I have been fortunate to have the immense honor of working with the Social Media Subcouncil of the Federal Web Managers Council over the past several weeks. And though I am *just* in State government, I am so inspired by the amazing people that I have “met” and collaborated with via Facebook, Twitter, GovLoop, and various other social channels. And the land of wikis has been key for collaboration!
The work I am doing with the subcouncil folks has been a source of inspiration to my User Experience Design team. We talk a lot about the great spirit of possibility that is in the air for government web content/services. We’ve been working on development plans for my staff, and through discussion we’ve decided to create a wiki to document our complete approach to User Experience Design, including UX design standards and patterns, visual design style guides, Web editorial style guides, accessibility guidelines, persona development, usability methodology, and whatever else we come up with.
There’s something about a wiki that allows a non-linear way of thinking when creating documentation. An idea pops into your head, and we can just capture it on the wiki and iterate. Collaboratively. Isn’t that what user experience is all about?
Great post Marilyn. I too am inspired by all the work the Social Media Subcouncil is doing. I just hope it trickles down.
Let me know how it goes with your UX design wiki goes – I think I am going to implement a support wiki for our content management software. Currently support questions get funneled to a couple of people but there are a lot of superusers out there who could help – it will be interesting to see what happens when we give them a platform through which the application can be more community-supported.
It’s an internal wiki on the outside. We’re using pbwiki, which has been a great tool for some other projects. And it’s free. And we didn’t need to go through governance to get it set up.
Speaking as the subcouncil co-chair, trust me, the excitement and inspiration is a two-way street! 🙂
It’s been so fun getting to know a whole new crowd of high-energy, dedicated public servants. I look forward to more exploration together over the coming years.
Am chomping at the bit to see what new policies emerge that will help free up action at the agency level! In many cases, the hoop-jumping to get new media approved has been painful and slow. As a result, enthusiasm takes a hit or things get done, but underground and without official approvals. The pioneers have arrows in their backs and are ready for the Calvary!
And I say bring it on!