Author Archive
Ideas
Facebook Suicide
You can bet your "[agency].gpv/ open Web page" (refer to bottom of page 2 in the Office of Management and Budget's <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/memoranda_2010/m10-06.pdf">open government directive</a>) that agencies are going to employ social media tools.
Ideas
Tracking Your Twitter Account
The Web and everything related to it seems to be 2.0 these days, but Google Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik's 2.0 take on Web analytics deserves the version two status. Not only does he methodically outline a new approach to analyzing Web metrics, but he offers some advice on how to measure the success of social media tools.
Ideas
Promoting Plain Language
You can have the most gorgeous Web site with the most amazing interactive functionality, but if the words on the site don't work for the site's users, you don't have a good Web site. That's why GSA's Office of Citizen Services decided to focus on plain language for <a href="http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/usability/world_usability_day2009.shtml">World Usability Day 2009,</a> according to Nicole Burton, a usability specialist at GSA.
Ideas
Fed Faces Don't Satisfy the Public
When <a href="http://www.foreseeresults.com/">ForeSee Results</a> released its third-quarter e-government satisfaction scores this week, the big news was that public satisfaction with federal Web sites had <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20091027_3610.php">reached a record high.</a>
Ideas
Google Gets Virginians to the Polls
With the Virginia general election only a week away, residents of the commonwealth looking for voting information might find one of Google's latest gadgets useful.
Ideas
Nothing on the Internet is Dead
A few weeks ago, the <em>Wall Street Journal</em> published a piece about <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203803904574431151489408372.html">how e-mail's reign</a> as the king of online communication is over. Author Jessica Vascellaro didn't decree the death of e-mail, she just argued the constant stream of updates social media services like Facebook and Twitter provide are more in sync with today's permanently plugged-in approach to the Web.
Ideas
Who's Gonna Win a Webby?
Early-bird entries for the Webbies, an international contest often called the Emmys of the Internet, are being <a href="http://www.webbyawards.com/index.php">accepted until Oct. 30,</a> and I am really hoping a number of federal Web managers are planning on entering their sites.
Ideas
'Used Gov' and Social Messaging
Usability guru Jakob Nielsen and his team at the Nielsen Norman Group recently released a research report on the design and usability of social messaging and RSS feeds. In the <a href="http://www.useit.com/alertbox/streams-feeds.html">outline of the findings</a> Nielsen posted on his <a href="http://www.useit.com">Web site</a>, he bluntly states, "we have a long way to go to improve the usability of social network messaging and RSS feeds."
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Ideas
Be an Analysis Ninja
Google Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik detailed how to measure the success of a government Web site on Google's <a href="http://googlepublicsector.blogspot.com/">Public Sector Blog</a> last week. And his first instruction was <em>not</em> to turn to any of the tools Google offers in its analytics toolset.
Ideas
Apps for America 2 Finalists Announced
This week the Sunlight Foundation announced the finalists in its <a href="http://sunlightlabs.com/blog/2009/08/24/apps-america-finalists/">Apps for America 2</a> contest, which challenged the public to come up with innovative applications using the data feeds from the recently launched <a href="http://www.data.gov">Data.gov</a>. Sunlight Labs received 47 entries since the contest <a href="http://techinsider.nextgov.com/2009/05/fbi_fugitive_concentration.php">launched in May</a> and has narrowed the field down to three finalists:
Ideas
Bye-Bye TSAT
The Air Force today killed off its over-budget and long delayed $16 billion Transformational Satellite Communications program, but promised a slimmed-down reincarnation minus some expensive and challenging technologies.
Digital Government