What’s New and

Lessons LearnedDavid S. EngDavid S. Eng

Project Manager/ChairWiki and Blog Work Group

OEI/OIAA/IAD/ISBApril 14, 2010

2Tips and Advice

Agenda

• What’s New on Wiki, Blog, Web 2.0 Infrastructure, and

Support

• Use the BASIC approach to wiki/blog development

• Test your Ideas, Apps, and Retest on Roles Access

• Promote and sustain your wiki/blog

• Improved access through finer permission settings

3Tips and Advice

What’s New with Web 2.0 Infrastructure

• Successful Secured Web 2.0 LAMP Infrastructure

Implementation– 145 wikis and blogs deployed

– PhP and MySql accepted within EPA Technology Architecture

• All Web 2.0 Applications, Wiki and Blog must have Web Access

Manager, WAM

• Streamline the Wiki and Blog application process

• Intrawiki and Intrablog replaced Kestrel server environment to

separate internal wikis and blogs

• Leaving un-touched wikis and blogs behind

4Tips and Advice

What’s New with Wikis

• One EPA Wiki (Environmental Wiki) Internal Agency wiki for all to share and

collaborate on information (including “O” in ROT and Grape Jelly) from top 51st

topcs to ‘longtail’ and leverage a ‘flat’ with supporting discussion page. – Sub-workgroup – need your help to grow

– Internal wiki @ https://kestrel.rtpnc.epa.gov/wiki , example:

• Collaborate internally on Open Government Plan

• Start using One EPA Wiki

• More Extensions – more shared components at

https://wiki.epa.gov/envirocentral

• New Skin - Agency Wiki Look and Feel

• Working to integrate with EPA Professional Network

5Tips and Advice

What’s New with Blogs

• WordPress Multi-User installed

• Ten additional Blogs went live as Discussion Forums

– Topic oriented and ‘sunset date’

• New Greenversations Blog Organization w/Category Linked

Discussion Forums

• WordPress Upgrades allows dynamic widget and ease of use,

organization,

and administration

• More Plug-ins

6Tips and Advice

Web 2.0 Apps Live@Internet

Web 2.0 App Name Start date URL Link

Blogs

National Dialogue (Archived) 6/5/2008 https://nationaldialogue.epa.gov/ndblog/partners

Greenversations 4/22/2008 http://blog.epa.gov/blog

Open Government Blog 4/15/2010 http://blog.epa.gov/opengov

Discussion Forums

Acid Rain 4/20/2010 http://blog.epa.gov/acidrain

Healthy Waters 4/9/2010 http://blog.epa.gov/healthywaters

Open Government Plan Discussion Forum 4/7/2010 http://blog.epa.gov/opengovplan

Water Discussion Forum 3/16/2010 http://blog.epa.gov/waterforum

Rule Gateway 2/1/2010 http://blog.epa.gov/rulegateway

OSWER Discussion Forum 12/1/2009 http://blog.epa.gov/oswerforum

EPA’s Data Finder Forum 7/22/2009 http://blog.epa.gov/data

Metal Mining (Archived) 8/5/2009 http://blog.epa.gov/metalminingblog

Enforcement and Compliance National Priority (Archived) 8/26/2009 http://blog.epa.gov/enforcementnationalpriority

CWA Action Plan (Archived) 6/4/2009 http://blog.epa.gov/cwaactionplan

7Tips and Advice

Support and Communication

• New Wiki and Blog Technical Support -contact the

EPA Call Center at 1-866-411-4EPA (4372) or

epacallcenter@epa.gov to start a ticket (tracked)

• Web Guide - Process for Setting Up Wikis and Blogs at EPA

• FAQs - https://wiki.epa.gov/envirocentral/FAQs Wiki

• Successful Practices for Web 2.0 Application

8Tips and Advice

Making Your App Work for Your Audience

Wiki and blog applications require collaboration among groups of interested

participants.

• need to inspire and work with your workgroup or community to

1. Organize,

2. Gather,

3. Establish,

4. Coordinate,

5. Plan for your site,

6. Encourage the greater community to participate, and

7. Market

• note that the hardest and most time-consuming part is to build and cultivate your

community, not to develop the site itself.

9Tips and Advice

Lessons Learned #1: BASIC -Plan for Your App Development

• Begin drafting/identifying your Plan, Objective, & Purpose

early

• Address your community (audience), business needs, and

requirements

• Start small, ‘but do it for real’ (establish and build on

success, gather feedback)

• Identify Web 2.0 technology/tools to address your needs

• Consider content is king

10Tips and Advice

Begin Drafting/Identifying Your Plan, Objective and Purpose Early

• Plan, Readiness, and Test

– Outreach – promotion (community)

– Deployment – ADC (not needed for standard Wiki or Blog)

– Maintenance – gardening & improvements

11Tips and Advice

Address Your Community, Business Needs, and Requirements

Listen to your community, readers, and partners

– Better editing capabilities

– Group protection

– Tutorial

– Control for customization

12Tips and Advice

Start Small, ‘But Do It For Real’

• Never experiment with the whole community

– It’s real the first time

– First impression is the lasting impression

– Start simple & small and grow with improvements

– Establish early successes, build on momentum

– Listen to feedback

– Respond to your commenter

13Tips and Advice

Identify Web 2.0 Technology/Tools To Address Your Needs

• To meet business needs, be open and explore the

multiple capabilities of Web 2.0 through reading,

discovering, learning, testing, and deploying

• Collaborate with others for best fits

on using Web 2.0 technologies as

tools for meeting and enhancing

your information needs.

14Tips and Advice

Consider Content Is King

• Grow with a maturing strategy on promotion and life cycle

• Freshness - constant content improvements with change

alert

• Submit timely content and provide clear direction through

one-source instructions

• Experiment with and learn to use Web 2.0 tools to

understand the capabilities/limitations

• Content needs to be in plain language

15Tips and Advice

#2: Test Before Deployment

• Test your Ideas, Apps, and Retest on Roles

Access

• Go in with no assumption,

• Plan, Test, Refine, and Retest for minimize

perception, myth, impact, and building false

hope with demonstrative results.

• (Recent Live Situation)

16Tips and Advice

#3: Promote and SustainYour Wiki/Blog

• Consider your message (start with one)

• Define objectives and goals

• Consider your audience (may be a different sub-group)

• Consider growth with variable topics

• Plan by section– Hierarchical page structure

– Categorize your content

• Apply and/or readjust your communication strategy

• Use Social Media Technologies to alert, discover, refresh, and

add contents and ideas.

17Tips and Advice

#4 Apply On-going Enhancements

• Look and feel – style

• Add rules of behavior

• Skins and templates

• Extensions or plug-ins

• Reflect – does this achieve my mission?

• Add disclaimer at top of each page

• Recognize your frequent contributors and collaborators

18Tips and Advice

Access Management

• Web Access Manager enables Web 2.0

applications better access with finer

permission settings through the EPA WAM

(single sign-on) on Apps that require

authentication, and registration process.

• Remote token access via VPN is

required with Intranet and Extranet

19Tips and Advice

Summary

• Use the BASIC approach to wiki/blog

development

• Promote and sustain your wiki/blog

• Improved access through finer permission

settings with WAM

20Tips and Advice

Contact:

David S. EngWeb 2.0 Projects Manager

Email : eng.david@epa.govPhone: 202-566-1182

Dalroy WardChief, Information Services Branch

Email : ward.dalroy@epa.govPhone: 202-566-0381