Weekly Research and Best Practices Newsletter

Resources
UK’s Customer Service Excellence Website – Offers practical tools for driving customer-focused change. Includes the national customer service standard, a self-assessment tool, and a library of case studies from a wide range of UK government agencies. http://www.cse.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/homeCSE.do
News
1. UK Website Consolidation (06/25/2010) – 75% of existing UK government-funded websites could be shut down. A review of all existing sites will look at cost, usage and whether existing sites can better share their resources. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jun/25/government-websites-face-closure
2. Department of Education Sets New Bar for Transparency with Data.ed.gov (06/18/2010) – Data.ed.gov is a one-stop shop for education data. It provides tools to visualize data through mapping, graphing, charting and data exporting. Education also plans to use the site to make the grant-making process more transparent.
http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/department-education-sets-new-bar-transparency-launch-dataedgov

3. Washington State “Virtual Vault” for State-wide Records Management (06/21/2010) – Document and email repository offers centralized search and single access points for obtaining records from multiple agencies. Participants maintain their own data retention rules and documents are deleted automatically at their expiration date.
http://www.govtech.com/gt/articles/762654

4. Digital Economy Consultation (06/2010) –Online dialogue allows citizens to weigh-in on how Canada can improve its position in the digital economy.
http://de-en.gc.ca/home/

5. NAGW Pinnacle Awards deadline July 24 – Are you proud of your website or an application on your website? If so, this is your chance to see how your site compares to others similar to your organization. http://www.nagw.org/index.php/pinnacles/pinnacleawards