Interaction with local government isn’t a priority for many citizens, often with good reason.
Most events, town hall meetings, and other local programs are usually not well-attended, even when well-publicized. That lack of citizen participation is likely not due to lack of interest. Rather, people are just too busy to attend what seems like a myriad of meetings that often don’t affect them, at least not directly. Keep reading →
President Obama’s recent Executive Order: “Streamlining Service Delivery and Improving Customer Service,” is an excellent call to action to Defense and Civilian agencies to leverage self-service technologies to cut costs while also improving efficiencies.
As consumers, we’ve embraced self-service in everything from getting money at the ATM versus a bank teller to using online software to help us complete our tax returns. These conveniences are made possible by intuitive business process applications, and they make our lives easier, they keep us more informed and they allow us to be in control. Keep reading →
Is your organization still bogged down in ‘government-speak’? Isn’t it time you get with the ‘plain language’ program – and get back to clear, simple, direct communication?
Plain language is communication that your target audience can understand the first time they hear or read it. Use clear, direct language to say what you mean, so your audience can understand your message, and find what they need. Keep reading →
White House Director of Digital Strategy Macon Phillips, on behalf of President Obama, makes the case in a blog that there are simply too many federal websites. The White House announced plans July 12 to reduce roughly 24,000 federal government website domains to fewer than 2,000 core domains.
As the President points out in this video, our government doesn’t need a website dedicated to foresters who play the fiddle. We also don’t need multiple sites dealing with invasive plants (here and here). And I’m pretty sure the website dedicated to the Centennial of Flight can come down… particularly since the Centennial was in 2003.s President Obama has said, we can’t win the future with a government of the past. How our government uses the internet to communicate and deliver services is an obvious and critical part of this modernization effort. Keep reading →