From the Governor’s Leadership Communique on March 12

From the Governor’s Leadership Communique on March 12: Connecting Citizen Services And State Web Presence

The National Association of State CIO’s (NASCIO) has just released Harmony Helps: A Progress Report on State Government Internet Presence. The findings in the NASCIO brief strongly reinforce Secretary Chopra’s two current Web initiatives – statewide Google search functionality and an expanded common banner with enterprise functionality for state agency Web sites. These citizen-focused initiatives support simplification of government and greater access to services, as described in the NASCIO brief:“Most marketplace websites focus on organizing their product and service offerings according to arrangements that are intuitive to the typical customer. For example, retail websites are not organized according to the governance structure of the business itself...In contrast, public sector websites…presented citizens with an organization around the way government is structured—by branch, agency, department and commission."Since the way that government is organized varies markedly across and within levels of government, a citizen may know what he or she wants to do — obtain a copy of his or her birth certificate, for example — but may not know which state agency performs that function. If the citizen goes to the state’s website, unless that service is listed separately from the agency that performs that function, the citizen may have to do what, in some cases, may be extensive searching of the state’s website in order to find out how to obtain a birth certificate.” The complete NASCIO brief is available online. Please share with your communication, Web and IT staff as a resource for understanding the continuing changes in service and information delivery via Virginia’s state Web sites. Many thanks to the agencies and their Web staffs who have already made significant contributions to this effort, both through building and implementing sitemaps and by participating in the Web Standards workgroup reviewing the proposed changes. These efforts greatly assist Virginia’s participation in the national Google pilot and help keep the Commonwealth at the forefront of effective service delivery. Sitemaps are still due from several of the pilot agencies; all have been previously contacted by Secretary Chopra and project manager Sheri Wood of Virginia Interactive. It is very important for these agencies to complete and publish their sitemaps as soon as possible to ensure Virginia’s continued participation. Assistance is available to any Webmaster; if you have questions, contact Sheri.