The Oxford Internet Institute have released the report of their latest survey, The Internet in Britain, which contains a comparative analysis of results from 2009 with the years 2005 and 2007.

One of the quotes from Helen Margetts (p.26) contains the statement: “Information seeking remains the most common e-government activity, similar to the way e-commerce developed (although slower). However, the frequency of online transactions such as paying for government services, taxes, fines and licenses has started to increase.” So information, not transaction remains the killer application.

Interestingly, local services remain more popular than central government ones, whether policy or politicians, although all see a small but steady increase.

However, an added reminder came from Gerry McGovern in his latest e-broadcast , when he stated: “The purpose of marketing and advertising used to be to get customers to do the things you wanted them to do. The purpose of web marketing and advertising is different. It starts off by accepting that the customer is on the Web to do something. It then focuses on helping that customer become more successful in doing that thing, not getting the customer to do something else.”

In the case of government, what we need to remember is that primarily we should be using the web to help citizens, not to help ourselves!

Hot off the McKinsey press comes a piece about optimization techniques using customer satisfaction as a metric.

Authors Sebastien Katch and Tim Morse in the latest McKinsey Quarterly describe how the public sector, unlike the private one,  can’t use metrics around cost-to-serve or profit and describe the approach taken by a US federal agency wanting to improve its call centres and paper-processing better i.e. two services channels.

It sounds like quite a complex mathematical model was created to shuffle staff between the two tasks, while attempting to maintain customer satisfaction at an optimum level.

In my simple view, the key learning is that citizen satisfaction is a useful and straghtforward metric for controlling channel quality and hence juggling priorities between them.

Gerry McGovern picks up this theme in his current newsletter, pointing out that:

“Before we can measure success we need to understand the customer’s task.”

and

“Measuing success based on volume encourages bad practice.”l

His attack on what he describes as  the “cult of volume” is appropriate to the other channels as it is to the web one.

El irlandés, Gerry Mc Govern, se dedica a hablar, escribir y a gestionar contenidos web. Es considerado uno de los principales expertos a nivel mundial y ha hablado sobre este tema en cientos de conferencias y reuniones en más de treinta países.
También es conocido porque desde 1996 publica una columna semanal en el boletín on-line “ New Thinking”, en la que se centra en el papel del contenido de la web. También desde un punto de vista más práctico trata temas como la gestión de los contenidos digitales, el uso del lenguaje en la red y la arquitectura de la información.

Qué necesita el cliente?
Pueden haber autores excelentes que creen que han de ser fieles a sus pensamientos y no dejarse influir por lo que piensen los demás, no dedican ni un segundo en el lector, únicamente se dedican al arte de la escritura. Pero según McGovern, este tipo de pensamiento puede ser negativo ya que si se ignora al público el escrito la mayoría de veces será ilegible. Pero también cree que este olvido puede ser positivo, ya que como los escritores son ajenos al público pueden producir cosas que nadie sabía que las quería hasta que se las ponen delante. El experto aconseja a estos escritores y programadores anteponer a las personas ya que estas son el éxito de una página en Internet.
Según él la usabilidad es muy importante hoy en día ya que esta trata de observar el comportamiento humano. Dice que: “Los buenos gerentes en Internet tiene que saber observar el modo en que sus clientes utilizan sus páginas web. Conozca a sus clientes mejor de lo que se conocen ellos mismos. No hay ninguna habilidad tan importante para un gerente web como esta.”
Habla del concepto de usabilidad en la red, ya que está repleta de contenido que podría funcionar mucho mejor y de programas con un buen enfoque pero su aplicación es pobre. Pero según el experto en los próximos cinco años van haber grandes mejoras en la calidad de esta navegación por Internet, pero solo si se tiene claro que la audiencia es el objetivo porque los dos objetivos de la red son comunicar conocimiento al lector y hacer que este lector sea más propenso a actuar partiendo de ese conocimiento.
Cambio que va acostar asumir a muchos de los autores cuya finalidad es el consumo del artículo en sí, pero habrá de adquirir esta nueva mentalidad si quieren que su contenido sea más efectivo en la red. Este cambió de mentalidad también conlleva una adaptación del lenguaje, es decir, hoy en día es el lenguaje el que marca la comunicación, por tanto voy a substituir mi lenguaje más técnico por uno más común para estar al mismo nivel que el público, de esta manera aumentará su interés ya que los usuarios prefieren una comunicación lo más clara posible. Si quiere que le encuentren, utilice las palabras de su cliente.
Para aumentar este interés en el lector, McGovern da algunos consejos útiles de como arrancar cada frase con las palabras que más interesen a su cliente, ya que si el inicio no es atractivo no continuaran con la lectura. Utilizar frases y combinaciones de palabras en lugar de palabras sueltas, ya que, las personas introducen cada vez más combinaciones de 2 o 3 palabras porque así se consiguen mejores resultados en los buscadores. Repetir las palabras clave, porque si las personas ven repetidas las palabras que le interesan tienden a pensar que ese artículo es más relevante. Utilizar la negrita para dar más énfasis al contenido y a los motores de búsqueda, se usa en el encabezamiento y sumario. Introducir sus propias palabras clave en los enlaces, estos deben aportar la mayor cantidad de información posible sobre a dónde irá el usuario si pincha allí.
Un error muy común en la red es que la mayoría de las organizaciones se creen el centro del universo y lo único que consiguen es perder usuarios porque estos lo que buscan es la utilidad. Es decir aquellas intranets que les ayudan en su trabajo y a lograr aquellas tareas por las que acudieron a su página. Según McGovern: “ Las organizaciones que tiene éxito son aquellas que entienden el saber colectivo que supone la Red. Google y Amazon lo saben. Ambas lo asumen y lo predican: Google, reconociendo la importancia de los enlaces a una página web, y Amazon difundiendo las opiniones de los lectores.”
Estamos en la era de la sobreexplotación de la información, se da más importancia a la cantidad que a la calidad del contenido sin tener en cuenta las repercusiones que puede llegar a tener esa información. Este exceso de información muchas veces inexacta o engañosa hace perder el tiempo del usuario y tiene repercusión en sus actuaciones, ya que si la información es equívoca este puede equivocarse. El contenido de relleno lo único que hace es obstruir el camino al usuario y perjudicar enormemente su marca en Internet ya que irán perdiendo cada vez más usuarios.
Todos los consejos de Gerry McGovern hacen referencia ya sea de manera implícita o explícita al concepto de la usabilidad, ya que la clave para tener éxito es poniéndose en la piel de los clientes.

I’ve mentioned Gerry McGovern before, followed his writing for ten years, and along with the thinking that pops up on MyCustomer.com he frequently calls us to Gemba. His latest epistle does no less and uses examples including Amazon and Walmart.

I highly recommend a read for those who want to see how successful web managers do it! It applies univerally, as well.

Since reading Gerry McGovern’s book The Caring Economy when it came out ten years ago (doesn’t time fly), I’ve been a fan. I don’t always agree with everything he has to say but about web publishing in general he’s frequently correct, although not always on the specifics relating to government.

His latest email newsletter concludes as follows:

“Websites fail when they focus on the content or the technology. We must instead focus relentlessly on our customers’ top tasks. We must measure success based on our customers’ ability to quickly and easily complete these top tasks.”

I’d extend this to all service delivery mechanisms, whether ‘phone, face-to-face or via the Internet. His newsletter describes how the Microsoft Office team improved their site by focusing on the customer and culled a great deal of useless content in the process.

Take a look and subscribe yourself, it only arrives once a week:
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com

There’s quite a bit of evidence that many Web site owners (both individuals and organizations big and small) couldn’t care less about the content (i.e. writing) on their sites. Here are a few articles and essays that try to counter that:

-George Orwell’s Politics and the English Language, written in the 1940s, but wonderfully applicable to the Web nightmare we face today.

-Writing Content that Works for a Living, by Erin Kissane on A List Apart.

-Finally, just about anything from Gerry McGovern, whose livelihood is in getting people to get their Web content right. See his latest post, Web content migration: disastrous strategy, on New Thinking .

A recent comment on my blog got me thinking about what the strengths of social networks are. WOW, what a question and one which i don’t feel that i could give justice to however i have been thinking a lot about how they can fit into local government thinking and use.

A number of obvious things do come to mind and some of which we are already trying in my council.  These ideas are based not only on existing SNS but bespoke ones for specific purposes as well

• participation and engagement with young people and wider groups of interest
• extended communications to staff without formal connection to corporate network
• Internal knowledge base and reduction in use of internal email
• providing services as widgets so we don’t have to expect people to come to council sites

I’m sure there are lots more, but the reality for me is that these sites will provide greater opportunities to communicate and provide services directly to and for people.

Gerry McGovern highlighted at the “perfect council website” conference earlier this year, that people generally use the internet quickly and in between their favourite programmes so if we make our sites difficult to navigate and services hard to use why would they bother?

However people are prepared to spend time of SNS to co-ordinate social events or exchange information with their friends, so why can’t we offer the services they need within their window of opportunity.

After all even as a council worker i don’t find myself navigating around my own website let alone other local authority websites because i am a busy person, like we all are and time is something i am not prepared to sacrifice to, for example report a pothole.

This issue for me is one of the drivers behind trying to reposition our thinking on web and how we approach the web. I believe that a web strategy needs to focus on the channel and not the corporate website alone. This is why i am now in the process of preparing a re-write of the councils web strategy that i wrote about 18 months ago.

It will incorporate a wide range of opportunities online and will represent a sort of “online activity” and “digital access” strategy.

Regarding the strengths of SNS, well i believe that they now represent a fundamental shift in the way people use the web, it truly is a social web and and that means websites that offer and increase this kind of activity will become more and more popular.   Where does that leave traditional council websites, i’m not entirely sure yet, but they will and can not look like anything they are now…

For me the greatest strengths of SNS are the people in them, the technology is only a facilitator, they wouldn’t work unless people wanted to communicate in that way. So we really need to focus on people and and where people are if we are to engage with them.

Some people will still prefer to meet in the context of a group down the local village hall and would like a council representative to discuss issues with, others will be part of online communities of interest and we must respond to them as well.

SNS and social media in general do exactly what Clay Shirky talks about in his book, they provide opportunities for people to organise themselves without formal structures and organisations to support them. I found this video on you tube of Clay Shirky talking about the book

I also found this interesting presentation on the future of social networks

Gerry McGovern has produced another practical piece on the evolution of the Web for business. He writes, “Web 2.0 and social media mean that for teachers a declining part of their job involves telling. An increasing part is listening to the class and facilitating them in having conversations. Teachers should help moderate these conversations and draw new learnings from them. They need to say less of: ‘let’s open up a book.’ and more of: ‘let’s open up a conversation.’.

“The traditional manager is taught to command and control. Web 2.0 challenges that model…. Companies are not democracies, of course. And social media will deliver little value if it becomes some giant water cooler conversation because not all the best ideas are discovered at the water cooler. Huge quantities of absolute rubbish are talked there too. So, social media and Web 2.0 are not a replacement for management decision making, but rather a support to make better, more-informed decisions.

“The naïve tool-centric view of Web 2.0 still exists. ‘Just give them the blog and the wiki software and get out of the way’ has very limited logic. But it is classic IT-thinking. As if the tool was the be all and end all, and the only purpose of life was to discover the right one. As if it was the type of quill that Shakespeare chose that made him the writer that he was.”

“So Web 2.0 and social media still need management…. But the managers are not the only clever people in the room anymore. The room is much bigger and it is speckled with cleverness. To manage in the Web 2.0 world is to converse, to listen, to be honest and upfront, to collaborate, to moderate, and constantly watch out for the trends and patterns that always emerge when many minds mingle and mix in the network.”

The message needs to sink in that companies need to start giving up some control over the conversation with their customers. I know this is very hard to hear, and even harder to do, but it is happening whether comanies like it or not. Those that continue to keep a stranglehold on the conversation will eventually find that no one is listening…

Irish Internet expert Gerry McGovern reckons our inefficient use of computers is contributing to global warming. The evidence ranges from oversupply of information (the classical lawyer trick by burying incriminating evidence under an avalanche of data) to Google using up too much energy in producing the white background to its search results.

I like McGovern’s style because he often takes non-computer examples from daily life and applies them to technology. In this posting, he talks about a study conducted in university cafeterias that showed that when you take away food trays, students waste less food. Another one of those “Well, d’uh!” studies that proves what you already knew instinctively. Anyway, McGovern goes on to argue that we should be more selective with what we publish on the Internet and corporate intranets, because the longer it takes people to find the information they need, the more energy is wasted. Great point! I’ll adhere to that principle by stopping my posting right her—

Yesterday i attended the “Building the Perfect Council Website” event in London. The keynote speaker was Gerry McGovern and i was very impressed although at times i thought it was hard to imagine how you actually achieve this stuff in local government, because web managers are only one cog in a big wheel, we are almost guardians of the corporate web instead of managers but still some great points none the less.

My observations and thoughts (this may not reflect exactly what he said, but will give you a flavour)

• Get rid of those damn press releases (who the heck reads them).
• Stop the political messages (Our Leader).
• Nobody cares for this stuff, they are task focused and don’t have much time.
• We already take their money and if we take even more of there time we will only create more frustrated citizens and visitors.
• Delete most of your content as nobody reads or even maintains the stuff.
• 80% of web management is observing behaviour.
• Do the tasks your customers do and experience the “journey” yourself.
• Personalisation doesn’t work, most people don’t want to do it – interesting considering i was on the panel about web 2.0 techniques with “Steve Johnson” from Redbridge and “Suraj Kiki” founder of Jadu CMS, more on this later)
• Start with your top tasks and get them on your homepage to stop people having to search for them.
• Don’t force “corporate” crap at your customers, they don’t really care.

I was buzzing afterwards and had so many thoughts and issues running through my head, one then stuck straight away was about deleting content.

My council and it appeared that most councils do the same as well, have started to use the web as a repository for “stuff” which someone at some point might read, it also make FOI easier (well that is the theory), but it doesn’t make using teh site easier as it just gets bigger and bigger with “stuff” that people don’t actually read but one day they might look back and say “i wonder if the council had a strategy on XXX, Oh look it was on there website all the time, that was lucky”

So perhaps a medium term action is to split the website up – not practically, but in a virtual way in to 3 sections

1. Transactional Services and Core Information – linked with Customer Service Centre.
2. Corporate Information – stuff you want to say but no one really reads.
3. Archive – where all the “stuff” can sit and turn to virtual compost.

Right job done, sit back relax……phew…….Wait, there is more

I said earlier that it raised a number of issues in my head, and i started to clarify them on the train home whilst reading “clay shirky”. (I wanted to finish this sooner but got distracted by Quantum Psychology by Robert Anton Wilson also an interesting read)

Other issues included

• Who do we really want our audience to be? We have many different types and research published by Socitm suggests that on average only about 25% of residents look at your website? so who the hell is the other 75% and what do they want to do in terms of top tasks?
• Personalisation does work, surely it does, i mean amazon, ebay, digital banking, cookie based postcoded weather from the BBC is all personalisation, just varying levels
• Are we all doing web management wrong?
• How can you explain to politicians that nobody cares about them on the website?

On to “personalisation” and the workshop Web 2.0 techniques in councils websites.

Suraj, opened the workshop with the “machine is us” web2.0 video, which i have previously posted on this blog.

It was then my turn and i didn’t want to use any slides of presentation as we are on our journey to developing our new site (i will include some of the visual designs for you to see exclusively here towards the end of the post) But i explained why we are on this journey and the benefits we feel we will get.

I also said that i believed that personalisation is something that we should consider, but it will be in the implementation of it that will be key. we don’t intend anyone to register with our site to personalise it, so if you don’t your experience would be no different to anyone else who doesn’t, but if you do choose, then you may have a more personalised view of the council based on your interests and location.

Steve Johnson then gave a presentation on the real thing “redbridge i”, what was interesting to me was the redbridge conversation work that they had done around the budget process…check it out for yourself.

The rest of the day was a blur to be honest, as my mind was digesting all the issues and questions that the morning session had sparked in my head. although i asked lots of questions when opportunity arose, on the whole the event was good, but with all these things the people made it and it was great to make new contacts and meet people i haven’t seen for a while and who i should speak to more often.

Ok, as promised, the visual design for our website. NB: This reflects visually what we intend to complete over a number of phases of development.

Someone in our office put up a print of a really great comic from Eric Burke on the in our coffee room. It makes you laugh and it got me thinking once again how hard good user interfaces are to create.

Now it may seem that Google has it easy, you might argue. Google only deliver one service right? False; Google delivers many services and products, gmail, google news, search appliances to name a few. All of these services compete for space on the homepage. However Google remains focused on delivering the most optimal service 99% percent of their visitors come for. Apple products are known for relentless rigor and effort for getting the user interaction right.

So a classic example of the difference between simple and easy. Easy to use, difficult to create. I once attended a presentation from Gerry McGovern which provided with me a new and fresh look on user interaction design on the web. I recommend reading some of his material if you are interested why some sites work and some seem to get more in the way.

If asked, “Are you serving yourself or your people with your church communications?” of course I’d answer “My people.” But this morning I read an email newsletter that challenged my assumptions.

The newsletter is from Gerry McGovern, a secular web guru and consultant, who consistently provides thought-provoking materials that have useful application in church communications. Today in his newsletter he had an article, “WEB PROFESSIONAL: ARE YOU READY TO SERVE?”

Those of us who do communications work in churches like to think that we are motivated by service, but are we really? Read the extended quote below and replace his work “customers” with those you are trying to reach and grow in Jesus.

“It is impossible to create a website with excellent service if there is not a culture of service within the web team that manages the website. All great web teams are founded on a philosophy of service. They like and are interested in their customers. They are constantly thinking about their customers’ needs. They want and like to serve.

Many web teams are unfortunately filled with people who have little interest in serving. In fact, many web teams don’t even accept that their primary job is to serve customers.

Some web teams think that their job is to manage technology. They spend their time thinking about technology. They get excited by talk of content management systems, search engines, portals, RSS feedback and mobile computing.

Some web teams think about traditional communications. They have all this content to put up. They think that their job ends after they have written the content. The want to communicate at, rather than to, customers, and they expect customers to listen.

Some web teams are excited by things like branding and graphic design. They often change a website because they’re bored with the old one. They secretly long for Flash Intros and sometimes create website designs more for their peers to admire than for customers to do stuff on.

Web teams tend to be isolated from customers, and because of this isolation a culture of service rarely exists. In some organizations, web teams are not even allowed to talk to customers! It is simply impossible to design an effective self-service website without a deep understanding of, and ongoing interaction with, customers.

Great web teams constantly talk about the needs of their customers. The technology, the content, and the graphics only exist in the context of creating a more effective self-service environment.

From: http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/
Content management solutions by Gerry McGovern,
Note: I strongly recommend that you go to the website and sign up for his newsletter, great ideas, challenges and insights that you can apply to church communications.

Let me repeat his last paragraph:

It is simply impossible to design an effective self-service website without a deep understanding of, and ongoing interaction with, customers. Great web teams constantly talk about the needs of their customers. The technology, the content, and the graphics only exist in the context of creating a more effective self-service environment.

In not only our websites, but in all our church communications it is so easy to talk at people instead of listening to then, to get overwhelmed by technology, or to work to please our peers instead of constantly seeking to meet the needs of those we serve in the church.

Dealing with technology—the latest web graphic or whatever, is often much more fun than figuring out why the youth group volunteers don’t understand how to use your new interactive calendar or appreciate the innovative graphics you are using.

But if we do these things we aren’t serving—and serving is never easy. Jesus took off his robes, wrapped himself in towel and washed the disciple’s feet—and then he told us to do likewise. We need to strip off anything in our communications work that keeps us from serving the people Jesus has given to us. We need to constantly think about their needs; we need to be thinking about how to meet them, and praying for the strength and wisdom to do that.

I just read an article by Gerry McGovern that caused me to go back and read the posts on both of my blogs.  The basic premise of the article is this – Could my blog posts and comments come back to haunt me in the future? Could my current employer or any future employers use something that I have written against me? Will my future run for presidency be affected by something I am saying now? Like Mr. McGovern so aptly pointed out…a blog is NOT a conversation. It may seem like a conversation – many times you are posting on true conversations that took place in the past, things you have seen or heard, or simply imparting your opinion – but unlike most conversations, a blog post is a permanent record that could very well be used against you far into the future.

So next time you post, think about these things first: Could your comments be taken out of context? Is it something you would want your grandmother, mother, or future potential employer to see? Is it an impulse post or have you put some thought into it? Do you have your facts straight? Do you have something to say and are you saying it well??

Do this and you will never have to worry about being haunted by your blog!