About TampaGov

In February 1999, the site was restructured, and it's at this point major efforts were undertaken to make the site more than a minimal Internet presence.  Specifically, all agencies were aggressively encouraged to participate by publishing services, procedures, and other basic information. To this end, the Management Information Systems department established a "web contributors" group to assist/educate departments; and this effort resulted in more than 40 agencies actively participating.  Initially the focus was strictly on quality (current & accurate) information.

In 2000, the site emphasis changed from static to dynamic (database-driven) information resources, such as calendars & schedules, police calls for service. Also at this time, a business partner was sought out to expand the eGovernment initiatives primarily into payment oriented (eCommerce) services.  This effort resulted in a contract with Florida Local Interactive.

In 2001, the site was branded as "TampaGov".  It experienced another major redesign to provide a consistent look and feel, and to move the site to even more of a citizen-centric focus.  The site also began providing useful revenue collection services (utility bill payments, parking ticket payments, etc.).
 

In 2002, the home page was once again redesigned with an emphasis on interactive online services and continued expansion of a citizen-centric focus.  These efforts received national attention, as TampaGov was recognized for excellence and leadership in the local government arena.  Specifically, TampaGov was awarded 1st Place in the 2002 Best of the Web and 1st Place in the 2002 Digital Cities Survey.

The 2003 effort built on the 2001-2002 areas of emphasis with a focus on transaction-based services that do not have a payment component.  Using TampaGov, citizens can request a wide variety of services; the actions of "reporting a problem", "requesting a service", "asking a question", and "expressing an opinion" are all delivered from a centralized facility.  Citizens can track their communication to city officials and provide follow-up information/feedback at their convenience.  For 2003, TampaGov experienced more than one million page requests every month, and via the ePayment services, TampaGov collected more than two million dollars in revenue.  Tampa was recognized for the second consecutive year as a government technology leader in receiving 1st Place in the 2003 Digital Cities Survey.

Ongoing site statistics and usage history are viewable at TampaGov's Web Activity Report.

Citizen Centric Focus (A Guiding Principle)

TampaGov reflects in its design and delivery of services a vision that does not require citizens to be knowledgeable of how government is organized or of which agency delivers their needed service.  In this regard, TampaGov strives to ensure citizens are quickly and efficiently directed to their area of interest, independent of whether the services sought are provided by the City of Tampa or some other government agency.  The citizen-centric aspect of this initiative is accomplished via several targeted actions.

• The portal is managed in a manner that doesn't allow for any single City department to "overwhelm" all other department contributions, i.e. the portal views reflect an enterprise-wide emphasis.
• The portal provides different views based on the interest of the web surfer, such as Tampa area citizen, Tampa area business, visitor to Tampa, youth, senior citizen, etc.
• The portal contains links to other agencies at all levels of government: county, state, and federal.  This is an significant aspect of TampaGov service offerings and a core objective in providing comprehensive links delivered via the various TampaGov search capabilities and subject lists.
• The portal contains links to community and daily life event interests with Tampa as the focal point; even though these are links to information resources the city does not have a direct maintenance mandate.
• The portal views are established and maintained based on what citizens are accessing & searching for. TampaGov search facility logs are periodically reviewed to ensure efficient methods are provided for getting citizens to what they seek. FAQ's, "Find it Fast!", and essentially all portals menus, use this approach to link management.
• Common facilities, such as news & notices and calendars, all have an enterprise-wide view. Citizens can filter a calendar to one or more departments, but the default view reflects postings from all agencies.
• Personalized citizen specific views are delivered via the MyTampaGov facility.  Citizens can identify targeted links to be readily accessible.  Citizens can also use MyTampaGov to track their business (correspondence, payments, etc.) with City departments.

Accessibility and usability are emphasized. Jakob Nielsen's "Designing Web Usability" is a significant resource/reference relied on for "doing it right". The strategy includes a consistent look & feel to aid in delivering readily accessible pages.  This is accomplished by mandated use of a site-wide cascading style sheet and use of a standard page header.