News and Updates

USAGov Content Design Team: 2021 Highlights—Our mission at USAGov and USAGov en Español is to make it easy for anyone to find and understand the government information they need. We’re excited about what we accomplished in 2021; we connected with the public 117 million times through our websites, social media, email, and phone and chat contact center support. And with our “data first” mindset, we’re more confident that our content is addressing our users’ needs. — via USA.gov

Finding Post-award Balance With Quality Assurance—If you’re one of the many federal employees carrying out your mission through contracting, you might have an important question: how do I know if my contractor is doing a good job? Even if you don’t have a strong technical background, there are steps you can take to build your confidence in the project’s maintainability and sustainability. — via 18F

Why We Created a Troubleshooting Guide—The Open Data, Design, and Development team at the U.S. Department of the Interior added a troubleshooting guide to accompany contact information on onrr.gov. This is their process. — via DOI Revenue Data

Celebrate Public Service Recognition Week with the #GovPossible Toolkit— Our first #GovPossible campaign for Public Service Recognition Week (PSRW) last year was a success and now we’re back! From Sunday, May 1 (the start of PSRW) through Friday, May 13, let’s celebrate public servants and the impact they have across federal, state, and local governments. Let’s show them their hard work has not gone unnoticed! — via Performance.gov

3 Examples of How USAGov Engaged With the Public in 2021—USAGov is the official guide to government services and information for the public. Its outreach team connects people to that information through USA.gov and USAGov en Español social media, email, and other delivery channels. 2021 was a busy year for the outreach team; here are a few highlights. — via USA.gov

Creating a New Way for People To Discover Government Benefits—To make it even easier for everyone to find services and benefits without needing to understand government structure, we’re developing a new digital tool in partnership with 10x, GSA’s incremental technology fund. BEARS, the Benefits Eligibility Awareness Resource Service, is an important step forward in providing an integrated, simple solution for federal benefits to improve the customer experience and will eventually cover all federal benefits from all agencies. — via USA.gov

GSA Highlights Progress on Citizen-Facing Digital Services, Cybersecurity in First Year of American Rescue Plan—Ahead of the first anniversary of the signing of the American Rescue Plan, legislation which has been the key driver of a strong economic recovery, provided the tools needed to fight the pandemic, and made long-term investments to revitalize the local economy in communities around the country, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) highlighted some of the key ways these investments are driving progress on technology modernization and making digital services simpler and more secure across government. — via General Services Administration

Wireless Mobility Solutions Training: Bringing the Experts to You—Stay connected with the Office of Information Technology Category (ITC) Wireless Mobility Solutions training! Our latest blog unpacks training options and explains how ITC stands ready to provide your agency with the devices, plans, and security you need. Also, register for the March 16 virtual event, Securing Next-Generation Hybrid Work Environments, that will feature GSA expert discussions on Zero-Trust, cloud computing, and the use of emerging technology in today’s hybrid workplace. — via General Services Administration

Search.gov 2021 Year In Review—This report explores the top needs of 2021, expressed in the public’s own words. In addition to topics common every year, this year for the first time we explored the topic of infrastructure, and took a look at public searching behaviors. For each of the 18 topics, this report provides the top 25 searches in that topic, trend data since 2019, and the top websites serving the public in that area. — via Search.gov

Improving Acquisition Governmentwide: IT and Professional Services—We are excited to share some updates about how our portfolios are collaborating to improve governmentwide services acquisition. This year we are taking our partnership a step further through a new focus area called the Services Marketplace. Information Technology Category (ITC) and Professional Services and Human Capital Categories (PSHC) are working together to align how we roll out new contracts and tools to support buyers and suppliers of services. See what’s new, what we’re working on, and our three primary goals. — via General Services Administration