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Policies and Documents

Procedure for Requesting Revisions to Existing Web Content

I. Scope of Policy

This policy covers revisions to existing web content owned by currently supported entities, i.e. Dean's Office, ITS, Emergency Medicine. This policy does not cover new development, transfer of ownership of existing unsupported web content, or revisions to unsupported web content. Procedures for each of these situations are in process.

II. Ownership of Content & Responsibilities of Ownership

• The 'owner' of web content will be considered the director or head of the entity providing the content. Requests for revision may only be initiated by the content owner or by this person's immediate designee. In some cases, requestors may be required to submit written proof of the content owner's knowledge and approval of the request.
• The owner of the content will assume full responsibility for providing accurate, timely, and complete content. The owner will also proofread the content once posted on the web to ensure accuracy and proper presentation within 4 hours of notification that the content is 'live.'
• The content provider, who may be a different person than the content owner, must provide content in a universally accessible format. Within the School of Medicine, the term 'universally accessible' shall be limited to the following formats:

  PC:
  Microsoft Word 97 or later, WordPerfect 6.0 or later, Rich Text format, ASCII text format, Adobe Acrobat or .TIFF format scan images for non-word-processed forms

  Apple/Macintosh:
  Microsoft Word, Rich Text Format, Adobe Acrobat or .TIFF format scan images for non-word-processed forms

• The web developer shall be responsible for reproducing the content provider's content VERBATIM in HTML or dynamic web format, per user's specifications and scope of existing systems. The web developer may, at his discretion, elect to exercise grammar, spelling, or formatting corrections where the error is obvious and unquestionable; however the developer is not obligated to do so, nor will he be responsible for the final proofreading or certification of content's validity or accuracy.
• It should be noted that HTML language is a universal format for content presentation. As such, it may be impossible to reproduce certain proprietary features found in popular word processing or desktop publishing applications. Though every attempt will be made to recreate the format of the provided content exactly, the web developer may contact the content provider to discuss HTML alternatives to features than cannot be effectively recreated, for example: nonstandard font selection, custom leading, spacing, or character placement, suitability for printing, custom margins, automatic page numbering, etc.
• The web developer will not be responsible for word processing. Scanned or hard copy documents may be presented as examples of final content presentation, but will not be typed in by the developer. In special situations, the web developer may assist in using technologies such as OCR for electronic deployment of documents with no electronic antecedent.
• The web developer may, at his discretion, modify the format of content to better conform to HTML markup. This may involve the creation of tablesets, addition of paragraph formatting tags, and stripping of any proprietary or redundant markup language, such as that created by the Microsoft Word HTML export feature.

III. Expectations

At the end of the revision process, the developer should have:

• Created HTML files, appropriately placed within the directory structure of the School of Medicine & its peripheral websites, as determined by the web development manager, that accurately and completely reflect the content provided;
• Informed the content provider (and the content owner, if different) of the completion of revisions;
• Asked that final proofreading & verification of content commence within 4 working hours; and
• Confirmed that the content is in line with the School of Medicine's Web Content Policy.

At the end of the revision process the owner/content provider should have:

• Provided all content in a timely manner to the web developer;
• Checked content for accuracy and presentation;
• Proofread final content;
• Contacted the web developer or supervisor to confirm validity of content or request additional changes (see IV);
• Optionally provided feedback to the web developer or supervisor.

IV. Ongoing Revisions

• The term 'ongoing' shall refer to web development projects which require frequent or regular updates to maintain currency, or to projects which go through multiple phases of validation and interaction between the content owner/provider and the web developer. The following additional policies will apply:
  
  
  1. The content provider will communicate in detail what elements of the original development, if any, are in need of additional modification. It may be necessary to meet with the developer in person to clarify these issues.
  2. The web developer may, at his discretion, create draft documents to pass between himself and the content provider. In such case, the drafts will be created in a universally accessible format (see II.C) and will be placed in a designated area of the School of Medicine shared files folder for collaborative revision.
  3. In like manner, the content provider may arrange for a dynamic document to be placed in a designated area of the shared files folder and periodically uploaded to the web, either on demand or on a regular schedule. In such case, responsibility for revisions to the document will fall upon the content provider.
  4. In certain cases, it may be appropriate for the web developer to provide basic training in the use of web technologies to enable content providers with the need for highly frequent revisions to implement the revisions themselves. These cases will be evaluated by the Manager for Internet Technologies and Development.