Thursday, November 15, 2007, Meeting Minutes

More than 60 Forum members in attendance

Topic: Your Training Needs for 2008 and Beyond

1) Updates from the Web Managers Advisory Council and Forum Task Groups:

Web Managers Advisory Council: We had our first meeting this week of our “revitalized” version of the Advisory Council. The Council will serve as the steering committee for our Government Web Managers Forum of over 1,300 web managers from across the country. The Council includes web directors from each federal cabinet agency and several key independent agencies. We'll send everyone a list of members so you can see who from your agency represents you on the Council.

The major goals of the group are to: 1) ensure the task groups coordinate with each other to help agencies implement our community's Strategic Plan and Roadmap around top tasks; and 2) examine high-level policy issues that affect all agencies and issue guidance as needed. See the Strategic Plan and Roadmap on Webcontent.gov.

Usability, Accessibility, and Design Task Group: Nicole Burton from GSA and Beth Martin from HHS co-chair this group. Nicole reported that the group has two primary goals: 1) support the usability profession throughout government and bring greater attention to usability and 2) develop resources and tools to help agencies improve their website's usability. Over the past several months, they've:
- Completed a survey of usability in government
- Invited speakers to talk to their group on aspects of usability and accessibility
- Developed the “Quick and Easy Customer Profile,” which they shared on the October Forum conference call
- Organized activities for World Usability Day on November 8.

The group welcomes new members. Contact Nicole at nicole.burton@gsa.gov or Beth at beth.martin@gsa.gov.

Technology and Innovation Task Group: Rezaur Rahman from ACHP chairs this group. Rezaur reported that the group's goal is to analyze emerging technologies that can help our community collaborate with each other and also help us create and manage our own web content in better ways. The group will assess new technologies that have been used successfully in the private sector and examine how we can adopt them to our use most effectively. They'll be looking at technology such as collaborative tools (e.g., wikis), CMS, web services, etc., and making recommendations to our community on best practices for procuring and implementing this technology.

The group welcomes new members. Contact Rezaur at rrahman@achp.gov.

Metrics Task Group: Joe Pagano of Library of Congress and Brian Dunbar of NASA co-chair this group. Joe reported that the group has as its primary goal to help agencies improve how they use metrics to make informed strategic decisions for their websites. Over the past several months the group has:
- Invited m etrics speakers to talk to their members, including well-known m etrics “guru” Eric Peterson.
- Worked with m etrics and customer satisfaction vendors to improve how we use their products (including ACSI survey)
- Examined metrics standards that can help us be more consistent in how we report our performance across agencies.
- Developed the Metrics Worksheet for Identifying Top Tasks that we shared and discussed as part of the October Forum conference call. This worksheet helps you use different metrics (e.g., call center data, search logs, etc.) to create an inventory and performance metrics for your customers' top tasks.

The group welcomes new members. Contact Joe at jpag@loc.gov or Brian at brian.dunbar@nasa.gov.

Webcontent.gov Editorial Board: Natalie Davidson at GSA chairs this group. We're re-energizing this group after a hiatus, and including several of our previous members. The purpose of the group is to provide editorial and strategic advice and guidance for managing Webcontent.gov. The main focus of the group right now is obtaining and implementing a “Membership” section of Webcontent.gov that will include an integrated contact directory, listserv, events calendar, and possible training registration. We're very excited about this project since it will allow us to more easily identify and collaborate with each other online. We hope to have an initial version of the Membership area open to Forum members in January 2008.

The Editorial Board welcomes new members. Contact Natalie at natalie.davidson@gsa.gov.

Training and Development Task Group: Kate Donohue at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Eric Ramoth of HUD chair this group. This group is responsible for:
- Providing strategic direction and long-term planning for Web Manager University
- Planning and coordinating our annual conference (including the Best Practice Peer Awards

Kate and Eric provided an overview of this year's conference and awards (see below).

2) Annual conference and Web Managers Best Practice Awards

Planning is well underway for our annual conference and awards program. Please contact Kate at Kathleen.Donohue@occ.treas.gov and Eric at eric.r.ramoth@hud.gov with any questions, to volunteer to help, or suggestions for sessions and speakers.

Date : May 5–6, 2008 (Monday–Tuesday) Tentative schedule:

Monday, May 5

1:30–4 pm preconference tutorials

4–6 pm Best Practice Awards reception

Tuesday, May 6

9 am–12 pm Keynote speakers

1 pm–4 pm Breakout sessions

This format will allow much more time for informal networking than we've had before.

Location: FDIC Training facility in Arlington, VA, (suburb of Washington, DC). This is a state-of-the art facility and same venue that we used last year.
Conference Theme: “Transition and Change." Given that federal agencies will be going through major changes with an incoming transition, we want to address how to prepare for this transition.
Possible keynote speakers: We're looking at some dynamic keynote speakers to energize our group. We hope to get at least one person who's a motivational speaker and can talk about change management. We welcome your ideas!
Need volunteers for the planning committee: We're looking for people to help us plan the conference. Your commitment will be about 2 hours a month (1 hour conference calls every 2 weeks), being available all-day at the workshop, and helping arrange speakers or logistical details. Contact Kate at Kathleen.Donohue@occ.treas.gov and Eric at eric.r.ramoth@hud.gov.
Awards Program: Agencies are once again invited to submit nominations for the Web Managers Best Practice Awards, to be awarded at the May conference. We want the awards to reinforce our community's goal to focus on customers' top tasks. So winning sites will be selected based on how successful they are at helping their customers' accomplish their top tasks. Initial timeline:
- Online nomination form available: early-mid January
- Nominations due: March 7
- Judges to finish reviewing nominations: April 17
- Awards ceremony: May 5, evening
Read more about the 2008 Web Managers Best Practice Awards

We're planning the 2008 class schedule for Web Manager University, including the Spring conference in May 2008. We want this training to meet the needs of all of you—no matter where you're located—so please give us your input.

The final Spring 2008 schedule will be posted on Webcontent.gov in late November/early December. The current class schedule can always be found on Webcontent.gov.

Below is a tentative list of classes for Web Manager University and the annual conference.

PROPOSED Web Manager University Classes for Spring 2008

Basic Level Core Classes

Meeting 508 Requirements: Rules and Tools (1 day) NEW

Meeting Federal Web Requirements and Best Practices (webinar)

Usability Testing on a Shoestring Budget (webinar)

SEO and Usability: Two Wins for the Price of One (half-day in WDC) NEW

Basic Level Elective Classes

Repurposing Print Documents for the Web (half-day in WDC) NEW

Survey of Social Media (webinar)

Managing a Multilingual Website (webinar)

Advanced Level Core Classes

Advanced Usability Testing (2-day)

Measuring the Performance of Government Websites (2-day)

Advanced Level Core Classes

Building Effective Web Governance (2-day)

Website Makeover: Focusing on Your Visitors' Major Tasks (1-day)

Designing and Writing Forms for the Web (1-day)

PROPOSED Conference Sessions:

Pre-workshop sessions (3 hrs):

Preparing for Transition

Web Analytics Marketplace

Website Makeover

Breakout sessions (1.5 hrs)

Preparing for Emergencies and Other Critical Events

How to Create Your Own RSS Feeds

Information Architecture

Search Behavior: From Analytics to Action

Best Practice Award Winner Case Studies

Writing for the Web

Marketing Strategies

Blogs

Discussion:

Suggestions for other training topics:
- How to get folks to work together within agencies as a team—dealing with “decentralized” content management.
- “Back to basics” for folks who have small web teams.
- “Web management on a shoestring budget”
- A webinar on the usability of online forms and applications
Webinars:
- Web Manager University (WMU) staff want to offer more webinars. But because this format is new to many of our instructors (some aren't used to doing online training), we prefer to have them teach an in-person class first. We want to make sure a class “works” before we move to the online format.
- Overall, folks love the webinars, especially those who aren't in Washington, DC. It's great to get training without leaving your office.
- Ways to improve the webinars: give folks “homework” to complete before the session. Keep the session interactive. Include a photo of the instructor, so we get more of the “human touch.”
Training Certification:

The Training and Development Task Group is exploring the idea of developing a certification track for government Web Content Managers. Is this a good idea?
Many said this was a good idea. Certification would help legitimize the role of the Web content manager/professional.
Recommend that we offer a “basic” and an “advanced” certification track. This makes a lot of sense, since we have folks who've been doing this for a long time, and folks who are brand new—and folks who are full-time, and part-time. We need different training for people in different roles.
As more and more agencies realize that content management is an entirely new field, they will support this new skill area. IT and public affairs folks have different skills—web content managers need different training and skills too. We need training that's tailored to our specific needs as content managers.
The Web Managers Advisory Council has talked about trying to work with OPM to develop a standard position description for a Web content manager/professional. This goes hand-in-hand with the certification program.
FDIC is currently working to develop a “Web” curriculum for their Web folks. They will share that with others once it's available.
Agencies are encouraged to share training resources they've developed—or lists of Web team skills and core competencies. Please send them to Kate and Eric, co-chairs of the Training and Development Task Group (their contact info is listed above).

4) Wrap Up

Don't forget to join a task group. It's a great way to get involved in the government web manager community, share your expertise, and meet and learn from your peers. Contact the task group leaders by going to the “Networks and Groups” page on WebContent.gov.

Webinar on Search Engine Optimization is coming up on November 28:

Next Forum call will Thursday, December 20, 2007, from 11 am – 12 pm Eastern Time.

Page Updated or Reviewed: February 13, 2008