12. Existing Website Navigation HOPE PAGE Event Latest Presentation En español Mission & Programs Happenings Membership Membership Publications Board of Directors and Officers Membership Application Upcoming Events DC Forum ICGFM Mission and Programs Newsletter Presentations (+ Reports and Notices) Pub Fund Digest List of Members, Officers, Directors and By-laws Conference Presentations
13. Proposed Navigation HOPE PAGE ABOUT ICGFM JOIN THE ICGFM COMMUNITY PROGRAMS PUBLICATIONS FORUM Conferences Membership Mission (PFM) Journal GFM Wiki Board of Directors Members By-laws Meetings Presentations Newsletter Annual Conferences Reports and Notices Jobs and Internships Membership Application ICGFM Blog Members (link to Members Page) Contact us Research (IT) Standards GFM Blog Other Discussions Industry News
Thank everyone. Our purpose here is to help ICGFM more effectively execute on its mission. We are going to address this by: Talking about the mission and activities of ICGFM How this is not as effective as it could be Including issues related to traditional web technology I’ll introduce the concept of social computing And how Web 2.0 tools can enable ICGFM to better meet goals
There are four main international activities. All four of these are very valuable.
These are the disciplines described that fall under the ICGFM umbrella.
No interaction Few visits Appears that PFM and perhaps PEM are the recognized categories. We should consider changing the term.
Before we go further – consider the plight of the government financial management professional who encounters ICGFM for the first time through the web site. Is this web site for me? It does mention government financial management, although there is no logo or image that makes this immediately obvious. It does not speak to the user’s profession. The IT people, budget or audit professional may think that this is for accountants only. What is the value of ICGFM? The mandate is not obvious – the mission is below the home screen, in small print.
Maybe the finance professional decides to take a crack at the web site. Last month, the average time spent on the site was 3 minutes, up from 2 minutes and 26 seconds. This suggests that many do not stick around to explore the fine content available. Why is that? Site navigation and search information is difficult. Information is presented by event rather than by subject matter. The left panel links are confusing. Some headings have hyperlinks and some do not. Most of the information provided is confusing to the first time visitor. And, the content itself is difficult for search engines to find. And, the text is difficult for non-native English speakers.
ICGFM has a lot of valuable content that is not obvious from the home page. PDFs – particularly large PDFs like the Public Fund Digest and PowerPoints are difficult for search engines to find and parse. These means that the valuable information is hard to find. Compounded by the site navigation. And the lack of a search button. So, there are very few visitors to the web site.
As demonstrated here. So what? ICGFM has great attendance at conferences. But what about the countries in white on the map? They deserve governments with good fiscal management too.
Wonderful things have been happening in social computing That is providing the ability for people and groups to collaborate using a number of technologies That is providing community building and technology transfer We think that this will help ICGFM better achieve goals 24/7 – that’s why we set up a blog as a proof-of-concept
First, we think that the web site should be changed. Navigation should be adapted Public Fund Digest should be broken up into separate articles Giving a lot of advantages We would recommend using a tool that we use internally called Drupal, but another content management tool would be sufficient. I would think that this could be hosted by your current hosting provider. Low implementation time and cost Maintenance is easy
This is a representation of the current navigation. The items in grey text show links that do not anything. The really good stuff is the hardest to find.
This is an example of how the web site could be improved to follow the needs of users. Notice that publications and collaboration become more explicit.
Here is a wireframe mockup of how this might work. The mission becomes obvious. Events, publication and news provided. This would require more work, but it is based on the work we did improving our own web site.
We have tried to make it obvious what we do as a company and we think that we can do the same for ICGFM as a non-profit
The next step would be to put presentations on slideshare and documents on scribd – or other places. We haven’t explored all of the choices This has great advantages and it’s free It really won’t take much time It’s also possible to use these sites as the repository of the information rather than ICGFM. If these are on two different places, than there would be a bit of duplicate effort.
In this case, adding content, including video will provide links back to the site. Enabling google to find the content in a number of different ways Which is also enhanced by the use of the blog
Adding to the network would be getting links from ICGFM vendors and like-minding organizations.
Notice how a search for government financial management picks up one of the two presentations that we posted on slideshare.
Here’s an example of Scribd
Adding a forum and a wiki could also be accomplished. This could really provide a source for collaboration and communication. It is true that Wikis enable anyone to say anything which means that ICGFM would need to have editorial control. The other thing is that users need to participate. This could be free or we could use Drupal to make it wiki like
This could be further enhanced by using social networking software or link to things like Facebook Which would give more interactivity and gain a broader perspective on what people want. Again, it requires participation. But would be easy to set up but would need some content.
Eventually creating a network of links and interactivity known as the “network effect” because the value of the network increases with every new link.
It would be best to stage this to ensure that we are successful and learn from what works.