City Unveils New Web Site

Boston Metro
Greg St. Martin, July 25, 2006

BOSTON - The city recently unveiled a slick new Web site, one officials say makes surfing by department and locating city services much more informative and userfriendly. Among the new additions are updated sites for everycity department, as well as expanded services to secure permitting. In addition, more bills are available for payment online,including water bills. Bostonians can now contest parking tickets online, as well. I think it really has a lot of information that is helpfulto people," Mayor Thomas Menino told Metro. "I was so frustrated by the old one. People would come up to me all the time and say, 'I can't find any information.'

The city revamped its Website with help from NetNumina, a division of Charlestown-based Keane, Inc., an IT services firm. The mayor said he sought out a great deal of feedback from outside experts and cities, as well as local residents, on how the city could best change the site and make it easier to navigate. Menino also said yesterday that news on how the city will move forward in bringing Wi-Fi to residents throughout Boston should come in the next 10 days. He assembled a Wi-Fi Task Force earlier this year, and the group has been meeting and talking with outside experts and officials from other cities on how best to develop the city's wireless plan.