WordPress and Government

1. WordPress and Government Stephen Cronin 6 November 2011 WordCamp Gold Coast

2. Long Rambling Introduction Stephen Cronin, WordCamp Gold Coast 2011 • My two worlds: • WordPress development • Government web management • Bringing the two together • Worlds collide: high priortyWordPress project • People keen to talk about WP and Govt • Some success, but many challenges

3. The Compulsory Disclaimer Stephen Cronin, WordCamp Gold Coast 2011 Before I get too far… I'm here today representing myself. I work for the Queensland Government, but I in no way represent them here today. My views are entirely my own and not those of QLD Gov. May differ from government elsewhere And now with that out of the way…

4. Successes Stephen Cronin, WordCamp Gold Coast 2011 Successes help frame the challenges In 2008, Mark Jaquith listed: http://markjaquith.wordpress.com/2008/08/18/us-government-agencies-using-wordpress/ But what’s happened since then?

5. Successes – The Showcase Stephen Cronin, WordCamp Gold Coast 2011 The Showcase list 22 sites under Government http://wordpress.org/showcase/tag/government/

6. Successes – UK Stephen Cronin, WordCamp Gold Coast 2011 Trend towards the greater use of WordPress The Government Digital Service Alpha.gov.uk blog (but not main site) The Civil Service site relaunched in WordPress http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/ Word Up Whitehall British Prime Minister’s site since 2008 http://www.number10.gov.uk/

7. Successes - US Stephen Cronin, WordCamp Gold Coast 2011 • Federal Communications Commission (FCC) • Released plugins back to the community • WP Document Revisions plugin also related • Library of Congress, but only the blogs • Others: • The City of Albert Leahttp://www.cityofalbertlea.org/ • Administrative Conference of the United Stateshttp://www.acus.gov/

8. Successes - Australia Stephen Cronin, WordCamp Gold Coast 2011 • Federal level: govspace which hosts blogs and other websites on behalf of agencies http://govspace.gov.au/ • Queensland: Nothing…. • Survey of all departments: None using WordPress • WordPress not even on the radar • Some partnership sites • Except for the one I’m working on now… • There should be more!!

9. Challenges - Conservative ICT Stephen Cronin, WordCamp Gold Coast 2011 • Government ICT is conservative by nature • IE6 • Still in use • WordPress Admin doesn’t work properly • Posts in Twenty Eleven theme blank? • Social media • Change management & security

10. Challenges - Change Management Stephen Cronin, WordCamp Gold Coast 2011 • Change = risk • General model for change / testing: • DEV -> TEST -> PROD • Planning, including test and roll back plans • Change Advisory Board (CAB) approval • Communicate potential outages • Required for all changes (even 1 click updates) • Security

11. Challenges - ICT View of WordPress Stephen Cronin, WordCamp Gold Coast 2011 Plugin code quality Update frequency One click upgrade Update immediately for security Automatic updates Not all doom and gloom

12. Types of Government Websites Stephen Cronin, WordCamp Gold Coast 2011 • Campaign website: • Promoting an initiative, short life span • Blogs: • Expect to see more of these in the future • Specific purpose: • doing something different, specific purpose • Enterprise website: • The huge complex informational website

13. Enterprise Level Websites Stephen Cronin, WordCamp Gold Coast 2011 • Picture of an enterprise level website: • Anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 pages • Anywhere from 3 to 7 levels deep • Several hundred distributed authors • Complex workflows, up to 5 levels of approval • How well does WordPress fit this type of site? • It’s not about traffic, it’s about complexity • The WordPress as CMS debate…

14. Challenges – Enterprise Websites Stephen Cronin, WordCamp Gold Coast 2011 • Functionality: • Search • Workflow! • User permissions • Managing 10,000 pages • Terminology: Custom What Types? • There’s a plugin for that • Enterprise level support

15. Challenges - Selection Process Stephen Cronin, WordCamp Gold Coast 2011 • Depends on the project • Large sites require formal selection process: • Selective tendering, or • Open tendering • Supplier must be accredited • How does WordPress get to the table? • Automattic? • The department? • You?

16. CMSs Used In Government Stephen Cronin, WordCamp Gold Coast 2011 • SharePoint • Interwoven TeamSite • OpenText / RedDot • Squiz Matrix: • Open Source • PHP based • Used extensively in Aust government • So why are Squiz at the table?

17. Squiz Matrix vsWordPress Stephen Cronin, WordCamp Gold Coast 2011 Squiz is the company, Matrix the product Squiz are an accredited supplier to govt Functionality Custom Functionality Tighter focus Lots of other govt clients Secure hosting (used by other govt clients) Services and support

18. Challenges - The Government Niche Stephen Cronin, WordCamp Gold Coast 2011 • Government as a niche • Real estate and other niches • Government niche involves: • Low volume • High effort (inc accreditation) • Long lead times • End to end services and support • Any of you up for that?

19. Positives Stephen Cronin, WordCamp Gold Coast 2011 Plenty of things in WordPress’s favour It’s free, flexible, extendible, proven, avoids lock in, many plugins, great community, etc Greater emphasis on business benefits Trends towards WordPress in government Everyone’s using WordPress at home

20. What Can The Community Do Stephen Cronin, WordCamp Gold Coast 2011 Relax (only the big sites are a problem) Align the language with the enterprise Build core plugins for government Precedence: A big govt site on WordPress Market the business benefits Companies targeting the government niche. Now get out there and go for it!

21. Thank You Stephen Cronin, WordCamp Gold Coast 2011 • Thanks to everyone! • If you want to discuss this further grab me after the talk, or contact me: • Email: sjc@scratch99.com • Website: http://scratch99.com • Twitter: @stephencronin