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2.3 Web site quality clearance and continuity

Policy

All of FAO’s sites contribute to a single “FAO” online presence. Each site should therefore apply quality criteria to reinforce the perception of the Organization as a publisher of high quality, expert, neutral, global technical information.

Getting your site online once it has been designed and constructed will not be difficult if you have followed the recommendations and advice contained in this Guide. It is important to remember that all FAO Web sites are held up against a Web checklist before they are published: FAO Web Quality Assurance Checklist. This checklist is aimed at site owners, content providers, designers, information architects, systems developers and technical officers responsible for managing sites.

Once a site is published, routine effort is then required to monitor and maintain its relevance and quality.

 

Conditions before publishing a Web site

All requests for clearance will be evaluated in consultation with the departmental Officers responsible for Web activities, as and when appropriate. 

Before proceeding in developing a Web site, please note that the following conditions need to exist in order to publish it on FAO.org: 

  1.  Identify a site owner and an alternate for the Web site. The role of the site owner is to be involved in the development, maintenance and curation of the Web site.
  2. It should be compliant with the corporate look and feel and the URL should be agreed in advance.
  3. The Web site should be available in the official languages of the Organization (including navigation, content, description metadata and alt text on images). Exception to this condition are considered on a case by case basis, depending on the target audience, the geographic coverage and the level of importance of the subject area. 
  4. It should not duplicate or overlap with existing content on the same subject area already published on FAO.org. In addition, links to related content need to be included where appropriate.
  5. It should be developed using software supported in FAO; if this is not the case, authorization from CIO Clearance should be provided before proceeding.
  6. If social media are used, they should be compliant with the social media policy of the Organization.  Please contact social-media@fao.org if additional information is needed.
  7. For Web sites including partnerships, it should be cleared by the Partnerships group in OCP prior the development and reviewed before the launch of the Web site.
  8. All FAO documents should be included in the Corporate Document Repository and not uploaded locally in the Web site. Please contact document-repository@fao.org if additional information is needed.
  9. Content should be suitable for the Web (concise, short paragraphs, with sub-headings and visual aids, etc.). Read more in the section "Writing for the Web".
  10. It should be reviewed by the Web Clearance team when the prototype is ready on the test server (web-clearance@fao.org) well in advance of the launch date.
  11. Five (5) working days should be allowed to the Web Clearance team to be able to analyze the site and provide the required clearance. Sufficient time should be planned by the site developers for addressing issues which might be raised by the Web Clearance team and for releasing the site online with the support of the CIO. 
  12. Finally, with the corporate visual identity changing, the clearance will be provided on the understanding that some adjustments will be required in the future when the new corporate template is published.