FCC’s Web Site Needs to Evolve Past Netscape

Remember Netscape Navigator? If you used dial-up in the mid-90s and hated AOL’s walled garden, chances are that you do.

Of course, most of us abandoned Netscape years ago. But the Federal Communications Commission didn’t get the memo that it’s time to evolve with the digital age, and their outdated Web site has long been a disservice to the public.

For starters, the Web site is confusing and difficult to search. Want to file a comment with the FCC? Good luck finding the link. And the agency’s preferred browser for its public comment system? Netscape. I guess that makes sense when the most used portion of your site hasn’t been updated since 2003.

Many people have been telling the FCC to get its act together and create a site that actually interfaces with the rest of the Internet. They’ve tried, but I’m not convinced that the current FCC home page is any better than the page they had in 2000. Thankfully, the new FCC has promised to update this relic, and the Sunlight Foundation – whose mission is to make government more transparent – has jumpstarted the process.

The FCC and the Sunlight Foundation separately asked for the public’s input on how to improve the site, and Free Press responded with a filing that offers specific recommendations.

We’re advising the FCC to create a friendlier -- and therefore, more useful -- home page. But the biggest improvement the FCC could make is to improve search functionality and to make its information and services, such as opportunities for the public to weigh in on an issue, easier to find.

Another improvement that is near and dear to my heart (as the Free Press employee who spends the most time on the FCC Web site) is to make all the words within filings (where companies contradict themselves) searchable from the main page. This would allow people to quickly find and assess all the industry filings that mention, for example, the phrase “Net Neutrality,” rather than having to laboriously scroll through each one.

We also suggested a variety of ways to make it easier for the public to follow what the FCC is doing through services like RSS feeds. Taking this concept even further, we encouraged the agency to make raw datasets available so others can mash up the data for other purposes (for a classic example, check out HousingMaps).

You can find our full list of recommendations here.

If you’ve been stymied by the FCC’s Web site and have your own recommendations, you can file them with the Sunlight Foundation or tell the FCC directly by clicking here and typing “09-51” in the “proceeding” box.

Soon, the FCC will have a Web site that allows the public to help “transform the FCC into a model of excellence.” In the meantime, remind them that the Internet has come a long way since the days of Netscape.