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ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: September 15, 2009, <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. ~_ <br />SUBJECT: New <br />Website <br />DEPARTMENT: Information Technologies <br />ATTACHMENT(S): <br />PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br />INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Todd Jones, (919) 245-2285 <br />PURPOSE: To receive a presentation on the new Orange County website. <br />BACKGROUND: The Orange County website (http://www.co.orange.nc.us) has steadily grown <br />since its inception in 1996. Its growth was initially driven by individual departments creating <br />webpages to address their customers' needs. While this process ensured each department was <br />able to tailor their websites to their constituent communities, there was no overarching website <br />strategy or formal web authoring standards to manage the growth of information or the evolving <br />public needs over time. <br />Over the past three years, the Information Technologies department has worked with <br />departmental web administrators in a collaborative effort to address issues resulting from the <br />informal evolution of the County's website. These efforts were described in a report presented to <br />the Board on April 24, 2007. <br />An interim web template designed by Information Technologies in 2007 to standardize the <br />display and consistency of website information was adopted by a significant majority of the <br />County departments. This template was intended to be a temporary design until a professional <br />template redesign could be performed. To that end, the County Manager identified a team <br />representing the breadth of departments within the County to select a vendor for designing a set <br />of templates. The team consists of: Gwen Harvey, Assistant County Manager; Willie Best, <br />Assistant County Manager, David Hunt, Deputy Clerk /Information Specialist; and Todd Jones, <br />Chief Information Officer. A vendor, Kelly Marcom of Sanford, NC, was chosen and contract <br />signing was approved by the Board on June 24, 2008. The resulting template design produced <br />the following benefits: <br />• A look and feel to reflect the County government's character and priorities <br />• A "public-centric" focus on structuring the County website and search mechanisms <br />• Consistency across departments <br />• ADA compliance <br />