Chicago Regional Workshop:

Summary of Roundtable Disscussions

Nearly 50 web managers from the Chicago and Midwest region, representing about 15 government agencies, gathered on June 7, 2005, for a regional web manager workshop. Participants were very pleased to have the opportunity to collaborate with web managers from other agencies in their region. Below is a summary of the roundtable discussions.

Issues and Challenges Confronting Web Staff in the Field

We need these kinds of regional workshops. They’re really important for developing a sense of community among web workers and learning new skills and best practices to help us improve our agency websites.
Difficulty finding time for web work when it's part of "other duties as assigned"
Limited resources; the website is not a management priority.
Governance, standardization, who manages the web
Doubts about the statistical validity of usability testing
Trouble with outdated information
Need for plain language
Getting buy-in from content contributors. You can get content by beating the bushes, but that method doesn't usually get content providers to take ownership of their information.
How to use the web to leverage our agency missions
How to get our colleagues to provide content
How to improve our websites in the face of awkward management structures and/or indifferent managers.

Ideas for Continued Collaboration

Quarterly workshops or seminars (at one of the local federal buildings, perhaps for ½ day), on topics of interest like usability testing or plain language
Conference calls to build a “support group” of web managers (could be scheduled regularly or as needed)
Collaborating for usability testing
Collaborating for training
A listserv for Chicago or folks located in the Midwest
Peer review on each other’s web pages
Invite supervisors to future workshops to help them see the issues confronting web managers and get their buy-in about what we’re trying to do
Sharing successes and best practices
Training on web related topics
Collaborate with partners from other levels of Government (state and local) as well as university partners.
Look at video conferencing and other electronic methods. When possible, face-to-face meetings are still preferable.
Next step: We should hold at least one Region-wide inter-agency, inter-governmental training meeting per year for the Chicago/Midwest region

Page Updated or Reviewed: June 30, 2005