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Meet your new AI helpers: custom GPTs for better government content

Local governments produce a lot of written content. From services and guides to reports and proclamations, every word is part of your customer service. Much of this tends to be full of jargon, technical terms, and obfuscation. Part of making government work better is translating complex programs, policies, rules, and processes into clear, accurate, accessible information...

Table Thing

About Table Thing is an AI assistant that helps you convert messy data into accessible HTML table code quickly and accurately. It works with data from: Text (emails, reports, web copy) PDFs and scanned documents Spreadsheets (Excel, Google Sheets, CSV) Images of tables or lists How Go to the chat Upload or paste your data...

Inventory Thing

About Understanding what services your government offers—and how they’re described—is essential for transparency, usability, and service design. A services inventory helps you see every service you provide, who it’s for, how it’s described, and where people find it. Inventory Thing is an AI assistant that helps you quickly assemble and refine a service inventory so...

Plain Language Thing

About People come to government websites to understand something fast and take the next step. Plain Language Thing is an AI writing assistant that helps you rewrite public-sector content so it’s: Clear and direct Organized for scanning Written for the public (not internal staff) More accessible and easier to translate Learn about plain language. How...

Watch the “PDF Problem” roundtable discussion

PDFs are everywhere in government - but they’re also the #1 cause of accessibility failures. In latest Venngage roundtable, accessibility experts Rebecca Woodbury, Mike Gifford, and John Sullivan shared: How to build PDF governance models Scalable document workflows for public-sector teams Real examples from state & local agencies How to reduce remediation bottlenecks Watch the...

How to write with one voice

Written by Cassandra Cyphers. When working on a shared, public-facing project like your city’s website, multiple people are coming together to create content. Each person contributes unique perspectives, vocabulary, and tone of voice. But too many styles across a larger body of work like a website can feel chaotic to users. It erodes trust. A...

Help people do things: turn passive government content into action

Government websites should be built around helping people take action, not giving explanations. Most local government websites are full of passive content. They explain what the government does (like programs, laws, rules) instead of helping people with how to do something. If your website is like this, it’s not a digital service — it’s an...

Tiburon Peninsula Traffic Alliance launches new website

Tiburon Peninsula Traffic Alliance recently launched a new website using the ProudCity platform. The new site makes it easy for parents to buy school bus passes for their kids. Department of Civic Things supported their project team with: Content strategy and design Developing content Building out the site Online forms Check our their new website.

How more content types could end the government PDF problem

If you are like most government agencies, your website is full of PDFs. You create them for meeting agendas, annual reports, public notices, forms, and the list goes on. You have thousands on your website. They are easy to make and our tools make them the path of least resistance. But PDFs are both a...

Streets and transportation content template

Get information about parking, roadway projects, and traffic. Find bike routes, get a parking permit, request traffic calming for your neighborhood, and more. In this section Downtown parking Find parking downtown and pay for parking with your phone. Get a monthly parking card or parking validations. Tickets and citations Pay a parking or traffic ticket....

A new tool to help you with your PDF problem

A lot of government PDFs are about to be against the law. Even small agencies have thousands of them. The vast majority of them aren’t accessible–and it’s expensive and time-consuming to fix them. This is a big problem. A new audit tool from Code for America Code for America just released a new AI-powered tool...

About initiative

[Describe the initiative in more detail.] Advisory committee [Use this section if there is an advisory committee or task force. Briefly describe what they do and link to their committee page] View meetings Background and history [Provide background information about what led to this initiative.] Partners [Use this section to list other organizations or consultants...

Initiative plan and timeline

[Describe the plan's objectives and activities, including estimated timeline.]

Initiative meetings and workshops

Initiative layout

[Briefly describe the initiative. 160 characters max.] Purpose [Describe the purpose and goals of the initiative. 150 words max.] Learn more about [initiative] Progress [Provide the current status of the initiative's success, milestones, or metrics.] Review the [initiative] plan and timeline Get involved [Explain how they can engage with the initiative, such as: Take our...

Get rid of your government FAQs (they aren’t helping)

Governments love FAQs. People don’t. We make FAQs because they seem like an easy way to provide information, but they actually make it harder for people to find what they are looking for. They force people to formulate what they need as a preset question. They have to scan a long, random list of questions...

Topic layout

[Briefly describe the topic and subtopics. 160 characters max.] In this section [text version] [Include up to 8 pages. Use this version if you don't have simple images for the image set version.] [Page title] [Description, 160 characters max.] [Page title] [Description, 160 characters max.] [Page title] [Description, 160 characters max.] [Page title] [Description, 160...

Committee layout

[Briefly describe what the committee does using common words. 160 characters max.] Meetings Meetings are open to the public, and public participation is encouraged. [Recurring day of the week] [Time] Meetings are held at [place] How to provide input [LINK] How to watch (optional) Videos are available live or replay: Online meeting videos [LINK] [TV...

Action layout

[Start with a sentence or 2 about what they will do or get. This should help people determine if this is what they need. Include different keywords from the page title. You also may want to use the program name, if that makes sense. 160 characters max.] Need to know [Use bullets and keep them...

GovFresh podcast: Government PDFs

The controversial file format beloved by government. This week, Luke Fretwell invited me on the GovFresh podcast to talk about government PDFs. We talk about the 90s, what it’s like to download a PDF on your phone, and what governments can do instead of PDFs. Listen to the podcast About Luke Luke is an entrepreneur,...

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