Hurricane Irene: Free Accounts to Municipalities

As you are well aware, Hurricane Irene is scheduled to extend up the east coast within the next 24 hours. In an effort to expedite the rebuilding process, we are offering our online municipal request management software package for free for all areas impacted by the storm. Using our free website, mobile applications, SMS and voice services, citizens can report damage, power outages, or any other service they need. These requests will then be automatically routed to the appropriate department or employee, who can update the user instantly on the status of their request.

The service is free for 30 days and comes with a full data export at the end. The service comes with no obligation or contracts. To sign up for an account, please follow these steps:

• Sign up for an account
  http://account.publicstuff.com/register and set-up your account.
• Upgrade to premium
  Once we receive your registration we will upgrade you to a premium account, which will allow you to access all the features.
• Place this link on the municipality website, which will enable residents to submit/track requests:
  http://www.publicstuff.com/iframe
• Follow-up: We will follow-up immediately with additional marketing/informational material

Our hope is that by providing this service we can ease the hardship visited on the citizens of the areas hit by the storm. If you know of any municipalities that could benefit from this service, please send pass along this information. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact us at hurricane_services@publicstuff.com, and we will reply promptly.

Washington D.C. Rated as #1 Site

Washington, D.C.'s municipal e-government site is number one in the nation according to a Rutgers University study. The study was carried out by a partnership of E-Governance Institute, School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers University-Newark, and the Department of Public Administration at San Francisco State University. A very academic and nonpartisan judgment was made using the

comprehensive Rutgers E-Governance Performance Index that measures 98 characteristics and classifies them into five categories: privacy, usability, service, content, and citizen participation.

Cities in the Midwest received the highest spots in the study with an average score of 45.84. Those in the West managed a 41.41 score, right behind was the South and Northeast with scores of 41.40 and 39.03 respectively. The Midwestern cities also were the top of each of the categories.

The E-governance study looks most closely at the municipalities' focus on usability and content. The researchers place a high premium on privacy, services and citizen participation. One of the most common features on the cities' websites emergency management features concerning

weather, epidemics, or treats, with more than half exhibiting such features. Yet, only about 13% of the sites are accessible to the blind in their communities. Here are some the features of Washington, DC's website:

• View and pay utility bills,
• Renew driver's licenses
• View public records
• Access to Geospatial Information System (GIS) for city communities, museums, national buildings, rail and bus lines.
• CapStat, is a state of the art performance measurement system that lets citizens track the how well individual agencies perform their services, or analyze statistics of selected neighborhoods.

Below is the rating that each city received: