Millennial Web Content Management

Paytrust Bill Payment Service Revisited

2007-04-28T23:41:12-05:00

In 2004 I reviewed Paytrust when it came out with its new website design. Now I take another look in my 2007 Paytrust Review.

I still use Paytrust and think highly of it. I just think that Paytrust's new owner, Intuit can do even greater things with the service. We'll see. Intuit contacted me last week.

Tom

CDC's New Website- tons of info but very cluttered

2007-04-19T14:25:24-05:00

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched their new website. It has some great features, but you'll be overwhelmed by a torrent of information and won't be able to find them. Our advice...... get those features front and center and please drop the CDC.gov Tour, it is terrible.

CDC obviously spent alot of money and time trying to design their website. There are some great features based on a 1 minute scan of the home page:

1) A CDC Tag Cloud
2) The Top 20 at CDC.gov
3) CDC A-Z Index,
3) Tools and Resources that I can use

Unfortunately they are either hidden or not entirely obvious to a user. Now some of you may say that I only spent 1 minute on the website. All true, but I'm a user and I have other things to do with my time. CDC has to either grab my attention or I'm gone. That's just the way it is and I make no apologies for that. BTW, that pie chart about health and exercise did grab my attention.

Wish List

CDC should let the above features do some of the heavy lifting on the home page. You really don't need all of those health and safety topics either. Also the About CDC and CDC for You elements on the home page are well below the fold and not all that useful. Now for the specifics:

1) By far the coolest feature that I think could do web users the most good is the CDC.Gov Tag Cloud. Unfortunately, it is well below the fold and no one is going to see it. I looked for it because some one told me it was there. Get that cloud well above the fold and illustrate it even if you have to create a mini cloud. The popularity of the tags illustrated by their size will be obvious once a user gets there. It will also focus users on your most popular content. Also, you should promote whoever thought of that cloud.

2) The Top 20 at CDC.gov feature is embedded in the Search and CDC A-Z Index. It's very confusing. Please make the Top 20 feature front and center. Also let it stand entirely apart from the CDC A-Z Index and Search box. I don't care what your usability testes showed.

Also, I start to type "neck pain" and I'm taken to the index. That's not very obvious and sought of threw me off. Oh, I should have taken the CDC.gov tour first you say. Thanks but I will pass.

3) Wow, you all love the color blue. Problem is that for me at least, it masks things and makes them difficult to see. Separate the Search frrom the CDC A-Z index or have some instructions that say " either enter a word in the search box or press any letter on the keyboard to go to that subject area. The typewriter gives one the impression that they'll be able to type in a word.

Right above the Search button, you have a rotating gif of different languages. Some color or a flag of th country might attract more interest. Again, the blue gets in the way.

4) The Tools and Resources web page had some very nice features like the BMI calculator, immunization and growth charts, etc. Try to highlight them.

Closing Thoughts

Don't be disappointed or upset by my comments. Remember, I'm a user and I'm entitled. The real challenge will be to see if other users behave as I did and did not spend alot of time on your website. In the end it really doesn't mater what I say and besides it will take too much time and money to find out if I have a point. Thing of my wish list as sugguestions with CDC's web users as the final jury.

To get the pulse of the CDC web users, I sugguest that you focus on user behavior by monitoring the bounce rates and some other metrics of the top 10 webpages to gage how successful the redesign is. I talk about it under a recent post entitled Who cares what web users want, what they do is what matters . Good luck and thanks for incorporating that Cloud tag into the website. Tom

Who cares what web users want, what they do is what matters

2007-04-18T20:07:12-05:00

Today I read in Government Computer News that government agencies were using Google's site maps to attract more web users to their websites. Great idea. Now if they would only abandon trying to psychoanlayze their web users, we'd all be a lot better off.

The real reason I am writing this post is to point out a very simple strategy that web content managers can take. It's simply to focus on web user behavior and not dwell on why people behave the way they do.

Why don't web managers just accept users for what they are?

I came across Google Anaytics' Conversion University on the web a few weeks ago that made this very point. In fact, all of the articles on the Conversion University website are good and I read just about every one. There's one that I really liked by author Jim Novo. Its entitled Two Metrics For You. Jim provides some quick and dirty ways to track website performance.

Jim's approach is to use web analytics like bounce rates, percent single page access and one minute visits divided by total visits to track customer behavior. Specifically, Jim is concerned with getting as many customers as he can to go past the top 10 entry pages and to spend more time on his website. Think about this for a moment, all commercial websites and government websites are seeking the identical goal. In the end we all want the same things and hopefully we help the users to alleviate the pain or the problems that they have.

I reread the article several times before it's simplicity finally sank in. Jim is not not enthralled with the nitty gritty of trying to figure out what our web users want as most of us are. Instead he focuses on what they are doing with respect to various hypothesis that he dreams up. For example, he shortens the home, changes web copy, puts in a new banner (one at a time) and then standback and monitors those three metrics.

If users don't like what he did then the bouce rates will show that by going up or the percent of one minute visits will increase. Jim doesn't get upset with the users either and is not overly concerned that they did not do as the web design and usability gurus say. They are "his users" and they will do whatever the hell they please. At least that's what I am taking away when I read his article. I think we need to keep this in mind and quit expending alot of time and money trying to figure out why "our web users" are not behaving like test subjects.

Instead, lets experiment, test ideas and concepts (one at a time) and measure results. Comments always welcome. Also, visit Jim Novo's website at www.jimnovo.com

One Page Marketing Plan for Web Content Managers

2007-03-29T19:33:16-05:00

Information technology shops are notorious for developing web applications and declaring victory with the release of the new software. They seldom market the software or service, but just assume that people will hear about it somehow. What a louzy assumption! Now web content managers have to put on their marketing cap, especially at government agencies and non-profits.

Why Web Content Managers have to learn marketing?

Web content managers have to learn marketing because:

a) Most IT departments don't feel that marketing is their responsiblity,
b) The organization's website is viewed as another marketing channel by senior management, and
c) Senior management can reward or punish the web content management group and the web for content and IT applications that don't bear fruit.

It really comes down to benefits and dollars and avoiding budget reductions to operate your website. Any IT project these days has to show that it is not only cost effective, but that it produces tangible benefits. Today, government agencies have to prepare extensive business cases to get their projects funded by the Office of Management & Budget. If an IT project is not used, it's not going to produce the benefits hoped for. That spells disaster for most agencies and private sector firms as well.

Private sector marketing deparments advertise and try to sell the product and services. If they fail, they can go out of business. In government, there is no marketing department. If an e-government application or service is not used, the agency is not going to go out of business.

Marketing- Keep It Simple ......

Most web content managers don't have the training, money or time to prepare a detailed marketing plan. However, what they lack in marketing expertise is overshadowed by their passion to serve customers and use the web to further their organization's business objectives. When it's budget time, it helps to be able show what the web has done for the organization in very concrete terms.

Now it's time to look at the one page marketing plan. We want you to do exactly what is implied in the above title, i.e. keep it very simple. So begin by answering the following questions using only one or two sentences:

1. What is the purpose of the plan?
2. What are the benefits to target audiences?
3. Who are the target audiences?
4. List the marketing methods that will be used.
5. What is our niche in marketing this service?
6. Put into a single statement what you want to convey to your targeted audience.
7. What is the budget?

Resist the temptation to blow this into a 20 page plan that no one will read. You are seeking a one page marketing paln in 12 pt font that almost anyone can read. Remember, you are doing this to produce results not to impress your boss with your writng ability.
Why One Page Marketing Plans make sense

A one page marketing plan has the following benefits:

a) Forces you to be very specific about your desired outcomes,
b) Keeps those outcomes and the ways you're going to achieve them in front of everyone,
c) Allows you to devise a portfolio of online and offline ways that you'll reach your target audiences,
d) It's action oriented or shows what you have to do,
e) Prevents you from using the preparation of a long and detailed marketing plan as a proxy for actual success, and f) Forces you to think how you will measure your success.

Two Examples of a One Page Marketing Plan

In my earlier life as the Web Content Manager for FERC, I actually prepared and implemented several one-page marketing plans. The first was used to market a terrific e-government application called eSubscription. The software allows users who follow specific cases to subscribe and automatically receive emails every time correspondence was received or issued by FERC. Users just click on the link contained in the email and are able to view the correspondence.

When the It staff at FERC first developed this, they had a little over 200 users. That was pretty sad. FERC staff alone numbered about 1,200 and they really needed to keep track of cases. So why weren't people using it? Obviously, no one knew or understood about eSubscription. And no one had promoted or marketed it either.

Marketing an eSubscription Application

I prepared the One Page Marketing Plan for eSubscription and began to market it. Note, the approaches in this plan ranged from printing laminated business cards on both sides with a hook (phrase to get ones attention) and a simple URL on the other side to sign up for the free service. Download the One Page eSubscription Marketing Plan.

Within three weeks, we had doubled the number of subscribers from 223 to 446. I guess we were a bit conservative in our one plan. By the sixth week, the number reached almost 1,000 subscribers as our online and ffline marketing actions were implemented. It is important to continue to execute your marketing plan for some time to allow it to work. We continued to market eSubscription and noticed that the rate of increase in subscribers started to level off. Just then we asked our Chairman to discuss the eSubscription service at Commission meetings and our numbers increased again. Ultimately, the number of subscribers reached 1,238 at that time.

Marketing Free Webcasts

We also marketed FERC's decision to offer free webcasts of open meetings and technical conferences. We
prepared a one page marketing plan and implemented that too. Before the free webcasts, approximately 200
subscribers paid a fee to view the webcasts of Commission meetings and technical conferences. Download the One Page Free Webcasts Marketing Plan.

Before and after implementing the free webcasts, we began our marketing efforts. The results were not as spectacular as they were with eSubscription. Most of the paid subscribers merely took advantage of the free service. In fact our numbers were the same as before. We anticipated that this was expected since the majority of viewers make their living dealing with the agency. The financial community, State Public Utility Commissions and citizens may also be taking advantage of the fact that the webcasts are archived for three months. This is especially relevant for west Coast users who won't get up at 7:00 am to watch a live webcast when they can view it later.

Good luck in marketing your content.

Web Accessibility Myths and Nightmares

2007-03-20T02:21:51-05:00

We try to dispell certain myths about Web Accessibility and provide some great resources. Both government and private websites should pay attention to these. Those who don't may run the risk of a lawsuit from external web users and your own employees.

Myth # 1- Good design and accessibility are mutually exclusive goals

A common belief is that a plain web site devoid of color and advanced technologies is the key to web accessibility. This is false. It defies the overall goals of making a web site usable and accessible to the most people.

The World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines recommend supplementing sites with graphics and sound to facilitate comprehension.

Myth #2- Just Provide a Text Only Version

This approach is similar to the "separate but equal treatment" doctrine that was common place in the U.S. with respect to school education of the races.

The problem with this approach is that in practice, the text only version is not updated or maintained as frequently as the main web version. With the text only version in place, web developers usually spend little or no effort on making the main version accessible.

Myth #3- Assistive Technologies will solve accessibility problems

Assistive technologies are a partial solution. Since these technologies read applications and web pages, their success depends on how well the pages are designed and incorporate accessibility features.

Myth #4- It's an option for my organization

Unfortunately, this may not be the case. Regulatory and legal concerns have been one of the more important drivers for accessible web sites. A number of countries have issued accessibility standards and guidelines:

-Canadian Common Look and Feel Standards and Guidelines;

-European Union has made a similar commitment to making information and services accessible to the public;

-U.S. Section 508 Guidelines

Does the Private Sector have to Comply?

Many of the guidelines do not require private sector companies to comply with guidelines. However, in the U.S., there is great incentive to do so, because Section 508 requires:

a) the Federal government to procure electronic and information technology that meets defined accessibility standards;

b) Federal agencies to purchase products from vendors that best meet the standards.

Many people consider accessibility a civil right. Hiowever, only one web inaccessibility suit has been filed in Australia. An individual in Australia won a complaint of web inaccessibility against the Sydney Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games. See the Reader’s guide to Sydney Olympics accessibility complaint

That's it for now. Comments always welcome whether you agree or disagree.

Why Some Government Websites Still Suck

2007-03-16T15:05:07-05:00

On March 15th, I was trying to locate some information on the State Department's passort website for my 18 year old nephew. After going through multiple walls of words I finally located the form and clicked on it. I was taken to a page that listed several dozens forms in small type. I got really angry and swore "This really sucks". Apparently someone at State heard me because their passport webpages are totally reorganized. Thank God for that.

However, not all is forgiven

I have not posted on this blog for awhile, but that doesn't mean that I have abandoned it. It just took a high degree of frustration and anger to get me going again. But I am back. So fasten your seat belts because I still think that most government websites suck, big time.

Why Most Government Websites Suck

I think that most government websites suck because the people at the top of these government agencies don't feel the pain of the businesses and citizens who use them and rely on them. Notice I am not totally blaming the web content managers or those who are trying their best on websites like www.webcontent.gov. Oh hell I guess I am blaming you, because the heads of most agencies don't use their websites and could really care less (unless a member of Congress or the Administration complains about it). If you don't get it right who will.

Really folks, you government web content managers need to speak to your customers and users. Quit playing around with us and asking us to be patient for the next round of usability tests or the redesign. We no longer have patience. In fact, we'll start telephoning you if you don't get your act together. OK, calm down, I am now certain that the threat of telephoning you has gotten your attention.

If you really feel like checking in with the real people who use your websites, start with your spouses or significant others. Ask them to do something on your website and please don't coach them. Ask them to give you some honest feed back. Tell them that they can not leave the website until they find what they need. If they don't slap you up the side of the head than you have a good website. If they get phsical, please seek medical attention if they draw blood.

Six Deadly Sins of Government Websites that Suck

I am personalizing this because there is a team of people behind the website.

1. You Consistently Never Give Me What I Want

What I hate are websites that give you everything except what you asked for. For example, in my experience yesterday, I click on a page that says "Download the DS-11 Application." My expectation is that "finally I am getting somewhere." What do I get?! Another web page with instructions about the form. Is anyone at home? I want to download the "bloody form." Geez

Honestly, the mantra of websites like the above seems to be to give people more information than they want or need. You seem to be saying that I can't use your service or product or form unless I read every word or unless you put every word on the page. This is even true with the updated State web page. Go ahead, click on Application for Passport: DS-11

Now where is the download link? Scroll down to the very bottom of the webpage. See what I mean. I have to wade through these insrtructions to get to where I want. If the lawyers or your boss insists on providing this information then place the download buttons at the top well above fold and preferreable under the page title and follow that with all the things you seem to care about and I could care less about.

If some of you think that you are providing a disservice if you don't provide the verbage, just consider what you do when you see terms of agreement on a web page or service that you use. Of course, you read every word before you click the "I accept" button. Right?

2. You Drop Me Off in the Middle of No Where

On some websites, I feel like I have been sent into a Home Depot or Lowes that has no labels on the isles. At least in the these stores I can ask a sales associate for something and they will mumble hardware. Lucky me, Now I only have to find the isle and go through 25,000 individual products. With some website, it truly is that bad.

Web content managers have to determine what they major things that their users want to do. Please don't insult my intelligence by saying "everything" or that its impossible to find out. Ask peole or better yet, ask those poor souls who answer the phones at your agency and provide answers to real live people. They will give you an earful.

3. You Expect me to know Everything about Your Website

Listen if I come to your website, I'm only here to get what I need. I don't care about your web design or its features if I can't find or do what I want to do. If I am looking for a medicaire application for Grandma Millie, that's all I want. Your search engine needs to be prominently displayed because I am only going to look a bit and then resort to it. I'm not exactly expecting the search engine to take me directly to the web page I need, but it should at least get me into the right neighborhood or secton of the website. This is where your information architecture either kills me or saves me buy getting me close to related topics. If you can get that search engine to list the top pages that get me in the neighborhood so much the better.

4. You burden me with so much Verbage

The material on most website is not written for me but for other people who know the ins and outs of a program, service or product. The content that your web content providers give you is not suitable for me. I love executive summaries and press releases. Why? Because they have to concise and well writtem.

Consider using the press releases or executive summaries as web page content. Users like myself want to use your product or service, but to do so we don't need to become a program expert. Just give me enough to determine if the product or service or application is right for me.

Take a look at this website presentation that explains a new technogy called Lexel. I'm pretty impressed with the ease in which they very easily chunk there Lexel presentation. At the end of the presentation, I can either view a video to learn more, or go somewhere else if their technology is not for me.

5. You prevent me from easily talking to a real person at your agency

Some web content managers believe that the success of their websites are determined by reduced telephone inquiries to call centers. That's not entirely true. Your website may prepare me for a more intelligent conversation with someone at your agency. For instance, my converation may go something like this;

Hi, I just went to your website and read about the Boweevil Pesticide Entitlement Program. I am not sure if I shold be using the "Hard As Hell" Form or I can use the EZ-Form. Can u help me?

Sometimes I need to bail out of your site and talk to a U-Man, but you hide the bloodly link. It would be nice if you could time a session, and if after 3 minutes introduce an agent that asks if they can be of help.

6. No Focus on Understandable Content rather than Technology

Some websites are so focused on technology that they forget that their prme directives are to communicate policy, programs, messages, services and products to the public. As explain earlier their is too much verbabe not enough easy to understand content. Learning how to write is one step, but determining who your audience is an imperative. The Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffet offers some Writing Tips since he writes Berkshire Hathaway’s annual report. Here's an excerpt:

"One unoriginal but useful tip: Write with a specific person in mind. When writing Berkshire Hathaway’s annual report, I pretend that I’m talking to my sisters. I have no trouble picturing them: Though highly intelligent, they are not experts in accounting or finance. They will understand plain English, but jargon may puzzle them. My goal is simply to give them the information I would wish them to supply me if our positions were reversed. To succeed, I don’t need to be Shakespeare; I must, though, have a sincere desire to inform.

No siblings to write to? Borrow mine: Just begin with “Dear Doris and Bertie.”

In closing, I hope that this will be useful to some of you who manage content on government websites. Understand though that poor websites are symptomatic of agencies that are aloof, uncaring about us citizens and may some day be the subject of a consolidation that has taken place in the UK.

That's it for now. Comments always welcome whether you agree or disagree.

Writing Content vs Search Engine Optimization

2007-01-08T21:34:51-05:00

The goal of every company or government web content manager is to bring more visitors to his/her site. If that's the case, then why are many of us devoting more money, time and people to optimizing web pages for search engines instead of developing content for real people?

Devloping content and getting to understand what your web users really need is hard work. It is easy to put off writing content for the web and fall into the search engine optimization (SEO). Don't get me wrong, I believe that all web pages should have easy to understand title pages, meta descriptions and keywords, but that is about it.

Vincent Flanders, author of Web Pages That Suck made a short video on the subject which makes the point. He suggests focusing on content instead of getting hung up about search engine optimization, fooling Google or the other large search engines. Enjoy the video and Web Pages That Suck website

Alright NewsGator, take us to our news feeds or else

2006-07-16T01:29:49-05:00

NewsGator is our favorite RSS feed reader. However, we think the NewsGator website's usability has suffered lately. It's just not as easy to log into your account and get right to your feeds. In fact, the NewsGator website commits a major web usability mistake by making us "Think!" We tell you why and what NewsGator should do about it.

Why the NewsGator website is failing NewsGator Online users

We'll clear something right up before we dive into our review. We're talking about the NewsGator website not the actual feed readers that the company provides. Specifically, we're focusing on the "free" NewsGator Online feed reader. This is web-based and is very simple and intuitive to use. Getting to it is another story.

The NewsGator website fails existing and potential NewsGator Online users, because the majority of the home pages and secondary pages are trying to market its other products and provide too much information. There simply is too much going on the home page and the site actually throws obstacles in your path when you attempt to login.

On the Newsgator home page, there is an image of the graphic user interface that is hard to read and no separation or clear channel for existing users to get to their news feeds. Enough said, go ahead and take a look a the NewsGator home page below. You have two seconds to find these places. Times up!

width="600" height="470" />

Ok, you found it, but seriously, there's still a lot going on this page. There's the "obvious" Sign in and a banner of text that we've highlighted below. The image and sign in material all run together. We would have preferred a very distinctive channel or box that focuses users on one of two tasks--- either create a new account or login to your existing account.

width="600" height="470" />

Now you can sign in and be taken to your reader.

You fill in your id and password and you go to your news feeds. Right? Nope, instead of being taking where you expect to go, you're told that there are changes to NewsGator. The focal point here is a person with a Big Megaphone. If you're like me, you're pretty confused and are stopped right in your tracks as discussed in "Don't Make Me Think," an excellent usability resources. Personally I really don't care to read about the changes unless they are going to start charging for the service! Fortunately they are not. Also, I would rather experience the changes first hand instead of reading about them.

Anyway, your eyes scan the page for the magic link to take you to your news feeds. If you have the eyes of a hawk, you will find it in the upper left hand corner in very small text and at the bottom of the page well below the fold.

The Solution- Offer Users Simple, Big and Obvious Choices

Anyone that is selling a service or software on the Internet if faced with the challenge of attracting new customers and serving the needs of existing customers. We think that NewsGator can do a lot better by cleaning up the website and make it much easier to get to where existing customers want to go. We offer MySpace.com and Paytrust.com as examples.

When you click on MySpace.com, your senses are assaulted/embraced (depends on your age) by the lots of advertisements and things to do. One thing stands out, however, and that's the Member Login box. You either login or you can enroll as a new member. It is that simple. You are not told about what's new in MySpace. With Paytrust.com, existing and new customers are provided with three large and obvious options- Sign in, Learn More or Enroll. both new and existing users are served well by this simple but elegant design.

Why a simple access is important

NewsGator needs to do the same with its website and get its existing NewsGator Online users to their feeds. Of course, some of you may argue that the above inconvenience is a small price to pay for a "free" service. We disagree. Everything about the usability of NewsGator's website sheds light on its underlying products. We think that the company's decision to offer a free news reader is merely a hook to get people to sign up for higher
end products. Nothing wrong with that at all.

NewsGator has to remember though that many people are referred to their website by existing NewsGator users. I actually expound the benefits of RSS and news feed readers and refer newbies and skeptics to the NewsGator website to try the free service. That's why the NewsGator website has to be very intuitive and easy to use for both newbies and casual users alike.

Instead of getting in the way of new and existing users, NewsGator could provide some links to new features once users get their news feeds.

Why the workforce isn't blogging?

2006-06-22T00:21:33-05:00

Email is a disaster when it comes to managing content and comments on work-related projects. Internal blogs are a cheap and effective way to cut down on finding information and allows workers more time to analyze it. So why aren't more workers usings blogs?

Blogs have a reputation

Blogs and blogging have a bad reputation in ithe workplace. They are still thought of as personal journals not to be taken seriously. What is overlooked is that blogs are powerful content management systems. A blog allows a worker to think and express her ideas without having to worry about where to place the information or how to find it later. A blog takes care of all that.

Most peope are familar with blogs that they have seen on the Internet. The blogs we're talking about here are similar, except they reside on your company's intranet so only authorized staff can view them. If you are managing a project within your office or from multiple offices in the U.S., Europe and Asia, a blog makes complete sense. They also make great sense if you are a government agency and need to collaborate with other agencies---we talking homeland security here and defense. Any large organization can benefit from blogs though. Here are some reasons.

1) Workers are free to communicate ideas about project issues and comment on them. They don't have to have a knowledge of IT. The blog will manage the content so that it is easy to find;

2) Workers can discuss ideas and get comments that are completely organized and available to them 24/7;

3) Anyone can set up a blog in about 10 minutes- you don't have to be a Computer Geek;

4) The IT Department only gets involved to keep the blog inside your organization's fire wall
or intranet and secure from unauthorized users;

5) Blogs are cheap.........They cost much less than comparable collaboration software
systems. We're talking magazinie subscription rates in some cases.

What kinds of projects are blogging suitable for?

Blogs are useful for any project where you want to faciliate communication and the exchange of ideas, and comments from a community of users. Remember, presidential candidate blogs were extensively used in the last election. Blogs are also useful in staying current on a project's status. They are also useful to get comments on ideas, short essays or white papers from other workers. Blogs, however, are no substitute for project management software.

Impediements to blogging in the Office

Real workers who have to make sales, manage projects and do real work are faced with a variety of obstacles in the office place. First and foremost, unfortunately, may be the IT Department. The folks in IT love complexity and large costly software and hardware systems that they can tinker with. So beware that if you come to them with the idea of a blog, you may be treated as a gadfly at a wedding reception or the Anti-Christ.

You will also be politely asked to use the current collaborative software in place. You actually should do this so that you will be prepared to justify why it falls short of your goals. Here are some of the reasons you might come up with after taking it for a spin:

1) Our collaborative software is a great system-- "It is overkill for what we are doing. Besides, you don't want to tie up 'valuable IT resources' for a project like this, do you?"

2) The learning curve is very high--- "Look, my team can bearly understand how to use MS Word and you want me to explain file sharing to them!"

3) The usability of the software is very poor-- the software is not very intuitive. We're going to be using this on very small projects and different groups of people are going to use it also.

How to get your blogging project off the ground

There are several ways to improve your chances of using blogs in your organization:

1) Try blogging yourself-- many of the most popular blogging software companies offer free demos- Movable Type's Typepad and Live Journal, Blogger and Radio Userland' Manila offer the web hosted blogs. All you need is an Internet connection. [Note, all of these companies offer software that can be sited behind your company's firewall];

2) Get some buy in from your immediate boss to at least try it. Emphasize that you're not going to spend money or alot of time;

2) Once you choose a demo program, ask your colleagues to try it out using a very simple project; [if you use a web-based program make sure your test material is non-public information]

3) Ask people in your organization if they are blogging. You might be lucky to find someone high or influential in your organization that can sponsor your effort;

4) Find someone in the IT Department who blogs or is willing to use a blog to detect software errors, etc. Share the Standford Univerity blogging case history with them to generate interest.

5) Try to stay below the radar screen so that you don't have to write a business case, at least not yet. If you have to write one, see the sample business case on RSS or Really Simple Syndication that I did . It was short and effective.

6) Suggest to your boss and the IT department that you do a Pilot Study of blogging. You'll be the gunieau pig. Management usually loves to do pilot studies. Everyone saves face and doesn't have to commit alot of $$$ or resources. ,Of course if the pilot is succesful everyone gets to claim credit and perhaps you'll get a bonus.

Comments are always welcome and of course advice. Just contact me.

RSS on government websites- a business case

2005-07-25T08:59:47-05:00

RRS or Really Simple Syndication is a great way for government websites to get important news, events and decision to busy web users. However, if you operate a government website, you'll still have to convince management of its benefits. We provide a sample business case that was used at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission aka FERC(http://www.ferc.gov/) to get you started.

Business Case

My employer, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, required me to develop a business case on RSS before I could implement it on the FERC Internet website (http://www.ferc.gov/). I am sharing this with you so you'll be able to convince your agency of the merits.Download the sample business case

We used online surveys to gather information on whether our web users would be even interested in this. Over 96 percent of them were even though only about 30 percent were using RSS news readers.

What is means to syndicate content

When a website syndicates content, it is essentially publishing its content to other computers. You can think of syndication like a radio broadcast telling other computers "we have new content, come and get it!"

Most major news websites syndicate their content and have RSS news feeds (MSNBC, CNN, NY Times, Washington Post and Fox News). You'll usually find a variety of RSS news feeds on these sites on various subjects like World News, Entertainment, Sports, etc. explaining the technology and how to use it. FERC's explanation of What is RSS at FERC is no different. It even offers some free services like My Yahoo!, My MSN and Newsgator to get web users started.

Website managers who want to attract users to their websites would be wise to consider syndicating content. That's because when someone subscribes to your news feef and receive your content, they will click on a link that takes them back to your website.

Should you syndicate at all?

If FERC was still a little known federal agency, the answer would be "absolutely not." However, FERC deals with Enron, the California Energy Crisis of 2000, and is the lead agency for siting liquefied natural gas terminals (LNG)and interstate natural gas pipelines. It also deals with over 1,660 hydropower dams. Hardly a week or day passes when FERC's decisions and policies are not being covered by the press, industry and citizens. Beside this, FERC's goal is to make their website a Strategic Public Relations tool. RSS has a role in the latter.

Challenges

Every government agency or organization will have to decide what to syndicate. There is no "one size fits all" solution. Our advice is to syndicate the most important information. You can easily overwhelm most users by doing too much. FERC puts out about 1,200 documents each month, however we syndicate only 35 documents a month. That's a little less than 3 percent. These documents are press releases, associated decisions, and events.

Successful implememtation of RSS is not difficult technologically. The real work is to educate users and organizations about it. Most federal agencies work with relevant stakeholders (dozens of other organizations and agencies) to accomplish their work. To really be of service to your web users, you'll also have to convince these relevant stakeholder organizations to implement RSS news feeds and to deal with the question of what to syndicate. More on that in a week or two.

The Basics and Good RSS Articles

Here's some basic information about RSS. There are two main versions of the RSS format in use today; RSS 0.9x and RSS 1.0. Each version is being actively used and developed and has its benefits and drawbacks.

RSS 0.9x is known for its simplicity, while RSS 1.0 is more extensible and fully specified. Both formats are XML-based and have the same basic structure. Your IT Conractors should be able to assit you in determining what version to use.

Use these articles to get started:

-RSS described in plain English http://www.commoncraft.com/archives/000528.html

-RSS tutorial for Content Publishers and Web masters http://www.mnot.net/rss/tutorial/#What

-An introduction to RSS news feeds- (more technical and great resources) Using open formats for content syndication http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/w-rss.html
-All about RSS (Really Simple Syndication) (extensive articles) http://radio.userland.com/allAboutRSS

Most content management systems do have software that will generate RSS feeds automatically. FERC didn't have a CMS system for ferc.gov, so we are used Feed For All (http;//www.feedforall.com/) to generate the code for our news feed.

Real Life Government Examples

National Weather Service http://www.nws.noaa.gov/alerts/

U.S. Dept. of Education http://www.ed.gov/news/newsletters/rssnewsfeed.html

U.S. Dept. of Defense http://www.dod.gov/news/rss/

U.S.G.S. Earthquakes Hazard Program http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/rss.html

National Weather Service http://weather.gov/alerts/

U.S. State Dept. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2004/37506.htm

Ohio Public Utilities Commission http://www.puco.ohio.gov/PUCO/Consumer/information.cfm?doc_id=991

Government of Canada (particularly good at showing how government is promoting RSS) http://www.news.gc.ca/cfmx/view/en/index.jsp?categoryid=12&category=Choose+Your+News