council. Whoever wins in the various council races for this fall, someone ought to make that website at least usable. Please!

Here's a quote from the main page of the website, just to give you a clue as to how bad it is:

Welcome to the Official World Wide Web site of the Council of the District of Columbia. Our Web site is another way to keep you informed of Council actions and public meetings, invite your participation, and solicit your views. You can see our weekly schedule, read proposed legislation, and e-mail your comments directly to Members.

The website is copyrighted in 1997 and uses frames. What more need I say? Perhaps some kind-hearted web design firm here in town would redesign their website on a pro bono basis. It certainly would be a service to the public...

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Washington DC/Metro Area
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[this is good]

Wow. The blink tag. Didn't expect that one. Gah, my eyes. You are right, that site flies far past terrible, or even wretched, into an ancient form of incredulity.

Yes, you are correct about the age of the Council’s website and its appearance. That’s a very obvious fact about the Council’s current site and the Chairman agrees with you.

Cynthia, I mean no slight toward Chairman Gray. However, if it is such an obvious fact, and the Chairman agrees with me, why is the website still so bad after two years of his chairmanship?

Oh my! I've seen better websites designed up by high schoolers!
This is in no way up to professional standards. There are basic errors all over: lack of capitalization, missing punctuation, too many spaces in between words, etc., not to mention the visually harsh colors, childish animated graphics, and hard-to-read text and links.

Click on the "services" or "council members" buttons in the left hand navigation. I mean, what IS that? That's a code error people: the web designer messed up and it's never been fixed.

And it's no wonder the Council's site is so poor: the design company, ACI, used to create the sight is equally dated and unprofessional! The Council's only hope of gaining a quality site it by leaving ACI back in 1998 where they belong.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Council, it is not enough to simply make the information available online, it must be presentable. In the same way that it is not enough to simply be clothed before you go out for the day, one must be presentable and put together. Thank you for your time, I'm confident this oversight will be attended to directly.