Next Generation of Statewide Websites

Presented by NTAP and Pro Bono NetNovember 30, 2007

Today’s Training

Web Development Today Trends and Technologies Affecting the

Future of Statewide Websites Low cost ways to enhance your website Facilitating Interaction Fresh and Timely Content

A few stats to help us set the stage:

More than half (55%) of all online American youths ages 12-17 use online social networking sites.

28% of internet users have tagged or categorized content online such as photos, news stories or blog posts.

57% percent of online adults have used the internet to watch or download video

36% of online American adults consult Wikipedia(All from Pew Internet and the American Life Project. For specific report citations see the resources section at the end of this presentation).

Content creation by age

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Ages 12-17

Ages 18-29

Ages 30-38

Ages 39-48

Ages 49-60

Ages 61-69

Ages 70+

Per

cent

age

Internet users Total population

Take 20 minutes…

Pew Internet and American Life – Web 2.0 and what it means for librarieshttp://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/94/presentation_display.asp

This presentation contains the latest data from the Pew Internet & American Life Project related to Web 2.0 applications and activities online. It also goes through the implications for libraries and suggests several issues related to Web 2.0 that librarians might help sort out.

Trends and Technologies Affecting Statewide Websites More options Simpler solutions Web 2.0 Web based tools or “add-ons” Technology moving faster than we can

keep up…. And a new generation of users to reach

Where to Begin?

Don’t Forget the Basics: Before we get to the new stuff – let’s remember

the building blocks. A usable website is always the first way to improve for

the future. Don’t know where to start check out: Top Ten Mistakes in

Website Design – Jacob Neilson http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605.html

Good, relevant and readable content trumps any “bells and whistles” (More on this later)

Personalization

On websites, personalization is the process of tailoring pages or page content to your users' characteristics or preferences.

Personalization likely makes the most sense on the advocate website (both for staff advocates and pro bono attorneys)

Examples:

Personalization on Statewide Websites Personalization likely makes the most

sense on the advocate website (both for staff advocates and pro bono attorneys)

Why? In e-commerce saves customer time,

increases sales Information/subscription sites – saves time,

organizes content, makes site more usable

www.illinoislegaladvocate.org Site Calendar Highlights Recommended Events

Legal Aid Examples:

IllinoisProBono.Org Uses Volunteer Profile to Recommend Opportunities

Why personalization?

Cynthia Vaughn – Ohio Legal Assistance FoundationDecision making that went into redesign

Talking with advocates about what they want Deciding what to prioritize

The goal of substantive areas with specific features

Can’t redesign…

Other ways to “personalize” contentCreate an email newsletter

Highlight new content in certain areas Have “Topic or Role Specific” Newsletters

Pro Bono Family Law

Have specialized pages or areasSubstantive law “home pages”

Low-cost Site Enhancements

Video / Screencasting Google Calendar Incoming RSS Feeds

Video Content

Fifty-seven percent of online adults have used the internet to watch or download video, and 19% do so on a typical day.

Note: For teens this goes up to 85% who have used the Internet to watch video – 62% report watching videos on YouTube.

Pew Internet and the American Life – Online Video Report, Mary Madden, 7/7/2007 http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Online_Video_2007.pdf

Video ContentEmbedding Video Arkansas Legal Services: Embeded YouTube

Videos – How to use the Site – Spanish, Domestic Violence and Access to Justice http://www.arkansaslegalservices.org/Home/PublicWeb/Videos/ `

Idaho Legal Aid – YouTube Fair Housinghttp://idaholegalaid.org/Home/PublicWeb/Housing

Vermont Law Help – Stories blip-tvhttp://blip.tv/file/472613/

Screencasting

Captures the display of your computer screen, for example:A PowerPoint presentation Walkthrough of a websiteSoftware demo Graphical explanation of a concept

Colorado Screencasts

Colorado project summaryFrom Molly French, mfrench@colegalserv.org:

“CLS submitted a grant proposal to the Colorado Bar Foundation to create two audio visual presentations to add to the public site of its website. Topics include How the Courts Work and Adult Name Change. We requested a total of $2300 for the project and in 2005 the proposal was funded. We have posted one of the presentations on the site and the others are still in production but very close to being finalized and uploaded.

The budget items included equipment (at the time we included costs for a file hosting arrangement, FTP software, computer microphone, audio editor (Camtasia Studio) and an upgrade to PowerPoint). We purchased the microphone and software, and have also purchased an upgrade to Camtasia since the project's inception. We also requested money for translation of the presentations (they will be available in English and Spanish) and the remaining funds were designated to help pay for outreach materials we use at community education sessions.

We recruited a summer intern from one of the local law schools to focus on this project. She took materials on the state court website and wrote a script for each presentation. We recruited court personnel (both were on our stakeholder committee at one point) to review the scripts and also had CLS attorneys review them before we created the slides. Our volunteer actually was donating a lot of her time to us over the summer, and she, with some direction as far as graphics to use, built the slides in PowerPoint. She then 'dumped' the slides into Camtasia and recorded the audio. We had both scripts translated by a local consultant that we had used previously to translate other web content to maintain continuity in our translations. We recruited another volunteer who worked in our intake unit to record the Spanish audio for each presentation. Camtasia, we thought anyway, is very easy software to learn how to use and also it is fairly simple to make edits and revisions. (It is easier to delete a visual, slide or audio in Camtasia than it is to add anything, so make sure that you have all of your content included before you record your audio.)”

Summary

Budget/Equipment

Production

Free screencasting tools and resources Jing (http://www.jingproject.com/) Wink http://www.debugmode.com/wink/) Idealware Introduction to Screencasting:

http://www.idealware.org/articles/screencasting.php

Audio/mic quality important Consider hosting needs

Google Calendar

Option to include events in Google’s Public Events search too

Google Calendar

Getting started with Google Calender

“In MN, we started using Google Calendars for our immigration clinics, because it looks better than what we used to have, which was basically a list.  It's posted as a "special bulletin" in our immigration topic area. 

 Google has a nifty tutorial on how to create calendars.  There is even an option that allows you to allow others to add events to the calendar - so for example, the people hosting immigration events could add their own clinics to our calendar if they wanted to, and save us the work.  Once you've created a calendar you can embed it into any HTML page you want - we used a LawHelp resource cluster page because it's basically a blank slate, whereas each Dynamic HTML page has that yellow "related resources" box on the right-hand side, which can cause formatting issues. 

 To turn it into a news bulletin, we linked the "news item" straight to the resource cluster, then put the cluster inside an inactive topic.” 

  - Patrick Noonan, former AmeriCorps *VISTA, Minnesota Legal Services Coalition

RSS Really Simple Syndication (or Really Super Stuff)

RSS: Creating Custom Feeds

RSS - Creating custom feeds tailored to your audience

RSS feed builders

-Yahoo Pipeshttp://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/

- Ice Rockethttp://rss.icerocket.com/

rss.lstech.org hosts feeds generated by national legal services organizations and some states.

Feeds also available from:LSC (News)CLASP (News)Brennan Center (News)NLADA (News, Jobs)LSNTAP (News, Blogs)

Getting started with RSS

More on RSS

LSNTAP RSS trainings & resources http://www.lstech.org/bookshelf?tid=8&name=RSS.

PBN RSS trainingshttp://www.probono.net/link.cfm?8254

Which of these tools is right for you?

Review options in the context of how they:- Promote the content on your site- Provide a better way of delivering the

content- Ease the administrative burdens of

updating or adding new content

Facilitating Interaction

Live Help MySpace/Facebook Blogging

The LiveHelp Concept

Provides virtual, live assistance for Web site visitors

Helps visitors find information and referrals

Doesn’t provide legal advice

Where is LiveHelp being used?

Navigation assistance on MontanaLawHelp.org, IowaLegalAid.org, LawHelp.org/LA

Cross-state assistance test underway Upcoming activities:

Integration with document assembly in Montana Support for pro bono attorneys via

GeorgiaAdvocates.org ArkansasLegalServices.org 2008 TIG grant for additional capacity at PBN to

support LiveHelp replication in other states

Chat TranscriptINFO: You are now chatting with ‘Navigator‘VISITOR: HelloNAVIGATOR: Hello. I can help you find information about the law and legal rights. I can't give you any legal advice or tell you what to do. Do not tell me anything confidential. You and I don't have an attorney-client relationship.The other side in your case may contact LiveHelp for more information. In that case, we will also give him or her information.Is this okay?VISITOR: I guess...I need information though. do you do that?NAVIGATOR: I can certainly try. What can I help you with?VISITOR: on the 6th of Dec of 06 I was given notice to move from a trailer space I am renting. move out date? 1/1/07 water to be turned off 1/5/07...they claimed the County Sanitarian was closing down the trailer park… this is a “lie” according to the SanitarianVISITOR: I cannot find legal assistance as I am not rich. I need help. where do I go?NAVIGATOR: Are you in Montana?VISITOR: yes

NAVIGATOR: First of all, here is a link to some useful information on evictions: evictions link.VISITOR: thanks. how do I file an injunction? what is the form number/name?NAVIGATOR: I am unable to find the kind of form you are looking for.You might want to try contacting Montana Legal Services. If you are eligible for their services, they can give you legal advice and possibly find you a free attorney. Their telephone number is 1-800-666-6124VISITOR: ok, wrote it down. I am sure I qualify. is there something else?NAVIGATOR: Calling legal services would probably be the most helpful. Be sure to let them know that you are up against a deadline and they will help you address the problem immediatelyVISITOR: great. Thank you very much. You have a good new year.NAVIGATOR: Can I help you with anything else?VISITOR: No, thank you though

Chat Transcript (con’t)

2007 Usage (through July)

Montana – 313 “Acts of Help”

MontanaLawHelp.org usage: 24,982 visits and 135,138 page views.

Iowa – 322 “Acts of Help”

IowaLegalAid.org usage: 34,718 site visits and 132,853 page views

Live Help works

LiveHelp user profiles fit generally within the income-eligible and target populations of legal aid.

LiveHelp seems to increase users’ understanding of their legal problems and what needs to be done to solve them.

LiveHelp significantly increases both the extent to which visitors are able to find the information and the speed with which they are able to do so.

Interim Analysis of Potential Broader Access to Justice Usage

Advocate Support for Pro Bono Attorneys Pro Bono Advice or Information to Web site Users Cross State Assistance Multi-Lingual Support Document Assembly Support Low-Literacy User Support Service Finding and Online Application Assistance Diagnostic Software Support As Assistive Technology Considerations Self Help Centers Public Legal Information Consortium Binding Together the Full Range of Access To Justice Web sites with Single

Integrated Support Service

Live Help Resources

Christine Mandiloff, MLSA cmandilo@mtlsa.org

Liz Keith, Pro Bono Net lkeith@probono.net

Jordan Bergsten, Pro Bono Net jbergsten@probono.net

Additional resources on probono.net/statewebsites and lsntap.org

Your Online Presence…Is your website enough? With the growth of social networking websites

more organizations are considering whether to have a presence in those networks. More than half (55%) of all online American

youths ages 12-17 use* online social networking sites, according to a new national survey of teenagers conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/198/report_display.asp

20% of online adults have profiles.

Social Networking Sites

“Using” a social networking site means more than browsing or searching

MySpace…Facebook

More effective than a search engine? How many of your organizations have a

MySpace page? How many of you have a personal MySpace

page? What is appropriate for a non-profit

organization? http://www.diosacommunications.com/

myspacebestpractices.htm

Want to learn more?

How to Use MySpace to Raise Awareness: Three nonprofit organizations share their experiences

http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/internet/page6016.cfm A Beginner's Guide to Facebook: How nonprofits can

get started on the popular social networking sitehttp://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/internet/page7430.cfm Social Networks Part 1 – somepocho –

http://lsntap.org/node/2297 NLADA Conference Session – Technology Trends

that Impact How You Practice http://lsntap.org/nlada_techsession_blog

Legal Aid in the Blogosphere

Texas RioGrande Legal Aid Blog

http://mvlp.blogspot.com/

Blogging….

What is the goal of a blog vis-à-vis your website?Public relations vehicle Informal program updatesEngage volunteers and interns and share

their experiencesSee “A Nonprofit's Guide to the Blogosphere” onTechSoup.org for more ideas and free blogging tools

Fresh and Timely Content

RSS - Bring News to You The Poverty Law Newspaper -- ONLINE Feeds for advocates:

http://lsntap.org/node/1758

Fresh and Timely Content

Content is still the backbone of a good website

Content must be updated, relevant and readable.

Issues for clients related to emerging technology

LawHelp.org/NY Internet Fraud Topic

Cyberpiracyhttp://lsntap.org/CyberPiracyPrimer

How to decide on new directions

With any website enhancement or redesign look at:Which tools:

Are best at helping people find your content Allow you to distribute content in a new way Better support advocates Help you respond with relevant content Add – not distract – from content and goals of your

site

Website Content Resources

www.lsntap.org/techlibrary - Statewide Websites www.probono.net/statewidewebsites

Content Review and Maintenance SWEB113:Spring Cleaning: Doing a Major Content Review and Revisio

n for your Site

Strategies for Content Maintenance Website Usability Resources for Developing Content Strategies for Gathering Existing Content

Web 2.0 Riding the Waves of "Web 2.0" – Pew Internet and the American Life

Resources referred to in this training

Pew Internet and the American LifeSocial Networking Websites and Teens: An

Overview, Amanda Lenhart 1/7/2007http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_SNS_Data_Memo_Jan_2007.pdf

Tagging, Lee Rainie, 1/31/2007http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Tagging.pdf

Online Video, Mary Madden, 7/7/2007 http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Online_Video_2007.pdf

Wikipedia Users, Lee Rainie, 4/24/2007http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Wikipedia07.pdf

Resources Referred to in this Training Usability:

Top Ten Mistakes in Website Design – Jacob Neilson http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605.html

For a more basic understanding of usability start here: Usability 101 http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030825.html