RE: first rough draft of 2nd charter

Sharon,

 

Thank you for your thoughts and comments. Much appreciated.

 

I will add this to the list for tomorrow's call.

 

Cheers,

Kevin

 

Kevin Novak

Vice President, Integrated Web Strategy and Technology

The American Institute of Architects

1735 New York Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20006

 

Voice:   202-626-7303

Cell:       202-731-0037

Twitter: @novakkevin

Fax:        202-639-7606

Email:    kevinnovak@aia.org

Website: www.aia.org

 

 
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From: public-egov-ig-request@w3.org
[mailto:public-egov-ig-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Sharron Rush
Sent: Tuesday, June 09, 2009 10:35 AM
To: eGov IG
Subject: RE: first rough draft of 2nd charter

 


Hello all,

My general comments about the charter draft can be summarized in two
points.  You will not be surprised to know that I strongly believe this
document needs:

1. shorter sentences
2. clear concise statement of mission and goals

The document we delivered under the first charter was opaque and very
hard to follow and/or make sense of.  I have shared the "Improving
Government..." doc far and wide and have yet to get anyone who is not
part of the W3C - not one person - to read the whole thing.   They get
bogged down in jargon and circular arguments.

If we are serious about having a global impact, we must dedicate
ourselves to modeling the kind of communications we encourage from
governments.  To me that means clarity above all. Open language - by
which I mean statements that are focused, pointed and as jargon-free as
possible - is every bit as important as open data.  In this case it
really is important that we "talk the talk" of open communications that
are understandable to all citizens.  And the bonus is that we will think
more clearly as a result.

Here are examples of mission statements from other groups:
- The mission of the Protocols and Formats Working Group is to increase
the support for accessibility in Web specifications.
- The mission of the HTML Working Group is to continue the evolution of
HTML (including classic HTML and XML syntaxes). 
- The mission of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group
is to develop guidelines to make Web content accessible for people with
disabilities. 
- The mission of the Semantic Web Health Care and Life Sciences Interest
Group, is to develop, advocate for, and support the use of Semantic Web
technologies for life science, translational medicine, and health care.


Here is ours:
The mission of the eGovernment Interest Group is to explore how to
improve access to government through better use of the Web and achieve
better government transparency using open Web standards at any
government level (local, state, national and multi-national). 

There are too many subclauses, in my opinion and the entire statement is
far too qualified.  Is our ultimate goal - our mission - really only to
"explore how to improve" these things?  and do we have a dual
mission...we also want to achieve "better...transparency"?   Are we
assuming that transparency is in place and we only need to make it
"better"?  My preference would be to express these two things in one
unified mission statement.  And do we not at some point want to develop
recommendations, best practices, educational materials, shared models,
etc?

The mission statement is only the most obvious place where clarity is
needed.  I know that many will think that I am harping on the same old
point about language, and I am sorry to be so tedious.  But we ignored
the need for clarity in the "Improving Gov..." document and I do not
think we want to go forward without making a strong and serious
commitment to plain language as a principle.  I also think that one of
our first goals must be to rewrite the first document with that
principle in mind.

In 2007, I worked with a group of government, academic and technology
advocates to develop a ten point statement of principles known as the
"Manifesto on Usability and Accessibility for Mexican Government
Websites"    Read it here http://www.uaweb.org.mx/en/documents/manifesto
for an example of how we might model our approach to promoting the use
of the web as a tool to support more truly democratic and open
government processes.

Thanks for your consideration,
Sharron



At 07:43 PM 6/8/2009, Novak, Kevin wrote:



All,

As Jose mentioned, please try to take a look at the draft tomorrow
(Tuesday) and share your thoughts via email. I would like to discuss
with you all on the call Wednesday.

Cheers,
Kevin

Kevin Novak
Vice President, Integrated Web Strategy and Technology
The American Institute of Architects
1735 New York Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20006

Voice:   202-626-7303
Cell:       202-731-0037
Twitter: @novakkevin
Fax:        202-639-7606
Email:    kevinnovak@aia.org
Website: www.aia.org <http://www.aia.org/> 


AIA NAMED BEST ASSOCIATIONS WEBSITE FOR THE 12th ANNUAL WEBBY AWARDS!

America's Favorite Architecture Tops the Shortlist for International
Honor for the Web

The American Institute of Architects is the voice of the architectural
profession and the resource for its members in service to society.



-----Original Message-----
From: public-egov-ig-request@w3.org [ 
mailto:public-egov-ig-request@w3.org
<mailto:public-egov-ig-request@w3.org> ] On Behalf Of Jose M. Alonso
Sent: Monday, June 08, 2009 6:40 PM
To: eGov IG
Subject: first rough draft of 2nd charter

All,

It's available at:

   http://www.w3.org/2007/eGov/IG/wiki/Charter2

Thanks Kevin for drafting this one.

This is still a very rough draft and needs discussion. Please, do not  
edit in place just yet but discuss in the mailing list first.

Best,
Jose.

--
Jose M. Alonso <josema@w3.org>    W3C/CTIC
eGovernment Lead                  http://www.w3.org/2007/eGov/



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