Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
info about ech in government
Citation preview
Across government, agencies are looking for innovative ways to improve productivity. With the development of cloud technology, and a host of different collaboration tools, technology now exists to instantly connect people around the globe. The use of cloud services and mobile technology has been a game changer across all sectors, allow-ing employees to access information when they want, and on what device they desire.
Although employees can now connect eas-ily across any device, new challenges have become apparent, and there are increasingly more security risks for government. Retain-ing security in multiple environments and decreasing vulnerabilities is critical to im-prove productivity for government. This sec-tion will highlight cloud computing, data center consolidation, mobile and cyber se-curity as ways government can use technol-ogy to increase and maintain productivity.
0101101010100010101001010101010
01010010010010101001000
1010
01
0101101010100010101001010101010
01010
0101101010100010101001010101010
0101001001001010100100
0101
0101101010100010101001010101010
01010
01011010101000101010010101010
1001010
0100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010
1001010
01011010101000101010010101010
1001010
0100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010
10010100101101010100010101001010
1010
100101
01001001010100100010
1
01011010101000101010010101010
100101
010110101010001010100101010101
00101
010010010101001000101
010110101010001010100101010101
00101
01011010101000101010010101010
100101
0100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010
100101
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
01001001010100100010
1
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
01001001010100100010
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
010110101010001010100101010101
001010100100101010010
0010
1
010110101010001010100101010101
00101
0101101010100010101001010101010
01010101001001010100100
0101
0
0101101010100010101001010101010
010101
01001001010100100010
01001001010100100010
010010010101001000101
00100100101010010001
0
010010010101001000
1010010010101001000
1
010010010101001000101
0100100101010010001
01
010010010101001000
10
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
01001001010100100010
0101101010100010101001010101
0100101
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
_
2.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
CTen benefits of cloud tech-nology can be found below.
(1) Ease of Sharing Information and DataThe cloud easily allows users to connect and share information across the agency. By sharing data, and resources, agencies can work collaboratively to solve cross-agency challenges.
(2) Sharing Best PracticesJust like with data, best prac-tices and resources can easily be shared through the cloud, whether this is certain initia-tives or programs that the agency has started or long-standing projects or process-es.
(3) Connecting InstantlyThe cloud makes it easier than ever before to connect with colleagues. The ability to instantly connect through the cloud, collaborate on docu-ments, and share information is one of the many benefits of the cloud.
(4) Drive Improved Decision MakingBy sharing data and informa-tion, decision makers will have access to the right informa-tion they need to make a deci-sion. Some examples include agencies using the cloud to connect people in the field with decision makers back in the office. This could be ex-tremely useful during a crisis, as decision managers could address where to send sup-plies and how to best provide relief at risk areas.
Up in the Cloud- The Promise of Cloud Computing
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Cloud computing continues to be one of the key trends in government. Since 2009, Presi-dent Obama’s Administration has been encouraging federal agencies to adopt cloud tech-nologies through the Federal Government’s Cloud Comput-ing Initiative. With this initia-tive, the Obama Administra-tion hopes that by leveraging cloud computing, agencies can work to reduce waste, increase efficiency, and cut costs for the federal government. With the adoption of cloud comput-ing, government at all levels has found new efficiencies.
In May 2012, GovLoop ran a blog series that explored how government can break down silos, including the role of emerging technology, such as cloud technology. Cloud tech-nology offers many benefits for government agencies. With more and more cloud initia-tives being implemented in government, there are many related benefits to moving to a cloud-based environment.
3.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
(5) Connecting More Decision Makers With the cloud, more decision makers can be connected and work towards collaborative solutions. Getting all the right people at the table is always a challenge, but the cloud helps mitigate some of those barri-ers.
(6) Increase Telework OpportunitiesWith cloud technology im-proving, the cloud provides more opportunities for tele-working. Teleworking provides many benefits to employees and organizations.
(7) Recruit Top TalentDo not forget that technol-ogy can also be a recruitment tool. Many future workers are accustomed to using cloud technologies to collaborate on projects, they will expect to have this kind of technol-ogy at the workplace.
(8) Increase Efficiency and Productivity With the cloud, people can be more efficient and produc-tive by having the information they need at their fingertips, rather than searching and requesting information.
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
_
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
1234567897891067891012345
2345678910123456789106789
8910123456789106
1234567891012345678910
1234567891012345678910
67891012345678910 89678910912345567891012345678
67891012345678910 89678910
67891012345678910 89678910
6789101234567
6789101234567891067891012345678910123
6723452345678910
234567891012345
234567891012345
23456789101234567
123456789101234567
123456789101234567
7891012345678956789101234567891
89678
89678
(9) Achieve Cost SavingsCost savings is usually men-tioned with cloud technology. With cloud technology now available, agencies need to be smart as to how they think about cost savings. If a new cloud initiative yields a cost saving, the saved money can be redistributed back into the agency to support other initiatives.
(10) Improve Transparency With the ability to quickly access information and share information through the cloud, agencies can improve their transparency efforts. The cloud allows people to share the right information and al-low people to quickly access the information they need.
45678910 678910120
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
_
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
_
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
_
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
_
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
_
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
1234567897891067891012345
2345678910123456789106789
1234567891012345678910
67891012345678910 89678910912345567891012345678
67891012345678910
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
_
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
_
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
_
8910123456789106
1234567891012345678910
1234567891012345678910
012345678910 8
67891012345678910 89678910
67891012345678910 89678910
6789101234567
6789101234567
67891012345678910
67891012345678910
67891012345678910
6723452345678910
67891012345678910
234567891012345
234567891012345
23456789101234567
123456789101234567
123456789101234567
01234567
7891012345678956789101234567891
56789101234567891
89678
89678
F
___________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
FedRAMP.gov states the fol-lowing program goals:
—Accelerate the adoption of secure cloud solutions through reuse of assessments and authorizations—Increase confidence in security of cloud solutions—Achieve consistent security authorizations using a base-line set of agreed upon stan-dards to be used for Cloud product approval in or outside of FedRAMP—Ensure consistent applica-tion of existing security practices—Increase confidence in security assessments—Increase automation and near real-time data for continuous monitoring
FedRAMP.gov states the following program benefits:
—Increases re-use of existing security assessments across agencies—Saves significant cost, time and resources – “do once, use many times”—Improves real-time security visibility—Provides a uniform
approach to risk-based man-agement—Enhances transparency between government and cloud service providers (CSPs)—Improves the trustworthi-ness, reliability, consistency, and quality of the Federal security authorization process
Key FedRAMP Documenta-tion (Resource list provided from CIO.gov)
— FedRAMP Security Controls - The baseline con-trols required for FedRAMP security assessments and authorizations.— FedRAMP CONOPS - The FedRAMP Program Manage-ment Office’s Concept of Operations for FedRAMP— FedRAMP JAB Charter - The Joint Authorization Board’s Charter detailing roles and responsibilities and governance.— OMB Policy Memo – OMB policy guidance on issues affecting FedRAMP— FedRAMP FAQs – provides answers to most questions about FedRAMP
For questions regarding Fe-dRAMP, please direct inquiries
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
__
_
Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP)
FedRAMP is a government-wide program that helps gov-ernment agencies implement cloud based technology. At the core of FedRAMP is provid-ing government officials with a standardized approach to se-curity, authorization and moni-toring of cloud-based services.
With the implementation of FedRAMP, governmentwide ac-quisition of cloud technology is expected to increase. With FedRAMP, cloud service provid-ers will have to use a third par-ty to verify the company meets basic security requirements. FedRAMP is an extension of the Obama Administration’s “Cloud First” strategy, de-tailed by the memorandum re-leased on December 8th, 2011.
5.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
FINDING Efficiency, Leveraging Technol-ogy - Data Center Consolidation
Data center consolidation is typically part of the cloud computing discussion, like cloud computing, there are significant advantages to con-solidating data centers. There are dozens of case studies identifying the success that agencies are having with data center consolidation. One ex-ample of data center consoli-dation success comes from the Census Bureau, which was able to close a 6,750 facility and free up $1.7 million annually in operating costs. The Census
Bureau strategy has allowed them to reduce data center power consumption in all of their data centers by 10%.The Census Bureaus is not alone, and due to the numer-ous successes reported by Federal agencies, Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel has expand-ed his goals of closing redun-dant data centers. By the end of 2015, agencies plan to close nearly 1,080 data centers, sur-passing goals set by the Fed-eral Data Center Consolidation Initiative two years ago. Data center consolidation is a prac-tical solution to cutting costs, increasing services, and im-
BEST PRACTICE-CULTURE CHANGE: MAKE IT PERSONAL
proving efficiency for agencies.
One of the key lessons for culture change and data cen-ter consolidation is to always make it personal. Top-level managers need to really show how implementing data cen-ter consolidation will make employees jobs easier, more efficient and help to achieve the goals of the agency.
The first step for an agency considering data center con-solidation is to look at the business value of new adop-tion or consolidation of ser-vices. Agencies should be sure to scope the project and make sure implementing the new technology makes sense for the agency. Likewise, when thinking about costs, agen-cies need to be sure that they identify total savings, and think critically about how the savings can be filtered back within the agency.
_________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________
Helping government agencies maximize ef fectiveness in key areas:
· Cloud Computing· Data Center Consolidation· Cyber Security· Mobile (Mobile Collaboration)· Telework· Bring Your Own Device
Cisco is the worldwide leader in net-
working that transforms how Govern-
ment and Education connect, commu-
nicate, and collaborate. Since 1984,
Cisco has led in the innovation of IP-
based networking technologies, includ-
ing routing, switching, security, TelePres-
ence systems, unif ied communications,
video, and wireless. The company’s re-
sponsible business practices help en-
sure accountability, business sustain-
ability, and environmentally conscious
operations and products. Our technol-
ogy is changing the nature of work and
the way we serve, educate, and defend.
For more information, visit www.cisco.com/go/usgov
7.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Securing Infra-structure in an In-creasingly Digital Environment - Cyber Security
In a White House blog post, President Obama stated, “Cy-ber threat is one of the most serious economic and na-tional security challenges we face as a nation” and that “America’s economic pros-perity in the 21st century will depend on cyber security.”Protecting the nation from cy-ber threats is critical. As citizens perform more daily transac-tions online with the govern-ment and more information is shared, the government has a responsibility to make sure our personal information is pro-tected. Although we are more connected than ever before, more information has been shared and there is more risk of information being breached. Government agencies now must improve infrastructure to protect against threats and simultaneously reduce the number of cyber attacks within government. As attacks become more complex, agen-cies need to be ready to pro-tect themselves and improve infrastructure to reduce the number of attacks. Cyber se-curity affects all of us. With government using more de-vices, and employees access-ing information in new ways, government is challenged to
keep all systems protected.
TOP 3 Challenges for Cyber Security
(1) Network AccessibilityAgencies need to understand who has access, when they have access and through what kind of device people are ac-cessing the network. Knowing this information is critical, as it will help agencies identify proper protocols for accessing the networking, and assessing network vulnerabilities. (2) Diversity of Devices on NetworkWith increasing use of bring-your-own-device policies and the variety of devices avail-able in the market, IT pro-fessionals are challenged to protect multiple devices, and
often, across different operat-ing systems. (3) Diversity of Network Ap-plicationsAgencies sometimes develop homegrown network applica-tions, which sometimes do not comply with agency wide standards, and may potentially open up networks to threats. Although network applications are important for efficiency and productivity, agencies need to be careful while devel-oping, and be sure they meet all the right standards to retain security.
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
01011010101000101010
0101
01010100101010100100101010010001
01
01011010101000101010010101010100
1010
0 0100100101010010001
0 01001001010100
10
00101
0101101010
1000
10101001010101010010101
01001001010100
1000101
010110101010001010100101
0101
010010100
0100100101010
01
00010
With shrinking budgets and fiscal uncertainty, agencies are not only pressed to meet finan-cial and organizational pressures, but also to deliver improved services to constituents. In order to do so, agencies are focusing heav-ily on how to improve performance. Two ways agencies are exploring improving performance are making data driven decisions through big data programs, transparency initiatives.
DRIVING Organizational Success with Big Data
Although big data still has some ambiguity as to how it is defined, big data has been gain-ing momentum throughout 2012. Big data is commonly referred to as data that has volume, velocity and variety. Often, a fourth V is men-tioned, “value.” The hope for the public sector is that by managing large volumes of data at the often meteoric rate at which data is cre-ated, and understanding the different types of data, agencies can cut costs, reduce fraud, and deliver a higher level of service to citizens.
One shift that has impacted big data is that many interactions with citizens online have
T E C H N O L O G Y E N A B L I N G A G E N C I E S T O I M P R O V E P E R F O R M A N C E
9.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
become much more trans-actional. With these kinds of transactions, government agencies are now able to col-lect more kinds of data. For instance, a local government agency that is responsible for collecting parking or speeding tickets is able to track various kinds of user behavior online. If the agency wants to encour-age citizens to use online ser-vices to process tickets, they can track user behavior online, identify what challenges might occur online and improve the online service based on user behavior. This is just one small example of how agencies can use data; there are many really interesting examples of how
government has managed big data to improve services.
GovLoop’s Daily Podcast, the DorobekINSIDER recently in-terviewed Zach Friend, a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz Police Department. Zach explained how the Santa Cruz Police De-partment has used big data to improve predictive policing. “We have implemented an al-gorithm that is designed by a team UCLA researchers that is actually based on the same model that predicts Earth-quake aftershocks. When you have an earthquake there is a predictable set of after-shocks that occur after, and
we have found that in certain crime types when you have a crime, there is a predictable set of crimes that occur af-ter. So we are inputting data into this algorithm and pro-ducing hotspots maps that tell our officers where to pa-trol before the crimes occur.”Santa Cruz is one of many in-teresting examples of the po-tential benefits of big data. Although Santa Cruz has had success with big data, man-aging all this data does not come without related chal-lenges for agencies. Below are three best practices for imple-menting a big data initiative.
TECHNOLOGY
The world isn’t just getting smaller and flatter, it is also becoming more instrumented, inter-connected and intelligent. As we move toward a globally integrated economy, all types of governments are also getting smarter.
Smarter governments inter-act dynamically with citizens and businesses in real time to spark growth, innovation and prosperity. They also collab-orate across departments, communities and businesses to take full advantage of the
available opportunities.
IBM provides a broad range of citizen centered solutions to help governments at all levels become more respon-sive to constituents, improve operational efficiencies, transform processes, man-age costs and collaborate with internal and external partners in a safe and secure
environment.
Governments can leverage the unparalleled resources of IBM through IBM Research, the Center for the Business of Government, the Institute for Electronic Government and a far-reaching ecosystem of strategic relationships. To learn more, visit ibm.com/
government
Recent reports and whitepapers:
Smarter Public Safety:
Enabling And Enhancing Crime Fighting Capabilities
Learning to do more with less is the new normal in
government. Read our latest report. (604KB)
The power of analytics for public sector: Building
analytics competency to accelerate outcomes
Opening up government: How to unleash the power
of information for new economic growth
Smarter computing to support 21st century governance:
Modernizing IT Infrastructures to meet critical imperatives
(1.2MB)
Available contracts
• US Federal contracts
• Canadian contracts
Analytics SMEs and Analytics to Outcomes group members:
Frank Stein- [email protected]
Nathan Greenhut- [email protected]
11.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
Best Practice\\ Identify Your ScopeBig data can do a lot of things; agencies need to be care-ful they are not spreading themselves too thin. With any kind of initiative, it is impor-tant that a clear problem is defined, that can be solved with the use of available data.
Best Practice\\ Make Sure Your IT Infrastructure is Set
Agencies need to have the technology that enables them to manage the vol-ume, velocity and variety of data to truly leverage big data. Without the right infra-structure in place, agencies will not be able to fully em-brace the benefits of big data.
Best Practice\\ Evaluate Your Personnel/Workforce
Understanding data is no easy task, so the right kind of workforce is needed to man-age big data. Not only will workers need to understand the complexity behind big data and how to truly unlock all the benefits, they will also need to be able to simply de-scribe impact to the rest of the team. Solid communications skills cannot be overlooked when it comes to big data.
GOVERNMENT Accountability Through Increased Transparency
The Obama Administration
has been a leading voice for all levels of government to cre-ate a more transparent, par-ticipatory and collaborative government. Although the Obama administration has led the charge at the federal level, there has been a tremendous push to improve transparency at the state and local level.
Transparency in government has been notoriously hard to define. Although various levels of government, departments and agencies describe trans-parency differently, there are some common initiatives that stretch across government. There are several initiatives that government at all levels has embraced to improve gov-ernment transparency, includ-ing website reform, releasing government data, improved rule making, and the Free-dom of Information Act (FOIA).
12.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
The way people search for and consume content has changed drastically even within the last couple of years. More and more people first and fore-most go online for information and to conduct business, in-cluding citizen services, mak-ing the need for responsive, clean, and well designed web-sites even more of a neces-sity. While there are a number of agencies that have made enormous strides in updating their user interfaces, there are a few that stand in a league of their own when it comes to providing citizens with an excellent user experience and some pretty slick design to boot. The following are Gov-Loop’s top 5 picks (and 5 hon-orable mentions) for the best government agency websites.
GOVERNMENT Websites
Many government websites have gone through signifi-cant upgrades in the past few years. The goals with these up-grades tend to be three-fold; improved services, improved accessibility and improved in-formation. GovLoop Content and Community Coordinator Jeff Ribeira highlights his top Federal websites in a recent GovLoop post. h t t p : / / w w w. g o v l o o p. c o m /profiles/blogs/top-5-govern-ment-agency-websites-2011
Top 5 Federal Agency Websites
Government agencies have not always been known as leaders of the web design industry. However, in recent years and even months, there have been a few that truly are on the cut-ting edge of quality design and user experience. Granted, not every agency requires a modern, flashy, public-facing website, but if your agency en-gages the public in any form, a clean and effective internet presence really needs to be a critical element of your mis-sion. And the best part of the internet is that no matter what your agencies budget is, there is a web solution out there for you that won’t break the bank or have taxpayers up in arms against wasteful spending.
1\\ Department of Energy
Built on Drupal, energy.gov demonstrates a pretty drastic shift in the world of govern-ment websites. They started rolling out big changes as early as January, which we re-ported here on GovLoop, but it was in August of this year that they launched their complete refresh. You can also read the ensuing GovLoop discussion here. While there were a few issues with things like format-ting, aspect rations and acces-sibility at first, the new energy.gov has continued to evolve, and shows a clear dedica-tion to becoming more inter-active and overall just plain useful. From sleek photogra-phy, localized search returns, clean navigation (which per-
sists as you scroll), and great presentation of data, energy.gov really is at the forefront of government websites
2\\ The Federal Communica-tions Commission
I had the opportunity a few months ago to hear a few members of the FCC redesign team speak about their ex-perience, so I have firsthand knowledge of the incred-ible amount of hard work that went into creating this beau-tiful website. All the difficulty dealing with budget restraints, drawn out approval require-ments, and the dreaded “de-sign by committee” surely paid off, as the FCC team really managed to keep the new site very streamlined, yet informa-
tive. Not to mention, the site itself is blazing fast. I also like how the FCC has kept the por-tal to their old website avail-able for comparison’s sake. It’s pretty interesting to click back and forth to see just how dras-tic this redesign really was, and the impressive strides they made in design and us-ability. Check out just a few of the discussions we had here on GovLoop when the FCC re-boot launched here and here.
3\\ The White House
The whitehouse.gov redesign team had a unique struggle in that they had the added chal-lenge of reproducing arguably the more public facing govern-ment website of them all. The website itself basically needs
3 Ways Microsoft Can help
1. Use What You Already Own• If you’re government organization has a
Microsoft enterprise license agreement, you may already own some of the most powerful solutions on the market.
• Microsoft Financing can help you tailor a payment plan to meet your agency needs, realizing the technology benefits as you pay.
• Software Assurance can help improve worker productivity, streamline develop-ment and help reduce costs with fast, efficient access to the most current technology.
The positive side of the “do more with less” mantra: Done right, less is more. Less com-plexity means fewer errors, less downtime, lower cost of operations, and improved simplicity that drives user adoption – and improved mission performance.
To learn more about using Microsoft solutions to help navigate budget cuts and pave the road to opportunity, go to
Realfor Better Government
2. Lighten Your Technology Load in the Cloud• With little to no infrastructure investment,
you can quickly add powerful software and computing resources.
• Save on hardware, maintenance, IT man-agement, and facilities cost, in addition to software licensing fees.
• Offer services faster and stay on the latest technology using Microsoft cloud services.
3. Work Without Walls• Telework solutions can help reduce
travel costs and close gaps in a dispersed workforce.
• Keep teams and resources better connected wherever people are located.
• Virtual workspaces reduce infrastruc-ture costs and give staff options during disruptions in service due to weather or emergencies.
www.microsoft.com/govcostsavings
15.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
to house all of the information that we Americans want and deserve to know, plus quite a large amount of sub sites that feature various legislation or other executive initiatives and programs. I actually got to hear a few members of this re-design team also speak about their experience and was highly impressed. The White House requires a much differ-ent design aesthetic and lay-out than most other websites, yet they managed to create something that is both mod-ern and sleek yet conservative and professional. Overall just a stunning website, no mat-ter what your political views are. Looking forward to seeing this one evolve over the years.
4\\ National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NASA has a reputation for be-ing one of the most innovative, genius, and also fun govern-ment organizations around. With their website, they surely don’t disappoint. They have a ton of useful information that they need to organize, and they’ve done a beautiful job at displaying it. While the con-tent blocks are a bit thick in
the lower half, the use of fun iconography, clean navigation, beautiful themeing and imag-es (I’m a sucker for space pho-tography) more than make up for the minimal design imper-fections, and still puts them well ahead of most of their gov-ernment counterparts. In addi-tion to their homepage, NASA has some very impressive sub-pages for various programs and initiatives (such as this site that lets you track how space innovation has improved and affected our everyday lives).
5\\ The National Archives
The National Archives lands it-self on our top 5 for its sheer simplicity in design, and usabil-ity. The Archives have a unique and challenging mission in or-ganizing hundreds of years of government documents and information, and then some. Personally, it boggles my mind to even begin to think about organizing all of this informa-tion, and then how do you go about making it all accessible to the general public, and even let them interact freely in many instances. It’s a huge logisti-cal and developmental chal-lenge, and that makes their
very basic, yet extremely useful homepage even more impres-sive. From a user’s perspective there is extreme potential for becoming overwhelmed when coming to the National Ar-chives website, but the limited 5 choices, gets people headed in the right direction from the first point of contact. So kudos to the National Archives. I’m ex-cited to see how this agency’s website continues to evolve.
After scouring just about ev-ery government agency’s website, there were a decent amount that had pretty im-pressive design and usability. The following are the govern-ment websites that didn’t make the Top 5, but still deserve to be honorably mentioned for their achievements in produc-ing great government web-sites and citizen experiences:
Honorable Mentions- The House of Representatives- The Department of Justice- The Small Business Administration- The Department of the Treasury•TheUnitedStatesPostalService
16.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
rent. If you are local govern-ment, tell me what’s happening in the local area, not what’s happening in government.
And keep the pictures & icons to a minimum. One big picture is nice, 15 pictures and 30 little icons, may be more then I care to look at or will even try and figure out what they are about. (One of them might have been important, but if you have 30 plus items that you’ve deemed important items, they all be-come unimportant to me)A couple of inspirational gov-ernment sites (to me) are places that don’t try to be everything to everybody on the homepage.
http://www.calgary.ca/SiteP-ages/cocis/default.aspx (alot like the Utah site, with search as the key)
http://www.georgia.gov (kept it simple. not as pretty as utah or calgary, but still is search fo-cused)
http://www.weho.org/ (very colourful! great small site)
I might be a little harsh, but I (and I believe most people, who’s job is not working with government) want to spend as little time as possible on a government website, that has nothing but government.”
“What makes a good website is nothing more than what makes for a good speech, con-sider your audience and be brief. Work from the general to the specific. The biggest mistake web builders make is letting someone build it them-selves. They may know every-thing about what they do but no one else in the world thinks like they do. It would be like designing and building your own house without an archi-tect and contractor, a disaster.
Assume your audience knows little to nothing about you or your business. Have a third party, not familiar with your business, beta test the site and give feed back. Lastly, looks are important but they are not everything. Sacrifice appear-ance for content or function every time.” – Dennis Stransky
CALLOUTS
Vanessa Vogel stated in a re-cent GovLoop post that her favorite website was Utah.gov. Vanessa states, “BEST http://utah.gov/index.html This web-site is my personal favorite. The website is well designed, clean, simple, easy to navigate, and organized. There’s clear visibility on how to connect to social media. The naviga-tion bar at the top is visible and easy to find. What could seem like one more govern-ment site full of information that’s hard to read, utah.gov becomes a manageable, eye-appealing website that or-ganizes all its information in a user-friendly way. This site gets an A in design for me!”
Janet Wilson stated in a re-cent GovLoop post, “My state’s .gov website, Arkansas.gov, was named #1 state web por-tal in the nation by the Cen-ter for Digital Government in its 2011 Best of Web awards!”
Chris Stinson stated on GovLoop:“I tend to like sites with very little on the homepage (I know why I am there, so please don’t give me your mission state-ment or the latest speech from a elected official). I also tend to run from sites that have the same featured items, month after month - year after year - give me what is new and cur-
17.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
GOVERNMENT Transparency In Focus: Open Tucson Initiative
Blog post by Sam Lovett on GovLoop, GovBytes: Planning an Open Government Future
While the pressure to maintain transparent operations is an issue facing all levels of gov-ernment, one challenge that is especially pressing for local governments is taking big data out of open data, making infor-mation more readily accessible to average citizens. Presenting data in a meaningful way is the goal of Open Tucson, an inde-pendent non-profit group that is trying to open up data for citizens and app makers alike in Arizona’s second largest city.
‘OPEN Tucson’ to Drive Better Decisions
As of last month, the Open Tucson group is working in conjunction with the Tuc-son Mayor’s office to create a public open data portal on the mayor’s website. Their projects include: opening a kiosk to display live sched-ule data for buses coming to stops near local businesses, an outreach program to ex-plain how the city’s budget, and establishing a partner-ship with SeeClickFix to track city services in need of repair.
They are not the first city to
undertake the creation of a portal. A quick look at Balti-more’s Open Government por-tal shows what a more devel-oped system can provide. The salary of every city employee is easily available, right next to victim based crime data, and a map showing the loca-tion of every speed camera in the city. Parking citation infor-mation, addresses of vacant buildings, city contracts… the list goes on and on.
Anything with a value can be tracked and quantified in open government. Having access to data is helpful for businesses, policy makers, city planners, and basically anyone with a question and access to an in-ternet device. The key to the successful presentation of data is maintenance, making sure that everything is presented in real-time for the people who need it, which is why Tucson’s approach of private-public partnership to create their por-tal looks especially promising.
Tucson’s portal is still in its planning stages, and they are accepting citizen suggestions for potential data sets. It is ex-pected to go live on the city’s website at the end of 2012.
BREAKING All the Rules – Reinventing Rule Making
On January 18, 2011, President Obama issued Executive Order 13563, reaffirming the frame-work for White House review of
rules that was established by Ex-ecutive Order 12866 and requir-ing agencies to develop plans to conduct a retrospective review of their existing rules. Section 2 of Executive Order 13563, en-titled “Public Participation,” di-rects agencies to promote an “open exchange of information and perspectives” among all stakeholders during the regu-latory process, and to provide the public with a “meaningful opportunity” to comment on proposed rules. Specifically, the Order directs agencies to pro-vide the public with a “timely” opportunity to comment on proposed and final rules, and to make electronic rulemak-ing dockets, including the sci-entific and technical findings relevant to a proposed or final rule, available and searchable online. Executive Order 13563 also instructs agencies to “seek the views of those likely to be affected” by a proposed rule, in-cluding likely beneficiaries and those who would be subject to a rule. Notably, the Order directs agencies to do so before issu-ing a notice of proposed rule-making.” – Open Government Status Update, The White House One aspect of Executive Or-der 13563 was to promote in-creased public participation throughout the rulemaking process. Alex Moll, Commu-nications Officer, eRulemak-ing, Program Management Office, recently posted on GovLoop some of the up-dates from Regulations.gov.
18.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
RULE Making In Focus: The Regulations.gov Relaunch
By Alex Moll, Communications Officer, eRulemaking Program Management Office
Yesterday, the White House an-nounced the relaunch of Regu-lations.gov in a post on remak-ing public participation by Cass Sunstein, the Administra-tor of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA):
“In response to the President’s direction, Regulations.gov has launched a major rede-sign, including innovative new search tools, social media con-nections, and better access to regulatory data. The result is a significantly improved web-site that will help members
of the public to engage with agencies and ultimately to improve the content of rules.
The redesign of Regulations.gov also fulfills the President’s commitment in The Open Government Partnership Na-tional Action Plan to ‘improve public services,’ including to ‘expand public participation in the development of regula-tions.’ This step is just one of many, consistent with the Na-tional Action Plan, designed to make our Federal Govern-ment more transparent, par-ticipatory, and collaborative.”
The eRulemaking Program team, which manages Regu-
lations.gov, regards the re-launch as the first installment in a series of website develop-ments scheduled for this year. The substantial redesign aims to effectively relaunch the site to meet the goals of Section 2 in the President’s Executive Or-der 13563. The new video be-low highlights some of these improvements with the sig-nificance of public comments. Featured scholars point to the fact that public participation in rulemaking makes a differ-ence in regulatory outcomes.
Emboldened by this fact, equipped with knowledge of the regulatory process, and empowered with new web
19.THEGOVLOOPGUIDE
tabs allow users to browse featured regulations by cat-egory and learn about the regulatory process.- Search - new sorting and fil-tering functions help change and refine search results.- Social Media – better con-nections to Twitter and Face-book, and two-way communi-cation with the public.- Data Standardization – con-sistent use of the Regulation Identifier Number (RIN) and standardized regulatory data and descriptions across Fed-eral agencies.- Open Data - Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow the app community to link directly to regulatory documents.
Moving forward, we pursue continuous improvement. Based on feedback from vari-ous stakeholders, our team and partner agencies have fu-ture plans in store for 2012.
[Insert Video of Regulations.gov]
IMPROVED Access to Information, A Fundamental Right- Freedom of Information Act
FOIA requests are one of the most basic rights of Americans. Citizens have a fundamental right to receiving access to in-formation and documents. On March 15, 2012, the US House of Representatives Commit-tee on Oversight and Gov-ernment Reform (Chairman, Darrell Issa, CA -49) released their “Report Card on Federal Government Effort’s to Track and Manage FOIA Requests.” The report states “Under FOIA, people may file a request for any existing record at any fed-eral agency for any reason. Agencies subject to the FOIA include the Executive Branch departments, agencies, and of-fices; federal regulatory agen-cies; and federal corporations.” The report provides an aver-age grade of C- to the federal government FOIA initiatives. [Graphic of Report Card for FOIA]
President Lyndon Johnson signed FOIA legislation into law in 1966. The House of Rep-resentative cites that at the time the FOIA legislation was revolutionary, as there was no other effective means for citizens to receive informa-tion. In 2011, more legisla-tion was passed to improve oversight of FOIA to assist in government transparency.
tools citizens can more eas-ily engage with agencies and inform Federal decision-making. Overall, the relaunch consists of a new website to further advance program goals of access, education, ef-ficiency, and participation.- Access - increase the amount, breadth, and ease of access to rulemaking.- Education - advance public understanding of the rule-making process. - Efficiency - sharpen pro-cesses for smarter governance via docket management best practices. - Participation - build con-fidence for and quality of public participation in Federal decision-making.
Focused on these program goals, we relaunch Regula-tions.gov this week with new features and functionality. These improvements include the following:- Navigation - improved navigation with a simplified homepage.- Learning - new homepage
Learn more at www.google.com/federal
Bring Google innovation to your agen-
cy! Google products help government
agencies organize information and make
it accessible and useful to citizens or to
authorized employees. Our solutions
for search, geospatial data, and mes-
saging and collaboration are easy to
use, quick to deploy, fast and scalable.
Government agencies across the US and
around the world use Google’s enterprise
solutions — Google Apps for Government,
Google Earth & Maps, or the Google
Search Appliance. Google helps take the
hassle out of managing IT solutions, letting
you focus resources on your core mission.Contact us at: [email protected]
