Adrenaline, Wheels, and the Month of May

OK, so I bet you are wondering about the blog line for this topic…hmm, I was too, until I pseudo-reasoned with myself that it works.

You see, May is the month where wheels and adrenaline come together and are totally highlighted by the various activities presented. Whether it is two wheels, four wheels, or a uni-wheel (yep, I’ve seen them and I don’t believe they were a part of the circus).

We had “Bike to Work Day” held all over North America wherever possible on May 14th, which benefited the biker in two ways.

1. Getting that extra workout in.
2. One less carbon footprint on the earth for the day.

Now, leaving the carbon footprint aside, we also had the “Indianapolis 500” held on May 24th, and BTW congratulations to Helio Castoneves who won this awesome feat.

Still in search of more high wheeling action, I watched the movie “Speed”, which to me, is packed with adrenaline flowing, non-stop action, catch your breath, eight wheeling drama. Not to mention it stars a fave Hollywood icon(for me) in it.

Which brings to mind another wheel, the one Tina Turner sings about in her song “Proud Mary” that has the lyrics…big wheel keep on turning…, I wonder if this is where they got the idea for the “Big Wheels” that you see children riding…hmm.

So, with all these wheels in the month of May, whether events, or my own injections, what’s the point?

Websites and web pages of course! You see your website can be viewed as a wheel and your web pages can be viewed as the cogs of the wheel, you know like the spokes on a bicycle rim. So, it’s a good idea to keep them revved up with the latest events, news, and features, which are happening in your county, town, or city.

And if you want to promote various events on a wide scale basis, contact us for our latest demo on how we can help. That’s right; we can pump up the adrenaline on your website, and not just in the month of May, but all year long.

VaRoom!

It's the Trajan font, stupid.

I have to get off topic and give some props to eGov's lead designer, Brian Fisher. We were working on creating a new website and didn't have the original artwork readily available in the format we needed (photoshop).

So we looked at the graphic and thought ... how difficult would it be to recreate the graphic -- not difficult at all, except for getting the font right. That perplexed us ... until we brought Brian over -- asked him if he knew what font may be close -- and he said: "Yeah, that's 'Trajan' -- or maybe 'Caesar' or 'Augustus', but try 'Trajan' first."

AN EXACT MATCH.

Your Wish Is My Command

Doesn’t everyone wish they could find a Genie in a bottle? Last year at a Chris Botti concert, Chris mentioned how he used the web like a Genie in a bottle.

• If he needed direction, Internet Search Find Location…
• If he needed to find a date, Internet Dating…
• If he needed self-help, Internet Search….

Basic Community Information
Then why can’t we find simple information about the communities we live in? Just basic stuff:

• Town Hall Hours and Directions
• Minutes and Agendas
• What the heck is going on?
• Jobs or Bid announcements

Completing Transactions
Then there is actually completing transactions, like:

• Registering my dog
• Reporting a street sign down
• Who provides utilities and getting those set up
• Pay parking ticket (oops, I hate it when that happens! But it’s life we all get forgetful when we drive as we are thinking about what we’ll be Blogging about or something like that…)

The Next Step
What I’d like to do is like:

• Give pages a thumbs up or thumbs down – nothing complicated just this government page was useful thumbs up or this government page was not helpful ठुम्ब्सdown
• Create my own log in page so I don’t have to go looking for the stuff I want each time I return to my city or county website
• Definitely use Real Simple Syndication – it keeps my e-mail box cleaned out of “clutter” or having to go look in separate e-mail folders and open tons of e-mails.(Not to mention how much it can save the government offices and our environment by not printing and mailing!)
  

Wow, Chris was right, the Internet is like a Genie, you just have to be sure that you have your information within reach of the Genie so he can access it। Watch for my next blog about SEO Search Engine Optimization-Feeding the Genie…

Yoga and the Related Page

While attending my yoga class this week (which is suppose to be relaxing and meditative) I found myself contemplating answers to a question posed by some of our clients. How in the heck did this happen?

Well I'll tell ya, we were in Vrksasana Pose (sanskrit for Tree Pose), by the way, this can be an agonizing pose if you have on slippery yoga pants. And with my arms held quietly in namaste, this pose supports drawing the attention and center of gravity inward and downward. You know like the roots of a tree, hence the name.

As I focused on my balance and breathing, my thoughts wandered to the branches and leaves on a tree. Branches and leaves on a tree, well that's quite normal, until I realized, this is an answer to the question.

The question being, when do you use a department, division, or related page on your website? In structuring the website, the department is the tree, the divisions are the branches, and the leaves are the related pages.

Therefore, if you have a wealth of information to post to your website, yet you want to break up the information into segments, then you have a department. From here, you whittle down to the division names and the composition for each as they are a separate branch from the department. And any special documentation that doesn't require a division, yet it supports the department or division it is assigned to, is then added as a related page, the leaf or leaves.

Wow, now that information, was worth being in this pose for what seemed like eternal endless time, until, I had to switch to the other side. So me being me, after the switch to the other side to balance out the pose, I wandered if I'd get the answer to the lottery numbers for the upcoming week.

Nope, nada, nothing. Oh well, I tried. Namaste!

Greensburg, KS's Green Initiatives

If you're a fan of reality TV (like I am) and you have a strong interest in the inner workings of local government (I'm assuming we all do - why we're here), you really need to check out the TV series "Greensburg" on Planet Green TV (check your Cable Listings).

TV Website: http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tv/greensburg/
City Website: http://www.greensburgks.org/

Now I wasn't really a huge "green" advocate (I tend to side more on the side of "blue", but that's probably a different posting for a different blog) ... but this docu-series really sheds light on how one city devastated by a tornado two years ago is rebuilding their city with an extreme focus on using "green" and "sustainable" resources in the reconstruction of their community.

Without realizing it, you get educated on key public policies that are emerging nationwide to encourage sustainable, "eco-friendly" construction policies and practicies -- and at that same time, get to armchair quarterback decisions and approaches taken by the Mayor, City Manager, Council members and community leaders.

Season 2 is just beginning so you can probably come up to speed over a weekend or two.

Going Green

Going Green is a lot easier than one might think. How is that you say? By implementing these few simple steps that are listed below.

• Unplug the printer when not in use to save on what is referred to as 'Phantom Energy'.


• Make valuable information available on-line to citizens and visitors (this one saves time and fuel).


• Ensure the visitors to your website know they can get RSS feeds from your website (this eliminates printing pages, which saves trees).


• Recycle your print cartridges (most cartridges come with information and labels for doing just this).


• Turn off the lights in offices and conference rooms when they aren't in use (that's just plain smart).


• Promote 'Recycling' in your city, town, etc.

Just by doing these few simple things, you are now starting on the road to becoming a 'Greenie'.

Let the citizens and visitors to your website know that by visiting on-line they too have just contributed to your efforts of 'Going Green'.

Get To The Point, Before You Lose Your Readers

What to do about long pages and detailed instructions

Providing information and services is your business. If you are like most government entities you have a lot of information to provide. Being helpful you also want to provide the details and keep people fully informed of options or requirements.

Characteristics of Website Users
Wait just a second though, don’t forget that your website users are real people. They want to:
· Skim and scan
· Read links and short descriptions
· Use search features to find what they want

How to Present Long Copy
Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice providing information with a little planning your content will be easier for people to use. Here are a few ideas for working with long web pages:
· Use headers to help people jump to the information they want
· Break information into several pages
· Can’t break up the information – no problem, use bookmarks within the page. (Don’t forget to provide hyperlinks to take them back to the top of the page.)
· If you decide a PDF is the best option here is a helpful hint: Provide a short description of the document. Nothing is more irritating for people with slower connections than waiting for a large document to download then finding out it isn’t even what you needed!

Presenting Tasks or Instructions
Instructional pages can be just as easy! You might also want to consider numbering the steps making it easy to follow. For example:
1. Complete form. (link to the form)
2. Make payment. (link to payment options page)
3. Receive confirmation.
Self-service options not only allow your site user to complete the task, but also promote good will, reduce waste, and actively promote environment friendly actions!

Resource Books for Content Writing
If you’d like additional resources for web content writing you might check out some of these great books.
Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works By Janice Redish. Published by Morgan Kaufmann, June 2007.

The Web Content Style Guide: An Essential Reference for Online Writers, Editors and Managers By Gerry McGovern, Rob Norton, Catherine O'Dowd. Published by Financial Times Prentice Hall, October 2001.

Three ways to ensure your website is on the right track.

1. Review your site statistics. This is a great way to find out what your visitors are interested in without asking them to complete a survey or opinion poll (both are also excellent ways to listen to your site users and find out what they want).

2. Enter your site for Web Awards. There are many options free and for fee. The best options are those that provide you with information on how your website compares with Industry Standards. WebAwards 2009 is currently taking nominations www.webaward.org. Don’t delay deadline is May 29th.

3. Engage in a free site review. Many companies offer FREE site reviews which can help you assess your site and plan for the future. I’d recommend looking for an Industry Expert. eGov Strategies would be a good fit for city, county, or government entities.

There you have it three easy ways to assess your website. Watch for easy to implement ideas to engage site visitors on your government website.