News and Updates

Making Multimedia Section 508-Compliant and Accessible

If you plan for accessibility when creating and posting media, you can create a rich, interactive community where users can get important government information from your agency’s official website or blog and dialogue with government.

Angela Hooker

Jun 26, 2013

Guest post by Mario Damiani, Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) at the Department of Labor. ODEP spearheads the Social Media Accessibility Working Group within the Federal Social Media Community of Practice. The working group recently released a toolkit for agencies to make their content more accessible for citizens with disabilities, including recommendations from agencies

Mario Damiani

Jun 26, 2013

Tour Data.gov 2.0

As you know, last month Data.gov launched its new open-source Data.gov 2.0 catalog (catalog.data.gov). Based on CKAN, a data management platform used by many open-data catalogs around the world, Data.gov’s new catalog has received nothing but kudos from users. For the first time, our raw datasets, tools

Sally Bourrie

Jun 24, 2013

NPS Chesapeake Explorer App

The National Park Service (NPS) developed an app for people looking to explore the historic Chesapeake Bay area and travelers now have an anytime, anywhere tool to tell them where they can go and how to get there. The NPS launched the Chesapeake Explorer App last

Rachel Hurley

Jun 20, 2013

Army.mil – Usability Case Study

If you want to make a website more efficient and user friendly, then it’s not enough just to have your most valuable information on the site. People are busy—they want to find what they’re looking for, and they want it fast. You don’t always need to redesign an entire site to make things easier to

Jonathan Rubin

Jun 19, 2013

5 Steps for Delivering a Better Customer Experience

Everyone wants to know how to provide outstanding customer experience in government. It can be difficult, because everyday our customers are also doing business with companies like Starbucks, Zappos, and Virgin America, that excel in customer service.

Martha Dorris

Jun 19, 2013

Veteran’s Affairs PTSD Coach

Mobile Gov Experiences are agency stories about creating anytime, anywhere, any device government services and info. This entry is a story shared by Veteran’s Affairs. PTSD Coach is a mobile application developed by the Department of Veteran’s Affairs in order to help veterans and military service members

Jun 18, 2013

CDC’s Solve the Outbreak App

Mobile Gov Experiences are agency stories about creating anytime, anywhere, any device government services and info. This entry is a story shared by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) launched a free, educational iPad app called “Solve the Outbreak,” which lets users play

Jun 18, 2013

Disruptive Technologies That Will Change the Way We Work

Do you know what the most important technology will be 12 years from now, in 2025? A recent report on Disruptive Technologies from McKinsey & Company predicts a number of evolving technologies that will have the biggest impact in the next decade or so, including

Andrea Sigritz

Jun 17, 2013

Tips for Creating Great Digital Content for Kids

Great websites for kids have many of the same features as websites for adults, but some key differences are worth noting when writing digital content for kids or teens. Kids have short attention spans, so it’s important to keep your site engaging, fun,

Arlene Hernandez

Emily Canis

Jill James

Jun 17, 2013

Civic Hacking at the White House: We the People, By the People

On June 1st and 2nd, more than 11,000 civic activists, technology experts, and entrepreneurs around the country came together for the National Day of Civic Hacking. Civic activists, technology experts, and entrepreneurs in 83 cities developed software to help others in their own neighborhoods and across the country.

Lisa Nelson

Jun 13, 2013

OPM Alert App

Did that snowstorm (or thunderstorm as the case may be) affect DC feds’ operating status? Now you’ll know even faster with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management‘s newest mobile app OPM Alert. The app features: Real

Michael Niedzwiecki

Jun 13, 2013

Are you a small or even one-deep government social media team who wonders how with limited resources you can still deliver the program citizens need? Do you have a larger team but still want to know how you can roll up your sleeves and make a change? If either

Justin Herman

Jun 12, 2013

Responsive Design Overview, Resources and Tools

Responsive Web design refers to a fluidly constructed Web page layout that scales from handheld device displays to large, high-resolution computer displays using flexible typography, flexible images, fluid grids, and CSS3 media queries. For years, most Web teams designed for the desktop. Branding, navigation, work flows – the overall look & feel of online applications

Jacob Parcell

Jun 11, 2013

YouTube Releases New Features

YouTube recently upgraded to the new One Channel design. The new design emphasizes responsive layouts for mobile devices, tablets, desktops and laptops, and TVs. A single banner on a white background replaces a customizable background and color scheme. YouTube recommends using a single 2560 x 1440 px image that fits

Jason Kelly

Jun 07, 2013

Chief Digital Officer: Roles and Responsibilities

In my previous blog post, I asked if your agency needs a Chief Digital Officer and before you answer maybe you’d want to know what exactly would a Chief Digital Officer (CDO) do at your Agency? According to Tim Bourgeois of ChiefDigitalOfficer.net , the biggest asset a CDO brings

Mike Kruger

Jun 06, 2013

Energy’s Alternative Fuel Locator Mobile Site

Drivers can find the closest alternative fueling sites anytime, anywhere with the Alternative Fuel Locator. The Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) has created this mobile website that allows users to locate alternative fueling stations. Using Google map technology and data from the Alternative Fuels Data Center (AFDC), the site

Brandon Barr

Jun 06, 2013

Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends Report

Techcrunch. com reports Mary Meeker’s much anticipated annual Internet Trends report released at the D11 Conference last week shows astounding growth regarding use of smartphones and tablets.

Jacob Parcell

Jun 05, 2013

What We’re (Really) Talking About When We’re Talking About Mobile (Hint: It’s the User)

It used to be when we said mobile we meant activities and devices defined strictly by mobility and the features associated with it, such as GPS, SMS, barcode readers, cell phones, etc. But when I found myself in my easy chair watching a ballgame on my

Jim Costello

Jun 04, 2013

Four Steps to Achieve Good SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the active practice of improving aspects of your website so that commercial search engines (such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo) can find and display your Web pages in the results when they’re relevant to a searcher’s query. Users generally

Ammie Farraj Feijoo

May 31, 2013