David Eaves calls for governments to invest in design and analytics to make websites more usable | opensource.com

-


Sadly- little is done in the way of municipal or government web design. Some forward efforts have been made. I look to the City of Calgary and Reinvent NYC as examples of moving in the right direction.

Recently, I left the Durham Public Schools system to work for the City of Raleigh as the Open Data Program Manager. At DPS we started the move from organizationally driven websites toward a design that is starting to be based on community feedback and analytics.

Discussing the issue with Robin McCoy from DPS yesterday I noted that the winning design violated several usability heuristic principles. I was expecting push-back. Instead I got a refreshing "write it up". I helped DPS on their redesign effort as part of the last project for a system to which I had given 7 years of my career.

Now working in Open Data I see a chance to finally build interfaces based on solid analytics. Citizen engagement is measurable and the return on Open Data investment can only be realized through a high level of citizen participation. I am looking forward to my new adventure with Raleigh. I think David Eaves is right but I also think we are starting to move in the right direction.

David Eaves calls for governments to invest in design and analytics to make websites more usable | opensource.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Podcast: Open Data Discussions with Anthony Fung

-
Image
A look back at Virginia’s 4 years of data innovation with Anthony Fung, Deputy Secretary of Technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia  Welcome to the OpenDataSoft Leadership Podcast Series, “Open Data Discussions”. Each month, Jason Hare, our Open Data Evangelist, features a different open data program around the country to discuss what has made it successful. These examples will provide insights and strategies that you can implement in your own city. We had the pleasure of welcoming Anthony Fung, Deputy Secretary of Technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia for the fifth podcast in our series. Anthony discussed various subjects, including: What role does open data play in policymaking at the state level in Virginia? Does his department work on ensuring open data quality? What are some of the steps he makes in ensuring sound data governance? How did Virginia come up with this technology and engagement solutions?  How, for example, did yo
Read more

Open Data Licensing

-
Image
Everything you wanted to know but you were afraid to ask. Making data open and available is not just about choosing a format or having an API. A poor choice in your license can prevent people from using them. A traditional open license reassures potential users that their work on the data will be useful in the long run. So, what license should you pick for your data to be broadly used? There are a few things to consider. Choosing a license for your open data can usually be one of the biggest challenges for an open data project. There are plenty of licenses available for your data. Choosing one mostly depends on the usage and reach you want to give to your project. CHOOSE A LICENSE: BASED ON NATIONAL, INTERNATIONAL AND LOCAL STATUTES IN ADDITION TO REUSE It should be noted that different parts of the world use data licensing terms differently. In the US, works in the “public domain” are works are not covered by intellectual property rights, such as copyright. The copyright mig
Read more

AN OPEN DATA POLICY FOR NORTH CAROLINA: COMING SOON?

-
Image
All parts of North Carolina will benefit from open data legislation. FOR THE BETTER PART OF TWO DECADES, I’VE WORKED TO OPEN UP NORTH CAROLINA’S DATA. I’ve been a public servant at Durham Public Schools and the Department of Energy. I have been an onsite consultant for the Cities of Raleigh, Durham as well as the Towns of Cary and Chapel Hill. I’ve been on teams serving state agencies and local governments. I’ve witnessed dozens of open data projects both locally and abroad. All of these projects share crucial steps and goals in common. First, by transforming public documents from disconnected PDFs into machine-readable data, by applying the right open formats, we can liberate public information from the repositories where it used to require manual review. Insights become instant. Second, by publishing machine-readable data compilations online, for everyone to use, we can crowdsource those insights. Citizens and companies and the media can scrutinize. Even better, when a government age
Read more