Writing About Web Policy & Standards

I’ve just about put to bed the web policy and standards chapters for “Managing Chaos.” A few insights that solidified while writing:

1. Web managers (that is the “head” web person in the organization) have a responsibility to lead when it comes to defining and implementing good web management practices and standards for enterprise web development–even if that leadership takes them places outside the scope of their normal responsibilities. Often others in the organization that one might expect to lead and enable the web team don’t have the knowledge to do so. If you are the web manager, just lead.
2. Leading doesn’t always mean making all the decisions or being in charge. Make room for other opinions. Be humble. Facilitate. Collaborate. Listen to internal stakeholders when they tell you what they need to do online. They might not have our industry-specific jargon down when it comes to user experience practices, content, and technologies but, they know the reality of the business and what business outcomes are desired and will be supported with resources from executives. Their knowledge might help you find a way to get new features and functionality funded and implemented.
3. Web policy awareness has to extend beyond the enterprise. Not only do organizations need to consider issues like online children’s privacy, web records retention, security, social media policy and the like–they also need to keep an eye on ever-evolving international and national regulation related to the Internet and the World Wide Web–and to influence it when necessary.

Now, I’m off to the next few chapters on web governance frameworks–more simply, determining who gets to make decisions about different aspects of the enterprise Web. Traditionally, people talk about how accountability and authority are placed using using a governmental analogy like a federation. And, we speak about the placement of authority with terms like “centralized” or “devolved.” Going in, I think I’m going use a network topology analogy- ring, bus, array. It’s a more active analogy. And, it’s a little bit geeky. We’ll see if that’s too fanciful (and if it holds up)!