After several years of talking about and conceptualizing, and months of development, I’m proud to formally (and finally) release GovPress, a simple, elegant WordPress theme for government.
GovFresh WP: building a government WordPress theme
Despite the fact that millions of websites around the world today are powered by low- and no-cost open source content management systems, nearly all small city governments remain trapped in the 90s. To date, however, this need hasn’t adequately been served, and we need to change this. We can change this.
You go gURL: GSA turns on URL shortener Go.USA.gov
GSA announced it has officially opened up its URL shortener Go.USA.gov to anyone with a .mil, .gov, .fed.us or .si.edu email address. The site lets users create trustworthy short .gov URLs on Twitter and other online services with character restrictions and was developed by the team behind USA.gov along with members of the Drupal community.
How To Use Plain Language on a Government Website
HowCast created a How To Use Plain Language on a Government Website video.
From HowCast:
Too often, dense writing, confusing acronyms and fancy jargon bog down government websites. Here’s how to use plain language to help your customers find what they’re looking for, and save your agency time and money.
Perfect companion piece to The Elements of (Gov 2.0) Style.
(HT @AndrewPWilson)
The Elements of (Gov 2.0) Style
I’m all for the “clarity in government” objective of PLAIN (Plain Language Action and Information Network), the folks who maintain plainlanguage.gov.
I fully understand and support the need for PLAIN’s lofty goal of “Improving Communication from the Federal Government to the Public,” but don’t quite understand the need to create an entire Website to achieve this.