Stap isi

21 June 2009

Coal face gang

Has anyone considered using customer services staff to update the website? They speak to people all the time, know the information people ask for, know how to answer questions. They are a valuable communications tool with a good “general” knowledge of the organisation.

Gecko84, local government web editor, in his blog post CMS control, who does what – a rant inspired by Sarah

I like the idea. Customer service staff – from the front counter to the library’s circulation desk – should be part of a council’s web team.

They’re accomplished referrers, have lots of experience dealing with sensitive items and difficult customers and are aware of the issues that arise when representing council in a public space, so they’re a good fit for social media channels.

When you’re working on an information architecture or considering keywords for search engine optimisation, customer service staff have particular value. They know how constituents ask for information – what words they use, how they frame the question – and what information is in demand. By contrast, senior staff advantage what they think people should be asking. And some are lapsed English speakers, hopelessly lost to organisational jargon.

Finally, if your web services are not satisfying customer requests, customer service staff are the canary in the coalmine.

The second part to this post is about crowdsourcing in government.

We generally take this to mean offering constituents an opportunity to innovate solutions or frameworks. But over the last year – as social media has matured and mainstreamed – more and more council employees are using these tools to discuss issues in their workplace.

It may be born of frustration but the motivation for these blogs or Twitter streams is usually positive – to affect change.

This is incredibly valuable for managers – if they choose to listen!

— b3rn   management, user generated content, web teams   Jun 21, 10:16 AM   #   Comment

29 April 2009

Web workers of the world, unite

You think the Conroy filter is bad? Most municipal employees work under a far more restrictive regime… the ICT department!

OK, so that’s a deliberately provocative statement. Anyone with network experience will acknowledge the need to maintain the privacy of our information, the security of our systems and the efficient use of our bandwidth. ICT managers and staff have been deeply scarred by spam, phishing, viruses, worms and… naive users.

But it’s getting so our work environment is a real challenge to our effective use of web technologies.

[twitter user] you have flash? lucky girl – my Council-issued PC has NO flash installed and it’s locked off to me – YAY! and I manage our web…

The key is management – not the ICT department – taking responsibility for the use (and abuse) of network resources.

There is a feeling that staff will waste time. That can be argued – Social networking on company time increases productivity – apparently.

More damaging… put in blocks and staff will route around them. Using web-based email, for example, to send and receive council information… that will not be recorded or monitored by the corporate systems in-place.

This article – 50 Small Hurdles to Online Engagement in Government – is the best I’ve seen on the subject because it sweats the small stuff.

Clear the majority of those, and you have a Great Leap Forward.

Update, 4 May 2009: Dave Briggs has set up a wiki to share learning on how to clear these hurdles. Good one Dave.

— b3rn   ict, management, web teams   Apr 29, 05:38 PM   #   Comment

4 January 2009

The importance of web teams

In 2007, Jeffrey Zeldman said let there be web divisions.

[A]lmost no one who makes websites works in their company or organization’s web division. That’s because almost no company or organization has a web division. And that void on the org chart is one reason we have so many bloated, unusable failures where we should be producing great user experiences.

The call remains pertinent, especially in local government where the extraordinary possibilities of digital information and communication technologies are often reduced to “website” with a single person in an essentially administrative role tasked with maintaining that presence.

The ability to innovate or communicate is limited by IT’s control over infrastructure and systems, senior staff’s patchy understanding of the opportunities available and a deeply conservative approach to managing information and risk.

The officer maintaining the web presence is often isolated and frustrated.

I think we can also build on Zeldman’s manifesto and extend membership of local government web teams not just to coders, designers and writers (dare to dream) but to the people who will represent your organisation on, say, blogs or Twitter – the social media spokesperson.

As Councils offer such a wide range of services across all sectors of the community, I’d say you could probably do with at least two or more of these voices.

They might come from IT or communications. But they might also be front desk customer service staff or librarians. Remember that libraries are often open on Saturdays and Sundays, and both front desk staff and librarians are accomplished referrers.

A good web team will not only build and deploy, they will

• respond and refer promptly and appropriately
• build community online through participation and moderation
• evangelise web-based communication in your organisation

We may be a few years off having web divisions but my suggestion doesn’t include hiring more people or creating new positions. It’s about writing the web into existing work plans and requiring supervisors to make the time and space available to those officers to participate online.

So, local government managers, find the people who are comfortable with communication online. Give them the guidance and authority to converse with your constituents. And formally recognise the web team in your organisation.

— b3rn   management, web teams   Jan 4, 11:11 AM   #   Comment