Content Management & Portal Management

1. Content Management &Portal Management Christine Apikul

2. Module 5 Objectives • Explore the different options for delivering e-content • Examine e-content delivery to mobile devices • Discuss the challenges and best practices for managing e-participation and social networking sites

3. e-Content Delivery

4. Portal Management System National Level • Ministry websites that offer information and services on a particular sector or sectors (e.g. agriculture, education, health, employment) • e-Services (that may require the involvement of more than one ministries at the back-end) (e.g. e-registration, e-payment, e-procurement)

5. e-Content Delivery - Health • Directory of health centres, hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, laboratories • Collection of images and videos • Health-awareness campaigns • Vaccination records • Scheduling of appointments at government clinics • Anonymously ask medical-related questions

6. e-Content Delivery - Health • Information about: • Diseases • First aid • Health tips • Drug prices • Healthy cooking recipes • Health tools • body mass index and calories calculators

7. e-Content Delivery - Employment • Employers can advertise job opportunities • Jobseekers can apply for jobs online • Jobseekers can track progress of their application • Jobseekers can post resume • Training schedule for offline training • Online training courses

8. Portal Management System Local Level • Local government websites for different governorates, and even districts or communities (managed by the community service centres) • e-Governance portals for the different governorates or communities that aggregate information and services

9. e-Content Delivery – Location-based • Access to local government information and e-services • Users can issue and track service request • Obtain various licenses, permits and certificates • Make payment • Look for information related to education and health in the locality • See schedule of public consultations • Multiple channels to communicate with local government • Conduct of e-consultations

10. Community e-Content • Managed by the Community Service Centres (CSCs) • Provide information related to the CSCs (services, training schedule, etc.) • Provide information relevant to the community (local weather, agriculture, health, education and cultural news) • Proivde a platform for community to share knowledge • Provide a platform for community to collaborate in creating content

11. Reefnet - http://www.reefnet.gov.sy • Online portal initiated by the Ministry of Communications and Technology in the Syrian Arab Republic and UNDP • The programme includes the establishment of rural community access centres. • Originally planned to have a local community website or each established rural community access centre • Shifted at a later stage to having local community websites for rural villages, irrespective of whether they have corresponding community centres or not

12. Reefnet - http://www.reefnet.gov.sy • Reefnet portal is a unified gateway to around 97 dedicated websites for rural villages all over the country • Provides a networking platform for communities in the rural areas to learn, share information and create locally relevant content in Arabic • In 2010, Reefnet attracted more than 10,000 hits per day; and users visited the portal primarily to access its various forums, health encyclopaedia, and educational content

13. e-Content Delivery on Mobile Devices

14. Going Mobile • In Iraq, 75% population subscribed to mobile phone • Opportunity to reach out to remote and marginalized communities • GPS can be used to track mobile owners’ location and provide personalized information and services

15. Why do you want a mobile app? • Is it to make sure your organization “has an app?” • Again, what is needed, first and foremost, is an understanding of what it is you or your organization want to build and why it is (or is not) important to your target audience. What that requires is understanding the users’ needs and defining the user experience before developing the technology.

16. Mobile Users • "I'm Microtasking" In this mindset, users are using their phone in a context where they have a few brief moments to spare. They could be in line waiting. Their time is short. They want to get in, do what they want and leave • "I'm Local" Sometimes, mobile users want to do something specific to their location, be it specific as defined by GPS or in a more abstract way, such as at their job site • "I'm Bored" or "I'm Curious“ Unlike the first mindset, these people have time to spare. They are browsing for interesting content and are typically not concerned with speed and efficiency. Ease of use is still essential

17. Questions • Do you think these mobile mindsets are accurate in the Iraqi context. • What other mobile mindsets can you think of?

18. Evaluating Mobile Concepts 1. Feasibility: The degree to which it is possible to develop the app or app component • Acquiring the Necessary Data • Does the data exist and is it available? • Are there security, technical, or legal barriers to acquiring the data or using it as intended? • Is the data current? How frequently is the data updated? Will outdated data cause users to misinterpret the data/content?

19. Evaluating Mobile Concepts • Maintaining Conceptual Integrity on Mobile Platforms • Can the app run quickly enough on a mobile platform to maintain its conceptual integrity? • Will the app have to be significantly modified on the mobile platform due to technical constraints such as bandwidth or functional limitations? • Maintaining Impartiality • For public facing apps, can the technology be adapted to multiple mobile devices? • Consider that the government must maintain impartiality and not endorse any product, service, company, non-profit or other enterprise.

20. Evaluating Mobile Concepts 2. Effectiveness: The degree to which the mobile app serves the target audience • Evaluation Methods • What elements determine the effectiveness of a mobile app? • What methods are available to evaluate effectiveness? • Isolating the Target Audience • What audience is the mobile app intended to serve? • How many members of this audience have access to the necessary technology?

21. Evaluating Mobile Concepts Mobile-User-Scenarios  Most successful mobile apps offer users one or both of the following: • Dynamic content in concise and accessible formats • Tools that are useful in mobile environments • Does the mobile app provide the user with dynamic content that is regularly updated? • How frequent are the updates? • Are the content and tools useful in mobile environments

22. Evaluating Mobile Concepts Risk of Private Competition: The degree to which the government would have to compete for market share with private sector developers • Is there a risk of private sector competition? • What is the level of that risk? • Can the mobile application concept be enhanced or modified to minimize the risk of private competition?

23. Managing e-Participation & Social Networks

24. Evaluating Mobile Concepts • Government Justification for developing the mobile application • Is the mobile app concept within the purview of this governmental organization? • Would development of the mobile application further the mission or goals of the organization or the administration? • Examples of government justification include: • Increasing the effectiveness of organizational programmes or projects • Where private duplication exists: To leverage the authority of the organization’s logos or seals to disperse critical content to mobile audiences • Where private duplication exists: To provide critical content to mobile audiences free of charge where private sector versions are sold for profit

25. Evaluating Mobile Concepts Cost-Effectiveness: The relative cost to develop the mobile app • What is the total development cost to the organization? • What methods are available to estimate cost-effectiveness? • Are the mobile app platforms intended for development the most cost-effective options for providing the target audience with the desired content and/or functionality?

26. e-Participation Government Side Citizen Side

27. Social Networking • The use of websites and communications and collaboration technology to help people find, form and maintain social relationships • Examples: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, Wikipedia, blogsites, online forums, webchats • Common features: profile page, friend networks, multimedia sharing, status updates commenting

28. Social Networking in Iraq • Facebook penetration rate – 2.2 % • Twitter penetration rate – 0.1 % • Expect exponential growth and rapid uptake Source: United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, Regional Profile of the Information Society in Western Asia 2011, Beirut, 2012.

29. Opportunities • Better understand citizens and identify trends (through conversations, surveys, polls) • Promote their services (personalizing message and targeting audiences) • Improve access to and quality of services (citizens reporting and tracking) • Improve transparency and trust (through citizens’ access to and use of open data)

30. Opportunities • Improve decision-making (through discussions and feedback) • Share knowledge among peers across government organizations • Collaborate in improving services, e.g. through the use of open government data to create mashups • Change behaviours and establish new social norms through continuous dialogue, e.g. changing the pattern of energy consumption to combat climate change

31. Challenges • Loss of control over content that could lead to public disorder and chaos • Misinterpretation of content • Long-term commitment of resources • Managing change in bureaucratic system

32. Key Considerations Understanding the audience • What does your audience want to talk about and willing to engage in conversations about? • Where does your audience want to have these conversations? • What value can you add to the conversations?

33. Key Considerations Internal policies and procedures • Is the social media initiative aligned with your organization’s goals and strategies? • What are the rules of engagement for employees? • What will be the workflow for developing, reviewing and approving content for social media sites?

34. Key Considerations Internal policies and procedures • What will you share? Are you going to post only major news? Are you going to ask questions? Are you going to provide tips? • How will you monitor and archive the shared content and its comments? • How will you measure the impact of your social media initiative?

35. Key Considerations External policies and procedures • How will you engage with members of the public? • How will you incorporate and distill feedback? • How will you respond in a timely manner and ensure action if required? • How will you handle mishaps? • Who should be informed of mishaps? • Who are authorized to respond to mishaps?

36. Best Practices • Set clear, achievable and measurable objectives at the beginning • Be transparent about intent and deliver on promises • Use the right channels • Put guidelines for use into place

37. Best Practices • Employ an integrated campaign that harnesses the full potential of numerous synergized platforms • Create engaging content using interactive channels • All for several trustworthy people to respond to user generated content • Inform people whenever content is posted • Continually monitor activity

38. Moderation Policies • Set ground rules for public participation in online engagement initiatives • Rules for pre-moderated content • Rules for post-moderated content • Getting the balance right between promoting e-participation and preventing inappropriate content • Assess objectives of organization/initiative, target audience and platform to be used for e-participation

39. Exercise • Explore and analyse selected government social media sites using the following list • Purpose of site (is the purpose of this site clear) • Target audience (is the target audience clear) • Usability (is it easy to use) • Language style used (is the style simple, easy to understand, friendly or too technical and official) • Types of conversations held (what worked and what did not) • What are some of the good practices for responding to negative comments • Does the site require registration? – If so, in order to perform which functions? • Read the “About Us” section • Review statistics if available • Review terms of use and privacy policies • Review the user group list • How does this site link with other initiatives from the same government? • Highlight three key findings from your analysis that can help you and others develop a social media strategy for your organization. Present your findings in a plenary for discussion

40. Social Media Sites • Bahrain – http://www.facebook.com/egovbahrain, http://www.youtube.com/egovbahrain, http://www.twitter.com/egovbahrain • Qatar – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hukoomi-Qatar-Government-Portal/186872247998431, http://twitter.com/#!/HukoomiQatar, http://www.youtube.com/user/HukoomiQatar • Queensland, Australia – http://www.getinvolved.qld.gov.au/, http://twitter.com/consultqld, https://www.facebook.com/ConsultQueensland • REACH Singapore – https://www.facebook.com/REACHSingapore, http://twitter.com/REACH_Singapore, http://www.youtube.com/reachsingapore • UAE - https://www.facebook.com/Emirates.eGov, http://twitter.com/emiratesegov, http://www.youtube.com/emiratesegovernment, http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Emirates-eGovernment-3894269?mostPopular=&gid=3894269, http://www.government.ae/web/guest/blogs, http://www.flickr.com/photos/egovuae • USA.gov – https://www.facebook.com/USAgov, http://blog.USA.gov, http://twitter.com/USAgov, http://youtube.com/USAgov

41. Open Data Sites • Australia – http://data.gov.au • Bahrain – http://data.gov.bh • Singapore – http://data.gov.sg • UK – http://data.gov.uk • USA – http://data.gov

42. Summary

43. Summary • In addition to national e-governance portal, there are also portals/websites that are: • Sector-based • Locality-based • Deliver e-content to mobile devices • Use social media networks for e-governance

44. Summary – Mobile Devices Three mobile mindsets: • "I'm Microtasking“ • "I'm Local“ • "I'm Bored" or "I'm Curious"

45. Summary – Mobile Devices Mobile application concepts should be evaluated against these criteria: • Feasibility • Effectiveness • Private competition • Government justification • Cost-effectiveness

46. Summary – Social Media Critical success factors • Careful planning on content and delivery channels based on users’ analysis • Development of workflow and a governance structure • Regular and open communication internally within organizations and externally with stakeholders and users

47. Summary – Social Media Critical success factors • Securing adequate resources in the long-term—both human and financial—for not only the e-participation process, but also the capacity to respond to and act on citizens’ requests and comments • Developing and agreeing on a moderation policy that will give an agency the justification it needs to remove or prevent inappropriate content from being published online, while also being simple enough that it does not inhibit participation in its initiative