NOAA WebShop
An Overview and History of the WebShop Conference
History
The NOAA WebShop conference serves NOAA employees and partners interested in and responsible for the design, development and management of web content and technologies. Now in its sixth year, the program is open to a NOAA-wide audience as it builds on the talents and experiences of its participants and others to provide a rich environment of collaboration and learning.
The concept of the WebShop conferences was born from a desire to formally bring together the talented and experienced, albeit disjointed, group of web and content people within the NOAA Research web community. Since then, the curriculum has matured in keeping with the rapidly advancing arena of the web, while the focus remains on sharing ideas and best practices to continuously improve the quality of the NOAA Web presence.
2007 Overview
The 2007 event attempts, for the first time, to connect everyone with a stake in the NOAA Web through a virtual conference offering. This single tracked event will focus on what you need to know to be ensure your sites meet federal, departmental and agencies requirements, OneNOAA projects, interesting technology applications in NOAA, best practices for web design and content development, and a look to the future of the NOAA Web Presence.
This year, the planning group, with oversight by the NOAA Web Committee, prepared a survey of our national staff to identify items of interest in relation to NOAA's Web presence. The survey requested the respondent's name, contact information and Web role, as well as interest in predefined topical areas and open comments. At the survey close, there were a total of 84 respondses collected. Following are the areas of interest and a breakdown of responses:
| Topical Areas | The program agenda is a direct result of your interest in these program topics, as well as your open comments. Once the top items were identified, we began the process of identifying speakers and forumlating the structure of the event. Day one has traditionally been more regulatory, highlighting the things that you NEED to know to produce compliant Web sites. Day two will focuses on the How Do I... of the Web by highlighting specific technology implementations in hopes of sparking ideas for other creative and useful applications. Day three is about you, how you participate and collaborate in the future of the NOAA Web. As a team we can will work together to further improve our amazing web assets and reach our customers with the products and information they need, when they need it. This is an exciting time for NOAA and our communications on the Web. Never have we had such a positive focus on improving our ability to work together to help meet NOAA's mission. |
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| New Technologies | 62 |
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| CMS | 46 |
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| Presentaion of Information | 45 |
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| NOAA Web Policy Development | 44 |
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| Web Policies & Requirements | 42 |
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| Usability | 41 |
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| RSS / Wikis / Blogs | 35 |
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| Web Analytics / Site Design | 35 |
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| NOAA Intranet | 35 |
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| Accessibility | 31 |
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| Optimizing for Search | 30 |
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| Data Format Standards | 30 |
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| Security | 28 |
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| CSS for Layout | 27 |
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| Collaboration Tools | 26 |
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| Portal Solutions | 23 |
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| Mash-ups / Ajax | 17 |
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| Development of Requirements | 15 |
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| Second LIfe | 14 |
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As we expand and gather more and more input from the NOAA web community and acedemic partners, we strengthen our abilities to use the web as a mission building tool. As in 2004, we expect to have tangible outcomes that will help to further shape the future of the NOAA Web presence and enhance our ability as dedicated Web and content professionals to contribute to the process.
We've already begun talking about possibilities for a face-to-face WebShop in 2008. It's been well received with leadership, we hope it will with you as well. We'll continue to garner your input as we start planning, and will be pleased to provide an official call for presentations, tutorials, and posters when the time arrives.
The NOAA Web Committee
Following recommendations from the 2004 WebShop, the NOAA Web Committee was formed in early 2005. The Committee is currently jointly chaired by Joe Klimivicz, NOAA's Chief Information Officer, and Anson Franklin, NOAA's Director of Communications. The joint leadership accentuates the partnership between IT anc Communications as well as the committment from leadership to promote NOAA's Web presence. Each Line Office has a representative to the Committee as follows:
NOAA HQ |
Paul Lineberger |
NCIO |
Carla Steinborn |
NESDIS |
Shelly Briscoe |
NMFS |
Kevin Holland |
NOS |
Lawrence Charters |
NWS |
Ron Jones |
OAR |
Allison Soussi-Tanani |
OMAO |
Carol Baldwin |
You can contact your representative for more information on the Committee and the WebShop program.