Top New Media Programming of 2012

The Center for Excellence in Digital Government team giving our community a fist bump in April of 2012. Image courtesy of GSA.

We’re wrapping up another year here at the Center for Excellence in Digital Government – what better time to share highlights from programs and content you helped make among the best. We listen to your feedback and rate all of our programs so we can improve with each step, so let’s take a look at some of the trends.

It was a great year for Challenge.gov, which reached the milestone of 234 challenges from 51 federal agencies since its launch in October 2010. What impressed us is the diversity of mission areas now launching challenges and competitions, from healthcare and energy to finance and the environment.

Competitions with the most participants in 2012:

1. SunWise EPA K-8 poster contest - more than 12,000 submissions
2. MyMoneyAppUp Ideabank Challenge - 317 submissions
3. Health Design Challenge - 232 submissions

Competitions with the most registered supporters in 2012:

1. Communities on the Move - 39,373 supporters
2. Apps for Energy - 12,396
3. Service Impact Awards - 11,977

Social media was a leading topic on this DigitalGov blog, supported by the launch and activities of the Federal Social Media Community of Practice. We’re looking to add more guest bloggers in 2013, so if you have an idea for something your office would like to share, then get the gears turning now.

Most read posts:

1. Check & Register: Federal Social Media Accounts
2. Before You Film, Get Video Release Forms
3. Federal #SocialGov Summit Unites Agencies

Posts that sparked the most comments and dialogue:

1. Government-wide Twitter Verification Sprint Begins
2. Meeting the Metrics Milestone
3. Government Friendly Social Media Terms of Service

Training government employees in new media and digital strategy is a core foundation of our mission, and through  DigitalGov University we offer in-person seminars, online webinars, and on-demand training you can immediately download. Looking at those different formats, it’s interesting to see which topics attracted the most participants and which courses had the highest ratings.

When it comes to in-person seminars, the two leading topics were metrics and improving web content, as you can see from the top rated programs:

1. Essentials of Customer Metrics - Overall Rating: 5.0
2. Writing for the Web Workshop - Overall Rating: 4.8
3. Plain Language Basics and Meaningful Measurements - Overall Rating: 4.6

APIs are the special sauce when it comes to online webinars, however:

1. API Webinar Series: Advanced Operations—Contracting, Legal, and IT Security - Overall Rating: 4.8
2. API Webinar Series: Case Studies from Federal Register, NASA, and GSA - Overall Rating: 4.7
3. Mobile App Life Cycle and APIs and the Digital Government Strategy - Overall Rating: 4.5

It certainly isn’t up in the clouds as to what attracted the most participants last year, though, because FedRAMP occupied the two top spots. Unsurprisingly, Hatch Act training for social media snuck into the third spot due to more prolific use in agencies, coupled with an election year.

1. Getting Started on the FedRAMP (Cloud Computing) Security Authorization Process - Attended: 423
2. Developing Your FedRAMP (Cloud Computing) System Security Plan - Attended: 417
3. Hatch Act: Dos and Don’ts for Feds on Social Media - Attended: 263

These are just some of the programs that made 2012 a great year and we’re looking forward to an even better 2013. Have a safe and happy new year from all of us on the team.