Web Governance in (Federal) Action

Oftentimes, clients express that setting up governance in their agency seems like a very academic exercise. They are skeptical (though also very hopeful) that such a time-intensive task will be worth it. I know my federal client was recently feeling the same. After all, we’d spent countless hours in working sessions carefully reviewing more than 100 Web standards to go along with newly drafted Web policy. We had set up a new governance structure in which my client was established as the Web Product Manager and given the authority to approve standards drafted by ad-hoc standards teams dedicated to hot topics like social media and 508 compliance.

So there we were toiling in a working session and reviewing Web standards related to domain names one particular day. The standards are quite detailed and answer questions like, ‘Are vanity domain names permissible in all cases?’ and ‘Is it OK to create a domain for my department’s campaign site that does not use .gov?’

And that’s when the client realized just how timely and practical (and productive) our working sessions had been. He’d recently been asked similar questions and didn’t have a sound answer. Having these standards in place, he said, would solve a couple of key issues for him. First off, he wouldn’t have to run around figuring out the answers or worse, make something up. Second, he’d now have a definitive source for the answer so that its validity could not be readily questioned.

What a relief this was to him—he had the support of a Web governance structure and definitive answers in the form of Web standards tailored to his agency:

• Vanity domain names are allowed so long as the domain name redirects to a Web site using the agency’s .gov domain name

• Any agency domain that is not a .gov domain must redirect to the agency’s .gov Web site. (Exception was given to Web sites developed in partnership or through grants or cooperative agreements with non-Federal organizations.)

I bet you’re thinking you’d like to have answers to those questions and lots more. Perhaps you have a style guide that answers questions related to content and visuals. That’s a good start, but there’s lots more topics there to consider.

For those who are interested in learning more about Web governance best practices—including Web policy and standards creation—but are not quite ready for a comprehensive consultation, consider the workshops we offer. Our next workshop, “Federal Web Governance,” is set for July 12 in DC and covers all you need to know about getting started on Web governance in your agency. You can also get the scoop on Web policy at the Potomac Forum next week where I’ll be talking about the significance of federal Web mandates.