Part
I: Single State of New Jersey URL
In order to create
a single point-of-presence for state government information, a single
Universal Resource Locator (URL) address (www.nj.gov) has been established
for the State of New Jersey's public access server environment. The
former URL, www.state.nj.us, will continue to access the state portal;
in the future its continued usefulness will be evaluated at six month
intervals. The Office of Information Technology (OIT) is the sole responsible
authority for state URLs and public access servers for state government.
Requests for exemptions to utilize a URL other than www.nj.gov shall
be made to the Chief Technology Officer.
Exceptions must
be submitted in writing to the Chief Technology Officer at OIT and reviewed
and approved only under the following circumstances:
- Technical incompatibility
has been identified and substantiated, and there is documentation
that no other alternative exists; and/or
- Special functional
requirements exist that are substantiated and justified; and/or
- State of New
Jersey security requirements have been acknowledged and satisfied.
All State of New
Jersey government Web pages that are used to disseminate official state
electronic public information must be physically stored on the state's
public access server environment, which is maintained by OIT.
Part II: Content,
Appropriateness, and Information Maintenance
Content and appropriateness
of public information on department and agency Web site pages will be
determined by and is the responsibility of each state agency. Decisions
should be based solely on the need to disseminate public information
through electronic mechanisms (the Internet). Information that is routinely
distributed for public consumption, such as news releases, reports,
brochures, newsletters, and public comments on public issues should
be accessible either from the State of New Jersey portal (home page),
www.nj.gov, or from individual department/agency sites. Content presented
through the state portal (state home page and channels) must be coordinated
with OIT's Director of Communications.
Appropriate content
includes communications and information exchanges directly relating
to the mission, charter, and work tasks of the state agencies. The content
must comply with the laws and regulations of the State of New Jersey
and United States.
State agencies
are required to exercise the same care in posting and displaying information
to the Internet as they would with any external, non-electronic communication
by the agency.
Agencies must
establish internal controls to ensure that content on their sites is
current, accurate, and complete.
It shall be considered
a violation of this policy to use the state's Internet presence to submit,
publish, display, transmit, or intentionally receive information which
- violates or
infringes on a recognized privilege or the rights of any person, including
the right to privacy;
- contains defamatory,
false, inaccurate, abusive, profane, threatening, racially offensive,
or otherwise biased, discriminatory, or illegal material;
- violates any
local, state, or federal law;
- solicits the
performance of any activity that is prohibited by law;
- conducts non-state
(commercial or personal business) activities;
- solicits for
religious, political, or other causes;
- violates the
state's network security requirements and standards;
- violates any
copyright laws when printing or disseminating materials.
Agency heads will
be notified in writing by the Office of Information Technology of this
violation, and the information will be subject to removal.
Part III: Web
Site Standards and Guidelines
The New Jersey
State Web Site Standards and Guidelines, Version 1.0/2001 is available
to all state departments and agencies. This document establishes the
minimum standards that must be followed by all executive branch department,
agency, commission, program, and enterprise Web sites. The document
contains recommendations and, where appropriate, explanations and references
for further information. Each of the standards and recommendations addresses
one or more of three major areas: branding, accessibility, and functionality.
Branding
is pivotal to the state's goal of providing a consistent, seamless look
and feel to the state's Web presence. Branding encompasses matters of
site architecture, navigation, content presentation, layout, graphics,
colors and fonts, minimum page elements, and consistent terminology,
usage, and spelling.
Accessibility
issues address the need to make all state Web pages accessible to three
groups:
- people using
various technologies (for example, browsers, search engines, operating
systems, wireless systems),
- people with
disabilities (including visual, mobility, and cognitive/language impairments),
and
- people accessing
our pages from other countries.
Accessibility
issues affect layout and design, navigation, graphics and sound, use
of software other than HTML, use of multimedia elements, file size,
as well as usage conventions.
Functionality
issues include content organization and presentation, adoption of common
software, Web publishing tools, plug-ins, addressing schema, and file-naming
conventions.
The standards
and recommendations should be observed on all state Web sites. Additional
guidelines regarding application development and accessibility are in
development.
At all times,
the latest version of the New Jersey State Web Site Standards and
Guidelines can be found online at www.nj.gov/oit/standards/web/.
OIT is responsible for developing, updating and maintaining this document.
Part IV: Web
Site Responsibility and Monitoring
State agency heads
and employees as well as any and all third party contractors who are
developing and/or maintaining state agency Web sites are required to
do the following:
- comply with
this policy and all laws, regulations, and affiliated state policies
and procedures applicable to the Internet;
- distribute this
policy to agency employees and third party consultants and provide
referenced standards and guidelines as required;
- discipline
employees for violation of this policy or any standards or guidelines
referenced; and
- promote awareness
of this policy and procedure.
The State of New
Jersey reserves the right to monitor all executive branch state government
Web sites and to review compliance with this policy. OIT is the sole
state authority responsible for the following:
- publishing
Web site standards and guidelines for the development and maintenance
of electronically published state information on the Internet;
- maintaining
the state's public access server, including storage, backup, failure,
and disaster recovery;
- providing assistance
to state agencies in developing, reviewing, and testing of all electronic
public information presented on the state's public access server;
- providing agencies
with information on agency Web site access and utilization; and
- monitoring
the performance and capacity of the state's public access server(s),
responding to problems and/or outages, and upgrading the infrastructure
as necessary.
Part V: Statewide
Intranet and E-mail Distribution
State Intranet:
The statewide Intranet, insidenj, at http://insidenj.state.nj.us,
is the State of New Jersey Web site for the delivery of information
that is of interest or value to all state employees. State agencies
can post news updates and information about such things as state benefits,
special events, computer viruses, and disaster relief efforts on insidenj.
All information
to be posted must be sent to OIT's Director of Communications. Public
information officers should coordinate directly with the Director of
Communications at OIT to identify the appropriate placement of Intranet
content.
Insidenj
exists on the Garden State Network behind the security firewall; it
is accessible only by state employees from official state offices.
State E-mail
Broadcasts: The state has the capability to send e-mail broadcasts
to all state employees. The statewide e-mail distribution capability
should be used judiciously and primarily for critical or emergency information
and time-sensitive corrections of erroneous information. E-mails for
statewide delivery must be short and should refer recipients to insidenj
for complete information.
All e-mail broadcasts
will be delivered in segments, over a period of up to two (2) business
days, to avoid overloading agency local area networks. Requests for
distribution of a statewide e-mail broadcast must be sent to OIT's Director
of Communications.
