The Boston Globe, July 16, 2006
Matt Viser, Globe Staff
Boston unveiled a revamped website yesterday as part of an increased effort to appeal to a younger generation and get its message across to residents.

For the past several years, the site has vexed Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who concedes he is "not a techie." "I've complained about this for a long while," he said in an interview Friday in his office, where there is no computer. "Finally, we'll have a website you can surf."

The new site can be found at www.cityofboston.gov. It has a brighter design than the previous site, with more photos of the city, and it has sections aimed at students, businesses, residents, and visitors. The number of city applications that can be downloaded has doubled.

The city's technology department, which has five employees overseeing the website, is training departments to update their own sections of the site.

In 1996, Boston became one of the first municipalities to create its own website, and the city has received numerous awards for the site. But it has been six years since it was redone, and residents had criticized the site for being difficult to navigate.

City officials also want to find new ways to better accommodate constituents who want to pay parking tickets and taxes and to fill out building permits without actually entering City Hall.

"A lot of people don't go to the library, and they don't go to community centers," Menino said. "We have to find out what the next wave is." The city also recently began a monthly podcast, an audio program that users can download to their computer or portable MP3 players, and is working on a citywide wireless Internet system.

Now, Boston is working on a thing of crucial importance to some residents: Soon, they'll be able to appeal their parking tickets by sending a strongly worded e-mail rather than yelling at a parking clerk face to face.