Australian Society of Archivists
Electronic Records Special Interest Group

Managing Websites Seminar: Gearing up for the e-commerce era

Managing Web Sites: Some practical issues

Kristine Corcoran, NSW Office of Information Technology

• “Provision of Information and Services Using the Internet” is a Guideline issued by the Office of Information Technology. It is designed to assist you in the design, development, implementation, monitoring and day-to-day running of your site.
• The Guideline is designed primarily for Government agencies but could be applied to other organisations. Government organisations need to adhere to more rules and standards than might be the case for non-government organisations which are not part of a wider network.
• The Guideline provides detailed guidance on:
  • Defining the information and/or services to be provided on the site and defining the benefits to be provided by Internet delivery of the service or the information. Check with your potential customers to see if what you intent to provide is what they will be looking for.
  • Planning the implementation of a web site including the business objectives to be achieved and how the site will look and operate.
  • Development of the site which describes the design standards to be used and considers the issued of copyright, liability, privacy, confidentially, integrity of information and content regulation issues and how the site will be navigated. Make sure you understand the technology normally used by your average client – it is no good making your site navigable by the latest technology if your clients have less than the latest or adhere to particular search engines. Don’t forget to build in testing of the site as it is developed.
  • Implementation of the site - if the planning and development stages have been thoroughly undertaken then the implementation is less complicated – register your site with the search engines and market you site – no good having a site if no one knows about it or only finds it by accident.
  • Quality assurance which covers managing and maintaining your web site on an on-going basis – keep it up to date and monitor it and review it regularly (get customer feedback, analyse server log files and develop customer profiles). If your services or information are not up to date you run the risk of losing clients and open the opportunity to be held liable for misleading users.

© Copyright Kristine Corcoran, 1999.