[LINK] How Obama Will Use Web Technology
Jan Whitaker
jwhit at melbpc.org.au
Sun Jan 25 19:28:51 AEDT 2009
At 06:54 PM 25/01/2009, stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:
>We're eager to see the use of these
>technologies extended to www.WhiteHouse.gov initially and from there we'd
>love to see more government agencies quickly embrace web technologies to
>promote communication, transparency and participation.
They are going to have their work cut out for them structuring the
information so it is discoverable. The categories available under the
Briefing Room do not include the press office. I wanted to find the
language on the rescission of the restriction on Federal Funds for
family planning organisations and went to executive orders. Nope.
Turns out it's a memo to the SecState. Fortunately the Blog has an
article about it that points to it under the Press Office directory.
Guess what: there is no Press Office listing on any of the drop down menus.
OK, it's a minor issue, but will be key to meeting the goal of transparency.
AH! It's a vocabulary problem! By back-deleting to the directory of
that particular item, come to find out the Press Office *is* the
Briefing Room! See how easy it is to mess up something so
simple? But it still doesn't list this memo!
I think it's time to drop them a line.......
here's what I sent to their email address, not using the online form
that limits to 500 characters and requires a US postcode!!!
==========
Congratulations on a beautiful new website. Now for the problem.
The categories available under the Briefing Room do not include the
press office. I wanted to find the language on the rescission of the
restriction on Federal Funds for family planning organisations and
went to executive orders. Nope. Turns out it's a memo to the
SecState. Fortunately the Blog has an article about it that points to
it under the Press Office directory. Guess what: there is no Press
Office listing on any of the drop down menus. Might be worthwhile
putting a self-referring link in the drop down that says Press
Office. Briefing Room is a place, not a function. Minor programming
without having to redo anything much on the site.
OK, it's a minor issue, but will be key to meeting the goal of transparency.
But it still doesn't list this memo! Where are memos kept? What
happens when the blog post about that item disappears off the front
page, as it should as time passes?
So I tried the search box. Typed in 'birth control' without the '.
Gave me nothing. In fact it gave me a Get Updates page:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/GetUpdates/?e=jjcu1suMbwxJRGH8LsVtMJLZ5Mndb0Rn%2fx7SUfzzhGQ%3d&z=xnFAkbNx7nCp6ruefu%2fwZ6F70v1C6oO9k2Eoy6fpA%2fM%3d
No clue what updates has to do with search or birth control.
Ah! Discovery - typing in the terms and hitting return results in
this page. One must click the Search button. You might want to
rethink that behaviour. Most search engines conduct the search with a
return after entering terms and don't require clicking a separate
button. e.g. Google tool bar.
Then I tried the 'birth control' term and got four results, none of
which were about the rescission, and two were of the same biography
of Ellen Wilson for the word 'birth' only.
I give up.
Suggestions:
1. add a self-referencing label on the drop down menu of each of the
main ones, otherwise the user doesn't realise there is a page that
links directly from those main headings.
2. work on your search engine, including providing a Search Help
function [e.g. acceptable search term formats]. Once the site is
populated, folks won't have a chance of finding anything otherwise.
3. Not sure if you're using metadata terms [e.g. my use of birth
control instead of family planning didn't return the document] for
each document, but it is worth considering
4. make a hard return [Enter key] in the search box a function
equivalent to clinking the Search button.
Best regards,
Jan Whitaker
website designer and Expat American who is once again proud to say so!
Jan
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
personal: http://www.janwhitaker.com/personal/
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer
Writing Lesson #54:
Learn to love revision. Think of it as polishing the silver for
guests. - JW, May, 2007
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