Assignment # 8 - web design and Internet use policy


Overview

  1. Work in a virtual team  and design a new web site for your agency.
  2. Review Web Style Guides for ideas on the appropriate "look and feel" of your web site.
  3. Survey "cutting edge" web sites for models on what services your web site might deliver.  
  4. Examine several Internet Use Policies so that you can prepare such a document for your own agency.

Resources

  1. Conduct your own search.  Search the web for web sites of organizations comparable to where you are employed.  Pick these sites for their creativity and effective delivery of services to their targeted audience.  Use these sites as models in the development of a web site for your agency.  
  2. Surveys by the Civic Resource Group. Scan these surveys to understand how local governments are using the Web to deliver services.   These are recent studies and should give you insight on the level of current practices.  Also, they provide management guidelines for improving an agency's strategies for building and maintaining an effective web site.  
  3. Guidelines for designing an agency web site.  The author of these guidelines is the Center for Technology in Government at the University of Albany.  They provide a detailed, step by step set of management guidelines for developing and delivering government services on the web.  "Untangle the Web:.." summarizes the experiences of municipal officials while the longer "Developing & Delivering . . "  draws from the experience of state agencies.  Both sets of recommendations are remarkable similar which suggests to me that similar guidelines would apply to nonprofits as well.
  4. Best of the Web. These prize-winning sites illustrate "state of the art" practices.  Use these sites as examples of best practices when evaluating what services should be offered by your agency's web site.
  5. Web Style Guides.  These documents focus on the technical or mechanical standards of web design.
  6. Internet Use Policies These documents provide policy guidelines for every day Internet use at an agency.  These documents typically include policies with respect to the objectives of the Internet services, protection of privacy, security issues, access guarantees, protection of intellectual property and penalties for inappropriate use of the facilities

Tasks

  1. Form a team consisting of two to five individuals.  
  2. Choose any agency that needs to upgrade its web site and to develop an Internet use policy.
  3. Report 1:

    Write a 5 page report in which you present the following: 

  4. Report 2:   

    Collaborate with your team mates and write a two page Acceptable Internet Use Policy.  This report should make reference to objectives of the agency's Internet services, protection of privacy, security issues, access guarantees, protection of intellectual property and penalties for inappropriate use of the facilities


Grading of this assignment:

  1. Points for Report 1 = 0 to 20 points.
  2. Points for Report 2 = 0 to 10 points. 
  3. Points for the quantity and quality of collaboration on the bulletin board and chat room = 10 points. 
    These points will be assigned on the basis of your collaborative efforts.  WebCT keeps a record of each member's postings and also creates a log of the conversations in the chat rooms.  These records shall determine the score that you receive for the quantity and quality of your contribution.
  4. You will have four weeks to complete this assignment.

last revised by dhostet@siue.edu
January 10, 2002