Howto Widgets

1 Is this for you?
Do you work for a government organization that wants to take some small 2.0 steps?
Do you have dynamic and (for the public) interesting information?
Do you wish to maintain control over your content?

2 Why should you read this then?
This howto can help you as a sponsor to have some widgets developed for your organization. We’re still in the process of realisation, so this how to is a work in progress too.

3 What should be at your disposal if you decide to go for it?
If you have the technical skills yourself, it only costs you time. If you don’t, you may use some of the online tools that exist already (netvibes, yahoo pipes, igoogle). If those don’t deliver what you’re looking for, get a company to make it for you. That was the case for us. Your information source should be open, like in xml format.

4 What else should you take into account?
Making a widget is just a small step in a broader trend called open government. If you information is already open (through xml or API for example), you may not need to make widgets yourself but have your end users make them themselves (you could facilitate that). For us, it’s an experiment in itself.

5 Step-by-step
For a technical how to, go to
http://alper.nl/dingen/2008/12/widget-distribution-and-other-considerations/
We’re at the process of building the widgets now.

6 More information
Chris Smissaert

7 Feedback
If you’d like to know more, then please let me know so I’ll add to this howto.