Website Policy

 

This policy is intended to:

  • Establish the Countyofsb.org website as the entry point for accessing all County information which is available on the Web.
  • Make the website and those affiliated with the official links from it appear as consistent in format, inter-linkages, and funcionality as possible.
  • Insure information available through the website is structured in such a way that users can logically and quickly access specific information which is available from the Santa Barbara County Government.
  • Acknowledge that the Advisory Committee to Egovernment (ACE) will provide the policy direction and the framework required to develop and manage the implementation of the website.

 

Website Goals

 

 

The Countyofsb.org website is provided as a public service. Our goals for the development of this site are:

  • To advance the County’s activity on the World Wide Web and improve public access to government information, programs and services.
  • To make County government more efficient, effective, and responsive to the public through the use of online business transaction applications.
  • To provide a collaborative tool to encourage organizational learning among County government employees.
  • To promote the County to the rest of the world in a manner that enhances economic development and tourism opportunities for the County.

 

Advisory Committee to Egovernment (ACE)

 

County government is a broad and disparate organization, producing volumes of data and information with many owners and maintainers. A forum for interested participants to come together to provide constructive input to that process was sponsored by the Information Technology Services division of the General Services department. ITS established an Advisory Committee for E-Government (ACE) to provide the policy direction and the framework required to develop and manage the implementation of the new County portal.

 

The Advisory Committee for E-Government will:

  • Be responsible for providing input on developing the format, content and organization of the Countyofsb.org web site
  • Serve as an advisory function to the Chief Information Officer of the County of Santa Barbara, currently the Assistant Director of General Services, Information Technology.
  • Consist of representatives from all interested departments and agencies in County government.
  • Have the authority to appoint sub-committees to discuss, study and/or resolve assigned issues as needed.
  • Hold regularly scheduled meetings which remain open to all interested participants
  • Provide guidance on the structure, organization, and location of County department home pages and their linked components to promote effective utilization of the Countyofsb.org website.
  • Facilitate a shared responsibility for presenting the best representation of the County through the use of the Countyofsb.org website.
  • Strive to build on what is already in place and to provide a forum for continuous improvement of the website.
  • Provide policy direction that is democratic and distributed and does not stifle or prevent “grass roots” contributions.
  • NOT be responsible for specific approval or authorization of content for a particular department of agency’s web pages. The responsibility for content rests with the departments and organizations who are providing the information.

 

Countyofsb.org Website Guidelines

 

The following guidelines are intended to assist in the development and preparation of information for the Countyofsb.org website and those pages linked to the Countyofsb.org website.

 

Design Guidelines

 

Uniform Design
Pages that have a consistent design application, at the top and bottom of the page, establish the site as the Countyofsb.org website in the user’s mind, regardless of the entry point.Customization (proposed 11/26/01)


 

There are many areas of the site design that can be customized to allow for department needs, while still maintaining a consistent interface to the public. The following is a list of customization options and recommendations:

  • Masthead: 
    Customization option: Change the department name and change the pictures that appear in upper right corner.
    Recommendation: Keep the County seal and "County of Santa Barbara Online" title, background color and Courthouse picture.
  • Right and Left Navigation Bars: 
    Customization Option:    Use or remove as needed, change color of bars. Several color schemes are available. On the left nav bar: change the" Jobs" link to your department's jobs page. Change contact us to your department's contact page or email address. On the right nav bar, change the featured sites to your department's featured sites. Replace the BOS map with image of your own.
    Recommendation: Provide a search box and link to advanced search in upper left, below masthead.
  • Stylesheets: 
    Recommendation: To keep a consistent look to fonts, links, etc., use the stylesheets already developed.
  • County Home Page Link: 
    Recommendation: create a link on each page to the County home page, preferably a hot link on the County logo.

 

Standards for Each Page
Each page should include an e-mail address for a “Webmaster”, or “responsible point of contact” (phone or fax optional and where information is time sensitive the date of the last page up-date.

 

Link Back to the Countyofsb.org website
All official County web pages that have a link from the Countyofsb.org website should incorporate, on each page, easy links back to the Countyofsb.org website. This is designed to facilitate easy return by a user to the Countyofsb.org website so that he or she may continue exploration of the information accessible through the Countyofsb.org website.

 

Webmaster Contact
All department web pages with links from the Countyofsb.org website should provide a single point of contact for communications purposes. A “Webmaster”, or “responsible point of contact” will be identified on each department’s home page for questions or follow-up on the part of users of the information. A method of contact (telephone, mail, e-mail) will be made available.

 

Browser Independent
A goal of the Countyofsb.org website is to be browser independent. At a minimum, the Countyofsb.org website should be HTML 4.0 compliant in order to achieve the widest possible audience. In addition, the Countyofsb.org website should be designed to accommodate non-graphical browsers.

 

Information Maintenance
All official State of Countyofsb.orgicut agency/organizations with links from the Countyofsb.org website are expected to maintain the most current publicly available data and information on their web site.

 

Use of County Logo

 

Board of Supervisor approval is required to display the logo on a website. In some instances, Board approval may not be appropriate. For example, it could be said that use of the County seal implies the County's endorsement of a product--the Board may not want to do that.

 

Please contact the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors to pursue this matter further.

 

Legal Considerations

 

Disclaimer
The Countyofsb.org website will incorporate an appropriate disclaimer. The disclaimer for the Countyofsb.org website may be used as a model but the existence of that disclaimer does not relieve other official state agency/organizations with links from the Countyofsb.org website of the responsibility to incorporate a disclaimer on their respective home pages.

 

Copyright
The Countyofsb.org website and its linkages are intended to present County government information that is in the public domain. Information that is not in the public domain should not be displayed without the written permission of the copyright holder.

 

Definitions for the Countyofsb.org Website

 

The Countyofsb.org website is defined as the Welcome Page and the Resource Meta Pages, as highlighted by the shaded area shown in Figure 1. The Welcome Page is meant to be the top-level of reference or menu with the subsequent Resource Meta Pages or menus branching from that describing the resources of availabe through Countyofsb.org. This top-level is identified by the domain address of https://www.countyofsb.org


In the framework above, we have identified three specific types of home pages to illustrate how each page type is related to the other. These three page types are:

 

Welcome Page
The Welcome Page is defined as the single access point at the top of the Countyofsb.org. This page contains a list of the available high-level information domains (i.e., subject categories), hyperlinks to Resource Meta Pages for these subject categories, and may have some instructional information for getting started.

 

Resource Meta Pages
A Resource Meta Page is the first directory page linked to by each subject category listed on the Welcome Page. The Resource Meta Page provides an overview, context and/or index to that particular subject category, hyperlinks to specific information covered under that subject category, and instructions (if needed) for continuing down the information tree.

 

Related Home Page
Related Home pages are defined as any additional pages that are not a Welcome Page or a Resource Meta Page. For example, individual department web sites.

 

Acknowledgements

DRAFT World Wide Web State Home Page Policy. 1996. State of South Carolina: State Budget and Control Board, Office of Information Resources
ConneCT Website Policy 1996. State of Conneticut: Department of Information Technology