The following are definitions for terms used in the June 2004 report:
Recommended Policies and Guidelines for Federal Public Websites.
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
Agency: An organizational unit of the executive branch that is any of the following:
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A member of the cabinet;
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A major subdivision of a cabinet agency. For example:
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In the Department of the Interior: the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, and the Office of Surface Mining, among others
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In the Department of Defense: major components such as the military departments, the defense agencies, and the field activities.
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An independent agency, such as:
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The Central Intelligence Agency
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The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation
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The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
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The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
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Any other organizational unit OMB designates as an organization for the purposes of web content management.
Alternative Formats: Web file formats that are not universally accessible, but are available to the public via specific software or plug-ins. These formats include, but are not limited to: Portable Document Formats (PDF), WordPerfect, MS Word, MS PowerPoint, and statistical data files, such as SAS, SPSS, SQL, and MS Excel.
Content: Any material that is available on a federal public website.
Cross-Agency Portal: A website that brings together information and services from multiple federal agencies or organizations about a particular topic or for a particular audience group.
Document: A file provided on a website that contains text, such as pages, text files, word processing files, and spreadsheet files.
Domain Names: Web addresses that are used to help people find websites on the Internet. Domain names are made up of a hierarchy known as levels, which are separated by periods (".") within the domain name. Top-level domains include domains such as .gov, .mil., .us, .org, .com., and .edu. Examples of a federal organization's domain name are army.mil, noaa.gov and publicdebt.treas.gov.
E-Democracy: Using the Internet to give citizens a say in how they are governed. It's government of and by the people, not just for the people. Where "e-government" focuses on putting government services online, e-democracy's goal is to create ways to involve the public in government decision-making. Examples of e-democracy include regulations.gov, where the public can comment on proposed rules; online "town meetings" where the public can pose questions and offer suggestions; and online discussions around public policy issues.
Some advocates add to the definition of e-democracy: giving open access to government data so the public can use it as they wish.
Reading on E-Democracy
- E-Democracy.org
- Wikipedia
- Facebook has an e-democracy group
- Are We Ready for E-Democracy? Candi Harrison blogs on e-democracy.
Extranet: A public-private website or portal, secured or password-protected, specifically designed for selected workers in an organization and selected external partners to conduct internal business.
Federal Public Website: Any website that meets these three criteria:
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Is funded and sponsored entirely by a federal executive branch agency or organization;
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Presents official government information, and
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Is available to the public without passwords or log-ins.
Homepage: The page that serves as the front door of a website. Every website has a homepage. No website has more than one homepage.
Industry Standard Web Formats: Web file formats that are universally accessible to anyone with a web browser, which do not require specific software or plug-ins. HTML and XML are current examples of industry standard formats.
Intranet: A private website or portal, secured or password-protected, specifically designed for workers in an organization to conduct internal business.
Major Entry Point: Pages that are frequently accessed directly by the public. Major entry points include:
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An organization's homepage;
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The root of the level right below the homepage (for example, http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/ and http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/);
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The pages submitted in response to the Department of Justice Bi-Annual Survey for the Review of Agency Implementation of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973; and
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Any other page that website statistics indicate is most often visited, bookmarked, or linked to by website visitors.
Navigation: The means by which a visitor can navigate the content of a website. Navigation usually consists of a collection of links to sections and subsections of a website.
Organization and Federal Organization: Any entity of a federal executive branch agency, at any level of the agency-for example, any department, agency, bureau, division, office, program, or other organizational unit.
Page: A text file at a single URL, written or generated in a markup language like HTML, and viewed through a browser. For the purpose of these policies, pages do include PDFs but do not include pop-up windows, dialog windows, files that provide text descriptions of non-text content to enhance accessibility (d-links), redirection pages, or slides within a presentation, except where otherwise noted.
Second-Level Domain Name: A website address that is at the next highest level of the hierarchy below the top-level domains of .gov and .mil, such as hud.gov, fbi.gov, regulations.gov, or army.mil. It includes all websites registered through the official Government Domain Registry (including domain names in the .fed.us domain), and all websites registered through the Department of Defense .mil registry. It does not include websites considered to be third-level domains, such as nmfs.noaa.gov or www.publicdebt.treas.gov.
Site Map: A linked, graphic or text-based display of a website's hierarchy, similar to an organization chart. Typically, site maps break down a website's content into increasingly specific subject areas to help the visitor understand its structure, from the main navigation pages to their subordinate pages. The main difference between a site map and a subject index is that a subject index is typically an alphabetical list, not a hierarchically structured set of links.
Subject Index: A list of a website's content, typically presented in alphabetical order, similar to an index in the back of a book. The main difference between a subject index and a site map is that a site map conveys website structure or navigation.
Usability: The measure of the quality of a visitor's experience when using a website, including the ability to accomplish basic tasks.
Web Content Manager: Federal employees who write, edit, manage, and form strategic plans for the content of federal websites.
Website: A collection of web content organized under a single homepage.
Page Updated or Reviewed: August 20, 2008
