To help congressional offices understand and more effectively implement Internet technologies to enhance their work and their relationships with constituents, CMF has partnered with researchers from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, the University of California – Riverside, and The Ohio State University to conduct a research project funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Digital Government program. The goals of the project are to:

1. Determine how Members of Congress can use the Internet to enhance communication with constituents and promote constituent engagement in the legislative process;
2. Understand how Members and staff learn to use best and innovative practices for their Web sites and Internet communications;
3. Identify how information about technology and innovation spreads among staff and congressional offices; and
4. Identify best and innovative practices for congressional Web site and technology use that can be more widely adopted by congressional offices.

To achieve these goals and to provide Members with valuable information about using the Internet to engage citizens and meet their own goals, we will:

1. Identify best practices for Member Web sites. Once again, we will be able to award the CMF Gold, Silver, and Bronze Mouse awards to the best Web sites on Capitol Hill. We will conduct two best practices evaluations of congressional Web sites, similar to the evaluations CMF conducted for the Congress Online Project.
2. Determine the factors in an office that lead to the best Web sites. Through analysis of the data we collect through our Web site evaluations and other data about Member offices, we will identify the factors that contribute to Web site excellence. Is it election margin? Is it the issues a Member focuses on? Is it the type of district a Member represents? Is it the committees a Member serves on? We intend to find out.
3. Conduct anonymous case studies with individual offices. We will be working with individual House offices in order to better understand how Web sites and Internet communications are managed in congressional offices. Through interviews with staff, observations, and discussions, we will learn how different offices think about their Web sites, how they generate new ideas, and how they manage their online communications. The results of this research will enable us to provide other offices with ideas and information they can use for their own Web work.

Through this work, CMF will develop reports and services that will help congressional offices improve their Web sites and online communications. Our partnership with researchers at universities throughout the country will also provide scholarly insight into what congressional offices are doing and what they could be doing differently.

For more information on the project, see the article “Mr. Smith Goes Out on the Web,” which appeared in the National Science Foundation’s Digital Government e-newsletter.