LEGISLATURE ONLINE

Whatever else the Maine Legislature accomplished or failed to accomplish this session, it will leave the capitol looking better, at least virtually, through a much-improved and attractive new Web site. As a means for keeping the public in touch with the events in Augusta, its new pages are smartly designed, informative and a real improvement over the previous version.

The site – janus.state.me.us/legis/ – replaces one that had been available for six or seven years, says Paul Mayotte, director of the Office of Legislative Information Services. At the request of the legislative leaders, his office began in December to remake the look of the site and the final product went online a couple of weeks ago. Sue Wright from the law library took care of the visuals and Stacy Morang, the Internet-Intranet administrator for the Legislature, addressed the technical end. Their charge was to create a home page that had a new look, was simple to navigate, with most information one click away and not more than three clicks. Because staff did the work, there was no additional cost to taxpayers.

Completing this work during the session, Mr. Mayotte said, “was like L.L. Bean redesigning its page during the Christmas rush.” But the result is impressive.

Besides the improved graphics on the page, the first thing a regular user will notice is that the search function for legislative documents is on the home page, where it belongs, but where it wasn’t on the old site. Second, the links to committees, audio feeds and session schedules are easy to access. Third, the number of links to archives is enhanced and simple to use.

For the public to take part in the process of governing Maine, it must have reliable, quickly obtained information. The more information sources it has, the better, and the more original sources, the more accurate its view will be of the intentions and performance of the Legislature. The improved Web site was a small gain for democracy.