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June 22, 2006 Meeting Minutes

Topic: Interagency collaboration for pandemic flu and other potential emergencies
Facilitator: Sheila Campbell, USA.gov
Attendees: Approximately 100 people on the call

News

Sheila Campbell provided several updates:

• New Strategic Plan:
  • We sent the updated plan to the Forum last week, announcing the new governance structure for the Web Managers Advisory Council. We want Forum members to be as involved as possible, so please join any task groups that interest you. Points-of-contact for each task group are noted in bold in the Strategic Plan.
  • We also now have several “Advisory Groups,” including a policy group, which is invited membership.
  • The plan includes a number of partner groups, like the Federal Intranet Managers Group, the Federal Multilingual Websites Committee, etc. If we missed any groups that we should be partnering with, let us know.
• Fall workshop:
  • Confirmed for Tuesday, September 19, 2006 at Catholic University in Washington, DC.
  • This will be a one day workshop, with a more manageable and focused agenda this year. It will include inspirational, dynamic speakers in the morning, then several simultaneous breakout sessions in the afternoon.
  • Purpose is to network with our peers, provide good training on key issues, and give folks outside DC a chance to attend training and network.
  • There will be a small fee (less than $100) for the workshop. We’ll let you know details as soon as possible, including when registration will be open.
• Best Practice Awards:
  • We’ll be doing awards again this year, with winners announced at an awards luncheon during the Fall workshop.
  • We’re accepting nominations starting next week, through the end of July.
  • There will be specific judging criteria, with nominations reviewed by a panel of judges. More details coming shortly.
• Training Survey:
  • Forum members are encouraged to complete the Training survey that was sent today.
  • Deadline to complete the survey is July 7.
  • It’s OK to share this survey with your contractors, since training is open to contractors too.
  • If you have any problems accessing the survey, contact Richard Huffine (richard.huffine@gsa.gov or 202.219.2354).

Coordinating for Potential Pandemic Flu Outbreak

The main agenda item was a discussion of what agency web teams are doing to prepare for a potential pandemic flu outbreak and other emergency situations. Our guest speakers were Dick Stapleton, Co-Manager of the Web Management Team at the Department of Health and Human Services, and David Almacy, Internet and E-Communications Director at the White House.

Inter-agency Coordination and “Lanes”

The Pandemic Flu Internet Communications Group has been meeting regularly to develop the interagency portal, PandemicFlu.gov, and to help agencies coordinate their web content in the event of a pandemic flu outbreak. We’re trying to prepare and plan as much as possible. We don’t have all the answers yet, but we’re trying to get organized as much as we can and be sure we’re not duplicating efforts.

Many agencies are represented on the coordinating group. We’ll share the list of people with the Forum (and on Webcontent.gov) so you know the name of your agency representative.

Before we began the coordination, we had 30 definitions of “what is bird flu.” So we’re trying to rein that in and fix it, by following the same “lane” approach as the Hurricane Katrina response, which was lead by Gwynne Kostin at DHS. We need each agency to only post content that is in their area of responsibility.

Agencies should not post content that already exists on another government site. That way, we can all focus on what we’re responsible for and what we do best.

Federal government information related to bird or avian flu belongs on Pandemicflu.gov

PandemicFlu.gov

Although the site is overseen by HHS, it is not an HHS website. It’s a cross-government effort.

The site includes a Search engine (powered by Google), which searches not only PandemicFlu.gov but also any other government sites that have posted “directories” of birdflu info.

We’ve done quite a bit of usability testing on the site to be sure navigation and terminology are intuitive and people can find what they need.

There’s a prominent News section. It should include news releases from across agencies. If you have news releases on pandemic flu from your agency, let Dick know so they can link to them.

You can subscribe to receive news releases. The site also includes RSS feeds to learn about significant changes to the website.

There’s a map, which is constantly updated, that shows where flu outbreak has been found, showing wild birds, poultry and human cases. Estimates for the map are from the World Health Organization (WHO). Only confirmed cases are reported - not just anything that’s reported in the news.

There’s also local “Where you live” information. Local contacts for reporting sick animals are available.

“Travel” section is managed by CDC, so links go to the CDC rather than recreating content.

Linking to PandemicFlu.gov

Over a thousand (about 1,200) websites link directly to PandemicFlu.gov, and thousands more mention the site. We want to encourage this cross linking so the public always has a way to get to the central resource. If all agencies with “lane” content could add a logo or link to PandemicFlu.gov on their relevant pages, it would be a great help. We’re working to ensure that any “outbound” links from PandemicFlu include a link back to the site. That way, if any visitor gets dumped into a page on pandemic flu (for example, from a search engine), they always have a way to get back to the more general information.

When it makes sense, agencies should point or redirect to PandemicFlu.gov rather than establishing their own pages or sections on pandemic flu. However, we realize that certain agencies will still need to post additional content that is specific for their agency and their web visitors. If you have a page on pandemic flu (for example, www.agencyX.gov/flu), it should go to a page that lists all your agency’s flu information, with a prominent link to pandemicflu.gov

Sharing Content and Reducing Duplication

If you have content on bird flu -- press releases, videos, RSS feeds, speeches, etc. -- please let Dick Stapleton know so that they can coordinate with you and be sure the content is searchable from PandemicFlu.gov. Let us know in advance so we can plan for where it would go on the site. Dick can be reached at: Richard.stapleton@hhs.gov.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

PandemicFlu.gov has a powerful automated FAQs feature, using the RightNow technology. You can view all the questions and answers or submit your own question. You can sign up any updates to a particular answer. It provides a weekly report about the number of questions asked, as well as what questions people are asking. Contact Dick if you want to receive a copy of this weekly report.

Dick and his team has added additional questions to the database, compiled information from other agencies, other sources, etc. All the answers are reviewed by experts before posting to the FAQ database. Before you develop your own Q & As on pandemic flu to post on your agency website, check to see if the information is already listed on the PandemicFlu.gov FAQ database, to avoid duplication. Whenever possible, agencies should link to the central FAQ database on PandemicFlu.gov instead of reposting the same info on their site. We need to be sure we’re all saying the same thing and don’t give conflicting information. So if you plan to develop FAQs, please coordinate with Dick and his team.

Dick and the interagency group are working to confirm contacts at each agency to help maintain the FAQ database. Please send any updates to Dick.

Other Languages

PandemicFlu.gov also has information in Spanish, under the “Resources” section. We’re working hard to do more in this area and hope to eventually have the entire site translated into Spanish. Right now, Spanish is a higher priority than other languages because of how large that community is. If you have content in other languages, please share it with Dick.

Importance of Authoritative Information

David Almacy talked about the importance of having a central, authoritative resource on PandemicFlu from the federal government. After Hurricane Katrina, there were a lot of fraudulent websites and scams, so we need to be sure the public has one trusted, authoritative, place to get their information on pandemic flu.

There has been a lot of press and media to get the word out about PandemicFlu.gov. For example, the White House recently reached out to the blogger community to let them know about the site. Please let us know if you have other ideas for spreading the message.

Other Media and Formats

We’re working on providing information in other formats, such as audio and TV, so we can be prepared to broadcast news and information during an outbreak. We have RSS and some podcasts already. We’re working on providing information via handheld devices (such as blackberries and cell phones), but there’s still more work to do.

It’s all part of the “convergence” effort to integrate various communication channels. For example, the FAQ database might have an answer that includes a video clip from an expert on that topic.

The plan is to “flood the zone” and give the news media as much info as they can handle so we can be sure we have maximum awareness. It might take a couple weeks if we have to prepare something from scratch, so we’re working on pictures, interviews with experts, and lots of different kinds of communication outreach up front. This way, we can have info ready to go, if something happens.

National vs. State Information

States also have lots of critical information on pandemic flu. PandemicFlu.gov isn’t meant to replace state websites, but to complement them. PandemicFlu.gov already links to lots of state information. It would be very helpful if states also linked back to PandemicFlu.gov so the public has a direct way to get to information at the national level.

Making Sure Search Engines Can Find the Content

Agencies need to be sure the public can find information on pandemic flu via search engines.

So in creating content, agencies should include three terms somewhere on the page and in the metadata: pandemic flu, bird flu, avian flu. Research shows that people search using all these terms. It’s also good to include “influenza” since some researchers and medical professionals search on the more technical terms.

If you have content in Spanish, be sure the metadata is in Spanish.

It would be better if there was one term instead of three, and better distinction between pandemic flu (the more general term) and bird flu (a specific type of flu). The problem is that the media has confused people, so people are searching on all three. PandemicFlu.gov tries to define all of them to increase the public’s understanding.

Follow-up and Contact Information

We plan to post an overview of these guidelines to Webcontent.gov, so agencies know the most important things they should do to coordinate their content.

If you have any questions about this effort, please contact Dick Stapleton of HHS at: Richard.stapleton@hhs.gov.

Next Forum Call

The next call will be Thursday, July 20, 2006, from 11 – 12 EDT. If you have suggestions for the agenda, please contact Sheila Campbell at Sheila.campbell@gsa.gov.

 

Page Updated or Reviewed: June 27, 2006