Access Idaho earns best in show

The Gem State apparently has a gem of a Web site.

Access Idaho (www.accessidaho.org), the state's official portal, netted the Council of State Governments' top award — best all-around state government Web site — beating out about 200 other applicants.

It was the first time that CSG presented an award — the Eagle E-Government Leadership Award — honoring a state Web site judged to be the best in its field. CSG is a nonpartisan, nonprofit group that serves elected and appointed officials in state governments and U.S. territories.

Idaho's portal was chosen for its cross-agency integration, easy navigation, intergovernmental use, transaction processing and overall effectiveness.

The award was presented to the State of Idaho, the Idaho Department of Administration and Idaho Information Consortium Inc., a subsidiary of NIC, which operates the portal.

In the Best Innovation category, CSG gave an award to GreenWorks.tv (www.greenworks.tv), which is produced by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the Environmental Fund for Pennsylvania, a nonprofit environmental consortium. The site, which focuses on the environment, was judged for its media content, delivery of new services, outreach, design and functionality.

The awards were sponsored by Deloitte Consulting and IBM Corp.'s Institute for Electronic Government and presented during CSG's annual meeting in December in Dearborn, Mich.