May 7 2009: The New York State Senate today launched a new website at http://www.nysenate.gov/. The media-rich site includes a live video feed (provided via the free service Mogulus). The site has a blog and an RSS feed. The Senate also has its own YouTube channel, Facebook page, and twitter account. Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith’s introduction to the site is below:

A new initiative is the Open Data program, which aims to, like prototype site http://nymtasolutions.org, make public data in plain language and machine-readable formats.

Another initiative, inspired by Sunlight Foundation’s Publicmarkup.org is markup.nysenate.gov which allows the public to comment on legislation that is under consideration.

A whole section – stimulus.nysenate.gov – is dedicated to the Obama administration’s stimulus package. It includes the full text of the act. A factsheet on broadband funds links to federal info.

Of more interest, perhaps, to the ISOC-NY community will be the NY State CIO’s blog – http://nysenatecio.org/ – an inside track to the geeks behind the site.