2009 GMIS - Web 2.0

Editor's Notes

• #3: This is an image that has been floating around the web for a couple of years now, but I like how simply it describes a lot of the different elements that have emerged in this new web. First there are all the techie buzzwords – RSS, XML, AJAX, XHTML, Blogs, Wikis. Podcasting Then there are the ideals encompassed in Web 2.0 – User-centered, Participation, Data Driven, Remixability, Mobility, Collaboration, Sharing, Trust Since, I’m not a developer, I’ll be focusing on the latter – the shift in ideals, and how government can and should keep up.
• #11: Pardon the metaphor - “on a slow boil” Industry is at the beginning of a long march – services being launched incrementally Will take time before we see a game-changing solution emerge that dramatically changes how government is providing services. I like to think of it as future-proofing our sites – digital natives, millenials, etc. http://www.flickr.com/photos/transkamp/54111377
• #12: We define Web 1.0/2.0/3.0 as a single social media platform that incorporates various technologies. Our objective is to implement solutions that help government better serve its citizens and businesses.
• #13: Integrate as many pieces into your platform as possible, and let the conversation begin Aggregate the various conversations happening in different parts of the web Track how memes re your organization flow through 2.0 space over time http://flickr.com/photos/56367751@N00/288280613
• #14: Use this to arrive at a baseline for our social media platform: data driven, participation, and joy of use. Regarding "Joy of Use..." The idea is that web 2.0 apps are usually easy to figure out, and surprise and delight users. A non-web, tangible, hardware example is the iPhone -- even things like scrolling a page are delightful experiences. For our purposes, I think we can turn this whole idea into the concept of customer service.
• #16: Data is and will continue to be the heart of government portals and online services. Everything we do comes back to the quality, controls, accessibility, and usability of information.
• #17: Tim O’Reilly coined this phrase suggesting that information has become as important, or more important, than software. “ With a lot of data, you ultimately see things that seem intelligent even though they’re done through brute force.” Google example. “ GM” -- you’re probably searching for ‘General Motors’ “ GM foods” – knows you mean ‘genetically modified foods’ Because they are processing so much data, there’s context built up around acronyms. It makes the search engines seem “smart,” but really it’s just that algorithms and patterns have emerged.
• #18: A mashup is a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool. However, the real key here is that each data source enhances the other and becomes more valuable together than they were on their own… e.g. Real estate data + map data. Each one enhances the other and becomes more valuable together than they were on their own… Mashups bring new value to each piece of data by creating a service that was not originally provided by either source.
• #19: This is particularly worthy of attention from governments, because if we can make certain “mundane” data available in ways that can be consumed and mashed up, then inevitably services will emerge that will be useful to our constituents. One of my favorite examples – a city New Zealand made their pet licensing data available on the web. Someone took that data, mashed it up with a Google map, and created a great visualization of the best neighborhoods to live in if you’re a dog owner or a dog lover. This is obviously something that most government agencies probably couldn’t afford to take the time to program even if they thought of it. But by making that seemingly mundane dataset available on the web, someone produced an invaluable tool for a very specific constituency.
• #20: If the goal is to encourage participation and conversation, then we have to acknowledge that possibly the biggest difference between Web 1.0 & Web 2.0 is people.
• #21: Web 1.0 brochureware web sites were mostly concerned with attracting eyeballs. The web was a one-way street. Web 2.0 is a “read-write” web – a user-centric and user-generated web. People are most satisfied when they can contribute information as well as receive it. Blogs, wikis, and other two-way communication solutions are all simply helping government be more available and responsive to end users.
• #22: Who has been to Digg…commented on a blog…watched a video on youtube…viewed a photo on flickr? We are all contributing to not only the success of those web sites, but also the success of the entire network – we are essentially helping others find the data we went looking for. These sites work better the more users are participating and contributing. The more users, feedback, traffic, etc., the better the system can perform – the smarter it can become.
• #23: In that same vein, a true Web 2.0 application is one that gets better the more people use it. (Tim O'Reilly)‏ Think about Google – each one of us contributes to Google. Whenever we post a page on the web, whenever we link from one page to another, whenever we do a search, or click on an ad, we are making Google smarter… They take all this information and apply it to their system, their algorithms, for our benefit. Harnessing collective intelligence means that users are continually improving the application or the network, simply by their very interaction with it.
• #24: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28563755@N00/2366519926/
• #25: Our portals, applications, and sites should be usable and accessible, making the whole experience satisfying. And web 2.0-type feedback loops can further enhance actual customer service.
• #26: Why the focus on customer service? 1 st – customer service is the new marketing. The idea of empowering your users so that they become an extension of your marketing isn't new; the difference is in the listening...creating a direct channel between your services and your users. Participating in these conversations becomes less like marketing and more like customer service. 2 nd – it increases user happiness which in turn increases success. If we can help our users accomplish the mission they set out with, then we create repeat visitors and fans and champions of our services. 3 rd – if you ask any call center specialist, you'll find that their days can be very repetitive, answering the same questions over and over. Adding social features can help reduce support costs by making questions public and searchable – essentially letting users help themselves. Additionally, public forums give people the power to answer other users' questions. Sometimes the users of the products are as knowledgeable about a product as the support people are. Social features allow them to help out and make the community stronger as a result.
• #27: I'd be remiss to not discuss the 800-pound gorilla in the room... policy discussions. The lack of policy on government’s use of Web 2.0 solutions has kept many state and local governments in the U.S. on the sidelines. Our belief is that governments should develop sound policies around using social media platforms, which will naturally involve some tough decisions about information flow, site moderation, and government’s willingness to open up the two-way communication stream that may bring some unwanted feedback and complaints. How government deals with Web 2.0 policy — or if they choose to deal with it — will continue to impact the pace of implementation. http://www.flickr.com/photos/41831087@N00/72994197/
• #32: Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?
• #33: The New York Times is using twitter as a news river. They have a separate account set up for the Arts section, the Sports section, etc. What’s exciting is not coming to another website to read these stories, but the fact that these snippets can be pushed out in literally hundreds of formats. If I’m “following” this account, I could get their updates via SMS, Instant Message, in my Feed Reader, or any of the numerous twitter clients that have been developed. It’s multi-directionality that the NYT can’t get anywhere else or from any of their other feeds. This can be any type of feed – weather updates, breaking news, woot.com, etc.
• #34: Several web2.0 companies started using twitter as an alert/broadcast sytem about updates to their site, notifications about upcoming maintainence down-time, and general communication to their loyal users. It’s also embedded in the product blog so that the they only have to create the status updates one time. The key here is that it’s human-powered. They are communicating, and even conversing with their users.
• #35: Several web2.0 companies started using twitter as an alert/broadcast sytem about updates to their site, notifications about upcoming maintainence down-time, and general communication to their loyal users. It’s also embedded in the product blog so that the they only have to create the status updates one time. The key here is that it’s human-powered. They are communicating, and even conversing with their users.
• #36: Zappos, JetBlue, Southwest, Comcast all have human-powered Twitter accounts up and running. However, Zappos has taken it to another level. All executives (and several employees) have twitter accounts and interact daily with customers They’ve put their twitter address on their business cards! They do spontaneous surveys and giveaways They are monitoring all mentions of “Zappos” on twitter and actively reply to people (screenshot on the right)‏
• #45: A folksonomy is a system of categorization that comes from collaboratively creating and managing tags or keywords to annotate and categorize content. The categorization comes from the bottom-up, from the “folks,” if you will, instead of from the top-down as in a hierarchy or a taxonomy. A fundamental shift in and of itself… Yahoo = "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle" Yahoo home page used to be based around categories…Their purchase of del.icio.us (social, folksonomy-based, bookmarking) and flickr signals a shift in their strategy.
• #46: Flickr is a photo-sharing web site. You upload your photos in a variety of ways, and they are stored at flickr.com. This is not unlike ofoto or snapfish…
• #47: But what made flickr unique, was that it combined the best parts of those sites with the best parts of blogs and other web 2.0 technology. It made sharing your photos actually SOCIAL – allowing other people to interact with them. They can comment, add notes, add it to their set of favorite photos, blog about it, or tag it with a keyword they’ll remember.
• #48: An interesting project currently underway is their partnership with the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress uploaded over 3,000 photos to flickr which had no known copyright information. “ The real magic comes when the power of the Flickr community takes over. We want people to tag, comment and make notes on the images, just like any other Flickr photo, which will benefit not only the community but also the collections themselves. For instance, many photos are missing key caption information such as where the photo was taken and who is pictured. If such information is collected via Flickr members, it can potentially enhance the quality of the bibliographic records for the images .” http://www.loc.gov/blog/?p=233
• #49: This is a typical photo page – again we have user tagging, commenting, and notes, but instead of simply enhancing the data concerning the picture of my cute dog, we are actually contributing to the bibliographic information at the Library of Congress. caption information, and people identification (Carnegie)‏
• #50: Why should you care about flickr? Because this model has been insanely productive – both for Yahoo and for their users. Apply this model/architecture to any type of massive database that needs to be hosted, viewed, sorted, categorized, tagged, etc. BUSINESS INFO.
• #52: “ Satisfaction is people-powered customer service for any and everything.” The idea is that communities of customers come together to answer each others questions , share ideas with each other or with an organization, report and solve problems and generally talk about about what matters to them around these products or services. When the organization or company also gets involved, it gives them a way to engage with their customers around the issues that matter to them most. Satisfaction provides a neutral playing ground where companies and customers can interact to everybody's benefit.
• #53: Twitter’s satisfaction page. There are several twitter staff members assigned to this project, as you can see on the left, and they are very active in the forums. One person can help vast numbers of people without ever knowing who she has helped == positive network effects
• #56: Logan, Utah – a town hall-style discussion on the latest ballot propositions
• #57: Ann Arbor, Michigan City Council – mostly community questions about city code, planning, etc.
• #58: Customers come together… to answer each other’s questions, share ideas w/ each other & the organization, report and solve problems, and generally talk about the products/orgs they care about. Gives the organization a way to meaningfully engage users on a neutral playing field. Also of note, Get Satisfaction just released their API. Soon we’ll be seeing mashups and services built on top of their site just like Twitter.
• #60: User Voice -- a user-driven feedback forum. Instead of being question-oriented like traditional surveys or Get Satisfaction, this is much more like DELL's IdeaStorm in that users submit feedback/bugs/suggestions and they rise to the top based on votes from the community, thus arriving at a unified consensus. It's a feedback engine aiming to replace ticket systems and forums/bulletin boards that are difficult to manage and support.