www.firstgov.gov - Analisi WAES del sito del governo americano

Attraverso la suddivisione in dimensioni e indicatori presentato al link http://www.cyprg.arizona.edu/waes.html, presento la valutazione mezzo indice Waes del sito del governo americano elaborata assieme al mio gruppo di lavoro.

Ho riscontrato alcune difficoltà nella compilazione di questa analisi per alcuni motivi.
Primo tra tutti c'è il fatto che www.firstgov.gov non è propriamente il sito dell'esecutivo americano. La filosofia alla base di questo portale è ben esemplificata dal nome scelto per l'URL, FirstGov. Esso è inteso infatti come un primo punto di contatto con tutta l'amministrazione pubblica americana, che comprende non solo l'esecutivo e relativi ministeri, ma anche il congresso e il senato, le decine di agenzie governative, i 51 governi dei rispettivi stati della federazione, etc. etc. Questo sito si presenta fondamentalmente come sito contenitore di link che rinviano ad altri URL degli enti dell'amministrazione americana, tutti per questo con estenzione .gov. Non vi sono dunque dei veri e propri contenuti, ma viene fornito il modo di accedervi rinviando ad altri spazi in rete, anche se sempre governativi.
In questo modo si può secondo me affermare che un cittadino americano, conoscendo l'unico sito www.firstgov.gov, ha la possibilità di accedere a tutte le informazioni di cui ha bisogno in modo sufficientemente pratico.
Credo che questa caratteristica sia evidente anche dall'analisi waes condotta.
Per quanto riguarda la trasparenza, una prima valutazione del sito potrebbe portare a pensare che essa sia molto ridotta. Se è vero che il sito non ha contenuti diretti al proprio interno, è anche vero che il navigatore fondamentalmente non se ne accorge.

1. TRANSPARENCY:
- ownership:
T1a: 1 (agency involvement with site)
T1b: 1 (webmaster appears to be different from the one running the main government page, if one exists)
T1c: 0 (provides obvious tailoring indicating agency itself has ownership of site content)
T1d: 0 (provides published date on main page)

- Contacts/Reachability:
T2a: 1 (provides central agency non-email addresses)
T2b: 0 (provides phone numbers or postal addresses for employees within agency beyond most senior officials)
T2c: 1 (provides e-mail address to person responsible for both content of the site and technical support for the site)
T2d: 1 (provides e-mail address to someone solely responsible for technical support for the site)
T2e: 1 (provides e-mail address to someone solely responsible for content of the site)
T2f: 1 (person responsible for technical support for the site appears NOT to be a commercial firm)

- Organizational Information:
T3a: 0 (provides details on senior official's experiences or vision of future for organization)
T3b: 0 (provides mission statement and various activities of agency)
T3c: 0 (provides organizational structure in graphic form)

- Issue Information:
T4a: 1 (provides issue-related addresses for other government agencies)
T4b: 0 (provides non-issue-related addresses for other government agencies)
T4c: 0 (provides issue-related addresses for other NON-governmental information sources)
T4d: 1 (provides reports, research, laws, and regulations in easily readable format on screen)
T4e: 1 (provides a searchable index for archived newsletters, laws, regulations, and requirements)
T4f: 1 (provides all downloaded or printed publications for free)
T4g: 1 (provides link to or text of public information law or regulation)

- Citizen Consequences/Responses
T5a: 1 (provides in depth explanations of requirements imposed on citizens resulting from agency activities)
T5b: 1 (provides instructions on how to complete these actions)
T5c: 1 (provides instructions for appeal process for decisions or address of an ombudsman inside agency)


2. INTERACTIVITY:
- Security and Privacy:
I1a: 0 (does NOT use information gathering techniques such as cookies to gather information about site visitors)
I1b: 1 (does NOT require personal information to communicate with agency)
I1c: 0 (site entails use of security access method, such as a password, or secure server)
I1d: 0/-1 (security access method, such as password or secure server use, is associated with transaction with agency or access to personal information)

- Contacts/Reachability:
I2a: 1 (provides e-mail link to webmaster)
I2b: 1 (provides e-mail link to senior agency official)
I2c: 0 (provides e-mail link to a number of agency employees)
I2d: 1 (agency avoids dictating format or content of citizen communication, e.g., no preset subject or manual insertion of contact information)
I2e: 0 (provides an online issue-related forum for outsider participation such as chat lines, and listserves)

- Organizational Information:
I3a: 0 (provides link to listed sub-elements within agency)
I3b: 0 (provides link to sublevels noted in agencyís organizational structure graphic)
I3c: 1 (provides automatic update announcement or newsletter via subscription)

- Issue Information:
I4a: 1 (provides link to outside issue-related government addresses)
I4b: 0 (provides link to outside non-issue-related government addresses)
I4c: 0 (provides link to outside issue-related non-governmental information sources)

- Citizen Consequences/Responses:
I5a: 1 (provides any required submission forms onscreen for download)
I5b: 1 (provides online form completion and submission)
I5c: 1 (provides an automatic response limit for response to online submissions)
I5d: 1 (provides link to appeal process for decisions and/or an ombudsman)
I5e: 1 (Spagnolo) (provides other language access to site for visitors unable to speak or read the language of the host country)
I5f: 0 (provides iconographic access to site for visitors unable to speak or read the language of the host country)
I5g: 0 (provides audio access to site)
I5h: 0 (disability access score: "Priority 1 Accessibility" and "User Checks" by Bobby)