In an effort to strengthen public participation and enhance usability, the Obama administration has announced today the relaunch of the Federal Register Web site, Federal Register 2.0.The redesign will divide the thousands of federal rules and regulations into six main categories and highlight popular topics in a separate section. The site’s relaunch comes on its 75-year anniversary.
“It’s like USA.gov meets USA Today,” Register managing editor Michael White said. “We think it will open up the site in a way that the general public wouldn’t normally go into it.”
The Register is the federal government’s daily compilation of new and proposed policies, regulations and public meeting notices. The redesign of its Web site cost about $275,000 and is part of the government’s efforts to boost transparency.
White explained the website mimics popular news site layouts to appease how the public today is used to searching for news.
“It will be a lot easier to see what’s currently hot, open for comment and something that you, perhaps as a small business person, should know about,” White said.
