Expo acquaints agencies with Net

A consortium of Kansas government agencies showcased the state's best e-government projects at a forum for state employees and legislators Monday.

The first-ever Web Expo was designed to help agency leaders and their staffs understand how to better use the Internet to deliver services.

Among the highlights at Web Expo was a demonstration of accessKansas, the state's redesigned Web portal, which went live Nov. 30.

A popular presentation focused on tests that the state completed to determine how a typical Web surfer would navigate the site, said accessKansas marketing director Lisa Counts, who helped organize the event. In order to make site navigation match thought processes, AccessKansas recruited people and paid them $20 in order to examine how they approached problems intuitively.

Other mini-sessions at the expo focused on the basics of information architecture, Internet security, distance learning and interactive mapping using geographical information systems.

About 90 people attended the program, Counts said. She attributed the low attendance to an overnight ice storm, but said similar events would be held annually, if not more often. Future sessions might include more technical presentations to train Webmasters and IT officials, she said.