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Mobile Gov professionals from various organizations work together at a @Mobile_Gov Wikithon.

Reblogged from the Mobile Gov Blog.

Have a question about Mobile Terms of Service? Want to understand how mobile terms of service work with mobile product development? This coming Tuesday’s Mobile Gov Wikithon from 2-4 in downtown D.C. will offer you the chance to discuss the federal compatible terms of service for mobile app development with other agencies.

In addition, you’ll get to experience our regularly scheduled wikithon programing where you create a Mobile Gov Wiki account and help us review, update and create wiki content around Mobile Gov areas in which you have interest and expertise.

You’ll have some new expertise to take back to the workplace and as always participation (ie. creating, editing and wikithon attendance) on the Mobile Gov Wiki will earn you a badge!

Details:
Mobile Terms of Service Wikithon
Tuesday, February 26, 2-4 pm
In Person Location Only (Open to public, bring a laptop!)
801 18th St NW # 1 Washington, DC 20006. (202) 785-2024.

We have reserved the large “board” table at this coffee shop location.

Tell a friend, bring a friend and earn badges!

At the #SocialGov Summit for Social Media Week DC, U.S. Geological Survey’s Scott Horvath discussed crowdsourcing earthquake data from Twitter. USGS has discovered data from social media is an effective way to quickly gather information about active, or potential, earthquakes.

View the story “Is That an Earthquake or Just Your Phone Vibrating?” on Storify

Check out the new BusinessUSA! We’ve created a simpler and more intuitive website for users. The site now offers visitors a direct path to programs and tools such as financing, exporting, starting and growing a business, veteran’s programs, and disaster assistance.

We made it easy to access government programs that can help you grow your small business. Some of the new cool features include:

• A responsive web design which provides users with easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling across a wide range of devices from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones.
• Integrated ZIP codes and mapping, which are integrated to filter and prioritize results relevant to the user.
• You can now request an appointment at their closest resource center online by ZIP code. Enter a ZIP code and the system returns resource centers within a 25-mile radius. By clicking a button, users can fill out a simple form and an email will be sent and routed to the closest resource center to request an appointment.
• Improved customer support. All customer support features are available throughout every page on the web site. Chat with a live support personnel, ask a question, give feedback, browse the knowledge base, or call 1-800-FED-INFO. All requests automatically generate support tickets for tracking and follow-up.
• Integrated search allows users to search the site, participating agency sites, queries across all government, and customer support knowledge individually or in any combination. The search result can be further refined by content types.
• Step-by-step guides: Help You Find Opportunities, Access Financing, Understand New Healthcare Changes, and Learn About Taxes & Credits.

Sign up for email updates at BusinessUSA to keep abreast of new features as we add them, or to personalize the information you want to receive. Also, follow us on twitter @BizUSA.

BusinessUSA is a Presidential initiative designed to help small business and exporters discover opportunities, connect with the right resources and grow. BusinessUSA is the first fully integrated federal website, reflecting a new level of collaboration among federal agencies and a stronger commitment to more streamlined and efficient customer service.

Visit the site and give us your feedback so that we can continue to improve it and make sure that our businesses have the tools and resources they need to compete.

Today at the #SocialGov Summit for Social Media Week DC, we’ll showcase two new initiatives for citizens, agencies and small businesses that help unlock the full potential of social data for the next generation of government services and engagement. Leading innovators in government will also be on hand to show how social data is empowering them to improve federal programs.

If  you can’t make the event, please join us for the livestream here and follow @govnewmedia and #socialgov.

The first initiative is the release of new baseline social media metrics for federal agencies, developed by the Federal Social Media Community of Practice. The goal is to provide a consistent way to better evaluate the impact and value of using social media to improve government programs and deliver services to citizens.

Too often, we hear success in social media defined by the number of Facebook friends or the number of tweets someone may send. While these metrics provide some basic measurement of engagement, they don’t tell you enough about whether you’ve achieved any meaningful outcomes. With the new recommended metrics, agencies now have access to a broader and deeper set of measures that can help them truly assess whether their efforts are achieving the results they want. Ultimately, this will lead to better informed decision-making and better use of taxpayer dollars.

Some examples of the deeper measurements include:

• Percentage growth of target communities  — not just how big your community is, but how much is it growing?
• Conversions  — are people clicking the link in your tweet  and  consuming more content?
• Loyalty  — are people coming back to your content after the first visit?
• Sentiment analysis — are people saying generally positive, negative, or neutral things about your program?
• Customer service  — do you have benchmarks for responding to your customers in a timely way?

The recommendations are the result of federal managers looking for a government-wide approach to tie social media efforts to outcome-driven metrics — rather than having each agency develop their own metrics, in isolation. In collaborating on the metrics across multiple agencies, the inter-agency group took into consideration the need to include metrics that can easily be derived from freely available analytics tools and the continued importance of protecting citizens’ privacy when collecting any performance data.

Second, GSA is rolling out an API from the Federal Social Media Registry. The Registry is a shared service that allows agencies to maintain an official inventory of all their social media accounts from over 20 different platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

The potential of the API is demonstrated by basic widgets that open up content from social media accounts across government, searchable by agency, topic or language — regardless of the source, and without navigating individual federal websites or social media platforms. For example, content can be mashed up across one agency (ie all Twitter activity from all USDA Twitter accounts) or across a particular topic based on keyword tags (ie all Twitter content that has been tagged as Spanish content or tagged as “business” content etc).

Via the API, we’re road-mapping the use of customized social data streams, which allows:

• Anyone to find the information they need and engage directly with agencies based on topics and language
• Agencies to unlock valuable content and data, and provide it based on user’s interests, not government silos
• Entrepreneurs and small businesses to create new and better services by having easier access to the data

The potential of this verified API source is especially underscored by crisis situations like Superstorm Sandy, where accurate, real time information can accelerate and assist preparation and response efforts, and dispel rumors. By making use of the API, media outlets can embed the widgets to pull real-time data across multiple government social media accounts like FEMA, EPA, and CDC.

We’ve started with the Twitter widget to show the power of the API.  But the API could also be used to pull content government-wide from other social media accounts such as Flickr, Facebook and YouTube.

The announcement of the baseline social media metrics and the API is only one part of the #SocialGov Summit. The event also features tremendous work from multiple agencies that showcases how social data is changing the way the federal government is doing business in 2013. The presentations, followed by a panel, include:

• GSA: Consider This an Invitation to a Social Nation
• U.S. Geological Survey: Is That An Earthquake or Just Your Phone Vibrating?
• Office of the Director of National Intelligence: {Redacted} Media
• National Institutes of Health: Searching for Clinical-grade Social Data Metrics
• Federal Student Aid: Studying Hard on Social Customer Service
• Department of Defense: Social Media Service That’s Anything But Uniform
• National Archives and Records Administration: Enrich American History as a Social Citizen Archivist
• NASA: Launching  Out of this World Social Media

Together, these initiatives represent a new phase of social media in government where social data spreads into the hands of all public  program managers and citizens. The efforts illustrate how government agencies are simplifying access to government content and advancing the goals of the Digital Government Strategy  — ensuring that people can access government information anywhere, anytime, on any device.  

[View the story "A Very Government Valentine's Day" on Storify]

By guest blogger Ori Hoffer, GSA Social Media Strategist.

Social Media Week DC is a week-long event that connects thousands of innovators.

Social media in government has moved far beyond “fad” to exist fully ingrained in mission-centric operations.

Science. Technology. Defense. Healthcare. Research. An inter-planetary robot sending tweets from Mars. For many, 2012 was the year government participation in social media became standard.

#SocialGov 2013 isn’t just about “media” anymore — delve into the wider net of “social data” and how government, citizens, and business are an ecosystem where information and data sharing drives everyday decisions and actions.

Join the discussion during Social Media Week DC, a week-long event that connects thousands of innovators from across industry, government, academia, and non-profits to discuss emerging trends in social and mobile media. Check out two sessions #SocialGov 2013: Forwarding Citizen Experience with Social Data, hosted by the Federal Social Government Community of Practice, and APIs 101. Learn how to use APIs and build the government of the Future.

We’ll post the live video stream of #SocialGov 2013 here, on the DigitalGov blog, Tuesday at noon. Follow @GovNewMedia for live tweets and use #SocialGov to join the conversation.

You’ll see ground-breaking applications of:

• APIs and new communication models between citizens and government
• Social data for start-ups, entrepreneurs and small businesses
• Predictive analysis, such as CDC’s use of social media to analyze emerging flu outbreaks
• Customer service, like Federal Student Aid’s #AskFAFSA open office hours
• Performance measurement, including sentiment analysis and mission impact
• Technological innovation that will be anything but standard

There are 119 events at Social Media Week, Washington, DC, where you can learn about how the work you do fits into a wider scope of citizen engagement.

Wonder who is behind all these federal social data and engagement events and strategies? The Social Media Community of Practice (CoP) launched in June 2012 to unite more than 300 Federal social media managers in a community dedicated to identifying and solving shared challenges. The group works with agencies across government, the Federal Web Managers Council, and others outside of government to promote the effective and responsible use of social data for improving citizen services and cutting costs.

Presenters at Tuesday’s event will include:

• GSA’s Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies
• National Archives and Records Administration
• Office of the Director of National Intelligence
• Department of Defense
• NASA
• National Institutes of Health
• U.S. Geological Survey

It’s a question that gets to the heart of managing Web content: How many Web pages can one person manage? Organizations need to know for staffing and resourcing purposes, and to make sure content managers are focusing on high-priority areas. Content managers need to know for effective program and project management. Ask the question in your organization, and you’re likely to get a different response from every person you ask (and start a debate).

See how your results align with results from an online survey of 100 Web content managers. I conducted this research as an extension of my studies in the Master of Information Management program at the University of Maryland, College Park, where my studies focused on website management and governance issues.

The survey found that:

1. Most content managers reported working on small or medium-sized websites (the single largest category was sites with under 1,000 Web pages).

2. The single largest category of number of pages that a person manages is less than 100; but half of respondents said they are responsible for 1,000 pages or more (up to 100,000 pages).

3. 36% of survey respondents said that a content manager could effectively manage more than 1,000 pages. At the opposite end was 29%, who said 100 or 200 pages.

Figure. 36% of survey respondents said that a content manager could effectively manage more than 1,000 pages.

4. Most (60%) believe the number of Web pages they control is not interfering with their ability to manage content.

5. Of the 40% who said that the number of Web pages they are responsible for interfered with their ability to effectively manage their website, 60% said this happens “very frequently” or “frequently”.

So…

It seems the answer depends on whom you ask, what they do, and what their customers need.

First, it’s apparent that content management is getting more complex for some. Static Web pages are giving way to database-driven content, community- and user-driven content, and an increasing number of Web page objects (such as APIs). On the other hand, if pages don’t have much content or don’t need to be updated very often, that content might take much less time to manage.

Second, “managing a website” can mean different things to different people. Some are responsible only for content. And some are responsible for managing or contributing to a variety of website work, including content, design, usability, accessibility, social media, digital strategy, and more. The more disciplines a content manager needs to engage with, the fewer number of pages he or she will likely be able to manage effectively.

Finally, we should ask what a website is doing for its customers; that is, how it’s meeting customers’ top tasks. Listening to customers, reviewing data, optimizing content—all require time and effort. (For more on meeting customer needs, see HowTo.gov’s 10 guidelines to help you improve your digital services and customer service.)

Considering all these factors, it’s easy to see why the answer depends on so many different things.

Now, what would content managers in your organization say?

(Revised and reprinted from a CMSWire article.)

Sarah Kaczmarek is an Analyst at the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Last week I presented a webinar for DigitalGov University,  Above & Beyond Metrics: Tell a Story with Reports.  In this presentation I gave some  helpful tips to interpret and present your metrics in a meaningful and engaging manner.  Here are the highlights:

How to Interpret Your Metrics in Context

• Consider the purpose of your site. Take your bounce rate for example (the percentage of visitors that only looked at one page and immediately left your site). If your site primarily serves to refer visitors to other websites, then you would expect to see a higher bounce rate, perhaps 70% or above. On the other hand, if the purpose of your website is to provide content, you might hope to see a bounce rate closer to 30% or 40%.

• Look at how your metrics relate to one another. When looking at your bounce rate, for example, consider how it compares to your other engagement metrics. Comparing bounce rates with time on page, visits per visitor, and your percent of returning visitors can help you understand more about the experience your users are having.

Look at how your metrics relate to one another

• Listen to what your users have to say. Customer satisfaction information and usability testing can provide valuable context for interpreting your metrics. If you aren’t sure whether your bounce rate suggests users are quickly finding what they want and leaving, or that they simply left unsatisfied, there’s nothing like hearing feedback directly from your users themselves.

How to Tell a Story with Your Metrics

• Consider what surprised you in the data. You know your site well; if something surprised you, it’s worth exploring.

• Think about where you see room for improvement. Your ideas for site enhancements can help bring meaning to your metrics in your writing. Focus on a few key areas where concrete changes could improve users’ experience.

• Present your data in style. If you would be bored reading your report, chances are so will others, and they may just miss the message (same rule applies to presentations). Don’t be afraid to try something new, and make sure to use meaningful graphics to break up text.

Use meaningful graphics to present data

Next Steps:

Watch  Meaningful Metrics—From Gathering to Analyzing Digital Metrics

Review the Digital Metrics Guidance &  Google Analytics for Government Training Manual

Use the Quarterly analytics report template & Weekly analytics report template

Stay in Touch!

By email at Kaczmareks@gao.gov & Twitter @StudioSarah

Usability test in progress. Photo via Creative Commons and l-i-n-k.

A common practice in usability testing is to ask individual test participants to describe what they are doing as they complete the tasks in a test scenario. The “Think-Aloud” protocol, or method, asks test participants to maintain a running commentary about what they are doing and why. By analyzing verbal feedback from test participants, usability professionals gain valuable information about how users experience websites and other user interfaces.

In a recent DigitalGov University webinar, usability expert Erica Olmsted-Hawala (U.S. Census Bureau) discussed the theory behind the original think-aloud method, described a later variant of the method, and noted the various ways in which the think-aloud approach is applied by usability practitioners.  Although usability practitioners tend to favor an active approach to probing the test participant, practitioners typically do not report the style of their think-aloud protocols.

Erica went on to describe the conditions in an experiment conducted in 2010 on think-aloud methods (Olmsted-Hawala, Murphy, Hawala, & Ashenfelter, 2010):

1. Traditional: This method required the test administrator to say as little as possible to keep the test participant talking. The only permissible verbal cue was “Keep talking.”
2. Speech-communication:  This method allowed the test administrator to acknowledge the test participant’s verbalizations with “Mm-hmm?” or “Uh-huh?” in addition to “Keep Talking.”
3. Coaching: The test administrator was trained to ask the participant for feedback and actively intervene with probes, such as “Did you notice that link up here?”, “You’re doing great,” or “Can you explain why you clicked on that link?”
4. Silent control:  The test participant completed tasks silently, and the test administrator gave no verbal feedback.

The question explored by the 2010 experiment is whether the style of the think-aloud protocol matters to the results of usability testing.  Results indicate that the kind of think-aloud protocol definitely matters. As pointed out by Betty Murphy (Human Solutions, Inc.), practitioners, as well as test sponsors, need to be aware of the potential effects on participant accuracy and satisfaction.  Inflated usability findings can mislead decision makers about the actual usability of a user-interface design.

Statistical analysis of the data collected on test-participant accuracy, showed that those in the “coaching” condition achieved significantly greater accuracy than did those in the other conditions.  Conducted in the Census Bureau’s Usability Laboratory, the experiment revealed that test participants did better on their tasks and reported higher levels of satisfaction when they were being coached by a test administrator than they would be likely to do in an unassisted field setting. In other words, their accuracy rates and satisfaction with the website were significantly higher than were the comparable results for the other conditions. There were no significant differences, however, between the traditional, speech-communication and coaching conditions in the amount of time it took participants to complete their tasks.

Although usability practitioners may continue using active think-aloud methods, they and their sponsors are cautioned about assuming that test results will reflect the actual usability of the user interface.  Actual usability is likely to be significantly poorer than such results would indicate.  Olmsted-Hawala and Murphy recommend the following practices to help users of test results gauge the accuracy of reported usability findings:

• Use only traditional or speech-communication methods for evidence of how accurately users will complete tasks “in the field.”
• Accurately document the kind of think-aloud protocol used for each usability test.

The presenters urge the usability community to develop and follow standards for the use of think-aloud protocols.

For more information, watch the webinar on-demand at howto.gov.

By guest bloggers Betty Murphy, Human Solutions, Inc. and Erica Olmsted-Hawala, U.S. Census Bureau.

 Reference

Olmsted-Hawala, E., Murphy, E., Hawala, S. and Ashenfelter, K., (2010). “Think-Aloud Protocols: A Comparison of Three Think-Aloud Protocols for use in Testing Data Dissemination Web Sites for Usability.”  Proceedings of CHI 2010, ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM Press: pp 2381-2390.

You can now access your raw HTTP logs. These logs contain valuable data on searches, clicks and USASearch tag page loads. 

Read How to Access Your Raw Logs for more details about how to request secure FTP access to your logs.

• We open sourced all of the code that powers our Recalls Server API in Github.
• Searchers are now able to search and see results from collections that are not visible in the left-hand navigation on your “main” web results. You can use this option to provide a search box on a small subset of content (such as a policy manual or meeting minutes) while not cluttering up the left-hand navigation on your main results page. (It also helps reduce the likelihood that searchers experience a “dead end” on your main results page.)

• We upgraded to CentOS 6.3.
• We optimized the routing of search queries so that they’re served by the geographically closest datacenter. 

Anthony Calabrese is a Digital Communications Manager at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

We saw some big changes across the federal government with the introduction of the Digital Government Strategy in 2012. And it was a big year for innovation at the Department of Health & Human Services, where I’m part of a great team that’s working to transform us into the digital age. Looking forward, 2013 promises to be even bigger!

My colleagues at the Digital Communications Division at HHS and the Federal Web Managers Council have teamed up to bring you 12 big ideas & predictions for 2013:

1. Help Wanted: Community Manager, Social Media Manager, Social Media Strategist, Social Media Coordinator will become official titles for positions within the federal government. Why does this matter? The right social media team can react quickly and effectively in time of crisis and take advantage of a Super Bowl-sized opportunity on the fly.
2. 2013 will be the year that ‘m-dot’ died. More web managers will move to responsive design for their websites or mobile apps for targeted content.
3. Not just responsive design. Responsive content too! Citizen engagement and better customer service will lead to a self-sustaining feedback loop that fuels constant iteration and constant site improvement.
4. At your service! The success of the Project MyUSA (formerly MyGov) will mean we are finally giving citizens the level of customization and personalization they’ve been getting for years from private sector services.
5. May I have your attention please? The use of rotating homepage billboards will continue regardless of their value or interest to the public.
6. AP… what? Structured content and “content as data” will be game changers. This year, everybody will finally understand what an API is and what it does.
7. #%@! Analytics & sentiment analysis will have a big impact on social media strategy in 2013 and beyond.
8. [INFOGRAPHIC] Infographics like this will grow in importance as a light, sharable, and printable alternative to video.
9. Here’s to your health! Health data will hit the mainstream as key parts of the Affordable Care Act kick in later this year. And HealthData.gov will exceed 500 open datasets.
10. Open Government: Open source platforms will continue to dominate as content management systems offer opportunities for collaboration across the federal government.
11. Git with the program! If you haven’t heard of GitHub, Twitter Bootstrap, and LESS CSS, you will by the end of 2013. They may change the way we do web.
12. Not just for zombies. Gamification, incentivization, and competition on social media platforms will help our content to go viral. Engagement – it’s not just for zombies anymore.

Let us know what you think and share your own ideas and predictions in the comments.  Stay tuned for 12 more predictions coming soon…

You can directly access your raw HTTP logs. The logs include valuable data on searches, clicks, and USASearch tag page loads.

With the raw logs, you can conduct in-depth, ad hoc analyses to answer any questions that you can’t answer using the standard analytics reports in the Admin Center. You can also automatically integrate your search logs with your other reports and business processes. 

To access your raw logs, you’ll first need to upload your public key on the Raw Logs Access page in the Admin Center. 

We’ll set up your public key on our secure FTP servers and send you an email when your logs are available for download. 

Once your key is set up, you’ll be able access your log files via secure FTP. We upload your logs each day, usually within several hours after midnight GMT. After a week, we purge the older files.

We recommend that you set up a cron script to automatically download the latest files each day.

Troubleshooting tip: On Unix systems, you can generate a RSA public key with no passphrase by typing in the following command. Once you’ve created a key, it’ll be located at /home/user/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.

% cd ~
% ssh-keygen -q -b 4096 -t rsa
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/user/.ssh/id_rsa):
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:

USASearch > Admin Center > YourSite > Raw Logs Access

CDC map of the geographic spread of the influenza virus for the week ending January 26, 2013.

Reblogged from the data.gov blog.

Want to know what the weather is? Today we have so many ways to find out:  check one of many sites on the Internet – or, more likely, you’ll find the temperature and links to forecasts conveniently on your e-mail provider’s home page. Then there are, of course, TV, radio and newspaper forecasts.

Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego, Matt Lauer – or more important, how do you get to where you want to be? Use your smartphone or the GPS in your car.

And how prevalent is the flu? We may have gotten sick from all the stories that have inundated us in the past few weeks.

And finally, what’s the point of all these questions?

The point is that all this information ultimately comes from your government for free. (It already belongs to you, anyway.) And it’s available through Data.gov. In a way, it’s hiding in plain sight.

Even more important, this is such a normal part of life that we don’t even think of this as “government data” but take it for granted as basic to getting through the day. This “data” is collected by the public service as well as by technology (such as satellites in the case of weather and GPS). Most of us use it after other people and technology make it easier to understand, people whose jobs are often even dependent on the availability of this data for free so they can to profitably provide the services and information we can use.

Here are just a couple of examples:

FluView National Flu Activity Map

National Weather Service RSS Feed

What you’ll find here on Data.gov is a free national resource for everyone, from data itself to the apps and communities where you can share what you know or want to find out. Explore and enjoy!

FedRAMP (The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program) is a government-wide program that aims to offer agencies a standard approach to IT security, authorization, and ongoing monitoring for cloud products and services.

It’s the federal government’s gateway into secure cloud computing. Since the administration implemented the “Cloud First” policy, some agencies have found it tough to move critical IT systems due to security and high costs.

FedRAMP helps these agencies by providing 3 things:

1. Rigorous security authorizations
2. Improved real-time security through continuous monitoring
3. Increased quality of the Federal security authorization process

Additionally, FedRAMP reuses existing processes and saves cost, time, and resources with a “do once, use many times” approach. It’s a much more efficient and more secure method for agencies to adopt cloud solutions, and is the centerpiece of a more transparent security assessment methodology across the federal government.

History

FedRAMP launched in June 2012 and is currently in its initial phases. We aim to provide these Cloud Service Providers (CSP) with the official “Ability to Operate” – which demonstrates to agencies that a CSP meets the FedRAMP requirements and is approved for federal government use.

Authorizations and 3PAO Accreditation

Provisional authorizations of cloud providers result in a common security risk model that all federal agencies can use, ensuring a consistent standard for these cloud-based technologies. In order to obtain a provisional authorization, the CSPs must meet the FedRAMP requirements through testing and documentation. In order to achieve this, CSPs usually hire “Third Party Assessment Organizations” to review their compliance documents for compliance and to ensure independence and fairness.

Since we’ve launched, FedRAMP has focused on preparing and walking CSPs through the entire process. The program hosted a webinar series to help clarify CSP roles and responsibilities during the process. In addition, FedRAMP is hosting documentation training sessions for CSPs which will answer any questions regarding FedRAMP templates and documents.

To date, more than 80 CSPs have applied to FedRAMP. In December, FedRAMP granted its first provisional authorization and there are plans to issue more in the upcoming months.

For more info and the latest news, please visit us at FedRAMP.gov. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email us at info@fedramp.gov.

One of the most common search tasks conducted by public is looking for current job openings. To help searchers quickly find relevant jobs we have created the federal Jobs GovBox.

When you turn on the federal Jobs GovBox, searchers looking for jobs on your site will see up to three relevant USAJobs listings on your results page.

• Federal Department Websites—If your website is affiliated with a specific federal department (e.g., Department of Commerce), the federal Jobs GovBox will return relevant, location- and keyword-matched job openings across all agencies within your department.
• Federal Agency or Office Websites—If your website is affiliated with a specific federal agency (e.g., NOAA) or office (e.g, National Ocean Service), the federal Jobs GovBox will return relevant, location-and keyword-matched job openings at your agency.
• State and Local Websites and Cross-Agency Portals—If your website is a state or local government site or a federal cross-agency portal (e.g., USA.gov), the federal Jobs GovBox will return relevant, location- and keyword-matched job openings across all federal agencies.

Searchers will also see a direct link to USAJobs.gov for all current job openings (specific to your department or agency, if applicable), as shown in the sample below for a search on jobs on the USDA.gov.

The display of search results pages is constantly evolving. Some changes are subtle. Others are more noticeable.

In line with industry best practices and commercial search engines, we’ve moved the tools for filtering and sorting results to the top of results list (rather than on the left side). We’ve also added an option to clear all filters.

• We upgraded to Rails 3.2.11.

• Searchers no longer see Did You Mean suggestions for your excluded domains.
• We fixed a cross browser compatibility issue on the Query Logs page in the Admin Center so that the ‘number of clicks’ column is now visible.
• We labeled the Safe Search radio options on our advanced search page as a fieldset to improve accessibility for screen readers.

We got feedback from usability experts and they have additional information they would like to share. Take a look at their new post. 

A common practice in usability testing is to ask people to describe what they are doing as they complete a task. The “Think-Aloud” protocol, or method, asks test participants to verbally express their thoughts, feelings, and reactions to a website. By asking participants, “Was that task easy to perform?” or “Tell me what  you’re thinking,” usability professionals gain valuable information about how users experience websites.

In a recent DigitalGov University webinar, Usability experts Betty Murphy (Human Solutions, Inc.) and Erica Olmsted-Hawala (U.S. Census Bureau) explained the theory behind the Think-Aloud method and the different ways  it may be applied  in usability testing. The options include:

1. Traditional and Speech-communication: These two methods require that the test administrator say as little as possible. Verbal cues are limited to “Keep talking.” “OK,” “Mm-hmm?”, or “Uh-huh?”
2. Coaching: The test administrator can ask the participant for feedback and actively intervene with probes, such as “Did you notice that link up here?”, “You’re doing great,” or “Can you explain why you clicked on that link?”

Slide showing the results of the 4 different conditions plotted against accuracy.

Far and away the most common practice among usability practitioners is to alternate between methods without distinguishing between them. But this may not be the best practice.Murphy and Olmsted-Hawala’s study reveals that using more than one Think-Aloud method during a test can cause problems – not all Think-Aloud methods are created equal, and some researchers value certain kinds more highly than others. But when you mix up the results, you can’t differentiate between which types were used.

In addition, people who received the “coaching” Think-Aloud protocol seemed to do exceptionally well on their tasks – maybe too well. The study revealed that testers did better when they were being coached by a test administrator then they would actually do in real life. In other words, their accuracy rates and satisfaction with the website were slightly exaggerated and therefore somewhat misleading. The coaching method did not, however, affect the amount of time it took participants to complete their tasks.

That doesn’t mean that the coaching method should be tossed out. Each method can provide good results in different ways:

Pros of the coaching method: By allowing the test administrator to ask participants detailed questions about what they are thinking, the coaching method extracts useful opinions, rich  anecdotes, and fosters an active dialog between the administrator and the participant. This creates a lively viewing atmosphere and good qualitative data.

Pros of the traditional methods: As the study shows, more traditional Think-Aloud methods will result in more accurate data for how users will complete tasks on their own,  or “in the field,” because the test administrator is very quiet and plays a passive role in the test.

While the “coaching” Think-Aloud method may still be worth using because of the reasons listed above, Murphy and Olmsted-Hawala recommend that usability practitioners make the following changes based on the findings of their study:

• Only use traditional or speech-communication methods for evidence of how users will complete tasks “in the field”
• Accurately report and document the type of Think-Aloud used for a usability test
• Develop and follow Think-Aloud standards across the usability profession

For more information, watch the webinar on-demand at howto.gov. Be sure to check back in for cutting-edge usability and user-experience research!

Reblogged from the Mobile Gov Blog.

Have a question about Mobile Gov? Want to help improve Mobile Gov efforts? This Thursday’s Mobile Gov Wikithon from 2-4 in downtown D.C. will offer you the chance to meet Mobile Gov innovators and get tips on mobile product ideation and improvements to your current and future mobile products. Our theme will be the same as last week’s webinar–how are agencies using the Digital Government Strategy to make government anytime, anywhere on any device?

You can participate  in the Mobile Gov conversation and learn from other agencies and industry practitioners. Also, you’ll get to experience our regularly scheduled wikithon programing where you create a Mobile Gov Wiki account and help us review, update and create wiki content around Mobile Gov areas in which you have interest and expertise.

You’ll have some new expertise to take back to the workplace and as always participation (ie. creating, editing and wikithon attendance) on the Mobile Gov Wiki will earn you a badge!

Details:
Mobile Gov & the Digital Government Strategy Wikithon
Thursday, January 31, 2-4 pm
In Person Location Only (Open to public, bring a laptop!)
801 18th St NW # 1 Washington, DC 20006. (202) 785-2024.

We have reserved the large “board” table at this coffee shop location.

Tell a friend, bring a friend and earn badges!

Ashley Casovan, City of Edmonton, giving input on the draft white paper during a consultation workshop held at CTG in June 2012. Seated to her right are Meghan Cook, program manager, CTG and Anthony Cresswell, senior fellow, CTG.

Public agencies are under pressure to create new capabilities to open government data. A common assumption when opening government data is that simply supplying more data freely and in more formats will lead to more use. In turn, that use will lead to value creation and will motivate government to make the necessary changes to continue opening more data.

But, we know from experience that supplying more and more data does not necessarily produce the anticipated results.

The Center for Technology in Government (CTG, University at Albany, New York) has a white paper, The Dynamics of Opening Government Data, based on findings from a year-long research project, to help organizations better understand the value generated through opening government data. This presents an approach to analyze and model open data initiatives based on two key ideas: context and dynamics.

Agencies should consider these recommendations:

• Release government data that are relevant to both agency performance and the public interest.
• Invest in strategies to estimate how different stakeholders will use the data.
• Devise data management practices that improve context in order to ‘future-proof’ data resources.
• Think about sustainability for long term value creation.

The CTG research team looked at two active open data initiatives from the city level, but the lessons learned can be applied at any level of government. The first is the release of restaurant inspection data in New York City and the second is the release of street construction projects data in the City of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada.

Through the case descriptions and system dynamics modeling, we explored how stakeholders (such as app developers, third-party information suppliers) and their patterns of interaction with government agencies change over time as a result of opening data. We also looked at how citizen demand and data management practices and policies change as well.

CTG plans to continue applying and refining our approach through additional partnerships with governments and researchers interested in maximizing the value of their open data initiatives. We welcome new partners as well as your feedback!

This week we buckled down and analyzed data on jobs-related searches to ensure that the new federal Jobs GovBox lists the most relevant job openings. 

Searchers can now effectively search for jobs by keyword, agency, state, or work schedule (part-or full-time).

We also focused on not showing the Jobs GovBox when it isn’t relevant (for example, it is no longer shown when searchers look for job safety posters or employment verification forms).

• We added our posting channel ID to all USAJobs links.
• We set up a cron job to fetch and process job files from USAJobs.
• We added impression and click tracking for the federal Jobs GovBox module.
• We resolved performance discrepancy between our two datacenters.
• We no longer use XML sitemaps to add documents to the USASearch web index.

• You can now delete keywords from text best bets.
• Newly added misspellings are now being applied to type-ahead suggestions.
• Searchers can now find jobs in non-standard state locations (for example someone searching for jobs in Washington, DC, will find postings the the location of Washington DC Metro Area, District of Columbia).