The City of Tampa has taken incremental steps in maturing its web site service offerings. The site officially launched on September 18, 1996 with the delivery of static content from about six departments.  The seed effort was assisted by the University of South Florida and the site was initially hosted by InfoHaus, an "Internet Cafe" startup group.

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.

In 2004, a new home page was introduced.  The new layout focused on integrating the Customer Service Center with the site entry points.  Map based personal research tools were significantly expanded with the introduction of Tampa Address Characteristics and the My Tampa Address facility; these resources enable quick access to a list of (and links to) nearby places including Parks, Public Schools, Police and Fire Stations, Hospitals, and other points of interest; along with a map and regional characteristics such as Neighborhood, Census Tract, Council District and more.

In 2005, the City assumed control of the ecommerce operations and eliminated all transaction fees from online payments.  Another new home page was introduced.  The new design streamlined citizen access while packaging many portal links via an innovative set of dynamic generated tabs. TampaGov was again recognized for excellence and leadership in the local government arena as it was awarded 3rd Place in the 2005 Best of the Web competition and 2nd Place in the 2005 Digital Cities Survey.

In 2006, the 8th generation of the home page was introduced. Communication offerings expanded to include RSS feeds, podcasts, a text only version of the site, and a City Employee portal.  Major enhancements to the mapping facilities also occurred.  TampaGov received international acclaim as a Stockholm Challenge finalist; which  of the 1,155 registered entries, only 2 entries from the US were finalists: FirstGov (The US Government's official web portal) and TampaGov Customer Service Center. Tampa continued to be recognized for excellence and leadership in the local government arena as it was awarded 2nd Place in the 2006 Best of the Web competition and 2nd Place in the 2006 Digital Cities Survey.

In 2007, the most significant change occurred with the portal architecture.  The 9th generation of the home page was introduced as TampaGov was re-engineered to provide uniform access areas for not only the portal itself, but also for all City departments.  New information categories were established across the enterprise for About Us, Contact Us, Frequently Asked Questions, Information Resources, News and Events; and Programs and Services.  New department specific page headings were created, with both daytime and nighttime views.  The "Tampa Neighborhoods" facility was also introduced.  This innovative facility provides up-to-date information access to all City neighborhoods by map selection, address, association and neighborhood name.  The facility is database driven providing easy content management and comprehensive coverage of every City neighborhood.  The neighborhood information is extensive containing association contacts and meeting schedules, demographics and land use, maps and reports; along with detailed unique characteristics including Council Districts, Crime Statistics, Evacuation and Flood Zones, Hospitals, Libraries, Parks, Schools, and more. TampaGov was recognized as the top municipal government web site in the United States as it received 1st Place in the 2007 Best of the Web competition.

In 2008, the city was awarded 5th Place in the 2008 Digital Cities Survey.

In 2009, the Construction Permit Fee Estimator Service was added and Information Technology Standards were openly published.

In 2010, the Alert Tampa and Video on Demand services were added.

In 2011, TampaGov received a minor facelift to the overall site and improved navigation on the home page. Social media links for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Foursquare were added to the main menu.  The Mayor's Photo Upload and Zoning Notice Registration services were also added.

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.

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