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Guest post by Mario Damiani, Office of Disability Employment Policy at the Department of Labor 

Today the new Federal Social Media Accessibility Working Group launches an initiative to tackle the challenges of accessibility in social media. We will work together with the federal community in pursuit of better access to social technologies for all, as well as the people and communities who rely on these programs and services. The first deliverable is a new, evolving tool kit that agencies, companies or anyone can use to help ensure their social content is accessible to persons with disabilities and all who need it, so that together we can collaborate and benefit from the full promise of social media.

Accessibility obstacles can place barriers between the promise of government innovation and our communities that need it the most. The SocialGov Accessibility Working Group aims to work with partners in both the public and private sectors to tackle this challenge head on. Image courtesy of GSA.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy is pleased to lead the Social Media Accessibility Working Group, which includes participants from nine agencies who also contributed to the tool kit.  Through this working group, we collaborated closely with our partners from the General Services Administration and other members as part of the Federal Social Media Community of Practice to find solutions to many of the accessibility issues related to the use of social media.First, it’s important to look at three notable social media trends:

• The increase in the number of employers, organizations, and federal agencies who use social media to interact with their communities and stakeholders (including for recruitment).
• The increase in the number of jobseekers with and without disabilities who are using social media to look for and apply to jobs, discuss job openings and job-search tips, create résumés, and establish networks of professional connections.
• The increased need to use images and videos to promote engagement, which without accessibility considerations make participation in services difficult for persons with disabilities and others.

To encourage meaningful and inclusive citizen engagement, and to maximize the benefit that social media can provide to jobseekers, entrepreneurs and all citizens, it is essential that social media be accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities.

A Web Accessibility In Mind May 2012 survey of more than 1600 screen reader users found that:

• Only 7.4 percent of users rated social media web sites as “very accessible”
• 46.8 percent giving a rating of “somewhat accessible”
• 25 percent said “somewhat inaccessible”
• 8.7 percent “very inaccessible”
• 12 percent responded “I don’t know”

Despite continuing advances in technology and strategies, survey respondents also reported that they found social media sites to be less accessible than was reported in December 2010.  Together we have a responsibility to do better.

The Social Media Accessibility Working Group and its partners have compiled an initial list of accessibility and usability tips from social media managers across the federal government, but this is truly just a start. We need your input to improve and add to these insights, and to keep the living document up-to-date not just for government but for all organizations. This product is not final – it’s just the beginning of an ongoing conversation we encourage everyone to take part in.

USDA National Farmers Market geographic data is one of many collections on Data.gov.

Originally posted on Data.gov.

While Data.gov lists its holdings at almost 400,000 datasets, the fact is, Data.gov is the link to millions of public datasets.

Many Federal agencies post their data collections on Data.gov as single entities. In addition, Data.gov is host to tools, widgets and gadgets that each accesses thousands of datasets.

These collections run the gamut of topics. For example:

•  2011 Code of Federal Regulations in XML. It’s not surprising that the codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the Federal agencies would reach 100 MB in size.
• Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office (GLO) Records System. About 10 million records. The GLO holds U.S. land title information images, including patent images, survey plats, field notes and master title plats.
• EPA Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) Exporter Data. ECHO shares data related to water, air, waste, and drinking water regulations, along with information on facilities violating the Clean Water Act and tools that compare water quality trends and generate interactive maps that link to state dashboards.
• Farmers Market Geographic Data. Longitude and latitude, state, address, name, and zip code of nearly 8,000 Farmers Markets in the United States.
• Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) Database. Records of more than 1,000 government advisory committees from 1972 to the present.
• NASA Image Exchange (NIX). A collection of more than 500,000 multimedia records from NASA’s missions and projects.
• Patent Grant Bibliographic Text (1976-present). With 4,000 patents being issued each week, this database contains about 10 million records. Like many agencies, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is a wealth of data. We’ve also got the Patent Classification Files since 1790.

Data.gov is not about the numbers but the quality of our holdings. Still, it’s important to realize that a vast storehouse of data can be found behind just one little click.

One of the first Drupal sites was recovery.commerce.gov pictured here.

Kirsten Burgard, program analyst at the Department of Veterans Affairs and co-founder of Drupal4Gov, shares her expertise on Drupal.

So, you might be thinking, ‘Drupal, what’s the fuss?’ Well, since I love using straw men to make an argument, let’s just go ahead and burn this one up.

Drupal, a content management system, has become widely used in government since early 2009. Recovery.gov (which is no longer a drupal site) and Recovery.Commerce (from the good people at the Commerce Department)  were the first out the gate with Drupal, and then, it’s like the floodgates opened up and we had drupal just about everywhere in government.

Here’s the thing, it’s not just the U.S. government. Drupal seems to be catching on as the preferred open source tool for governments worldwide. From the country of Papua New Guinea to the streets of Sao Paulo.

This explosion in use has put a strain to the community to provide new, more flexible, faster, and just way more awesome code.

But how do we do this?

Coders are not an infinite resource, and I’m not just talking within government here, but Drupal, too. So, the Drupal community did what any good community would do, we started revitalization efforts. [insert drupal construction dude with the creative commons license. Through local events like Drupalcamp, we get to meet each other to network, solve problems or run code and documentation sprints. We even have way more ambitious projects like the Drupal Ladder Project or the Skill Compass Project which work to make it easier to learn drupal best practices and ultimately, be able to contribute through modules and themes or even through core. We volunteer and work together building community as both government employees and contractors to offer events like the one being hosted at the National Institutes of Health on February 21st on Accessibility and Theming where we’re planning to provide a drupal ladder sprint to contribute to the Canadian Government’s Web Experience Toolkit. Or perhaps a follow up to the wildly successful Drupal Government Days event hosted at the Department of Commerce last May. We had such a startlingly massive response that we were not able to offer all the sessions submitted, we were forced to cut down on transition times and session times, and we had way too many people for our host facility. I was thrilled with the response and still am, but I have to admit, it was a bit overwhelming for our band of merry volunteers.

I’ve been playing in and working with Drupal for several years now. Sadly, though, I am not Certified to Rock, no, really, I’m not. But maybe someday, I will be, until then, I’m going to keep plugging away at building the community. You see, we’ve got this saying in the Drupal community, ‘come for the code, stay for the community’. It’s the best, truest thing I can think of to describe Drupalers. I hope, after you’ve poked around a bit, you’ll see the power of the Drupal community.

So, take a few minutes and get started with Drupal, I’m positive, you’ll be glad you did. And, if you get stuck, let us know, we’re a community and we’re happy to help! I promise!

For more information, watch the webinar Kirsten participated in on-demand or learn more about Drupal and other CMS tools for government.

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.

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…

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.

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!

A Content Management System can help support your agency’s mission by making it easier to publish structured, open content.

If your agency is thinking about implementing a new Content Management System (CMS), or updating your current CMS, check out the new CMS toolkit on HowTo.gov. A CMS can streamline your agency’s content publication processes, and make it easier to publish structured, open content. The toolkit will help you:

• Choose the right CMS for your needs
• Migrate content, and
• Develop a business case for investing in a CMS

One of the most popular open-source CMS in government right now is Drupal. If you’d like to learn more about Drupal, we’re hosting a webinar on Thursday, January 31 which will give you an overview of the Drupal CMS, discuss the pros and cons, and provide an introduction to the Drupal community. The webinar is free and open to government employees. Learn more and register. We’re planning additional webinars in the coming months to review other CMS tools, and learn about publishing open content – stay tuned.

One of the goals of the Digital Government Strategy is to help agencies deliver government information and services anytime, anywhere, on any device. A CMS makes it easy to publish open content, and is a key step to a more transparent and open government.

This toolkit was developed with input from many of our colleagues across government, who volunteered their time and knowledge to help us create this new resource. If your agency isn’t yet using a CMS to publish content, our CMS toolkit on HowTo.gov can help you find the right CMS to simplify your life, and improve how your agency shares information.

What CMS do you use, and are you happy with it? Share your CMS tips!

Graph shows rapid increase in the use of mobile search over the last 12 months.

Reblogged from the  Mobile Gov Blog.

Last week Rimm-Kaufman Group published its new Digital Marketing Report (free download with your email address), which covers the fourth quarter of 2012. They found a staggering increase in the use of mobile search. Specific findings include:

• Nearly 20% of organic search and direct visits were mobile in Q4.
• iPad delivered 7.3% of visits, followed by the iPhone at 6.7% and Android devices at 5.2%.
• In congruence with our Trends on Tuesday about end of year app downloading, mobile traffic showed two clear peaks during the 2012 holiday season: the first around Black Friday and another just following Christmas (see graph).
• While iPad competitors ended Q4 with nearly 16% of tablet traffic, for the full quarter, that figure stood at 13%. Still, that is nearly double their 7% share for the full Q4 2011.

These results should have federal agencies thinking about how their data and content appear on mobile search sites.