Web Policy Review

Internal and Off Site Materials

Section IV.A.2. of the University Web Policy specifies rules for Internal Web Materials. To be classified as internal, pages must be restricted by password, network or server security, or some other means from access by the general public.

Additionally, those pages must have a known constituency that is completely accommodated. In other words a Web site restricted by network security to only the Appalachian Center but designed for anyone visiting the Center to use, is not considered internal. Furthermore, even when the constituency is known, that constituency must still be accommodated. For instance a site only available to employees may still be required to be accessible if those employees include or are likely to include someone with a claimable disability under ADA.

Internal Web sites are exempted from the standards and obligations (including Site Reviews) spelled out for Public Web Materials.

Off Site Materials are Web sites not hosted on UK servers and not using the uky.edu domain. (Please see the domain use section of the Web Policy). The policy states clearly that it covers all Web sites of the University of Kentucky. A site does not cease to be a UK site merely by being hosted off of the campus. If it is a UK site it must follow the Web Policy. If it is not a UK site, it may not use UK marks or materials and must state clearly that it is not affiliated with the University.

Typically all UK sites are hosted by UK on the uky.edu domain. Exceptions are made when resource needs or collaborative obligations dictate otherwise. Exceptions must be requested from the Web Advisory Committee (WAC) via Greg or Chuck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Using Macromedia Contribute

We've received a number of requests about using Macromedia Contribute of late, so here is a quick overview.

Contribute is a Macromedia tool that allows the technically challenged to make safe Web updates. Prior installation of Dreamweaver MX (or newer) on an administrator's computer is required for it to work. Every person using Contribute must still acquire a userid and password through the IT Help Desk.

Administrators can grant user-level accounts while maintaining complete control over what each user is allowed to access and change. Regular users then are presented with a streamlined browser interface that allows them to quickly edit content such as text, links, and graphics. Administrators also have the ability to roll back any page changes should any user-created errors arise. The system is remarkably effective for making basic content changes only and should probably be limited to only a few pages per user.

Administrators will have some busywork upon initial setup, especially if your sites make use of templates or dynamic content. However, for any site that needs to provide general staff an easy way to edit Web page content, Contribute is a safe, stable and inexpensive solution.

Available at the UK Computer Store for $84.60.

(John Buzzard of HR does advise that they've experienced a bug with Contribute 2 whereby it removes group permissions on files.)

Use of Copyright Statement on Web Pages

Chuck Ham pointed out that folks are forgetting to update their copyright statements when they create new pages. Here is a quick overview of copyright. Thanks to the UK Legal Office and the government Copyright Office for most of this information.

Under US law, a document is copyrighted by virtue of its creation and distribution. No explicit marks are necessary. However, the Copyright Office recommends them for legal protection particularly against a defense of "innocent infringement."

Additionally (and thanks to Dave Elbon for raising the issue), the U.S. participates in two principal international copyright treaties, the Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention (UCC), as well as many bilateral agreements. The Berne Convention is effectively the same as U.S. law. Under the UCC:

... any formality in a national law may be satisfied by the use of a notice of copyright in the form and position specified in the UCC. A UCC notice should consist of the symbol © (C in a circle) accompanied by the year of first publication and the name of the copyright proprietor (example: © 1995 John Doe). This notice must be placed in such manner and location as to give reasonable notice of the claim to copyright.

A document such as a Web page will use the year of first creation of the page regardless of edits. Where a Web page compiles previously created documents a series or range of years may be used (e.g., © 1995-2000 John Doe).

New UK Google Search Server

From Dave Elbon:

We are [using] a new Google search server. There are several changes which most people probably won't notice:

  • Improved performance (it's a little faster)
  • Continuous crawl -- rather than doing one or two new crawls of all of our web servers each week it will be crawling continuously. It dynamically discovers how quickly pages change to determine how often to check them, but we can specify particular pages that should be checked more often.
  • Improved relevance -- reflecting updates to Google's proprietary search algorithms

The new server is also licensed for 500,000 documents, up from 300,000. We typically have had 260,000 or so indexed and the new server has already indexed 320,000.

There are also new features we may be able to use in the future, including access to databases and the ability to feed non-web data.

The new Google appliance was made live Monday, March 28.

Updates

Internet Explorer 7 Announced (http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/feb05/02-15RSA05ketnoyePR.asp)
Despite objections to the contrary, Microsoft will release a new version of IE prior to the next version of Windows. There is no certainty that standards support will improve dramatically over current versions.

The Value of White Space
(http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol18/design_no2.htm)
Less is More! Understanding the role of white space is one of the fundamental building blocks of design.

Why is Consistency Critical
(http://www.sitepoint.com/article/why-consistency-is-critical)
Consistency is a point of information in itself. Some key points:

  • Be consistent with what users expect. (e.g., navigation on the left, search boxes on the top right)
  • Be consistent in placing common elements (e.g., navigation should not be on the left on one page and at the top on the next)
  • Be consistent in language. Don't use interchangeable phrases. Pick one and put the others in your meta tags.

 

Hey Terrie! Hey Adam!

When will we be dropping the www2 from the Medical Center addresses?

There are still several Web sites to be moved off of the old server (13, I believe). Once those are moved we will be able to make that address available and change everyone's Web sites form www2.mc.uky.edu to www.mc.uky.edu. I realize this has been somewhat of an inconvenience, but I think the rewards of this new environment are well worth it. I feel confident that we will be able to complete the transition by the end of April.

I will send an e-mail to everyone once I make that change. Please plan to take some time to make sure you do not have any hard-coded links that will be disabled, and generally to make sure everything is working OK.

If you have any questions, let Terrie know.

-Adam