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Frequently Asked
Questions (FAQs)
Program content
material
Program guidelines
Program data or analysis
Complete program
reports
Education and
Prevention material
Discussion
Placing program details online can be a major convenience for program participants. This can significantly reduce the time staff may spend repeating basic information.
Staff may report responding to the same basic questions again and again. One format for conveying information on Internet is often called a "FAQ" - "Frequently Asked Questions ". The answers to the most common questions can be easily accessed in one place.
Programs may depend upon basic reference material to educate participants. Some items, such as the rules for a youth sports league may be organized in an easily referenced structure. Some printed material should be put on line in its entirety, along with summary versions with links into the more extensive material. Links within the material may be useful as well.
There may be specific program material that participants may need to know. Other details about an event - items to bring, preparation, etc. - may be online. Many other such questions are important to some, although not all participants. Selective access to the material can be useful and can reduce overall costs.
An agency can have a version of home pages on agency computers, which can be accessed even when the computer is not online. Staff may access the reference system to select key pages of material that someone may need and print it on the spot. (Key material may best be organized in segments appropriate to creating custom handout material - that is, pages should not be too long or too short.)
Analysis of program data of interest to those involved in planning or advocacy for issues can be made available online. People outside the agency may be able to use service or demand statistics to support applying resources to the problem. Surveys may provide insight into the problems or the priorities of constituents.
Thorough overviews of programs may be an important resource for agency staff as well as for others.
Even lengthy reports prepared for the agency or useful to the work of the agency may be placed online. It is helpful to adapt documents to make them easier to review online and to take advantage of the features of a hypertext environment.
Important reports may also be cross referenced by other agencies or within central pages of the community information system. This can help to reduce the tendency of reports to end up on the shelf, known only to those who participated in the original effort. It can also reduce the costs of printing and widely distributing this material.
Many important conferences result in material that should be shared on a more permanent basis. Papers presented, or even written observations by participants may help to make a more permanent record of the event. Conferences in other cities are also an important resource. Conferences are one of a few settings that the detailed experiences of small local programs are spelled out. It is even more likely to be one of the few places where the problems and dilemmas professionals face are discussed. Greater access to these insights will further the development of mature community systems.
Organizations that engage in education , prevention or long term problem solving with members or clients may already have invested in substantial material that is printed or available in "libraries" for public use. Much of the material used as simple handouts in a session may be "lost" again in file drawers when the session ends. The hypertext environment of Internet is an ideal setting for organizing such material in a more easily accessible way.
Copyright restrictions may present a serious limitation in this case. Material that is distributed to a small number of persons on a one time basis may not be available to be placed in a public access site that may be accessed by an unlimited number of people. Copyright statements should be included on all pages of this material. Most importantly, the source of the material should formally approve of its use in this way. Much material prepared for use by nonprofit organizations is written for reasons other than a profit motive. Most authors welcome the opportunity for wider distribution of their work.
Agencies may also feel that the costs of preparing material will be more difficult to recover if it is given away online. It is important to recover development costs "up front" as much as possible. If the point of a program is to get material to people, it would seem inappropriate to restrict access by charging for it. In most cases, organizations have charged for documents only enough to cover the cost of materials and distribution. These costs would no longer apply. Organizations may need to stipulate to funding sources that material will reach a certain size audience - and one that will be larger if the material is unrestricted. Home page software can be set up to count the number of times specific pages are accessed. This may become an evaluation measure to demonstrate the extent of dissemination.