informationknot.com

President-elect Barack Obama has launched a new website: change.gov.  This site provides information on his transition to the White House, his agenda, and an area where you can share your story working on the campaign or your vision for where the government should proceed.  Information about Obama and Biden is also available as well as official government information on the transition.

Webcontent.gov

1. Meet all laws, requirements, policies, and other directives for public websites

  References:

• Federal laws and regulations
• Requirements and best practices checklists

2. Document your governance structure, including roles, relationships, responsibilities, rules, and review processes

  References:

• Management and governance
• Governance self-assessment checklist 
  (PDF, 19KB, 1 pg, 8/2008 requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

3. Create and manage content effectively and efficiently

  References:

• Managing content
• Plainlanguage.gov

4. Collaborate across government to manage content and eliminate duplication

  References:

• Don’t duplicate content
• Link to appropriate portals

5. Focus on tasks

  References:

• Designing task-focused websites

6. Follow usability best practices

  References:

• Usability and design
• Usability.gov

7. Evaluate the effectiveness of your website

  References:

• Ways to evaluate your site
• Evaluating your website/web metrics

8. Make sure search engines can find your content

  References:

• Search Engine Optimization

9. Create opportunities for the public to interact with their government

  References:

• “Contact Us” Pages
• E-democracy

10. Celebrate your success!

The federal government has a directory of its RSS Library on USA.gov. Topics include:

• Business and Economics RSS Feeds
• Consumer RSS Feeds
• Defense and International Relations RSS Feeds
• Education and Employment RSS Feeds
• Environment, Energy, and Agriculture RSS Feeds
• Family, Home, and Community RSS Feeds
• Health RSS Feeds
• Public Safety and Law RSS Feeds
• Reference and General Government RSS Feeds
• Science and Technology RSS Feeds

From Webcontent.gov

Below is a list of content management systems (CMS) used by various government agencies. Most are commercial products, but some are products developed in–house. You can contact them for more information about an agency’s experience with that product or system.

Disclaimer: This list is intended solely as a resource for government employees who manage government websites. This is an unofficial list for informational purposes only. The Federal Web Managers Council, which maintains this list, does not endorse the products or services listed below.

We do our best to keep the list up–to–date based on information we get from agencies. However, accuracy is not assured.

Agency (or Website)	Product or Service	Year Obtained
Air Force	Broadvision (Portal)
Arizona Government Information Technology Agency www.azgita.gov	Mambo
Arlington County	Rhythmyx
British Columbia, Government of (Canada)	Broadvision
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)	In–house system	2003
California Department of Fish and Game http://dfgintranet	DotNetNuke
City of Killeen, Texas www.ci.killeen.tx.us	ExponentCMS.org
Commodity Futures Trading Commission www.cftc.gov	Stellent
Commonwealth of Massachusetts www.mass.gov	Interwoven TeamSite
County of Santa Clara Public Portal www.sccgov.org	Vignette
Defense Finance and Accounting Service	Documentum Plumtree (Portal) BizFlow (Workflow)
Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety & Inspection Service www.fsis.usda.gov Farm Service Agency www.fsa.usda.gov	Stellent (used agency–wide) Stellent Stellent
Dept. of Commerce Office of the Secretary	Oracle Universal Content Manager
Export.gov	Stellent
NOAA www.noaa.gov Nortwest Region www.nwr.noaa.gov	Stellent CommonSpot
Dept. of Education www.ed.gov	Interwoven TeamSite	1999
Dept. of Energy www.eere.energy.gov	RedDot	Aug 2005
Lawrence Livermore Labs	Stellent
Dept. of Health & Human Services (HHS) www.hhs.gov National Library of Medicine www.nlm.nih.gov	Percussion Rhythmyx Interwoven TeamSite	2001
CDC	Documentum	2002
Administration on Aging	Content Studio
FDA Office of Regulatory Affairs Center for Veterinary Medicine	Not currently using an agency-wide CMS. Vignette+ RedDot+
National Cancer Institute/Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics	PLONE
Dept. of Homeland Security www.dhs.gov	Interwoven TeamSite	2003
Citizenship and Immigration Services	Vignette	2006
Customs & Border Protection	eXpressroom
Transportation & Security Administration (TSA)	Documentum
Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE)	Interwoven	1999
FEMA www.fema.gov and www.disasterhelp.gov	Interwoven TeamSite	2005
Coast Guard	Broadvision (used for Intranet)
Dept. of Justice National Institute of Justice DNA.gov www.dna.gov ENRD www.usdoj.gov/enrd	Rhythmyx by Percussion EZRO (open source) RedDot
Dept. of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics	In–house system	2003
Employment and Training Administration (Dept. of Labor)	webZerve
Dept. of State (state.gov)	WaterFall	2003
Consular Affairs (Intranet)	Rhythmyx
International Information Programs (usinfo.state.gov)	WaterFall	2000
IRM Business Center	In–house (PortalX 1.3)	2003
America.gov	WebGUI (open source)
Depart. of Transportation www.dot.gov	None	2004
DNA.gov (Presidential initiative administered by DOJ)	EZRO/Workforce Connections (open-source tool developed for the Department of Labor)	Jan 2006
Douglas County, CO	Stellent
EPA EPA Region 8	None currently but in the process of deploying Collage (from Serena)	2005
FAA	Piloted Rhythmyx in 2004 but did not implement (not currently using a CMS)
Farm Credit Administration www.fca.gov	Serena Collage (not presently using it)	2006
FDA (Dept. of Health & Human Services) Office of Regulatory Affairs Center for Veterinary Medicine	Not currently using an agency-wide CMS. Vignette+ RedDot+
FEMA (Dept. of Homeland Security)	Interwoven TeamSite	2005
Fort Worth	Ektron
Georgia Department of Human Resources www.dhr.georgia.gov	Vignette
GobiernoUSA.gov http://www.usa.gov/gobiernousa	Vignette
GSA (GSA.gov) GSA Intranet site	Broadvision transitioning to Websphere Websphere	2007
IRS	Vignette
Marine Corps Community Services	In–house (ColdFusion with Oracle database)
Library of Congress (America’s Library site)	Interwoven	2002
NARA (Archives)	none
NASA www.nasa.gov	Digital Asset Manager (eTouch Systems, Inc.)	2003
NASA, Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Jet Propulsion Laboratory http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ Mars Rover Website http://mars.telascience.org/home	Inmagic® Presto Plone	2007
National Institutes of Health - Human Capital Group http://hc.od.nih.gov	Adobe Contribute
National Park Service (Dept. of Interior)	CommonSpot (www.paperthin.com)
Navy Enterprise Maintenance System	Documentum
Navy Personnel Command	Microsoft’s Content Management Server
Newport News www.nngov.com	Plone
NOAA (Dept. of Commerce)	Stellent
OPM	Rhythmyx	Jan 2005
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (www.pbgc.gov)	Rhythmyx	Oct 2004
PTO www.uspto.gov	None
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)	Rhythmyx	2005
Senate	Documentum
Smithsonian	Interwoven	2002
Social Security Online www.socialsecurity.gov	None
State of California	Broadvision
State of Hawaii http://hawaii.gov/tax/	Plone 3.0.5
State of Michigan	Vignette
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department www.tpwd.state.tx.us	None
USA.gov	Vignette	2004
USA Services www.usaservices.gov	Adobe Contribute	2007
U.S. Courts (Intranet) Administrative Offices of the U.S. Courts	FileNet FileNet	2003 2002
US Forest Service www.r2.fs.gov	None
U.S. Mint (Intranet)	Web Publisher (Documentum)	Nov 2004
USAID	Documentum
USPS (Postal Service)	Broadvision (e-commerce) Interwoven (usps.gov)
US Small Business Administration www.business.gov	Alfresco
Veterans Affairs	Interwoven TeamSite	2003
VA Information Resource Center	Contribute
Veterans Health Administration www.va.gov/health	Interwoven TeamSite
Voice of America	Common Spot
Washington State Department of Retirement Systems www.drs.wa.gov	Interwoven TeamSite
Western Area Power Administration (Dept. of Energy)	Serena Collage	2005

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+ These offices within FDA use their CMS to develop, but not publish, content.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has established an on-line procedure called e-Allegations by which concerned individuals can report illegal import and export activity. Types of violations include misclassification of merchandise, false country of origin markings, health and safety issues, valuation issues, and intellectual property rights. Users may also remain anonymous when submitting an e-Allegation.

The U.S. government has a massive amount of information, but interestingly you may not have realized that there are many websites produced by the government that are no longer kept current. These sites can still be useful for historical research.

A partnership between the University of North Texas Libraries and the U.S. Government Printing Office, as part of the Federal Depository Library Program, was created to provide permanent public access to the Web sites and publications of defunct U.S. government agencies and commissions. The collection called CyberCemetery can be browsed or searched.

From the Department of State’s Bureau of International Information Programs, this website includes educational articles, videos, slide shows and brochures on U.S. government, politics and culture. The information is intended for international audiences and is available in English, Spanish, Russian, French, Chinese, Arabic and Persian. The “U.S. Politics” and “U.S. Government” sections can be especially useful for student presentations.