The Gilbane Conference on Content Technologies for Government:
A Conference for Business & Technical Managers in Cooperation with CMS Watch
The Ronald Reagan Building, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C., 20004 – June 13 – 15, 2006
(The 2007 version of this conference with presentations is also available.)
Conference Chair: Tony Byrne, CMS Watch
Program Advisory Committee:
Beverley Godwin, FirstGov.gov
Dan Elam, EVisory
James Melzer, SRS
Betty Harvey, ECCNet
Sheila Campbell, FirstGov.gov
Lisa Welchman, Welchman Consulting
Catherine Teti, GAO
Dana Hallman, Treasury / OCC
Opening Keynote Panel: Industry Experts Debate Current and Future Trends in Content
Technologies
The pace of information technology development continues to quicken: government enterprises are gaining valuable experience in implementing content applications, and software vendors continue to try to innovate ahead of the competition. Meanwhile, as most enterprise applications become more content-oriented, content technology developments are coming from a broader base of suppliers and developers, affecting short and long term content management strategies across industry and government. Nevertheless, as government enterprises learn critical lessons in adopting content technologies, and some initial best practices are emerging. Our opening panel of industry experts will look at both specific technologies and market trends. This will be a lively interactive panel with plenty of debate.
Moderator: Tony Byrne, Founder, CMS Watch
Panelists:
Frank Gilbane, CEO, Gilbane Group
Robert Markham, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research
Betty Harvey, Founder, ECCNet
Dan Elam, President, eVisory
Government Keynote Panel: Key Issues in Federal Content Technologies
Federal agencies lie at the center of a digital content whirlwind. They must meet government-wide mandates on website and information management, as well as address new NARA guidance on records management. At the same time, agencies are striving to develop more measurably usable and customer-centric information packages. And OPM and others are launching major new publishing initiatives that could ripple across government. Meanwhile, new and more powerful technologies for search, collaboration, and records management are coming on-line. How are agency leaders dealing with diverse and sometimes competing demands on how their agencies can better manage content? Find out as GCN Editorial Director Wyatt Kash moderates a panel of federal IT leaders.
Moderator: Wyatt Kash, Editorial Director, Government Computer News
Speakers:
Michael L. Wash, Chief Technical Officer, US Government Printing Office
Tarrazzia M. Martin, Director, Information Sharing Enterprise, Implementation Services, Department of Homeland Security
Web Content Management Track
WCM-1: Building a successful business case for your agency CMS
Content management technology can help relieve overtaxed federal content managers and add value for the enterprise, but CMS implementations typically represent a significant, multi-year investment as well. Join a panel of federal managers who have successfully built a business case to justify the purchase of content management technology. Discussion will include business case justifications, anticipated efficiencies, and navigating the 300-B process.
Moderator: Christine Pierpoint, Welchman Consulting
Speakers:
Jim Schulte, Content Manager, NHTSA.gov (presentation)
Brian Moran, Director, Office of IT Services, U.S. International Trade Commission (presentation)
WCM-2: Content Modeling 101, a cross-agency study
When done right, every content management system project should include careful upfront content analysis. But how do you go about modeling your content? How do you isolate contents and at what level should you chunk content? This session will compare and contrast the content modeling exercises of 2 different federal agencies and provide attendees a roadmap for getting started with their own content analysis.
Speaker: Don Bruns, Lead Information Architect, Aquilent (presentation)
WCM-3: Best practices in Federal Web Governance
Web content governance refers to how decisions get made with respect to what content is published and how it gets published across an enterprise. Federal agencies with multiple websites and a history of casual oversight often face a serious governance vacuums that can slow decision-making and reduce the return on technology investments. Web Governance expert Lisa Welchman will lead a panel of federal website leaders comparing alternate governance models and identifying best practices for governing large distributed web publishing efforts.
Moderator: Lisa Welchman, Founder, Welchman Consulting
Speakers:
Renee Lockhart-Trujillo, Internet Customer Services Center Director, SSA (presentation)
Jonda Byrd, Deputy National Web Infrastructure Manager, EPA (presentation)
WCM-4: Open-source CMS in the federal sector
Whether solving common content management business problems or providing the foundation for unique content applications, open source has the potential to lower costs and increase control over content infrastructure. Because of their non-commercial environment, public agencies can leverage the cooperative aspects of open source to better share technology. There are numerous examples of municipal, state, federal and foreign governments employing open source web content management solutions. This session will discuss the opportunity for open source, compare some of the technologies that are available, and then present a case study of a specific initiative within the US Department of the Navy to merge multiple websites onto a single open source platform while enabling distributed authoring.
Speakers:
Seth Gottlieb, Content Management Practice Lead, Optaros (presentation)
Page Glennie, DASN (ACQ) Web Site Director, Department of the Navy (presentation)
WCM-5: Role of new media technologies in Government Part I: Blogs, Wikis, and RSS
New communications tools — such as blogs, wikis, and RSS — have proliferated in the past few years. In industry, many companies now employ these technologies for collaboration, knowledge management, and publishing applications, and innumerable vendors now market products based on these new technologies. Meanwhile, some government agencies have begun to experiment with these tools. Do these agencies only represent the experimental fringe, or are they early adopters of technologies that will soon be part of every agency’s bag of IT tricks? This panel will look at the actual implementation experience: when do blogs and wikis make sense, and when do they not? How do they fit into broader content architectures?
Moderator: Kurt Voelker, Managing Director of Technology Services, Forum One Communications
Speakers:
Kurt Voelker, Managing Director of Technology Services, Forum One Communications (presentation)
Michael Edson, Chief, Information Technology Office, Smithsonian American Art Museum
WCM-6: Role of new media technologies in Government Part II: Intro
to Podcasting
Picking up where the previous session left off, this session will look at the increasingly popular “podcast” format. The first speaker, from NPR Digital Media in Washington, will describe how podcasts work; how you make them, broadcast them, and track usage. The second speaker will discuss NASA’s experience with podcasting.
Speakers:
Jay Brodsky, NPR Digital Media
Allison Hazen, Podcast Editor, NASA (presentation)
WCM-7: Managing Large Web Publishing Systems: Lessons from the Washington Post
Large enterprises face complex and constantly evolving web publishing requirements, but much can be learned from understanding how major media firms address these challenges. Join 2 Washington Post Company CMS managers as they describe how they deal with this complexity on a daily basis across the myriad online properties under the Washington Post / Newsweek umbrella. The first speaker will address how washingtonpost.com publishes large volumes of information across multiple channels. The second speaker will discuss how GCN.com and other PostNewsweek Tech Media sites are working to “future-proof” their web publishing operations for new media formats, higher monitor resolutions, and advanced layout paradigms. The panel will conclude with an exploration of lessons applicable for federal web publishing.
Moderator: Tony Byrne, Founder, CMS Watch
Speakers:
Chris Contakes, Manager, Content Management Systems, Washingtonpost, Newsweek Interactive (presentation)
Alec Dann, Senior Vice President, Internet Publishing, PostNewsweek Tech Media (presentation)
WCM-8: The future of the federal government web
Mired in the day-to-day operations of large, high-profile federal web properties, it’s easy to lose sight of long-term trends in government website management. In a lively look into the future of the government web, FirstGov.gov Senior Content Manager Sheila Campbel will identify key patterns and emerging norms, and leave participants with a peek at what the federal web landscape might look like 5-10 years from now.
Moderator: John Berndt, Founder, The Berndt Group
Speaker:
Beverly Godwin, Directior, FirstGov.gov
Enterprise Content Management Track
The Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) comprises a collection of interrelated “reference models” designed to facilitate cross-agency analysis and the identification of duplicative investments, gaps, and opportunities for collaboration within and across federal agencies. This session will look at Enterprise Content Management in the context of the FEA. Inasmuch as there is no Content Reference Model, do the Business Reference Model (BRM) Service Reference Models (SRM) provide an adequate business framework for architecting ECM solutions? Could either taxonomy serve as an organizing principle for content in a production system?
Speaker:
James Melzer, Sr. Information Architect, SRA International (presentation)
ECM-2: The iECM Standard: what’s in it for you?
iECM — “Interoperable Enterprise Content Management” — is a proposed standard sponsored by industry trade group AIIM. The goal of the new standard is to produce a single set of functional requirements for process oriented web services that enable disparate enterprise content management systems, portals, and enterprise applications to interoperate – better enabling content to be exchanged, integrated, and managed securely between systems. Led by FAA enterprise architect and iECM co-chair Paul Fontaine, this session will look at how iECM can facilitate greater interoperability among content technologies within and beyond federal agencies.
Speaker:
Paul Fontaine, FAA, and co-chair iECM Committee (presentation)
ECM-3: ECM Lite in the federal government
This session will chart how 2 agencies have taken advantage of what Gartner calls “ECM Lite” and Forrester labels “Basic ECM.” That is, not all document management scenarios call for heavyweight document management and ECM solutions. In many cases, simple document collaboration capabilities can help agencies achieve core content management services at a fraction of the cost and complexity of advanced systems.
Moderator: Betty Harvey, Founder, ECCNet
Speaker:
Russ Stalters, President, Compliance Solutions Group (presentation)
ECM-4: Obtaining value from XML in real-world agencies
The growing focus on XML in the federal government raises some serious questions for federal managers seeking to gain greater value from information without disrupting their agencies’ operations. This panel will position XML in the flow of agency operations and, based on experience with multiple agencies, will provide a basis for real-world answers and practical applications. A leading consultant and a federal XML adopter will explain the ways in which XML can be leveraged to generate value, how XML can be useful in an imperfect implementation scenario, and how XML can be adopted without massive funding requirements. Federal managers grappling with whether, when, and how to begin the move to XML-based information management will find this panel a valuable resource.
Moderator: Barry Schaeffer, President, X.Systems, Inc. (presentation)
Speaker:
David Harmon, MAX A-11 Project Manager, OMB
ECM-5: Making records management invisible
Everyone agrees that records management is essential to information management more broadly, but line managers still often remain reluctant to embrace RM technology for fear that it will excessively intrude in employees’ daily work. This case study will look at how different federal agencies have sought to make records management “invisible” to federal employees through careful analysis and tightly integration with other content technologies.
Moderator: Tim Sprehe, President, Sprehe Information Management Associates, Inc. (presentation)
Speakers:
Denise Bedford, Senior Information Officer, World Bank (presentation)
Carol Brock, Carol Brock, Director of Information Assets, GAO (presentation)
ECM-6: ECM and information security
Managing content at an enterprise level offers the potential for bringing the right information to the right person at the right time. However, ECM places additional burdens on information security regimes as well, and newer ECM technologies introduce potential vulnerabilities. Join a panel of federal managers discussing best practices in information security for enterprise content management.
Moderator: Dan Elam, President, eVisory
Enterprise Search & Discovery Track
ES-1: New text mining tools: hype vs. reality
Sometimes called “text analytics” or “content mining,” text mining borrows from the older realm of data mining in the business intelligence field. It tries to apply BI principles to content, using algorithms that parse text, discern patterns, and discover relationships. A manager can consult the reports generated by a text mining system and uncover relationships, insights, and nuances previously not available. Sounds too good to be true? Sometimes it is. Text-mining guru Steve Arnold will demystify this alluring but complex technology and identify specific use-cases in federal agencies.
Speaker: Steve Arnold, President, Arnold Information Technology
ES-2: Enterprise Search: the federal experience
Google has made everyone pay more attention to search. But providing effective search capabilities across diverse enterprise information repositories represents a far more complex problem than indexing web pages and measuring link relevance. Join this panel of federal managers who have implemented different search technologies as they share lessons learned and advice for their peers.
Moderator: Steve Arnold, President, Arnold Information Technology
Speakers:
John Shirey, Search Master, US EPA
John Murphy, Director, Office of E-Gov Solutions, GSA
Martha Chaconas, Office Director, Electronic Media International Information Programs, Department of State
* New Session added! 3:30pm – 4:00pm:
WhiteHouse.gov: Utilizing Technology to Communicate the President’s Agenda Online
As the Internet continues to rapidly evolve, federal government web sites are constantly adapting to meet the needs of their visitors. The White House’s Internet and E-Communications Director will provide a brief overview of the White House web site and discuss how technology is being used to assist in communicating the President’s message to a growing online audience.
Speaker:
David Almacy, Internet and E-Communications Director, The White House
Closing Panel: Town Hall Session – What are the key take-aways?
Stick around for this closing panel of your peers synthesizing key lessons and immediate “take-aways” from the conference.
Offer your opinions and pose any final questions for the group to answer. Here’s where you get a chance to clarify, wrap up, and bring back everything you’ve learned over the previous 2 days.
Speakers:
Catherine Teti, Managing Director for Knowledge Services, GAO
Susan Fagan, Program Analyst, EPA
Sheila Campbell, Senior Content Manager, FirstGov.gov
Joseph Smith, OCC US Treasury
Rand Ruggieri, Program Manager, Office of the CIO, International Trade Administration, Commerce Department
TUTORIALS
Tutorial A: Principles of Web Operations Management
Instructor: Lisa Welchman, Founder and Principal, Welchman Consulting
There’s more to managing a web site than selecting the right technologies. Based on extensive experience working with federal agencies, this tutorial will focus on fundamentals of Web Operations Management (WOM). Lisa will detail the 4 dimensions of WOM and provided practical tips and suggestions for managing Federal Web Operations.Information covered:
Strategy & Governance
- Building and staffing a web program
- Review of Web Governance Lifecycl
- Review of standards categories for web
- Methods for measuring governance and strategy maturity
Content, Data Applications
- Information Architecture in a nutshell
- Taxonomy & Metadata in a nutshell
- How content, data and applications interact on the web and why you should care
- Structuring content for search and retrieval
Process & Workflow
- Steps for building sustainable web processes
- Understanding your agency’s web production style
- Measuring web processes and workflow against standards
Tools & Infrastructure
- What are your key product choices (portals, search engines, CMS, et al) and what’s the difference between them
- Matching technology solutions to content management problems
- How to tell what product you should deploy first, second, third, etc.
This tutorial is an excellent pre-cursor to the afternoon session, “Web Content Management Systems: Architectures and Products.”
Tutorial B: Enterprise Portals: A Primer.
Instructor: Tony Byrne, Founder, Principal, CMS Watch
Join your peers for a half-day workshop that can help you and your team understand Enterprise Portals, including the business rationale, software capabilities, the marketplace, and implementation pitfalls. CMS Watch founder Tony Byrne leads an intensive, fast-paced introduction to Enterprise Portals functionality, product categories, and specific vendors. Organized around 6 canonical use-cases for an enterprise portal, the session concludes with a roadmap for product selection. Learn:
- 12 key attributes of enterprise portal technology, including questions you should ask and how vendors differ in how they achieve basic functionality
- 3 categories of portal products, including features and typical price ranges
- Specific characteristics of sample portal vendors in each category
- How to start evaluating and ultimately select suitable technologies for an organization
- The most common enterprise portal pitfalls, and best practices for avoiding them.
Tutorial C: Web Content Management Systems: Architectures and Product
Instructor: Tony Byrne, Founder, Principal, CMS Watch
Join your peers for a half-day workshop that can help you and your team understand Web Content Management technologies, architectures, and the marketplace. CMS Watch founder Tony Byrne leads an intensive, fast-paced introduction to Web Content Management functionality, product categories, and specific vendors. The session concludes with a roadmap for product selection. Learn:
- 16 steps in the Web CMS lifecycle: questions you should ask and how vendors differ in how they achieve basic functionality
- 7 categories of CMS products, including features and typical price ranges
- Specific characteristics of sample vendors in each category
- How to start evaluating and ultimately select suitable technologies for an organization
- The 4 most common CMS pitfalls, and best practices for avoiding them
This session assumes you have developed a business case and at least some semblance of requirements such that you want to get into the nitty-gritty of product functionality and architectures. As a vendor-neutral presentation, this seminar will enable you to sharpen your organization’s CMS needs and identify suitable technology choices.
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