About this blog

As part of my work I have been asked to prepare a paper proposing a web governance model for the organisation. The organisation I work for is a large Australian Commonwealth government agency delivering services to the general public and supporting industry. I’m being a bit cagey here about naming the organisation because I want to avoid “you’re not authorised to say that about us in public”. However, I think it is important that I mention this as it is a big part of the context of what is written here. Also I am not a consultant trying to increase my client network or peddle my wears.

As I was doing some background research I found that there was a fair bit of information out there but it never seemed to fit that well with the context of my particular organisation. The real problem is the existing models do not deal well with the complex issues around delivery of government services online. I also posted a message on the Web Standards Group discussion list to see if anyone was having similar problems, well it turns out to be common. So I thought; I’d do some research, write-up some ideas, and invite feedback to see I could get a better understanding of the issues and to test some of my thoughts.

Implied in the following discussion is there is not a simple model of governance that can be easily applied in all situations. Especially in larger organisations with complex web activities. My thought was to try and create a way of highlighting particular problem areas and to introduce what I think might be the critical elements of governance: monitoring performance, ownership, operational control.

So please comment on what’s here; I want your thoughts!