The role of the volunteer workforce in California’s Best of The Web victory

I have written about the Apps for Californians contest, and how it led to job creation, in the past.  I noted the role of the California webmaster group, briefly, when I wrote:

“A volunteer group of California webmasters was made aware of the project. This group, in existence since 2006, meets regularly to discuss software, train each other on new technologies, and to support each other through difficult projects. Members of this volunteer team worked overtime on multiple occasions to make the contest a reality.”

I wanted to learn more about this team and reached out to Carolyn Lawson, Director of eService, Technology Services Governance Division, in California, to learn more.   The focus of these questions are upon the web master group and how their efforts led to California winning the Best of The Web awards earlier this year.

Q.  How many members of the webmaster group are there?
A.  We have about 500 members most of whom are from California.  However, a few are from other states

Q.  How many hours do you think they put into this night job per year per person?
A. It is difficult to provide an accurate answer to this question as people participate at different levels. 

For the new California.gov design we had a team of  5 designers/coders and about 20 who were part of a voluntary work group who did everything from requirements collaborate and collection to design and accessibility reviews.  The 5 designers worked a bit more than part-time from Feb through May with the work group putting in about 5 hours per month (average) during that same time.  Lots of work was pushed off until after the redesign was completed, so there is still overtime but on paper it is not related to the redesign.  The reality is that it is a result of work load prioritization.

We also had the mobile developer working full-time on a mobile strategy & template and going out to departments training staff on how to use this template.  By the end of May we had about 40 mobile apps, primarily built by departmental staff after training, now we have about 60 mobile apps using the same model.

Generally speaking, the webmasters in the group at large only put in a couple of extra hours per month over a year’s time.  Most of that effort is not spread out evenly over a year – there is always a project or two that they take on lasting from a week or so to several months (e.g. the  work on the redesign). 

Q.  How many self-training sessions a year?
A.  We will do 3 or 4 formal sessions per year but each meeting contains teaching elements where new things are discussed, demonstrated, or taught.  Most of the training is less formal like our mobile developer going out and spending a day with a department showing them how to use the mobile template.  From there each team moves forward, often sharing it with their friends in other departments, or webmaster to webmaster connections through the WUG (mostly via communication through [email protected] which Stacey Walker monitors).

Q.  In your opinion, why did they rally behind the Best of the Web Awards effort?  What was the motivation?
A.  We have a great community. I think it is a mistake to say they rallied around the award itself.  Yes, the Governor was really clear that he wanted to win.  That opened the door to be really creative and the webmasters took advantage of it.   We removed all the design constraints of the previous template and let the designers be creative as long as the design met the accessibility requirements.  What they wanted was to design a site that would show what they love about California, and hopefully help people fall in love with California again despite the difficulties we are facing as a state. I think we won because that passion came through.  You can’t buy that off the shelf.