News and Updates

Trends on Tuesday: People Over 55 Soon to Be Mobile-Majority Users

In July, comScore released a research paper, The Global Mobile Report: How Multi-Platform Audiences & Engagement Compare in the U.S., Canada, UK and Beyond, covering a lot of areas from smartphone penetration to Android vs. Apple preferences.

Will Sullivan

Jul 28, 2015

The Content Corner: Supporting Your Content

This column revolves mostly around content creation and strategy, but an overlooked part of the content lifecycle is helping people find your content. Your content is made to be seen and without planning for promotion, it may never be found. The methods available to you may vary (wildly) at your agency, so remember your mileage may

Tyrus Manuel

Jul 27, 2015

Free the Data: FEMA’s New Data Visualization Tool

FEMA collects data from disasters. We look at various hazards over time, and a question we get a lot when we’re trying to talk about what can happen is what has happened previously? Providing

Craig Fugate

Jul 24, 2015

CIO Council Releases IT Policy Library

The CIO Council recently published an IT Policy Library database in order to provide agency innovators with a searchable, comprehensive collection of IT reporting and action requirements for federal agencies. Craig Jennings, Senior Advisor at the Federal CIO Council, was instrumental in the implementation of the resource library. Craig believed that all of the policies

Kendrick Daniel

Jul 24, 2015

Explore Space with Smithsonian’s Chandra X-Ray App

We continue our celebration of American history and legacy this July 2015 with the New Horizons spacecraft’s dramatic flight past the icy dwarf planet Pluto and its moons—momentous in space exploration. Just think about it—New Horizons, a NASA space probe traveled over 3 billion miles to

Nirmala Ramprasad

Jul 23, 2015

PDFs: A Digital Content Detour

The Portable Document Format, or “PDF” file, is one of the staple productions of many communications professionals. It’s compact, prints exactly as formatted, and allows for clean, multiplatform distribution. However, it’s the old “U.S. Route” on the Digital Interstate. Let’s take an average user of a U.S. government website: a 45 year old PC user

Mark Urban

Jul 23, 2015

DigitalGov Summit Recap: How “We, the Techies” Can Effect Change

Who do you need to bring to the table to make a better world? In May, Megan Smith, Chief Technology Officer of the United States, delivered the keynote address at the 2015 DigitalGov Citizen Services Summit. She encouraged attendees to find ways of unlocking potential through collaborations from both within and outside of government. “We

Ashley Wichman

Jul 22, 2015

How the Nationals’ Customer Experience Principles Can Be a Home Run for Agencies

In June, the new Customer Experience Community of Practice (CX-COP) hosted Jonathan Stahl, Executive Director of Ballpark Operations and Guest Experience of the Washington Nationals, to share best practices on how to deliver a great customer experience.

Jacqueline Snee

Rachel Flagg

Jul 22, 2015

An Introduction to HTTPS, by 18F and DigitalGov University

18F uses HTTPS for everything we make, and the U.S. government is in the process of transitioning to HTTPS everywhere. As part of this effort, we’ve recently partnered with DigitalGov University to produce a two-video series introducing the why’s and how’s of HTTPS. In an Introduction to HTTPS for beginners, we cover what happens when

Eric Mill

Gray Brooks

Jul 21, 2015

Trends on Tuesday: GOV.UK Weighs in on Mobile User Habits

England’s Government Digital Service (similar to our own U.S. Digital Services and 18F) did a study of how content on their websites is consumed on mobile and non-mobile devices and learned several key points for a future-focused and

Will Sullivan

Jul 21, 2015

The Content Corner: Determining Your User’s Needs

I recently wrapped up a series of user interviews as part of a review of our judiciary-wide intranet in order to provide better digital services to our customers (and yes, our internal users are our customers, not just the general public).

Tyrus Manuel

Jul 20, 2015

Accelerating the Use of Prizes to Address Tough Challenges

Later this year, the Federal government will celebrate the fifth anniversary of Challenge.gov, a one-stop shop that has prompted tens of thousands of individuals, including engaged citizens and entrepreneurs, to participate in more than 400 public-sector prize competitions with more

Tom Kalil

Jenn Gustetic

Jul 20, 2015

DigitalGov Podcast: Leaders Come and Go, But Your Customers Will Remain

To provide great customer service, bring your agency’s customers to the table. This is one of many insights recently offered by Stephanie Thum, Vice President of Customer Experience at the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

Ashley Wichman

Jul 17, 2015

Is It Time to Try Medium? New Federal-Friendly Terms of Service

What is Medium? Good question. Is it a publishing platform, a social network, a distribution channel, a 21st century version of the op-ed page, or something else? With a continuously evolving feature-set, Medium defies simple classification. Perhaps it is best to think about Medium in terms of what you can accomplish with it. With a

Dana Allen-Greil

Jul 17, 2015

Social media is front and center at Share.America.gov, a U.S. Department of State site managed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, that describes itself as a “platform for sharing compelling stories and images that spark discussion and debate on important topics like democracy, freedom of expression, innovation, entrepreneurship, education, and the role of civil society.”

Coqui Aspiazu

Jul 17, 2015

Dwarf Planet, Giant Numbers: NASA’s Mission to Pluto Goes Global

Even on a slow day, NASA is a pretty cool place to work, but the cool factor gets cranked way up when the whole world joins in the adventure. That’s what happened this week when the New Horizons spacecraft arrived at Pluto after decade-long, three-billion-mile journey through the solar system.

Jim Wilson

Jul 16, 2015

Safe Travels with TravWell

Ahhh … Summer is here at last! It’s time for relaxing vacation! Whether you want to scale the peaks of Mount Everest, scuba dive in the Great Barrier Reef, ride a camel in the deserts of Mongolia, or shop in Paris—it is time for a travel app.

Nirmala Ramprasad

Jul 15, 2015

What’s in a Name? “Communities” in the Public and Private Sectors

Many of you are part of a government community. We lead a few of them here, and new ones are forming all the time. In fact, as I was writing this article, I stumbled upon a community for government Drupal users. A co-worker recently asked me for research on communities because she is trying to

Karen Trebon

Jul 15, 2015

Challenge.gov Program Launches New Training Opportunities

Seven new training modules aim to help Federal Challenge and Prize Community members learn more about using prize competitions to solve problems.

Judy Romano

Jul 14, 2015

Analytics Prove People Care About Space (and Pluto!)

Despite the fact that Pluto has been downgraded to a “dwarf planet”, the analytics of federal government websites prove there are still a lot of people who want to get an up-close look. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, a project over nine years in the making, flew by Pluto this morning at approximately 7:49 a.m. The

Tim Lowden

Jul 14, 2015