wordcamp nyc 2015

WORDPRESS FOR GOVERNMENT

SAVING TAXPAYER DOLLARS

WordCamp NYC November 1, 2015

WHO AM I? CAMERON BARRETT

Sr. Manager of Web Site Technology

Newark Public Schools

Old-school blogger since 1997 (Really)

CamWorld circa 1998-99

Sorry!

WHO? OLD SKOOL WEB GUY

BUILDING OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY IN ENTERPRISE COMPANIES

WHAT? BUILT SITES FOR

SADLY… NONE OF THEM ON WORDPRESS

circa 2004 A young kid named Matt

BUT THEN… DRUPAL DEV WAS HELLA EXPENSIVE

.NET EVEN MORE DEAR LORD, WHAT A NIGHTMARE

REAL EXAMPLE 6 mos, 4 Devs, $1M Spent

COMMUNITY & KM SITE FOR ARMY BOARD OF GENERALS

REAL EXAMPLE 6 MONTHS, $1M SPENT COMMUNITY SITE FOR

ARMY BOARD OF GENERALS

REAL EXAMPLE NOW MIGRATING TO WORDPRESS

PROTOTYPE IN DEVELOPMENT

2015: NOW MIGRATING TO WORDPRESS PROTOTYPE IN DEVELOPMENT

PROBLEMS WORDPRESS SOLVED

CAC READER CAC Card and Reader not required

When not on WP, lost 90% of their users due to CAC reader being required

CAC: Common Access Card

• When in the field in Iraq and Afghanistan, computers with CAC readers were not readily available, therefore usage dropped

PROBLEMS WORDPRESS SOLVED

By using WordPress on an Army-hosted server, the sites were able retain their users

while they were in the field. Officers and soldiers were able to share

knowledge without the barrier of a CAC card

and reader.

WAIT… WHAT ABOUT SCHOOLS?

ONE MOMENT… JUST A TEENY BIT MORE ABOUT ME

TEACHING FAMILY I GREW UP IN PLACES LIKE THIS

Parents were D.O.D.D.S. teachers

Pago Pago, American Samoa

TEACHING FAMILY I GREW UP IN PLACES LIKE THIS

Parents were D.O.D.D.S. teachers

North Yorkshire, England

I CARE ABOUT OUR SCHOOLS

But I’m not a teacher, I’m a technologist

So, I decided to use my skills for the greater good and fix the web site technology problems in our public

schools once and for all.

14,000+ PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN U.S.

THEY ALL HAVE WEB

SITES

CORRECTION!

crappy MOST HAVE

WEB SITES

They all look like this

WTF! Flash

WHY? NOT THE SCHOOL’S FAULT

SCHOOLS ARE BEING SOLD

CLOSED-SOURCE, VENDOR-CONTROLLED, HORRIBLE, BARELY-WORKING, CONFUSING UI,

SaaS SOLUTIONS

WHICH LEADS TO SCHOOL WEB SITES THAT ARE:

NOT UPDATED FREQUENTLY ENOUGH

Not updated because “It’s too hard”

Bad templates à Bad Design

Bad clip-art Mania (Ahem, MS Word)

Confusing Navigation and IA

TECHNOLOGISTS IN SCHOOLS SAY

“This vendor solution is closed-source. I could fix these issues easily but…

…I don’t have access to the source code!”

A WORD ON TAXES Bear with me here…

Federal E-Rate dollars

Monthly fees on your phone bill USF à FCC à E-Rate

E-Rate is used to pay for technology in schools (it’s FREE money for schools)

A WORD ON TAXES USF à FCC à E-Rate

A WORD ON TAXES This E-Rate money is going away in

2015-16 fiscal year! Which means school web sites will need

to be paid for by taxpayer dollars

YOUR TAXPAYER DOLLARS The vendors will need to either become way, way cheaper (not likely) or schools

will need to find less expensive solutions (likely).

THE SOLUTION

Migrate school web sites to WordPress

THE SOLUTION

Get local technologists involved in a Technology Committee who can make recommendations to the school board

and superintendent.

Fire your vendors! They are collecting taxpayer dollars and

delivering a bad product/service.

CASE STUDY Newark Public Schools

40,000 students, 75 Web Sites

WordPress Multisite (Launched Aug 29, 2014 – Wahoo!)


Up-front Development Cost

$30,240


Dedicated Server Hosting Cost

$14,400 10 million PageViews/yr

Across 75 sites


Hosting We used this awesome company


Year Two Dedicated Server Hosting Cost

$7,200 10 million PageViews/yr

Across 75 sites


Content Migration

$9,000 /plugins/schoolwires-importer.php

30,000 Pages, 100,000+ Media assets

(images, PDF files, etc.)


Year One Cost

$64,400 Proprietary Vendor SaaS Solution

$59,024 per year


Year Two Cost


$59,024 per year


Year Three Cost


$59,024 per year


Five-Year Savings of

$158,720

EXAMPLE #2 Osceola County Public Schools

5-Year Contract with Edlio

$750,000

HOW MUCH? WordPress Saves us money!!!

I haven’t actually done the math for 14,000+ school districts but it’s easily:

$many millions

HOW MUCH? Which can then be used for

Giving raises to teachers Urban after-school programs

Restoring Arts & Drama Pre-K Programs

Fresh, Modern, Responsive Design

New School Sites, Too! (Where Shaq went to High School…)

Not Just Newark Granite Schools (School District in Utah): 92 Schools

Not Just Newark Montclair, NJ High School (Rest of District in 2015)

Not Just Newark Fairfield, CT Schools

Mobile App! Powered by WordPress (with AppPresser Reactor)

Mobile App! Push Notifications directly to smartphones

Saving $$$$$$$$$

Native iOS/Android development for a Public Schools mobile app is

cost-prohibitive.

With AppPresser, we can do the dev in-house for less than $600

WordPress as an Application Framework

This book!

What this means is: You can develop your own apps and 3rd-party connections

The power of enterprise systems with the freedom of open source

What Else?

Now in Development •  District intranet •  Student portal/launcher •  Google Sites Plugin for WordPress •  Instructional Technologies portal •  Professional Development portal •  Classroom Newsletters •  Teacher-activated push notifications

Lastly…

NASA is using WordPress! •  http://blogs.nasa.gov •  http://km.nasa.gov •  http://appel.nasa.gov

Migrated from proprietary CMS eTouch

NOW WHAT?

http://schoolpress.co

Now signing up districts for migration in 2015 and 2016

14,000+ Public School Districts will have access to a free, open source, web site management solution built on top of WordPress

“WordPress for Schools” Service Company

AND THEN… Fire the vendors!

(and save taxpayer money!)

SUPPORT… Schools need technology help

Help migrate your school district to WordPress, volunteer to help train the staff on the Admin, fix design template problems, add

functionality, etc.

Stop paying expensive vendors

Q&A Let me have it

THANKS! Contact Info

CAMERON BARRETT Sr. Manager of Web Site Technology

Newark Public Schools

[email protected]

[email protected]

@camworld

wordcamp nyc 2015

Government & Nonprofit