Mastering the Web

hile much is being written about how Federal agencies are using the Internet and the World Wide Web creatively--most recently in a General Accounting Office Report--there is wide variation in how agencies are using the Internet. Words of caution are in order. Following are some lessons I learned when I was responsible for one of government's most visible sites, "Welcome to the White House" (www.whitehouse.gov) from 1995 to 1997.

Rule 1: Deliver service, not puffery.

The Web offers the opportunity to change the way agencies deliver services and interact with consumers. If the site offers only information about your department or agency, you're missing an opportunity. Beyond offering press releases and tour information, we were able to give electronic tours of the White House, including one conducted by Socks. We also realized that folks see the White House as the front door to government, so we developed links to commonly requested federal services (www.whitehouse.gov/WH/Services/). The worst sites I've seen start and end with a picture or biography of the agency head. Among the many exciting examples of what can be done are the Internal Revenue Service's delivery of forms and instructions (www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/forms_pubs/index.html) and the Social Security Administrations Personal Earnings and Benefits Estimating System (www.ssa.gov), notwithstanding the recent furor over privacy concerns.

Rule 2: Manage content, but with a light hand.

Your Web site speaks for your agency more powerfully than a press release. The same policy officials, lawyers and public affairs officials who help vet other official utterances need to be engaged actively in reviewing what goes out. But take care: If the result of your vetting process is merely to replicate what goes out through other media, you risk violating Rule 1.

Rule 3: Remember your stewardship responsibilities.

As a federal manager, you have the same responsibilities in your Internet activities as in any other. That means protecting assets from misuse, assuring the accuracy and integrity of the work, and adhering to the same laws and policies that govern how you manage information. A simple prescription is to keep your privacy and records management staff involved.

Rule 4: Articulate clear policies.

Building a site raises all sorts of issues, including whether to link to other sites. I vote a resounding "yes," because the real power of the Web is its ability to move you across agencies and the world. The fear, of course, is that a site to which you link will put up information with which you don't agree. Our policy at the White House was simple: We linked to any relevant government site and commercial sites where there was a clear public interest. We put a "hand-off" screen after any link to a non-government site, notifying users that they were leaving the White House and that any views expressed or products being hawked were not necessarily endorsed by the White House. A similar hand-off screen without the disclaimer follows every link to a government site.

Other policy issues are less dramatic but equally perplexing. Should you permit documents on the site that require use of a proprietary product and thus appear to endorse their use? The best example of this is Adobe Acrobat, a software product that allows users to view documents in print-ready formats. This is especially useful when looking at documents such as congressional bills.

We came up with three criteria: (1) The products should significantly enhance the information value of the content; (2) The product should not be the only way information is available; and (3) The product should have a sufficient presence in the market that our use would not give it a significant commercial advantage. The White House is particularly sensitive, and rightly so, about the appearance of giving commercial endorsements. We decided to use Adobe Acrobat only after looking at the broader implications and setting our policy.

The bottom line is to develop policies rather than react on an ad hoc basis.

Rule 5: Keep content current.

Building a Web site is fun; keeping it current is hard work. Remember, in some ways you're running a newspaper and yesterday's edition is good only for wrapping fish. Many update processes can be automated, particularly when the feeder data come out of other automated processes.

Rule 6: Keep a sense of humor.

It's a wild and interesting world, and anyone with a small fee can register a site name. Last year, several White House look-alike sites were created, but their content is different from the real thing. Some sites were good-natured satire, but some were downright obscene. Most Web users are smart enough to recognize when they are being spoofed and time spent chasing down these things in an effort to stop them is like the conventional wisdom about trying to teach a pig to sing. Don't. It will only frustrate you and annoy the pig.

The real danger is if management ignores the potential of the Web and sees it merely as a new technology for doing business the old way. It's not.

Franklin S. Reeder heads The Reeder Group, a Washington-based consulting firm, after more than 35 years in government at the Executive Office of the President and OMB.