NC@YourService, State of North Carolina

Wendy Kuhn, special assistant to North Carolina's chief information officer, says the state built the portal because citizens typically don't know that they need to go to the Department of Health and Human Services for one thing and the Department of Revenue for another. "With NC@YourService, we focused on needs rather than agency structure," Kuhn says.

Accenture built North Carolina's portal in 2000 using software from Yahoo! The entire site was up and running in less than three months. Citizens can use it to renew their vehicle registration and even purchase tickets to the state fair-something 272,000 North Carolinians did online this year. North Carolina is paying for the site by charging fees to suppliers that do business on the state's new e-procurement system.

In 2001, 25 million citizens visited the site. The site took in 300,000 vehicle registration renewals, and it provides a free forum for teachers to post homework assignments-something 700 educators have taken advantage of.

The judges also praised the federal government's Recreation.gov Web site for its promising use of public-private partnerships. The site provides information about activities at national parks and on federal lands.