NASA's Sprawling Web Presence
Keith’s note: According to State of the Federal Web Report, issued 16 Dec 2011 by the .gov Reform Task Force
“Some agencies, such as NASA, have a relatively small number of domains compared to other agencies, yet NASA reported the highest number of public websites, with 1,590.”
NASA is quoted in this document as saying:
True number of systems unknown: Several agencies admitted that it was not clear how many CMS [Content Management System] are in use: “This number is a guess. No one at NASA knows the number with certainty.”
“There is no uniform agency-wide process for ensuring content on the other NASA sites is accessible, updated, accurate or routinely improved. Individual programs and projects at the Centers and offices at NASA Headquarters manage their own content and are responsible for accuracy and accessibility.”
“There is no agency-wide process for reporting the results of these center processes or establishing any of them as best practices.”
NASA Watch is often complaining about too much control by NASA Headquarters on what the scientists publish, but now you are complaining that there is too little coordination (another word for control) of NASA websites. I don’t see how all of the NASA websites could be coordinated without building a large new website regulation bureaucracy, either inside or directed by Headquarters. The present level of website control seems adequate to me.
The biggest issue with NASA websites is the same issue with the rest of NASA, especially its technical folks. And that is the fact that people are put in positions and put in charge of things for which they are not qualified to perform. Too many websites are the responsibility of someone who doesn’t really care whether it is accurate or up-to-date. I usually take the time to point out broken links or improvements that could be made to the websites use within the NASA domain, and it takes weeks if not months for the corrections to be made.