Author: Liz Vines
Wow! What a great turnout for the first Digital Commons 2.0 Event. Representatives from over 30 agencies attended. The entire Digital Solutions (Digital Commons) team was on hand to give presentations and to answer questions. Over a series of blogs we will outline what was presented. This is our first in that series. See links to other presentations at the end of this blog.
Delivering Great Digital Services- Billy Hylton, Digital Director
Billy Hylton, Digital Director kicked things off with a presentation that touched on a bit of history of the Digital Commons platform, how we have progressed and where we are going. He included the idea that North Carolina citizens and constituents expect great digital experiences when engaging with state government.
He also reminded us to look forward, beyond finding information on websites and to consider other digital mediums.
A crowd favorite was Billy's slide showing how when working with technology, it's important to remember that the 'technology' part is simply the tip of the iceberg. There are many other factors to consider, like culture & mindset, leadership, values, the people, and the processes.
Digital Commons Now and Then - Lois Nilsen
Lois Nilsen, Team Lead, and with the Digital Commons platform from the very beginning, shared a bit on hers and the state's evolution in with agency websites. It was a bit of the 'wild west' she stated, back in the late 1990's when everyone did their own things for agency sites.
She shared what she likes about the Digital Commons platform:
- Puts content in the hands of the content owners
- Unified look and feel
- Economies of scale
- Allows agencies to be strategic with content
She also introduced the entire Digital Solutions (Digital Commons) team. "The best team in state government."
This is what we’re doing together:
- New feature requirements, build new features, and we test them
- Full suite of Development and Operations/DevOps: Hosting, Security, Search, Front End Development, Back End Development
- New website onboarding: project management, UX, content strategy, site maps and migration maps, training, coaching new website managers.
- Maintain the Digital Commons Support Site
- Account Meetings
- Training
- Technical assistance with views, webforms, maps, and data integrations.
Lois also presented on the importance of a clean sitemap.
Other topics included:
Upgrading to Drupal 8
We Have A Plan for Migration
We've Got You Covered
Tidying Up for the Big Move