DCD/Newsletter

ECHO - The GCTools Newsletter

Digital Collaboration Intelligencer

100%

May 22, 2018

23^nd Edition

What's New

The Open and Accessible Digital Workspace

The Open and Accessible Digital Workspace is the GC’s plan for an Open and Accessible Digital Workspace (OADW), a new concept dedicated to improving the ways of working online in the public service and beyond. It will create a unified workspace for government and partners, with the goal of creating a world-class network of public servants and civic partners equipped to serve Canadians and the world now and in the future.
How? The Open and Accessible Digital Workspace will be comprised of an integrated network of universally accessible digital services. Some potential services may include GCprofile, an integrated user profile that will allow different services to know the users’ role, interests, and connect them to information they need, and GCsurvey, a live micro-polling and survey service with built-in analytics and reporting.
All services will be built in collaboration with other teams by using open source software. The contributions to open source projects by the GC and partners improve the utility and accessibility of applications for everyone. TBS is already partnering with the Government of the Netherlands to further develop the workspace. The project is just starting, so stay tuned for updates!
The Data Visualization layer of Project Meerkat has a new search function! The Data Visualization Layer allows you to search topics on GCconnex (soon to be adapted for other GCTools) and view the categories and communities related to it. For instance, by searching “digital”, you will find communities and groups related to IM/IT, UX, digital communications, and more. Currently in its beta phase, next iterations will apply to Project Meerkat services (as it currently uses data from GCconnex). For more updates, check out the Project Meerkat group on GCcollab.

Introducing GCcollab Message

GCcollab Message is a pilot instant messaging service developed and managed by the GCTools team. It is based on the open source platform, Rocket.Chat, which uses chat rooms to organize discussions.
You can sign up for GCcollab Message and join any chat room that is relevant to you, or create one for your team! Chat rooms can be open or closed, or you can chat directly with other users.
Try GCcollab Message on your desktop (sign-in by using your GCcollab account), or download Rocket.Chat from Google Play or Apple’s App store to access GCcollab Message on your mobile device.
For more information, check out GCcollab Message Onboarding Instructions or check out the new GCcollab Message poster.

Introducing GCcollab Wiki

While GCpedia is the Government of Canada’s internal wiki, GCcollab Wiki is the GC’s external-facing wiki for the GC, their partners, and the public! Like other wikis, the GCcollab Wiki is designed for co-creation and knowledge sharing: any member of the Wiki can create a page, edit any page, and ultimately, create a culture of collaboration.
Thanks to feedback from beta testers, the GCcollab Wiki can now be searched publicly! It is now also easier to add information and work in both English and French. In addition, Government of Canada employees can now import content from GCpedia, the GC’s internal wiki.
In normal wiki fashion, individual pages do not have owners, but they do have creators and editors. Please note that individual pages are not moderated by the GCTools team.
To create a page, simply add your desired page name to the end of the standard GCcollab Wiki URL. For example, to create a page entitled “Digital Collaboration Division”, type “https://wiki.gccollab.ca/Digital_Collaboration_Divison”. You will be directed to the Digital Collaboration Division page, which may or may not have already been created by another GCwiki user.
42 content pages have been created and 1,300 edits have been made in the Wiki since its beta launch 1 month ago! Now’s the time to get started on the GCcollab Wiki! If you need a hand, check out the GCcollab Wiki help page or check out the new GCcollab Wiki poster.

The GCTools Team in Action

Concept Visual of OADW.png

Project Meerkat concept visual
Project Overlay1.PNG

Explore the new Project Overlay pilot
Project Overlay Detail1.PNG

Detailed view of a group in the new Project Overlay pilot

UX Groups

100px

User Experience Community

There are many people working in the design of Government of Canada user experiences, whether for software applications, web sites, services or other products. The goal of this page is to create a repository we can use to find each other, communicate about job openings, training opportunities, and most importantly: share information, ideas, work, design patterns, best practices and concepts for our work on user experiences.

100px

Design Thinking

Design Thinking is a methodology to creatively solve complex problems with a human-centered approach. It offers us a means to uncover the root cause to a given problem, with the goal of improving user experiences. It brings together end-users and business owners to empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test your way to a potential solution. The Innovation Zone team in Public Services and Procurement Canada uses Design Thinking as one of their suite of services to help teams improve processes and services with human-centered, innovative and iterative solutions. Join the conversation on GCconnex to learn more and let us know how we can help you.

100px

UX Research Participants

The GCTools team is constantly looking for feedback to improve your experience on the tools. We conduct regular research on the UX of the GCTools to understand your needs as well as the strengths and weaknesses of our platforms.

That’s where you come in: we conduct research both in person and online to gain insight into your experience with the GCTools. We are always looking for participants to provide feedback and guide our work.

100px

UX Discussion Forum

The UX Discussion Forum is a ‘Community of Practice’ that facilitates discussion and collaboration amongst Government of Canada (GC) employees regarding UX practices.

The goal of the forum is to foster a better understanding of the need to improve the online user experience and help the GC move towards implementing a user-centric approach to service delivery.

The concept of ‘Each One Teach One’ is fundamental with this forum in that institutions are invited to share lessons learned and best practices, thereby helping avoid common mistakes in web and content design and UX management.

In addition, concepts, ideas and requirements from Principal Publisher and TBS are also discussed so that institutions are informed of upcoming activities and to address any questions or concerns.

100px

The Design Lab

The Design Lab is a hub for designers across the federal government where they discuss tools, time-saving tips and tricks learned along the way, templates, and how to stay innovative in your practice.

It’s a place to share best practices, explore new concepts and to engage in ideas about communication arts.

100px

New Technologies for Government

How does the use of technology, such as GCcollab, enable Public Servants to have conversations among themselves in governments around the World? Let's talk about the benefits, challenges, technologies used, and their effects to culture change.

100px

User Experience Design

Learn and discuss 6 common steps of the UX process:

• Discovery & Research • Analysis • Design • Development • Testing • Deployment & Measurement

100px

Web Experience Toolkit (WET)

Reach out to wet-boew administrators and initiate discussion in regards of wet-boew project ecosystem. Issues that directly relat to the wet-boew projects or GCweb projects must be reported in their github repository.

Unsubscribe

<html>

</html>

Template loop detected: Template:Main page box (right)

Template:GCToolsNewsletter Archives