A checklist to Maximise the Effectiveness of Online Resource

The following is the succinct checklist of items raised in the series of workshops commissioned by Strategic Content Alliance (SCA) during 2010 under the title Maximising Online Resource Effectiveness (MORE). The purpose was to promote most effective use of the internet by SCA member organisations, with an emphasis on promoting and communicating content available as an online resource. The workshops were delivered to around 300 participants from all over the UK, from a variety of further (FE) and higher education (HE) and public sector organisations.  

1. Recognise advantages in having well prepared scalable content that can be utilised in “more is better” scenarios.
2. Understand the potential of audience engagement using the web.
3. Consider the longer term benefits of having computable content.
4. Search engine providers want their users to find exactly what they are looking for, so describe your content accurately using titles, description, keywords.
5. Use text for all important content.
6. Monitor and measure how your site is being used and define success.
7. Search engine optimisation cannot be ignored, but it is not everything.
8. Know your audience.
9. New standards enhance the value of content by enabling informative structure.
10. Many benefits of new standards can be realised with older browsers by referencing ready made non intrusive javascript.
11. RSS can extend the reach of suitable web site content.
12. Keep things simple on a web page to prevent creating barriers to accessibility.
13. Employ simple web based services to check the integrity of content and associated keywords.
14. Embedded metadata can open up new possibilities for the use of content.
15. Online social media can play a prominent role in attracting and engaging an audience.
16. The social web is not new, it’s what the web was always intended to become.
17. Audiences are already in the social web—it’s the best place to engage with them.
18. Decide on a purpose for adopting the social web and use the best service for that.
19. Be aware of valid organisational concerns over the use of the social web.
20. A mix of expertise is required to maximise effectiveness.
21. This expertise should be associated with different roles and responsibilities.
22. The coordination of these roles should be an essential part of the web strategy of an organisation.
23. A policy can allay concerns over the use of the social web by an organisation.
24. There is no magic formula for a organisation wide social web policy—it depends on many organisation specific factors.
25. The process of compiling a policy should involve a probing review that brings focus to benefits and workable processes.
26. RDF is a very basic scheme for describing things using unambiguous terms in brief statements known as triples.
27. RDFa is a way of including RDF in an ordinary web page to embed metadata.
28. RDF metadata in a web site can be used by software applications to detect semantics.
29. Web sites containing RDF can be linked when there is overlap in the triples.
30. There is a growing number of online resources using RDF and real semantics to create a more effective web of resources.