From Mayor Bill Finch:
Mayor Bill Finch today announced the launch of a newly redesigned website for the City of Bridgeport. The website, which can be accessed today at www.bridgeportct.gov offers a cleaner, more modern design and improved navigation helping residents, visitors and businesses easily access information, resources and services.
“The new website reflects the diverse audiences who visit BridgeportCT.gov, offering our residents, visitors and businesses very distinct portals of targeted information,” said Mayor Finch. “We researched several successful municipal websites from across the country and incorporated strategies that would best serve everyone who visits our website.”
Following municipal website design best practices explained by some experts which work on sites like this singapore ecommerce website, the redesigned website allows for easy, one-click from the homepage access to BConnected, the City’s citizen service request system, meeting minutes and agendas, along with news and announcements. The new design breaks up the site into four sections or portals: Living, Visiting, Business and BConnected-City Services to provide users more direct access to the pages and information that are most frequently visited.
New website features include:
· Easy to navigate portals for residents, businesses, visitors and those seeking City Services.
· Easy access to the City’s BConnected online City Services application to submit service requests and report issues.
· A BConnected “Citizen Portal,” which is an interactive knowledge database that provides answers to users’ most frequently asked questions such as ‘Where can I get my birth certificate?’
· Improved neighborhood pages.
· A “City Highlights” feed to promote upcoming events and programs happening in Bridgeport.
· A “Get Involved” page that provides residents with information about volunteer opportunities.
· An emergency warning system, which when activated in the event of a citywide emergency, will include critical information displayed in a red bar at the top of the website.
· A “Promotions” box on the homepage will offer ticket giveaways, trivia contests and much more.
The City worked with Connecticut-based QScend Technologies, Inc., an industry leader in Web-based software solutions and services for municipalities, to develop the new website. The website design was an extension of the City’s relationship with QScend, which also developed the City’s BConnected Citizen Service Request technology and smartphone applications. The cost of the new design was $52,900.
The information on City Council is accurate. There’s nothing there.
I look for documents. So I hunted for a link and found one at the bottom of the page. It took me to a place where I could look for City Council, Budget & Appropriations Minutes for 2012-13, but when all of that is clicked in, there is a blank page facing me.
Though I can access the Charter and Ordinances from that page, WHERE ARE THE ARCHIVES WITH ALL OF THE INFO FROM YEARS OF COMPREHENSIVE ANNUAL FINANCIAL REVIEWS? I went to OPM section where it might be logical to search for same but could not find it.
Managed to get a helpful City employee in ITS and shared my two quests with him. He will get back to me tomorrow and I will be patient. Lots of moving parts. Time will tell.
Oh Jim, you made me laugh–good one and badly needed!
A colony of baboons is called a congress. In Bridgeport it’s called the City Council.
More of our tax dollars squandered by Mr. Finch. You can bet the company that put this together is somehow connected with Finch … this smells to high heaven of favoritism … with all the financial problems facing this city I can think of dozens of ways the money could have been better spent.
*** A website just for show with no real important information that brings transparency about city government in general. How about monthly reports on BOE, City Council and other board & commission meetings, agendas, etc.; also quarterly incoming city revenue and spending! Redesign cleaner website pictures and pipe dream green ideas about what could be in the future makes for nice tourist type B/S for outsiders, no? *** REALITY WEBSITE ***