2004 Best of the Web Overview

For almost a decade, the leading edge of service delivery has been at the portal where governmental and educational entities have presented a single face to their respective publics. The Best of the Web (BOW) has been there to recognize and celebrate the innovations and resulting maturity in providing solutions and communicating well with citizens, businesses or educational communities.

NEW in 2004: The BOW remains focused on the portal/Web site while a new dimension, the Digital Government Achievement and Digital Education Achievement Awards, create a forum for recognizing outstanding contributions at the application and infrastructure level which help power portals from one generation to the next. This year, due to the tremendous number of requests for inclusion, we have re-structured our applications/projects categories so that ALL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES AND ALL EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS, all levels and all countries, may enter their applications and projects.

Contest Deadline for entries was July 1, 2004.

Contest Categories and Entry Guidelines
Overview of the awards categories:

Best of the Web (BOW): The following categories are open to state and local government and education institutions in the United States.

General Government Portals (main Web site organized to conduct government services and transactions):
  • State Portal
  • City Portal
  • County Portal
Education Portals/Web sites (main state education Web site organized to provide curriculum and learner services, maintain student portfolios, communicate with parents, and manage administrative data; local schools and school districts; universities, colleges, community and technical colleges):
  • K-12 State Education Web site
  • K-12 Local Education Web site
  • Higher Education Web site
Entries for BOW government and education portals/Web sites must be from a state or local government, or K-12 or higher education institution in the United States. Web sites must be actively functioning by July 1, 2004. First-place BOW portal and education winners from last year's contest are excluded from entering in 2004 to make room for a new round of winners.

For Digital Government Achievement Awards (DGAA) information and entry forms and BOW GOVERNMENT entry forms, click here.

For Digital Education Achievement Awards (DEAA) information and entry forms and BOW EDUCATION entry forms, click here.
View 2003 Best of the Web Summary

View 2002 Best of the Web Summary

View 2001 Best of the Web Summary

View 2000 Best of the Web Summary