“We need a website”
NPR’s Morning Edition had a good piece today on the lackluster online efforts of the federal Department of Homeland Security, specifically the release of a kid’s site that is largely a reguritation of content from the FEMA website.
Michael Greenberger, Director of the University of Maryland’s Center for Health and Homeland Security, said this about the websites:
Having two different kids websites with different characters and different ways of selling preparedness is very confusing, and I think is emblematic that this is an effort that has not been thought through very well.
All levels of government have an obligation to deliver information to the public. In the age of the Internet, tools such as websites allow government to meet and exceed this obligation, and when used skillfully can deliver content that empowers consumers, alerts the public in event of emergency, and helps us maintain meaningful ownership of our government.
Here in Nevada, proposals are being discussed for websites that could serve a number of public needs. I’m particularly interested in working on proposals to help consumers get the best value in prescription drug and other health care purchases. But this story of the redundant disaster preparedness websites is an important reminder that when we create such sites, we have to do them right.
When someone says to government, “we need a website,” we have to make sure that the content assembled is relevant, accurate, and presented in a clear, easy to understand way. Doing sites the wrong way can result in the perpetuation of inaccurate information (that’s right, not everything you read online is true), increased service loads on government agencies because of phone calls from confused visitors, and even cost overruns for fixing the site that is a waste of money we all pay in taxes.
Interesting to note that this morning as I tried to locate the Ready Kids site, even the “kids” link on the front page of Ready.gov was broken.
Here’s the web page where you can listen to the NPR story.