The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) website, FCC.gov, launched in June 1995 and underwent a redesign in June 1999. There have been incremental changes and updates throughout the past eleven years. Although the FCC significantly increased the quantity and quality of information available on its website during this time period, the site usability did not increase in tandem. In 2009, FCC decided it was an ideal time to move forward with a major redesign of FCC.gov that would help the agency meet its mission as well as directly support the President’s Open Government Directive. To accomplish this task, the FCC needed a technology partner that could work closely with FCC stakeholders to implement a new architecture, improve information accessibility and add design techniques currently utilized in the private sector.
In July 2010, MetroStar Systems was chosen to partner with the FCC in determining and implementing which solutions would best meet the requirements of the FCC website and stakeholders. Together, the FCC and MetroStar Systems evaluated many different options for redesigning FCC.gov. In addition to having an interactive and user-friendly design, the website needed to house large quantities of public-facing data and engage its stakeholders in meaningful ways.
- More integrated topic architecture
- Improved search results and relevance
- Smart streaming video tailored to specific device
- Content Mapping with user embeddable code
- Personalized Dashboard (December 2011)
- Expanded Admin/Roles/Permissions Process
- Fully 508 Compliant
- Meets FISMA/Federal Processing Standards
- Highly scalable cloud infrastructure
- Easy to add FCC content in a standard template
- Includes security monitoring
- Google analytics provides site performance reporting
The FCC leveraged the experience of Energy.gov, House.gov, and WhiteHouse.gov and decided to build the new website using Drupal, an open source content management system (CMS). By developing the new site using Drupal, the MSS team was able to attain significant cost savings, enhanced openness and system interoperability. The team integrated social media platforms Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube into the new website, allowing visitors to share, collaborate, and access information. Developers also contributed code modules to the Drupal community, allowing federal agencies and industry to use FCC frameworks and enhancements for their Drupal-based projects.
By developing the site on Drupal, the development team also created an API based content architecture that speeds development of new applications and products by the FCC. Current FCC content can now be accessed by citizens and industry through a standard FCC API. FCC bureaus and offices can also add additional content to the website by creating an API for their specific content. With an API based content architecture, FCC.gov is able to quickly add new content, web applications and products. In addition, citizen and industry accessibility to FCC content is made much easier through standard APIs.
The FCC/MSS team decided to host the new website in the Terremark Enterprise Cloud that is Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) moderate certified. The website is one of the first federal websites hosted in a cloud with FISMA compliance. Cloud hosting allowed for increased development speed, lower operational costs, enhanced computing resources, and increased scalability. This move to host FCC.gov in the cloud is a solid value for the FCC and also allowed the FCC to fully support the Administration’s “Cloud First” policy by reducing the FCC dependence on internal data centers.
The website showcases numerous new features including:
- Updated visual usability
- Content available by topic
- Greater use of photos and images