Webmasters' Guild

The Webmasters' Guild was created to provide a means for those individuals within state and local government that have responsibilities for their agencies' Web Sites to share ideas, issues, problems, and solutions and to suggest and/or develop education opportunities to benefit web development professionals. This mission is achieved through regular monthly meetings, an active listserv, and collaboration with other Forum workgroups.

2009-2010 Accomplishments

Education/Training Seminars

  • Held 8 monthly meetings (Oct - June) with attendance between 50 and 100+ attendees per session. Estimated total number of attendees over 750.
  • The monthly meetings were balanced among presenters from private industry (such as SiteImprove, Troy Web Consulting, CGI, Pyxis Mobile) and expertise within NYS government (such as OCIO/OFT, NYSED, NYS Senate, Schenectady County, DCJS, and CSCIC ).

2010-2011 Proposed Initiatives

Tool Development

Policy Review

  • Participated in OCIO/OFT ad hoc task forces working on statewide IT initiatives such as the NYS Web Banner, IT strategy, and IT Executive Training program.

Publications (an all media formats)

  • Produced a report on the feasibility of a social media collaboration platform addressing issues such as accessibility and security, pros and cons, that was published on the Forum web site at http://www.nysforum.org/committees/socialmedia/

Research/Surveys

  • Conducted online survey of members during summer 2009 to gather feedback on topics and types of sessions preferred for 2009-2010 and produced sessions on these topics (Social Media, Search Engine Optimization, Rich Internet Applications. Accessibility, Java Scripting, Mobile Apps, XML Databases, Migrating to .gov URL, among others )

Consultation with State/Local Government Agencies/Leadership

  • Worked closely with Emerging Technologies on the Social Media Initiative, piloting a collaboration platform based on Ning, with over 100 members participating.
  • Worked closely with IT Accessibility, particularly our joint meeting on February 2010 devoted to Accessibility and Web 2.0/Social Media.
  • Initiated new collaboration with NYS OCIO/OFT on maintaining regular channels of communication whereby we each keep the other informed and draw on each other's resources and expertise. This has been evidenced in OCIO/OFT update being a regular agenda item at our monthly meetings and in several ad hoc policy workgroups mentioned above.

Other

  • As part of our strategic plan for 2009-2010, we also initiated new outreach and collaboration mechanism such as our first WebEx presentation on July 14.
  • Started a new mini user group within Webmasters' Guild focused on Mobile Apps Design and Development. We intend to nurture and grow these focused areas of growing interest.

2010-2011 Projected Initiatives

Education/Training Seminars

  • Continue format of monthly meetings based on topics of current interest and importance to members to share knowledge and upgrade skills. The Forum's July Strategic Planning session will be used to help develop the 2010 - 2011 Programs. (Potential topics already proposed include Open Source, Mobile Apps, scripting).
  • Encourage use of the Web Guild's online forum to pursue Q/A's, sharing success and critiques.
  • Institute regular series of WebEx presentations to complement the monthly meetings and reach out to wider membership who cannot attend the monthly meetings.
  • Focus on teaching skills that are immediately applicable in the participant's work environment (e.g. plug-in, HTML5 CSS3, etc) (4)

Tool Development

Policy Review

  • Continue collaboration with OCIO/OFT on various statewide IT policy initiatives.

Research/Surveys

  • Survey members during summer 2010to gather feedback on topics and types of sessions preferred for 2010-2011

Consultation with State/Local Government Agencies/Leadership

  • Continue our active engagement with other workgroups to produce programs, events, and/or opportunities that benefit members of each, increase awareness, and draw upon complementary expertise and interests. We did a lot with Emerging Technologies and IT Accessibility in 2009-2010; we should attempt to do more with other workgroups that have similar affinities such as Security, Small Medium and Local Government Agencies, and Project Management.
  • Continue reach out to other groups within NYS such as the OCIO/OFT, New York State Training and Development Council (NYSTDC) and the various user groups within the Capital District to broaden our knowledge base.
  • Reach out to groups similar to NYS Webmasters' Guild in other states and at federal level (such as the Web Content Managers' Forum) to share experiences, information, and concerns.