Search for “jobs” on most state government sites and you find a link to the government’s labor agency. Search for “jobs” on Utah.Gov, and you will see relevant services from various job related agencies on a map, and job listings near you.
The Utah State Legislature wanted to make it easier for citizens to find legislative information. After researching three years of analytical data, the Utah State Legislature Website, le.Utah.Gov, underwent a complete makeover. The major redesign emphasizes simplification and a reworked search. Users are able to easily search by Bill Number, Code, or Keyword for Legislative Sessions dating back to 1991. The new design is mobile and tablet friendly, allowing you convenient access on any device.
Other features on le.Utah.Gov include up to the minute updates, live audio and video streams, and an interactive legislative calendar. The Who Represents Me feature allows users to easily find their representative by simply entering their street address and zip code.
A no-wrong-door approach has long been the goal for citizens who don't understand government boundaries. The new local portal takes advantage of Utah’s unique Master Data Index to provide a custom collection of city and county services, meetings, social media pages, and local contact information refined based on physical device location.
Utah.Gov is a full service state government website that includes information and online services (fully executable transactions, searches, filings, live 24/7 customer help, etc.) for Utah’s businesses and citizens.
The Utah Master Data Index has the capability to tag each entry with location, allowing for locally relevant information including: search results, meetings, schools, and even background images.
Over 60 agencies provide useful video training, education, and information that can be used across the enterprise and in social media.
Java Script Object Notation is an open source standard file format used frequently for providing data between web services and applications. JSON is a real-time server-to-browser communication protocol.
Utah residents are updated on current progress when Agency directors post and share annual reports.
Components of state websites built using the WordPress patform can be redistributed to Utah.Gov channels.
One example of a useful web service is the live search tool at Utah.Gov. Results are provided by the Utah Master Data Index and Aggregator web services.
Public Information Officers from state agencies can share and distribute important press and media updates.
The Utah Transit Authority share GPS coordinates of buses to enable the Utah OnTime application to track vehicle and alert riders.
The Utah Transit Authority share GPS coordinates of trains to enable the Utah OnTime application to track vehicle and alert riders.
Utah is the first state to create an innovative mobile tracking service for state legislation. Whether interested in education bills, the state budget, or new gun control laws, Utah citizens can easily monitor all Utah Legislation conveniently from their mobile device. With the mobile application, Bill Watch, citizens can create a list of bills to track and receive instant updates as bills move through the Utah Legislative process. This free mobile native application works on Apple mobile devices (iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch) and Android devices. Users can search for bills by topic, legislator's name, or bill number. Bill updates are sent directly to the mobile device via push notification. Bill Watch also allows for advocacy groups to create lists of the bills they are following and share that list with their concerned constituents. The Utah.Gov Legislative Bill Watch application is the easiest way to track and follow important legislation.
Public Meetings: Public Notice Website (PNW) moved an entire offline business process into an online process. Posting notices in a central location was novel to government at launch and since implementation features have been updated to keep the service relevant. As technology has evolved new file types have been added, web services and widgets were made available for a wide variety of users, and data feeds have been created to enable auditing and archival storage and posting to social media.
The site enables Utahns to search, subscribe, and participate in government meeting throughout the state. Citizens can subscribe to receive notifications on notices for public bodies and can choose to receive them via RSS feed and/or email and see updates on followed social media.
Wildlife administrators track and report fishing conditions across the state.
Trivia and statistics are gleaned from online services across the state and served to interested parties on the Amazon Echo Alexa Utah.Gov Skill
Available through the open data portal, users can access state information about campaign finance, lobbyists, GRAMA requests, and state transparency tools allowing manipulation of data and better governance.
One example of how this cataloged information is used across the online experience are the city pages found at Utah.Gov. The user’s location is automatically detected and then City microsites are dynamically generated from metadata in Utah’s Master Data Index to show relevant government services and social media.
Hunters and anglers can download all current valid licenses and new licenses to their mobile device and display them for game wardens–including members of their entire party. In addition they can:
- Find and map public hunting lands
- View walk-in-access properties
- View boundary information on live maps
- Report poachers
- Check shooting hours
- Identify wildlife, waterfowl, and fish species found in Utah
All of these functions can be completed from the hunter or angler’s personal mobile device without any interaction by clerical staff or other agents providing some important time and efficiency metrics such as:
- Time saved by hunters and anglers using the application to purchase as license,
- Time saved by the state in processing licenses
- Time saved by hunters in finding access
- Time saved by state in helping hunters identify walk in access
- Convenient species identification helps in the conservation of wildlife by providing an easy reference tool that can be used in the field to identify species accurately
The Utah.Gov Driver License Practice Exam uses the Amazon Echo to help drivers practice for the Utah driver license exam by reviewing questions while talking directly with the Alexa personal digital assistant. The questions are pulled from a database of questions from the official driver license exam. It is the first state government voice activated review test of its kind.
Utah.Gov partnered with the Utah Department of Public Safety and Driver License Division to develop the practice exam for the Echo. The voice activated practice exam is a new and convenient way for drivers to review the rules of the road in the comfort of their homes.
In addition to our outreach through traditional media, Utah.Gov has created infrastructure to leverage social media to achieve our goals.
All of Utah.Gov’s social media tools are integrated with the Utah Master Data Index (MDI) which is a registry of agency use of all social media tools. The MDI is leveraged to drive content to the Utah.gov portal and is integrated with Utah.gov smart search capabilities. The MDI includes information and interfaces to over 1500 social media streams and properties, including a growing number that are supported through the state’s use of Google Apps for Government, such as Google+, YouTube, Google Hangouts, Google Docs, Google Groups, Google Forms and Spreadsheets, and Google Calendar. Although many of the connections integrated through the MDI can be viewed from connect.utah.gov, it is really about seamlessly weaving Web 2.0 content throughout the millions of pages and services on the Utah.gov domain and on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
In general terms, it is a set of clearly defined methods of communication between various software components. A good API makes it easier to develop a computer program by providing all the building blocks, which are then put together by the programmer. Utah.Gov APIs help residents and visitors find local and state services, connect with open jobs, learn about the work of the legislature, announce public meetings, and share information on social media.
For example an entire mobile responsive site for bus transit was built on top of the google maps platform and the bus transit API provided by the Utah Transit Authority (UTA). This site provides real-time, public transportation vehicle location information, at your fingertips.