Website Governance

What is web governance?

Web governance is the oversight of the roles, systems, policies, standards, processes and procedures that are involved in maintaining an organization’s presence on the web. There are many web governance models to choose from. Each speak to the need for people to identify and define objectives, requirements, and systems of working together to meet an organization’s online communication needs.

Queen's Website Governance Committee

In August 2020, a website governance committee was created at Queen's.

Since that time, the committee has leveraged the skills of web professionals from across campus, and provide centralized oversight of the university’s public-facing digital properties.

The committees aims are to:

• encourage a unified, consistent approach and compliance with policies (i.e, privacy, accessibility) and industry best practices
• clarify and processes, roles, and responsibilities in all aspects of Queen’s digital presence
• facilitate and encourage greater collaboration between portfolios
• align user experience across Queen’s websites and strengthen Queen’s brand online

An initial focus on WebPublish

The committee will initially focus on oversight of websites built using WebPublish.

A key drivers for the WebPublish upgrade was the end-of-life date for Drupal 7, the underlying application of WebPublish. With the rollout of WebPublish 3.0 on Drupal 9, all WebPublish site owners were required to migrate their existing site content to the new environment by October 1, 2021. This meant an overhaul of a significant percentage of the university’s web content over a 15 month period, and a significant opportunity to enhance Queen’s overall online presence.

The committee developed site granting and review processes that created  awareness of new projects, and created opportunities to share expertise and align individual project objectives with our broader university objectives.

Beyond WebPublish

With the migration of sites to WebPublish 3.0 is complete, the committee will advise on the continual enhancement of the WebPublish service and to encourage the adoption of the platform by new users and for new projects.

The scope of the Website Governance Committee may also extend to provide support for all public-facing websites at Queen’s. It may also serve as a consulting body for other university initiatives related to publishing online, such as the acquisition of new tools and the adoption of new technologies.

Members may also engage the committee network to address issues they may be having on their own website projects.

Membership

Membership includes representatives from all areas of the university. Members will share their challenges, insights, institutional knowledge and expertise, and influence the continuing evolution of the digital ecosystem at Queen’s.

As a whole, committee members possess a range of marketing and communication-related skills and expertise, including but not limited to web development, design, brand, writing and editing, and project management.

Members will be invited to draw on others from their faculty/school/portfolio/department as needed to engage in committee activities.

Committee activities will include:

• reviewing project proposals and projects in production
• contributing to evolving university standards
• overseeing processes and objectives for publishing public-facing websites
• engaging in subcommittee activities as needed