Thanks to the beta users who helped us track a vexing problem with adding headers to blogs.

Issue: Some people were having issues uploading headers. Images that were the correct size appeared too small, leaving weird effects and an unattractive blog. Then, when the image was re-sized and uploaded, it would become distorted. Other people, though, successfully added  headers–including yours truly.

Fix: At first, it seemed like user error, but working closely with one of our beta users, our team was able to track down an issue on the back end. Our bad. Our fix.

While the developer was there, we made a change to center uploaded images into the header space. Makes the customization process work alot better.

Reminder: Please use the discussion forum to post bugs and questions. Thanks!

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We got some great questions during Tuesday’s webinar on the beta launch. A few were on the available plugins for the blog platform. Today we follow up on two.

First one, “There are thousands of plugins for WordPress, why aren’t  they all available?”

A: Seems like a no-brainer to make everything available, but one of the reasons we created a gov-specific platform is that this is more complicated than it may seem.

As you know, there are alot of rules that govern federal websites and applications–including security and accessibility. So, we test and remediate each plugin to protect our infrastructure (that’s how we get the security certification and accreditation) and to ensure that engagement is accessible to everyone (by meeting Section 508 requirements).

Another thing about plugins is that there are a bunch of them because there are a bunch of people coding them. This diverse and distributed community create plugins that may not play well together–causing unwelcome errors in or glitches. Our team cross tests the different combinations  of plugins to make sure that we offer a platform that works without grief.

Second one, “Okay, fair enough. What plugins are available in this platform?”

A: Fair enough back at you. We put together a list of plugins and will keep this page up-to-date as we add new ones. You can always get back to this page from the header on this blog.

Go to the list of plugins.

More questions? Solutions?

As always, to get answers to your specific questions and/or to pitch new plugins to add to the platform,  click on over to the APPS.gov NOW online help forums.

And, here’s a call out to anyone who has plugins that they have already remediated. We are happy to see if they will work in our environment.

Thanks!

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We’re really excited to slowly pull back the curtain and open up to a few beta users.

What’s this about?

GSA’s Center for New Media & Citizen Engagement–with support from E-Gov funding and a fabulous team–has built a platform for simple, policy-compliant software as a service (SaaS)  driven by an easy to use storefront. Bottom line, federal agencies can use dot-gov hosted software to engage with citizens with a few keystrokes. We are launching with a multi-user WordPress platform that agencies can use for blogging and running simple contests. The future includes wikis, groups and more.

Why would you do this?

Great question, since there are great options available commercially and many agencies are successfully running their own blogs and engagement tools.

The mission of the Center for New Media & Citizen Engagement (that’s us) is to work to make it easier for government to engage with citizens and citizens with government.  Making a common platform available means that agencies have tools available in a secure government environment, that the tools meet Section 508 accessibility requirements, and that their engagements are hosted on a dot-gov domain. We develop and maintain the platform and software, which frees agencies to work on their engagement goals.

We aren’t looking to replace all the other options, but to give agencies another choice. We expect that our tools will be especially useful for small agencies, for time-bound engagements, and for special projects–but we are open to all federal users with a dot-gov and dot-mil email address.

Tell me about this beta launch?

We are starting with a very slow roll out with three goals:

1. Gather information on the load
2. Identify and eliminate user friction
3. Build a user community

We are building a user support model based on forums where people can help each other and refer to a building user-generated knowledge base. That’s why it’s important to ferret out and fix the friction in the user experience first, and then make it widely available. And, that’s why we’re going slow.

How can I play?

There are a few things that are required to participate in the beta. If you

• have sign-off from your chain of command–we’re assuming that if you volunteer your agency is supporting your effort
• have a specific engagement already in mind and are ready to go
• will be responsible for your own records and comment policy
• have some familiarity with self-service software and don’t mind figuring things out
• are willing to provide feedback on your experience and participate in usability testing and surveys–the beta responsibility may add a 10-20% overhead to your experience
• can accept that there might be some bumps and have a willingness to work
  issues out with our team

then you might be a good candidate. Contact us at govnewmedia @ gsa.gov.

Did we say we were excited? woot!

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Hi! Thanks for visiting the APPS.gov EZ release blog. The purpose of a release blog is to keep you in the loop on changes and updates to our product and services.  So, expect to see information about upcoming features, launches, any glitches, and general posts about the running of the store. You can subscribe to the RSS feed to keep up to date.

We won’t be doing user support on this blog. The resource for support is our Help Forum.  You can view all discussions without logging in, but if you need to ask a question or get support, register and we we are raring to help.

We are just about ready to open the store to a select beta group, so stay-tuned.

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