Best Practices, Magic Bullets and the Nitty Gritty

So there I was facilitating a Web standards team meeting recently when I hear, "Could we just compile the best practices on all this instead of working on crafting Web standards in these meetings?" Hmm. I too wish it were that easy.

The Nitty Gritty

To be fair, crafting 150+ Web standards can be a bit monotonous if not boring (though there can be great excitement in the heated discussions). Standards get into the nitty gritty of your Web site where lots of us would rather not go. Here's an example of a "Published Corrections" standard and you'll see what I mean:

"Substantive changes to content that alters the previously published meaning, outcome or data and/or corrects errors that are critical to the integrity and meaning of the content shall include a brief notation explaining what was changed and why. The notation shall be placed in close proximity to the corrected content."

Even then, the work's not done. Am I losing you? Stay with me. To make this standard complete, you'll need to define "close proximity" and stipulate the components of the notation. See what I mean? We're in deep. 

Calling All Best Practices

So naturally, I too would like to swipe a comprehensive set of best practices for a Web site, cross my fingers that it suits my needs just right, and head off poolside. But, if a comprehensive set truly exists, it (1) won't be tailored to your organization and (2) won't be easy to find (organizations keep their hard, internal work largely under wraps from the rest of us). 

While best practices might commonly exist for other fields, the Web is immature and it's gonna take time and effort to build a Web standards set that will reduce risk to your organization. Even now, policies in long-established fields like HR are having to be updated in light of the Web. Yep, it's back to the drawing board for them too. 

Truth be told, you can find some good examples of Web standards available for all to see. The Department of Health and Human Services deserves great kudos for their very comprehensive set. And check out the format of PBS' Web Production Manual.

No Magic Bullet Here

So it seems the Web standards team will be meeting for weeks to come discussing which standards to include and what they should stipulate. No magic bullet available, sorry. They're in the nitty gritty for the foreseeable future and there's progress in that fact alone.