A big thank you and well done to everyone who contributed to a great event last Thursday.

30 people from Government executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) came to find out about website auditing.

Attendees were given an introduction by Alex Butler, COI’s Transformational Strategy Director. Alex told how this work came about as the result of the National Audit Office (NAO) report Government on the Internet (July 2007). The NAO report found that:

• a quarter of government organisations did not know the costs of their websites
• 16% had no data about how much their websites were being used
• quality standards had only improved slightly since 2002

Alex explained how the audits form part of a package of improvements offered by COI including standard measures for website quality, value for money and usability. These measures form part of the requirement by the Public Accounts Committee for greater accuracy and transparency in how the Government manages its investment in digital media.

Those present then watched a short clip of COI Chief Executive Mark Lund’s presentation at the Internet Advertising Bureau event IAB Engage 2009. Mark describes the work COI is doing with the Cabinet Office and other parts of Government in setting standards and evaluating the cost-effectiveness government websites.

Richard Foan, ABCe’s Managing Director, then talked through the details of website auditing. Richard emphasised the need for standards in an industry where there are so many different methods, metrics and tools to choose from. He explained that ABCe are an independent non-profit organisation, auditing to industry standards. ABCe certify that government websites comply with the standards and measure website usage in a consistent way.

The question and answer session that followed was lively and yielded some useful actions:

• We are planning an FAQ page on the COI website based on the questions asked
• Technical guidance will be available from the planned FAQ page but also from this page: TG116a ABCe Audit (PDF, 541 kB) and Guide to Google Analytics Mirror Method (PDF, 157 kB)
• Follow up meetings will be arranged with those who requested them
• Slides from the event are available from this page (PDF, 1.5 MB)
• Access to the Government Website Database is available by contacting graham.phillips@coi.gsi.gov.uk

Thanks to all those who attended, I hope you found it useful. And thanks particularly to Linda who worked the floor extremely well and made a star entrance!

For those who missed the event, we are planning to do similar events in the future. But in the meantime hopefully this blog article gives a flavour of what took place.

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Some meanings of words change over time.  Take ‘scan’ for example.  That used to mean reading something systematically giving attention to every word in order.  Thus when people talk about scanning a newspaper in the 19^th Century, they mean someone read it all starting at the first word and going through to the last.  Yes, really, that’s what people used to do.  We still imply that version of the word when referring to ‘scanners’.

But there was deviation into another meaning.  The same task was used by sailors to scan the horizon – systematically looking around it for shipping or land.  This gradually shifted to the question being asked – is there anything interesting to see?  And that’s the meaning we generally attribute to the verb nowadays.  A quick glance or skim over something to see if there is anything that grabs our attention.

Well why is this relevant to the usual subject covered by this blog?  Because we sometimes mistake when people are scanning or scanning.  And it is important in getting people to the information or service quickly.

People quickly scan (in the second sense) and recognise something familiar in search results lists.  So seeing something in a search results list that says it is on Directgov, for example, should signal to the reader that they can trust it as authoritative, that it will be easy to read (because written for them) and that it will point people to other relevant content to their need.

Building brand is important to enable people to quickly skim over something and determine what they choose.  It is also important in memorability.  That’s why the guidance insists on avoiding sub-domains and using directory structure.  In plain words, avoiding URLs of the form YAA.website.gov.uk and instead using website.gov.uk/YAA.  The human brain does something different in the two cases.

In the former, one registers the YAA (standing for Yet Another Acronym) and then tends to forget the rest.  If that is what we want people to do, then using instructions such as ‘Search for Change4Life’ is a more effective means.  We’re increasingly using that to focus people on major campaigns.

However, if we want people to find it easily on the Web, then saying you’ll find it on Directgov, or wherever, is more effective – and the form direct.gov.uk/YAA does exactly this.  It both uses and builds the brand.  And if it is really current, it will be on the home page.

Sub-domains may be the technical means to delivering services and packaging content into useful and manageable chunks as part of internal processes, but for marketing the directory structure is much more helpful to get people to what they’re looking for.

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COI guidance TG124 Structuring information on the Web for re-usability is now re-issued as version 1.2.  Diligent implementers have identified two small errors in version 1.1 and these have now been corrected.  They were correct in the examples on the Google Code website and only incorrect in the abstracted guidance.

The first correction is in paragraph 31.

Old version

<div about="#this"
  typeof="foaf:Document"
  rel="dc:type" resource="[argot:Consultation]"
  >
 ...
</div>

Correct code

<div about="#this" typeof="foaf:Document">
  <span rel="dc:type" resource="[argot:Consultation]"></span>
...
</div>

Notice how the @rel attribute is in a separate span element.

There is a similar correction in paragraph 34.

Old version

<div about="#this"
  typeof="foaf:Document"
  rel="dc:type" resource="[argot:Consultation]"
 >
  <span property="dc:publisher" content="Ministry of Justice"></span>
 ...
</div>

or even merged onto the first element:

<div
 about="#this"
 typeof="foaf:Document"
 rel="dc:type" resource="[argot:Consultation]"
 property="dc:publisher" content="Ministry of Justice"
>
...
</div>

Correct code

<div about="#this" typeof="foaf:Document">
 <span rel="dc:type" resource="[argot:Consultation]"></span>
 <span property="dc:publisher" content="Ministry of Justice"></span>
...
</div>

or even merged onto the first element:

<div about="#this" typeof="foaf:Document"
 property="dc:publisher" content="Ministry of Justice">
 <span rel="dc:type" resource="[argot:Consultation]"></span>
...
</div>

Apologies for the changes. If you have any questions, please contact me at adam.bailin@coi.gsi.gov.uk.

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It’s a new year and here at COI the digital policy team have loads of exciting events and projects coming up.  I’ll tell you all about that in a minute.  My first priority is the government website audit project.  I’ll remind you  just in case you have forgotten what the project is all about. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in their Sixteenth Report recommended that Government develop a single set of reporting metrics for website usage. The Government agreed and made it mandatory for all government websites to be audited. Hence the Government Website Audit project.

We have an event coming up in London on the 21^st of January aptly named “Auditing Government Websites”.  Speaking at the event is our very own Alex Butler, COI Transformational Strategy Director, and ABCe’s Managing Director Richard Foan.  The event is aimed at government agencies (EAs) and non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) and will cover the following topics:

• importance of auditing
• industry standards for measuring websites
• how to get ready for the audit
• the audit process (pre audit and post audit)

The event provides an opportunity for government agencies and NDPBs to audit their websites for approximately half the amount if procured independently. What better way to start the year? The event is free and registration for the event and the audits are pouring in, so register now and make your websites 2010 compliant.

Please email me at linda.morakinyo@coi.gsi.gov.uk if you would like to attend.

Hope to see you all at there.

Invitation to auditing government websites event 21 Jan 2010

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