Redesign of Borough of Madison Municipal Government Website Launches Today!

The new home of Madison’s Municipal Government is http://gov.rosenet.org.

Early this year, I started designing a new website for the Borough.  Our goal was to create a robust platform using open standards that could be built upon for years.  This first phase of the site introduces pages for all Borough Government entities (boards, commissions, departments, offices and committees) and one-page profiles for local businesses.

The cornerstone of this platform is a Borough-wide database offering a common Events and Announcements system, as well as content management tools that allow Borough employees and local businesses to maintain their own pages with ease.  Collecting this content in a common, open platform will allow for great new features in the future.

I hope to soon add XML feeds and integrate with other local websites.

Besides the fresh look and feel, the biggest change is the new business directory.  While RoseNet continues to offer a business database maintained by volunteers, the new Government site enables local business owners to keep their own profiles up-to-date, while also allowing site administrators to easily monitor the content.

This redesign replaces the legacy site, built in 1999, which offered terrific content but relied on proprietary standards that are no longer supported.  The first phase of the new platform, replicates all existing content, while adding powerful administrative tools for Borough employees and interactive business listings that will help support Downtown Madison.  Borough employees will now be able to maintain their online content in a fraction of time that used to be required.

I’ll keep you posted on new features as they roll out.