This morning, the D.C. Council launched a shiny, brand new and significantly more user-friendly website.

Amongst the upgrades are an easy-to-use calendar, better navigation, an online form that allows residents to sign up to testify at hearings and improved navigation of the council’s legislative database. (More extensive upgrades to the database, known as LIMS, are due next week.)

The website has a new logo — gone is the old D.C. seal — and even features the federal tax dollar tracker that’s located outside the Wilson Building. If measured against what it was in 2007, it’s fair to say that the D.C. Council’s new site has improved by leaps and bounds.

The new website is certainly a step in the right direction for a government that has been a little behind the curve when it comes to online presence. The District’s official website is certainly better than it used to be, but the look and functionality hasn’t yet extended to all agency websites — for example, it was only recently that the city moved away from Internet Explorer-only functionality for some features.