City Takes International Flavor Online With Multi-Lingual Web Sites
As part of its continuing effort to meet the needs of its large and growing Spanish and French-speaking population, the City of Hollywood, FL, announced the launch of a complete Spanish-language and French-language version of its award-winning government web site. The translated versions of the site can be accessed by clicking the Espanol and Francai tabs on the citys homepage, http://www.hollywoodfl.org .
Hollywood is widely recognized as a leader in providing online governmental resources. On the citys site, visitors can apply for city jobs and building permits, and find current and frequently updated information concerning city activities and operations. They can also pay utility bills and traffic tickets. Providing these services online to residents is a major part of the citys ongoing efforts in providing high-quality, accessible digital government.
Now, with Spanish- and French-language capability, these services are available to nearly all of the citys population and visitors.
Of our 140,000 residents, approximately 22 percent are Hispanic, and we also have a very significant French-speaking population living in or visiting our city, says John Barletta, the citys Chief Information Officer. We want to demonstrate our belief that our Spanish-speaking and French-speaking residents and visitors are key contributors to our citys cultural and economic success.
The City of Hollywood determined that building and maintaining a high-quality, translated site in-house would require a significant resource commitment, along with constant human monitoring, editing and translating. City leaders turned to MotionPoint Corporations proprietary TransMotion technology to deploy both Spanish-language and French-language web sites, while meeting the high quality standards and tight budgetary constraints that often accompany governmental initiatives.
MotionPoints software handles changes and updates seamlessly, without the need for involvement by the citys IT staff. We dont even have to call them when we edit our English; the translated changes are virtually automatic and instantaneous, Barletta adds.
For more information on TransMotion technology and MotionPoint Corporation, visit http://www.motionpoint.com .