I've moved

I've now moved this blog to a self-hosted WordPress site. You can find it at www.prettysimple.co.uk/blog. I won't be updating this one anymore, so please update your bookmarks and RSS feeds now.

Accessify Forum getting an upgrade

One of my more regular haunts, Accessify Forum, is currently being redesigned. You can see the requirements for the new system, as well as contribute to the process.

For those that don't know, Accessify Forum is an invaluable forum for discussing accessibility. It has over 7,000 members with over 60,ooo posts in the past 5 years. It is an essential starting place for web designers and developers wanting to learn more about accessibility, as well as anyone wanting to perfect their knowledge of the subject.

If you're already a member, head on over there and give your input on how you'd like to see it improved. If you're not a member, head over there anyway and browse the forums - you're bound to learn something new!

I'm migrating (to Wordpress)

I've arranged the hosting, got my hands on Wordpress v2.7, read up on the various pitfalls of migrating blogs, and am now working on the initial designs which will eventually see this blog moving to a customised Wordpress platform later this year. Hopefully all will go smoothly, but I'll post details of how I get on, along with lessons learned, for anyone else considering such a move.

Wish me luck!

PS I've now moved. See www.prettysimple.co.uk/blog.

My 2009 Web Resolutions

OK, not so much resolutions as a list of to-dos. These are areas which I'll be looking more into during 2009. If you've got similar goals, or think I should be looking at other things too, do leave a comment!

Upgrade my host

My main website is currently hosted for free at Awardspace. They have been fantastic - only a bit of downtime and lots of features. However, it's time to upgrade to something a bit more professional, so I'm now looking around for the best paid options. I'll need to be able to host a couple of blogs too (including this one after I found an interesting article on Why Your Business Blog Shouldn't Be On BlogSpot.com).

Complete a list of resources for implementing WCAG 2.0

There are lots of resources appearing, but there still isn't a comprehensive source of everything you'll need to design and test according to the new guidelines. I hope to bring together an ever-increasing collection of resources for this purpose, building on it with my own experiences as I work on new projects.

Figure out how to make the most of Twitter

I've only recently started using Twitter, and I'm still not entirely sure what purpose it is fulfilling. I'm sure that I should be on there; I'm just not sure why. So I'm going to follow more people, post more updates, promote my presence on there, and see what happens.

One situation where I think Twitter could help is within my organisation, as a tool for communicating to staff exactly what I'm up to on a day to day basis. For many, our website and online presence remains a bit of a mystery, and I want increase understanding amongst colleagues so that they understand what the web has to offer. By posting regular tweets about the projects that I'm working on and the latest things we've put online, people will hopefully get a better idea of the breadth of content we publish, the projects we're supporting, and the process involved in getting things online. The brevity of Twitter lends itself to this far more than, for example, a traditional blog.

Publish more videos online

I really want to get to grips with Youtube and its peers this year, to get a solid idea of the functionality of these services and to kick-start some research on the possibilities and limitations of such platforms. The first obvious step is to get stuff on there - some will be basic footage of local events, others will be experimental projects (I'm very interested in time-lapse photography, for example).

One major project that I'm hoping our organisation will support later in the year is to get much of the content of our corporate website available online as British Sign Language video, with audio and captions. This will primarily benefit severely or profoundly deaf individuals for whom BSL is the first language (1500 of which are estimated to be living within our authority alone), but could also help other deaf users, individuals with low literacy, blind users, and many others.

Get up close and personal with Wordpress

I'm also hoping to get to grips with self-installing and customising hosting Wordpress, not just for my own blogs, but also as a platform for building CMS-driven websites. Worpress offers tremendous potential for very effective customisation, and I'll write more about my experiences as I progress.

Be more secure

I think online security is going to continue to increase in importance in 2009, with more peolpe expecting higher standards of security and the penalties for poor security becoming ever harsher. I've already overhauled all my passwords, and will next be looking at beefing up my security practices across the board.

So that's it - a few things which will be keeping me busy over the next 12 months. Stay tuned to see how I get on.

2008 online - some retrospectives

As the year draws to a close, here's a few retrospectives looking at the highlights of 2008 on the web, as well as looking forward to 2009. Let me know if you've spotted any others worth including here.

Looking back...

The BBC's list of technology we have loved in 2008

From dongles to netbooks and services to applications, the BBC News technology team talk through what they have loved in the world of technology during 2008.

Google Zeitgeist 2008

Studying the aggregation of the billions of search queries that people type into the Google search box gives us a glimpse into the zeitgeist — the spirit of the times. We've compiled some of the highlights from Google searches around the globe and hope you enjoy looking back as much as we do.

The Register's jaw-droppers of 2008

Here is The Register's list of the worst, most cringe-worthy and jaw-dropping moments from the last 12 months that people would probably prefer to forget about. Nine wags of the finger plus - because it wasn't all bad this year - one tip of the hat, for balance.

Web Marketing Association's WebAwards 2008

Now in its 12th year, the WebAwards is the premier annual website award competition that names the best Web sites in 96 industries while setting the standard of excellence for all website development.

Time.com's 50 Best Websites 2008

Some are as useful as a GPS device, others aren't that useful but give you something to do when you had nothing planned for the day. Put them all together and they become TIME.com's 2008 picks for the best the Web has to offer.

Wired.com's 10 Best Galleries of 2008

A year of fast and furious pixel-pushing by the Wired.com photo department has finally come to a close. Now, as we slow down long enough to risk a look back, we've compiled a list of our favorites from the hundreds of galleries we ran in 2008.

and looking forward...

ReadWriteWeb's predictions for 2009

It's time for our annual predictions post, in which the ReadWriteWeb authors look forward to what 2009 might bring in the world of Web technology and new media.

Website Magazine's prediction for 2009

Website Magazine’s predictions for 2009 reveal that in spite of our current economy, the Web as a whole will continue to see strong growth and investment over the next year - a prediction that many industry analysts don't necessarily agree with.

Happy new year to you all!

Slippery deadlines not good for business

I've had cause to think about this subject recently when we had a bit of a palaver over the public deadline for our online school enrolment forms. Released in mid-November, the deadline was set at December 24th. A bit tight, I thought, but it's not my position to question such things. Christmas came and went, and I asked if it was appropriate to now remove the forms, given that the deadline had passed. Oh no, I was told, as by law we must accept applications until 15th March. I was then asked to amend the deadline date accordingly. The December deadline was a fake.

Although I can understand that it is useful to receive submissions as early as possible, to allow staff to manage their workloads, it seems a bit unreasonable to present a false deadline which is then discretely extended. Many people will have put themselves to great inconvenience to complete this form in time, especially given the time of year, and to find that the deadline has been extended by almost three months will no doubt cause annoyance. There is also the risk that citizens will stop taking deadlines seriously, and may miss the window of opportunity in the future, where stated deadlines are genuine.

Far better, perhaps, to give the genuine deadline, but state that early submission is recommended. In some cases (for example, applying for grants from a limited fund) you could even suggest that early submissions will receive preference - that should get people moving!

Consultations

Similar issues have dogged some recent consultations that we've held, with deadlines being pushed back and back to try to squeeze out more responses. The problem here is that those who aimed for the original deadline may not have given themselves sufficient time to compose a full and accurate response. Those who replied early on are likely to be those who feel strongest about the subject of the consultation, and therefore the kind of people you want to listen to carefully and not annoy.

Of course, there are some instances where extending a deadline is sensible. In a consultation where new information has come to light, for example, or where there has been a technical problem preventing people from completing the process. In such cases, the reason for the extension should always be made clear. Otherwise, the organisation risks looking unorganised and unprofessional.

Project deadlines

The same applies to project deadlines. I recently finished a job which had to be completed by a certain date. No problem there - I'm used to tight deadlines. But when the delivery day arrived, the client came back with a few tweaks and some new requests, and it turned out the original deadline wasn't as crucial as first made out. These fake deadlines don't do the developer any favours - many things may get rushed or dropped entirely as a result. Also, it's usually a lot harder to change a final product, rather than factor in any modifications as part of the build process. It's therefore far more productive to set milestones, where you deliver certain things by certain timescales. This allows for a far smoother progression from planning to the final product.

Screen Reader survey

WebAIM are conducting a survey of the preferences of Screen Reader users.

"If you are a full-time, part-time, or even occasional screen reader user, please take a few minutes to complete the survey and provide us with a few details on your screen reader usage and preferences.... The results of the survey will be made public in a few months. We believe the results will be very useful to those who are developing accessible web content."

WebAIM Blog

The results could be very enlightening, and I'd hope that anyone in a position to reply would do so to help inform best practices in designing websites sympathetic to the needs of these users.

I'll be sure to report the release of the results in the new year, so watch this space or head over to WebAIM to get it from the horse's mouth!

Survey Monkey useful features

I've been using Survey Monkey within my organisation for two months now (see my original post about its accessibility, which I'm still looking into). I must say I've been very impressed by the customer service - I've had a few questions which the (generally excellent) help section has been unable to help me with (mainly because contact with a person was necessary), and they've always been quick to respond.

I thought I'd mention a couple of things I've done since taking over the account. The lessons learned apply to any similar function, not just Survey Monkey.

SSL enabled

Firstly, I was surprised to see that the account did not have SSL enabled. This costs just $100 extra a year which, for a organisation such as mine, is peanuts. Compare that with the disasters that could await if not using a secure protocol and it's a no-brainer. Sadly this only really came to my attention when I heard about a survey we'd run to gather parent's opinions on school buildings. A local parent council blog had flagged up the potential security risk, and quite rightly so. We were asking for a few personal details, although to be fair these were not mandatory. Even so, those unaware of the difference between http and https may not have appreciated the risks (however small) and that's not really on. Needless to say we've now upgraded, so people's response are collected securely at their end and the results are downloaded securely at this end.

Friendly URLs

Secondly, a nice "courtesy feature"* is the ability to request friendly URLs. So instead of the usual string of alpha-numeric characters you can get something that actually makes sense (e.g. www.surveymonkey.com/mysurvey). This is really useful, especially if there's a chance that people may need to type in the address, or if you want to refer to it in print. To underline the great customer service, I requested one to be set up and it took just a couple of hours.

Something to be aware of, if also using SSL, is that your users will need to include the https:// at the start of the URL. If they just type in from the www... they'll get directed to the insecure version. Survey Monkey does not offer the ability to always redirect to the secure version, which they say is for the benefit of any systems that can not access the secure pages.

*Presumably a "courtesy feature" is something they'll probably do, but aren't obligated to. Hopefully, then, they'll continue to offer this (and for free).

Loop to start

You've got various options for where to direct the user on completion of the survey (i.e. to a thank you page, another website, or even close the window). Another option, though, is to loop the user back to the start of the survey. This function has proved useful recently when we used Survey Monkey as the basis for an audit. Each auditor would typically be looking at 5 or more things, each requiring a unique response, so once one audit was complete they'd be going straight back into the survey to do another. The 'loop to start' function was, obviously, the perfect solution for this.

Invitations by e-mail

A tremendously useful feature is the ability to set up Survey Monkey to e-mail a list of recipients with an invitation to complete your survey. Each recipient gets a unique URL, enabling the system to track who has and hasn't responded. This then means that you can easily send reminders targeted only at those who are yet to respond.

I thought it worth mentioning this function in the privacy statement that I am developing to accompany any surveys, and accordingly included this on the front page of the survey:

If you arrived at this survey via an e-mail invitation, it will be possible for us to link your answers with your e-mail address. Any information you provide will be kept secure and only used for evaluating the results of the survey.

Government 2.0 - current initiatives wiki

I've just been looking at a wiki of current initiatives for Goverment 2.0 - that is, government's use of social media.

At the moment it has a heavy leaning towards US and Canadian initiatives, although there is a smattering of international efforts too. There are some great examples, including:

• Wikis to improve internal collaboration
• Geo-tagged images on Flickr
• Podcasts to reach new audiences
  
• Lots of use of Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, SecondLife etc etc...

Hopefully this wiki will continue to grow, and the intention is for it to eventually offer best practices. Kudos to Mike Kujawski for creating the wiki, as well as to Jose Alonso (W3C eGovernment Interest Group) for the heads-up.

Staying alert - who's talking about your site?

I've recently started using Google Alerts:

Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. Some handy uses of Google Alerts include:

• monitoring a developing news story
• keeping current on a competitor or industry
• getting the latest on a celebrity or event
• keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams

www.google.com/alerts

I set up a number of alerts based on various topics of interest and the emails started coming thick and fast (I opted for 'as-it-happens' alert frequency in most cases, but you can also specify daily or weekly digests).

What has been most useful is hearing about the various blogs which are talking about the organisation and its website, as well as seeing which sites are linking to us. A large proportion of the alerts come from news sources too, so I can also keep tabs on the media. Not only is this an important Comms issue, but it is also a crucial step in becoming proactive with Web 2.0 technologies in general

Company Buzz is another interesting application, this time for users of Linkedin. Powered by Twitter, this application pulls in links to sites that are talking about your company (for better or for worse!). It also gives you a list of Buzz Words.

With these sorts of tools, as well as through monitoring prominent local and national blogs, I'm hoping to build up a robust 'early-warning system' to help us react to the conversations that are taking place. Once this is well established, I'll be looking to see how we can work it into our strategies for more effectively engaging with web technologies across the board.

After all, if we wish to engage with the conversations taking place, we need to know where they are and what people are saying.

WCAG 2.0 gets the final thumbs up

Some exciting news...

Today W3C announced a new standard that will help Web designers and developers create sites that better meet the needs of users with disabilities and older users. Drawing on extensive experience and community feedback, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 improve upon W3C's groundbreaking initial standard for accessible Web content, apply to more advanced technologies, and are more precisely testable.

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

It's taken nearly 8 years, but we finally have a follow-up to the groundbreaking but desperately outdated first version of the international guidelines for creating accessible websites.

I've previously been in contact with the Central Office of Information to find out how quickly they'll be recommending that public sector organisations start adopting the new guidelines. Now that WCAG 2.0 is finalised, we'll hopefully see the Delivering Inclusive Websites document updated by mid-2009, but there's nothing stopping organisations preempting this and indeed I'd hope most will already be doing just that.

We can now look forward to designers across the globe rolling up their sleeves and getting stuck into the new standards, and I'm sure the collaboration that will come from this will make it a smooth transition. A starter for ten can be found in the WCAG 2.0 resources over at the Web Standards Project.

Good luck!

Other excited people

• Jack Pickard (The Pickards) - WCAG 2.0 Breaking News
• Roger Johansson (456 Berea Street ) - WCAG 2.0 finally a W3C Recommendation
• Jared Smith (WebAIM)- WCAG 2.0 Finalized
• Joe Dolson - WCAG 2 Reaches Recommendation Status
• Steve Faulkner (Paciello Group Blog) - Goodbye WCAG 1.0, Hello WCAG 2.0

Local government blogs

When I hear people in my organisation talk about starting an official blog, I am split in two. Half of me is excited by the prospect, whilst the other half cringes at the risks.

Headstar's E-Government Bulletin has an interesting report on the recent E-Democracy 2008 conference, addressing the issue of blogging and digital dialogues. This got me thinking about the subject (you'll see my initial thoughts at the end of that very article), and I've since been looking further into the world of public sector (and more specifically, local government) blogs.

Some examples

Technorati reports that it is tracking the existence of 112 million blogs. Surprisingly, then, it was a little difficult to find really good examples of well-executed local government blogs. Here are some examples, though, listing the good and the bad points of each:

Kent County Council Leader's Blog

Plus points:

• Last post just 9 days old at the time of writing, with 3 or 4 posts a months on average
• The posts seem to relate well to current events
• The post titles are brief but descriptive
• The posts offer relevant hyperlinks
• Commenting not available, but an e-mail link offered
• Some honest and personal views
  

Minus points

• A very obvious political agenda
• The only image is one of the blogger himself
  
• No RSS feed available
  

London Borough of Lambeth Leader's Blog

Plus points

• Well established blog - archive going back to October 2006
• Good range of topic covered
  

Minus points

• Erratic frequency - some months have 5+ posts, other months have none
• The more recent posts appear at the bottom - big mistake!
• Lack of images makes the pages very samey and uninspiring
• No RSS feed available

Wiltshire Extranet Blog

Plus points

• One post each and every week
• All the trappings of a proper blog - archives, calendar, feeds, feedback

Minus points

• Bizarrely, each post is a report of what the blogger will be doing, with no obvious follow-ups
• An internal blog, meant for internal readers, available externally
• No information about the blog or blogger (presumably due to its internal nature)

Durham County Council Leader's blog

Plus points

• Blog is combined with a diary to view upcoming appointments
• Option to add comments, and the blogger has even responded to one
  
• Fairly regular posts (although only been running less than 2 months)
  

Minus point

• The blog launched in October, yet the 'archive' looks like it goes back to January. You can't click on any of the months prior to October, adding to the confusion.
• Again, lack of images makes for dull pages.
• Not only a lack of corporate branding, but also a horrendous pink theme (OK, that one is subjective)
  

Pseudo-blogs

One issue which arose during my search related to the design and functionality of the blogs I encountered. Many blogs seemed to have been integrated into the main corporate website, and in fact in many cases were not technically blogs in the typical sense, but rather normal static web pages presenting chronological articles. Whilst there is nothing inherently wrong with this, it does rather stretch the blog metaphor. A typical blog has features such as categories and labels for filtering articles; the ability to comment on posts; RSS feeds or subscriptions to easily access new posts; automatically generated archives; and all manner of other widgets including polls, related links and tagclouds. These are important elements which define a blog as a Web 2.0 technology.

Lessons learned

The Durham blog is a great example of understanding the blog metaphor and adapting it to the interests of the users. By incorporating a diary, and then blogging about the events afterwards, you have a great premise for generating interest and engagement.

Lack of images was a big problem across the board, and is in fact an issue common with many blogs worldwide. A local gov organisation should have access to a wealth of stock photos which could be thrown in, where relevant, to liven up the pages. A crucial element of engaging the public is to make your channels of communication interesting, and the use of images seems like an essential ingredient in this.

The regularity of posts seemed to vary wildly, but a key point is the importance of consistency. One post per week is fine if that offers a summary of the week's events. Any less than that and the blog risks looking sparse and unresponsive to events. A greater frequency might be appropriate but it has to be sustainable. Probably far better to stick to the weekly format unless urgent issues arise.

Although many of the features of the traditional blog are perhaps overkill, some key functions should remain. Allowing comments makes perfect sense - after all, the point of the blog is to create a dialogue. Archiving is obviously a must - that's one of the things that makes it a blog. Promotion is a key issue, as the blog must be easy to find. RSS feeds will then make it easy for people to follow.

Conclusion

Blogs provide an excellent channel of communication with your citizens, and can very easily fit in with your other comms strategies. They are incredibly easy to set up, but far from easy to maintain to a high quality. They'll demand lots of time, thought, creativity and buy-in. Because of this, the failure rate is likely to be high, but the rewards are there for the successful few.

British Standard for Web Accessibility - draft

The British Standards Institution (BSI) have released the first draft of the new British Standard for Web Accessibility - BS 8878 - for public consultation until 1st Feb 2009.

BS 8878 will suggest a practical process for ensuring that the private and public sectors successfully produce digital design that is inclusive of as many of the user population as possible. While disabled people are intended to be the key beneficiaries of the new approach, people whose first language is not English and everyone who reads web content over a mobile device stand to benefit from an approach that encourages the development of ‘accessible user experiences’.

BSI - Accessible ICT - It Can Take you anywhere… help us map the journey

Building upon the Publicly Available Specification "Guide to Good Practice in Commissioning Accessible Websites" (PAS78), the new British Standard will address the business case for accessibility, explaining the relevance of the Disability Discrimination Act and looking at how organisations should attain accessibility by allocating appropriate resources and choosing technologies and developers wisely.

It also talks about the user's enjoyment of a website - taking the idea of accessibility to a new level. Julie Howell, chair of the committee which has developed the standard, said:

"Access, use and enjoy are the three terms we use," [...] "Access is about the ability to reach the content; usability is about the ability to complete a task; and enjoyment is about having an enjoyable user experience and wanting to go back to that site. In the past we thought very functionally about what disabled users wanted."

Out-law.com - BSI consults on first British Standard for accessible websites

Out-law.com states that the final version is expected by Summer 2009. Once I've digested the 46-page document I'll post my thoughts here (as well as submitting them to BSI, who emphasise that all comments will contribute to the development of BS 8878, helping to shape the standard).

Wordpress and accessibility

I'll shortly be publishing an article on blogs in the public sector (edit: now available), but for now here's a link to an interesting article on Wordpress and accessibility. As author Mike Cherim points out, one of the sites named in the WCAG 2.0 implementation (and indeed reaching triple-A standard) was based on Wordpress, suggesting that the platform can produce very accessible results. There are a couple of issues to be aware of, though, so if you're developing sites with Wordpress you'd better read this.

Google Analytics - the risks of 3rd party script

The Register has recently reported on the potential security vulnerability of using Google Analytics, and as we use this for various sites I thought it worth exploring a little further, especially as there are wider implications around linking to any third party javascript code.

The essence of the Register's article, Google Analytics - Yes, it is a security risk, is that any third party javascript you include on your pages could open you up to vulnerabilities. You are essentially at the mercy of the owners of that code, trusting them not to do anything malicious. And there are plenty of things they could do, including stealing session cookies and form data, or even executing a 'cross site script proxy' attack, which could surrender control of a user's login session.

So how big is the risk? There are a couple of factors to consider:

Firstly, how well can the script owner be trusted? A company such as Google can probably be trusted quite a bit, although we're not just talking about the integrity of the company's ethics. We also need to consider how seriously they take security themselves - how stringent are their own practices? Again, we can be fairly sure that Google is pretty hot on best security practices, so the risk is relatively low. The same might not be true of other third party sites.

Secondly, how big a target is your site? The case referred to in the Register's story was Barrack Obama's website. That site is obviously going to be a huge target for potential hackers, with security an immensely important subject. Sites with a lower profile can reasonably be assumed to be less of a target, although the risks can still not be discounted entirely.

In a recent forum post discussing this issue, the following advice was given:

if you must use external JScript, make sure it is a trusted source, and by trusted, I don't just mean the company and their reputation, but also their own security practises, and do not under any circumstances link 3rd party JScript to a "secured" or sensitive area of a site

This seems to be pretty sensible, and is something we will need to consider from now on, not just in relation to Google Analytics, but when looking at linking to any third party script. Better safe than sorry...

Keeping up with your own news

Our organisation has been in the news a fair bit recently. Well, actually, being a local authority we're always in the local news and the coverage is rarely positive (and often inaccurate too). But what I've been increasingly concerned about recently is the fact that the local media keep getting there first - reporting on stories hours, sometimes days, before our own website publishes the information.

The case in point was demonstrated this week when my organisation made some important (and controversial) decisions on school closures. I'm assuming the press were notified through the usual channels, and the news made it onto their websites within hours. We, however, didn't post an update on our website until the following afternoon.

The major problem with this, apart from it looking generally poor, is that it forces citizens to look elsewhere for information that we should be providing them with. This also means that the information they eventually find will probably have been edited, and is usually accompanied by a long string of unmoderated user comments positing all sorts of theories and opinions, many of which are stultifyingly ill-informed (thanks to Chris Morris for that excellent phrase). And of course, most people will probably look to the media first anyway, but perhaps then come to our site to check the facts and to get background information. If we're not providing content to coincide with news stories appearing elsewhere, and making it prominent from the homepage, we're really failing our users.

It's not that we have a lack of news either. I recently encountered a problem where important press releases were too quickly getting bumped off the home page (which only displays the 3 most recent releases, with a link through to the rest). Our school closures story, for example, got bumped within hours by two stories about awards ceremonies and another about tips for Christmas shopping. Whilst non-critical releases are great (SOCITM's 2008 Better Connected report commended the 76% of local authority sites which featured 'good current news beyond a report of a council meeting or decision'), if the softer stories are drowning out the more important ones we are again failing our users.

This is all compounded by the fact that our site does not support RSS feeds or news alerts, so we're not actively 'pushing' these stories in the first place (SOCITM found that only 33% of local authority sites do either of these things). Our news stories are given good prominence on the homepage, but unless you actually visit our site you probably won't find our press releases.

Another problem (which impacts the speed of all developments on our site) is that content often has to go via various levels of approval before it can be published. By speeding up this approval process, or by further devolving editorial authority, we could drastically improve our ability to react to news and events more quickly and effectively. Only then can we consider ourselves to be, as the Better Connected report puts it, newsworthy.

Key points:

• Get press releases online as quickly or quicker than the media
  
• Make them prominent on the homepage, for a reasonable period of time
• Explore other methods of distributing news - RSS, alerts, e-mail digests, SMS, news tickers etc

Live web broadcasts and the BBC licence fee

The hot debate surrounding the BBC licence fee is about the get even more complicated with the BBC's announcement that yet more channels are set to be broadcast live online.

An item on the BBC website today reported:

BBC shows including EastEnders, Heroes and Never Mind The Buzzcocks will be available to watch live online from next week, the BBC has announced.

BBC One and BBC Two will be streamed live, - just as BBC Three, BBC Four, CBBC, CBeebies and BBC News are already broadcast on their channel websites.

Director of BBC vision Jana Bennett said this "completes our commitment" to make channels available online.

The live simulcast for both channels will be available from 27 November.

If viewers miss any programmes they will be available for up to a week on the BBC iPlayer.

"From 27 November licence fee payers will be able to watch BBC programmes live wherever they are in the UK on their computers, mobile phones and other portable devices," Ms Bennett said.

According to media watchdog Ofcom, the number of people watching TV on the internet has doubled in the last 12 months.

In 2006, Channel 4 became the first major UK TV channel to be simulcast on the internet.

As The Register points out:

Note "licence fee payers" in that quote. While catching up with shows on iPlayer does not require a TV licence, watching any live broadcast - including over the internet - does.

Big headaches lurk for enforcement authorities if live online viewing enters the mainstream: will cafes that offer Wi-Fi be required to buy a business TV licence in case their customers watch a bit of BBC One, for example?

Might this therefore also affect public libraries, who provide free internet access? And how far will the TV licence enforcers go? We have already seen mobile phone companies passing on details of customers who have purchased 3G or wireless-enabled handsets, so it's not a huge leap to imagine ISPs doing the same (if they're not already doing so).

Then comes the ambiguity of what constitutes a 'live' broadcast. A lot of 'live' streamed content is actually on a delay - a fact proven when you lose the stream and the player reconnects, taking you back to the exact second from whench you left off. TV Licencing has previously stated that even delayed 'hour plus one' type services would count as live, so we can see how ambiguous this could get.

Finally, how obvious will the difference be between 'live' content (requiring a licence) and non-live content (currently everything on iPlayer - not requiring a licence)? If the difference is subtle, it could be making it very easy for people to break the law without even realising it.

WCAG 2 - claiming conformance

Anyone wanting to claim conformance to the nascent WCAG 2.0 will have to provide a specific conformance claim on their site, according to the documentation found at www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20:

Required components of a conformance claim

Conformance claims are not required. Authors can conform to WCAG 2.0 without making a claim. However, if a conformance claim is made, then the conformance claim must include the following information:

1. Date of the claim
2. Guidelines title, version and URI "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 at {URI of final document}"
3. Conformance level satisfied: (Level A, AA or AAA)
4. A concise description of the Web pages such as a list of URIs for which the claim is made, including whether subdomains are included in the claim.
   • Note 1: The Web pages may be described by list or by an expression which describes all of the URIs included in the claim.
   • Note 2: Web-based products that do not have a URI prior to installation on the customer's Web site may have a statement that the product would conform when installed.
5. A list of the Web content technologies relied upon.
   
• Note: If a conformance logo is used, it would constitute a claim and must be accompanied by the required components of a conformance claim listed above.

Note - the concept of a technology baseline has been dropped.

The Understanding Conformance page gives some examples of wording. In the spirit of this, I decided to produce such a claim for my own Pretty Simple web site, which was used in the implementation report as part of the WCAG 2.0 Candidate Recommendation stage and has, since getting the thumbs up from the WCAG 2.0 Working Group, been claiming conformance.

On September 25th 2008, all Web pages found at www.prettysimple.co.uk conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 at www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20. Level Double-A conformance.

The web content technology relied upon is XHTML 1.0 (Strict).

The technologies used but not relied upon are: JavaScript, CSS 2.0, Flash.

I wasn't sure about where to put CSS, but felt that, as it is utilised purely for presentation and not content, it shouldn't be considered as a 'relied-upon' technology. The Flash banners are only for presentation, and have images with alt attributes behind them, so are certainly not relied upon. Equally, the Javascript used to bring in the RSS feeds on the Links page are accompanied by noscript links, so are not essential for any user.

I could also go into detail about the Level AAA Success Criteria that I meet, and may do this at some point in the future, along with details of the various user agents with which I have tested the site.

One question that has arisen is when might I be expected to update the statement? Presumably the next time I test the entire site, although given that I am making no significant changes to the pages - and only adding content occasionally, I might be forgiven for updating the date every time I update the website.

World Usability Day

Today was World Usability Day. As the website puts it:

It's about "Making Life Easy" and user friendly. Technology today is too hard to use. A cell phone should be as easy to access as a doorknob. In order to humanize a world that uses technology as an infrastructure for education, healthcare, transportation, government, communication, entertainment, work and other areas, we must develop these technologies in a way that serves people first…

World Usability Day was founded in 2005 as an initiative of the Usability Professionals' Association to ensure that services and products important to human life are easier to access and simpler to use.

A nearby event was put on by local user experience consultancy User Vision, and I've just got back from a very interesting few hours there.

A really interesting presentation by Monty Lilburn introduced us to Loadstone GPS - open source software that utilises GPS on mobile phones, resulting in easy-to-follow directions of significant use to blind and visually impaired people (through the use of mobile screen readers such as Talks or Mobile Speak). We were also shown a great little video that they had made, showing Lilburn navigating his way through Edinburgh using the software on his phone. It can (for now) be seen at www.tinyurl.com/6cukzt.

Elsewhere we saw a demonstration of eye-tracking software, which User Vision's Jamie advocated as a very powerful tool able to give you some very meaningful results; Donna was letting people get their hands on her iPhone to see how easy to use it is (or isn't); Ross was giving people a driving test challenge with the latest in iTV software; and I had an interesting chat with their accessibility consultant Mark about everything from WCAG 2.0 to the lack of a decent legal precedent in the UK which would help underline the importance of accessibility standards.

Thanks to Chris, Laura and everyone else at User Vision for an interesting afternoon.

Update - User Vision now have a press release about the day on their website, along with some useful links and a handful on photos (including one of the back of my head!).

WCAG 2.0 and Delivering Inclusive Websites

In June 2008 Central Office of Information (COI) produced the Delivering Inclusive Websites guidance:

These guidelines are for public sector website owners and digital media project managers wishing to deliver inclusive, accessible websites. This document sets out the minimum standard of accessibility for public sector web content and web authoring tools. It recommends a user-centred approach to accessibility, taking account of user needs in the planning and procurement phases of web design projects.

These guidelines currently make reference to WCAG 1.0, so I wanted to know what would happen once WCAG 2.0 is approved. There is a paragraph which refers to this, but it is a little vague:

At the time of writing, version 1.0 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines is the current standard for web accessibility. At such time that version 2.0 becomes a W3C Recommendation, this policy will be reviewed within six months. Consideration will be given to the adoption of version 2.0 as the minimum standard for public sector websites.

Our organisation is currently looking at options for a new web content management system. As such a procurement would be a long-term commitment, I'm keen to know that the goalposts are not going to move halfway through implementing a solution. Whilst it's true that sites built to conform to WCAG 1.0 should meet WCAG 2.0 without too many problems, I feel it is crucial that the minimum standards are recorded in black and white in any requirements documentation.

I have therefore submitted the following enquiry to the COI:

With WCAG 2.0 currently at Proposed Recommendation stage, and due to be approved by Christmas, what plans are there to modify the information provided as part of the "Delivering inclusive websites" guidelines? What are the timescales involved i.e. how soon should the public sector be building websites according to WCAG 2.0 instead of WCAG 1.0?

and will post the reply here when received.

Update 16th Nov

Reply from COI:

We plan to review adoption of WCAG 2.0 with the public sector community. It is unclear at this stage whether doing so is in our best interests. For example, the new AA requirement for audio description and subtitles for every video would mean that we Level-A would be the only realistic option - and then the risk is that no-one implements the other Level-AA requirements.

We would also like to see what the European Commission thinks about the new standard. Anything we do would have to be in line with their thinking.

I don't think there's anything stopping people building to WCAG 2.0. Am I right in thinking that any website that's AA according to version 2.0 is automatically v1.0 compliant?

An extract from my response is as follows:

Unfortunately I don't think it is the case that WCAG 2.0 compliant sites will meet WCAG 1.0, at the equivalent conformance level, by default. There are many WCAG 1.0 checkpoints with the 'until user agents' caveat that WCAG 2.0 have now omitted, due to the conditions being met. Plus there are obvious changes such as no longer requiring Accesskeys or metadata to add semantic information to pages, or not being required to avoid deprecated features. If you therefore designed according to WCAG 2.0, I would imagine that you might fail against WCAG 1.0 on these sorts of points.

Regarding your point about unrealistic levels of compliance - I know it has been suggested elsewhere that a phased approach might be most appropriate, to account for the cost, time and expertise required to, for example, produce compliant time-based media. There may also be potential to describe the transitional approach in the conformance claim statement (which is required for any site claiming WCAG 2.0 conformance).

Hopefully we'll see some new guidance soon.