Webmasters' Guild Initiatives and Accomplishments

2007-2008 Work Group Accomplishments

2008-2009 Work Group Projected Initiatives

Items in italics under "2008-2009 Projected Initiatives" for each work group are those suggested at the Annual NYS Forum Planning Session held on July 11, 2008. Any initiatives receiving priority votes cast by participants on July 11th are bolded and in blue and the number of votes cast is shown in parenthesis.

The Webmasters' Guild was created to provide a means for those individuals within state and local government that have responsibilities for their agencies Web Sites to share ideas, issues, problem solutions and to suggest and/or develop education opportunities to benefit web development professionals.

2007-2008 Initiatives

  • Newly elected leadership: Committee Co-Chairs, Jim Costello and Cynthia Beighey.
  • The Web Guild met 8 times this year and once again averaged approximately 125 attendees per session. Estimated total number of attendees was over 1,000.
  • Two sessions; the October session on Application Security and the December session on ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) with Rich Schwerdtfeger, IBM Distinguished Engineer in the IBM Emerging Technologies Group both had attendance of over 200 individuals.
  • Two other sessions; the Blogs & Wiki presentations and the Portal presentations, which spotlighted how participating agencies use these technologies both had attendance of over 150 individuals.
  • The Web Guild was an important participant in the introduction of the first state accessibility testing tool, which the Forum and HiSoftware implemented in 2008.

2008-2009 Proposed Initiatives

Research/Education

  • Develop a survey to help identify topics of interest for Guild Members. This Survey, in addition to the outcome of the Forum Planning session will be used to help develop the 2008 - 2009 Programs. (Potential topics already proposed include browser compatibility issues, mobile browsing, graphic design for the Web, Web 2.0, accessibility, XML).
  • Conduct a seminar on collaboration tools and best practices. (8)

Tools

  • Incorporate new technology into the Guild, including use of either a blog or wiki, and the possibility of holding multiple break-out sessions as a part of the monthly program schedule

Education

  • The Web Guild will continue to support NYS initiatives including accessibility and other initiatives as they are announced.
  • Reach out to groups similar to NYS Webmasters' Guild in other states and at federal level to possibly share experiences, information, and concerns. Continue reaching out to other Forum committees with similar concerns as appropriate.

Collaboration

  • Work with appropriate state organizations to establish a career series for web professionals. (13)
  • Continue to support the NY.GOV website initiative and provide assistance with communications with state agencies. (1)