Comments on: Beyond cut and paste: the professional skills every government web publisher should have

By: Los Angeles Plumber

Los Angeles Plumber — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:35:25 +0000

Control-A, Control-C, Control-V. I couldn’t do my job without it. Life is all about figuring out what works, copying it for your own application, the cutting and pasting it into action. Great post

By: What standards and legal requirements do government websites need to take account of? at Helpful Technology

Tue, 26 May 2009 20:18:39 +0000

[...] he also grilled them on some of the practical issues of being a jobbing government webby (something he has also covered brilliantly [...]

By: Neil Williams

Neil Williams — Sat, 23 May 2009 09:17:46 +0000

Good manual ping there, Paul. Pingbacks are enabled, so that’s a mystery. Good post, too, and thanks for the props therein. I’m watching the Socitm developments with interest and am still keen to be involved in some way (although, not able to give much time to it..)

Harry – good add, but a deliberate omission on my part as the focus was on devolved publishers doing the old fashioned web management stuff. But you’re right, the lines aren’t really so clear cut. You need this too.

By: paul canning

paul canning — Thu, 21 May 2009 13:02:12 +0000

Pingback to this doesn’t seem to be happening :[
http://paulcanning.blogspot.com/2009/05/why-gov-webbies-need-professional.html

By: Harry Mecalfe

Harry Mecalfe — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:42:39 +0000

This is a great post — I’ve already forwarded it to people needing to get web content staff — but I think it is missing something along the lines of:

* Hands-on experience using social tools. Ability to edit and upload simple videos and manage flickr, twitter and upcoming accounts, and similar.

What do you think?

By: Neil Williams

Neil Williams — Sun, 03 May 2009 11:42:15 +0000

Thanks everyone, glad you found it useful.

Ross – good call. That’s probably my biggest shortcoming personally, and it’s telling that it didn’t occur to me. Think I need to address this one with a week in a policy or bill team.

By: Selected links for 20th April through 27th April | Gavin Wray

Selected links for 20th April through 27th April | Gavin Wray — Sat, 02 May 2009 10:08:00 +0000

[...] Beyond cut and paste: the professional skills every government web publisher should have Neil Williams has summarised the core skills required in web publisher or web editing role. The majority of the skills are applicable to any web publisher role, not just within government or public sector. [...]

By: Stephen Hale

Stephen Hale — Fri, 01 May 2009 16:42:03 +0000

Neil – this is incredibly useful.

By: Ross Ferguson

Ross Ferguson — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 08:28:56 +0000

This is good, clear and valuable, Neil.

All I’d want to add would be some degree of knowledge about governance, politics or the policy process – that is to be able to demonstrate a general professional knowledge about the sector.

The best web publishers I have met in government have had this knowledge and have used it to focus their specialist digital skills more effectively.

By: MJ Ray

MJ Ray — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:49:36 +0000

Great list. I’ve bookmarked it for future reference.

I don’t think this is about being professional. It’s about being effective. The two things are not always the same.

By: paul canning

paul canning — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 17:31:57 +0000

Kindof ties into your good point about web use skills actually. Knowing the community of interest for content (and ‘marketing’ to them) is a key part of getting it read!

IME devolved publishers do have some idea of their specific online audience but somehow don’t make the connection to them. Most of this is basic common sense but online gov doesn’t have the history there in this area so somehow people leave that part of their brain at the door!

Something strange happens to government brains … I can recall numerous conversations along these disconnected lines. Example: online school registrations – why not recruit MumsNet? ‘But we published a leaflet, mums will have heard of it’ And so on, around in circles …

By: Neil Williams

Neil Williams — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 17:20:50 +0000

Good call Paul, some digital marketing skills would be handy. Essential for the central team but possibly only desirable in a devolved content publisher?

By: paul canning

paul canning — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 16:55:24 +0000

Damn.

Forgot to mention THE missing skill. Some notion of marketing online. This doesn’t necessarily follow from understanding stuff like analytics. Plus we do tend to be terrible at it!

By: paul canning

paul canning — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 16:52:49 +0000

The last two are almost the most crucial but to these I’d add having an open mind and realising you don’t know everything. It also helps if you have experience outside government. We do tend to be a walled garden, coming up with our own language and reinventing the wheel when it comes to the web.

Doing and managing websites is really rather complicated, especially having a good sense of priorities. It’s easy if you’re not experienced AND open minded to get seduced by the latest new-fangled thing and forget stuff like usability. That’s, in practice, what happens all the time.

It’s also a never ending process so it’s also easy to put stuff off. Especially in government.

With usability (and accessibility, which IMO is usability for a specific user group) it seriously helps not just to have some clue as to the basics – heuristics – but also the people skills to be able to learn directly from users. Being one step removed from actual users can be dangerous.

Great list Neil.

By: Gavin Wray

Gavin Wray — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 15:14:49 +0000

Thanks for pulling this list together. It’s spot on accurate and I think lots of web managers will find it useful.

I like the point on giving feedback to content providers (from analytics and anecdotal comments) so that they feel their contributions are valued. This is straightforward to do but can have a real positive effect.

@Matt and @Neil: agree about web publishers with XHTML and CSS chops being a dangerous thing!