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Midwest Forum for Government Web Managers

What It Is

The Midwest Forum for Government Web Managers is a forum for government employees in the Midwest region who are responsible for developing and posting content on federal, state and local government websites. The purpose is to provide a way for content managers in the Midwest to exchange ideas and information about the day-to-day challenges of creating and maintaining government websites. We hope this forum will evolve to include occasional conference calls and face-to-face meetings. Sharing experiences with one another is the best way to learn.

Who Created It

Web managers at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency created the Forum in November 2005 and will be responsible for managing the ListServ and coordinating Forum activities. The groupis sponsored by the interagency Federal Web Managers Council and is a regional “sub-group” of the nationwide Web Content Managers Forum.

Who Can Join

If you’re a federal, state or local government employee in the Midwest area who works on your organization’s website, please join us! ( What’s “ Midwest”? Well, if you consider yourself as living and working in the Midwest, that’s enough. If we arrange meetings, they’ll probably be in Chicago.)

Since the purpose of this group is to exchange ideas among government colleagues, we do not admit contractors or other non-government individuals to the group.

How To Sign Up

Send an email to the listserv host at HUD. We’ll send you everything you need to get involved.

Activities

We’re just getting started, so we’re in the process of identifying different ways to collaborate. Initially, we expect to discuss some of these topics:

Customer service through websites - When citizens visit government websites, they expect to get something accomplished. The Forum will enable us to share ideas so we can better serve citizens. What can citizens do on your website? Who responds to email from citizens visiting your website?

Usability – Incorporating usability into our websites doesn’t have to be difficult or costly. We can collaborate for usability testing. We may be able to serve as easy-to-reach testers for one another. We can share techniques, and possibly hold local seminars on topics like those from Usability University.

Quality control – Looking good means credibility. Quality control is an ongoing process and is at the top of our discussion list. We all have tips on this topic to share with one another. It might even be possible to do quality checks on each other.

Building a network – Consider it an opportunity for a virtual block party. We work near each other, on related issues, and it’s time we learn who our neighbors are. We’d like to build a regional contact directory so we know who to contact for various issues.

Other Regional Groups

The Midwest Forum is the first regional group of government web managers that we know about. If you know of others, please let us know so we can include information about them on this website. If you’d like to start your own regional government web managers forum (for the West, Northeast, Southeast, for example), please contact us and we can give you tips on how to get started.

 

Page Updated or Reviewed: December 14, 2005

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