The new calendar supports Delaware’s drive for greater efficiency and cost savings while retaining and expanding public services and transparency, both online and through mobile channels. It is important for Delawareans to know when and where public meetings are held. A transparent and effective state government relies on input from the citizens.

The new Public Meeting Calendar replaces a system that was in place for eight years, part of a suite of services developed and maintained by the Department of Technology and Information (DTI) using database tools due to be retired from state service.

The new calendar features a modern interface, consistent with the look and feel of the state’s new delaware.gov web portal. It shows meetings listed by day, by week, by month or by state agency. The system includes a full search capability, meeting histories, and the ability to track changes to meetings over time. Each meeting listing features detailed information about the meeting, a map to the meeting location, and the ability for users to download meeting information directly to their personal calendars. The system also serves agendas and minutes for public meetings.

The new portal has been redesigned to improve citizen access to state government information and services. At GIC, we try to update and refresh the portal every few years to adapt to the changing web environment and to improve on things like accessibility and ease of navigation.

In other words, our constant question is “can we make it better?”

Hopefully, we have. We’ll be poking and prodding the thing for a bit to make sure nothing falls off and there isn’t an unexplained cloud of blue smoke coming out of the tailpipe.

I’m joking of course. The people I work with here at GIC would rather go back to chiseling state information into stone tablets than release something with flaws.

That’s probably why we’ve been a little nuts lately.

We’ve added a new header image that is the first of a collection that we hope will highlight some of the beauty of the First State. We’ve updated our site guidelines to match the new look and function of the site, and we continue to work with state agency partners to connect the latest news from state agencies to the official Delaware facebook page.

Please let us know if there s more that we can do with facebook to meet your needs.

Check back on the apps directory over the coming months for new apps and new mobile sites from all around state government.

My favorite State site I visited, regarding incorporation of SM, has to be Delaware. There is no second guessing whether or not they are using social media because the entire landing page is taken up by all of their statewide SM feeds, for example, even the bottom of the page is a Flickr gallery.

The editors at idisaster 2.0 were performing a spot-check of a sample of states to determine whether citizens have access to a “dashboard” of information feeds which might be very helpful in emergency situations. As we reported last fall, following Delaware’s brush with Hurricane Irene, Delawareans appear to have made good use of the variety of social media and traditional information channels the state uses.

The editors also noted at least one non-social-media aspect of the Delaware portal as helpful in non-emergency situations as well:

The designers also include a handy tag cloud for users to search information. I don’t have to know which agency is responsible for “unclaimed property”, I just click on the key word: fabulously simple.

The idisaster 2.0 site itself looks like a decent source to keep an eye on, for those of us trying to improve the use and sharing of web technologies.

Over 500 photos were submitted in four seasonal categories, starting in the fall of 2011. Now, a panel of judges has selected the top finalist in each category and the public is asked to vote for their favorites.

The conference will bring together state workers, educators and businesses that work with geospatial data to create digital maps and other information sources.

The Plenary Speaker will be Jim Querry, Director of Enterprise GIS for the City of Philadelphia. A day’s worth of presentations and workshops is scheduled.

The Delaware Division of the Arts has created a collection of videos for 2012 March for Arts in Education that highlight examples from around the state of students engaged in learning through the arts.

The new search tool, phonedirectory.delaware.gov, is part of the state’s award-winning web portal and is designed to work equally well on desktop computers, laptops, pad-style devices and smartphone browsers.

The directory pulls data from a comprehensive database maintained by GIC staff. It allows users to search by individual, agency or thing.

There is more information in a news release on the directory posted to the state’s News Server.

The conference will include plenary and breakout sessions presenting the latest science and management information about Delaware’s wetland resources.

The conference goal is to “join scientists, decision makers, and natural resource managers to share current research on the value of Delaware’s wetland services and the impact their management has on the community, tidal and non-tidal wetlands, and sea level rise.”