Georgia on its mind

The state of Georgia hopes to get the most from its intellectual capital through implementation of search and categorization software at www.georgia.gov--its new, multiagency, online resource for residents, businesses and institutions.

"The georgia.gov site represents a significant improvement in the way the state's residents and businesses access information and interact with different parts of the state government," says Gina Tiedemann, director of the GeorgiaNet division of Georgia Technology Authority, which is responsible for the state government portal. "Every element selected had to contribute to our goal of a unified, highly effective portal."

According to Tiedemann, the state chose Verity's K2 Enterprise (K2E) solution because of its "advanced search, categorization, scalability, security and ease of integration." Information retrieval was considered critical for the portal, particularly the ability to allow users to enter natural language queries.

The portal initiative links the state's Web sites to a one-stop portal for Georgia government services, to encourage cross-agency collaboration and information sharing.

Tiedemann says, "Keyword search was not enough to meet GTA's requirements. The amount and types of information available on georgia.gov are very wide-ranging. We wanted to help people find information quickly and easily, so they would not leave the site feeling frustrated. The ability to ask what they want in everyday language will improve constituents' satisfaction."

The state also chose the solution because of its ability to search XML data stored in multiple repositories simultaneously, and to integrate with the site's content management solution from Vignette.

The volume of content at georgia.gov and number of users are expected to increase substantially in the coming years as more business is handled online.