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• Trouble with outdated information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