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Governance and Lifecycle

In order to reduce the risk of unsupported and forgotten websites potentially causing reputational damage to the Organization, a new moderation model for WordPress websites leveraging the federated Web Governance Structure has been designed and implemented. The overarching goals of this moderation model is to

  1. manage the creation of new WordPress websites;
  2. ensure that Web Representatives and supervisors are in the loop;
  3. mitigtate the risk that people inherit responsibility of maintaining unfamiliar websites;
  4. ensure resources within both the Web and Infrastructure Teams to support WordPress websites; and
  5. reduce the risk of inactive websites causing reputational damage.

Accordingly, in WordPress, two types of websites are offered:

  1. Official websites such as https://name.cern/ or https://dep-name.web.cern.ch/, i.e. official, production-grade websites that are generally consumed by external and internal audiences alike.
  2. Test websites such as https://my-new-feature.web.cern.ch/, i.e. test and development websites that are generally used by the individual website owner(s) for a limited period of time. In general, external audiences should never be exposed to test websites.
no personal websites

The two categories of websites supported in WordPress correspond to the default categorisation of IT resources at CERN as per OPS9 (the Subsidiary Rules concerning IT Service Operations). However, those familiar with OPS9 will notice that the third category, Personal, is not available for WordPress.

The decision not to offer personal websites on WordPress has been made by the Web Governance Board to satisfy the overarching goals of the moderation model applicable to WordPress. Users who require a personal website may refer to the Web Services Portal for alternatives, e.g. Gitlab Pages.

The moderation model is summarised in the below table.

Importantly, the moderation model does not prohibit on-demand website creation. Indeed, any primary CERN account holder may create both Official and Test websites as they see fit. In the case of official websites, your Web Representative will be informed. All new websites will by default be behind the CERN SSO and on the Intranet (i.e. not accessible outside the CERN network). Website owners may choose to remove the Intranet restriction, e.g. if they need to be able to access the website while teleworking or if third-party agencies must have access to do work.

The removal of the CERN SSO (i.e. making a website publicly accessible) can only be done by submitting a ticket and receiving explicit approval from a supervisor and/or a named endorser. In the case of Test websites, the only way to remove the SSO is to request the website to be promoted to become an Official website. This step should only be taken once the website is ready to receive external traffic.

In summary:

Official websites

  • Notification sent to the associated Web Representative upon creation of Official websites
  • Removing the CERN SSO requires explicit approval of supervisor or named endorser via ticket
  • Re-enabling SSO is not moderated
  • Website will pass to hierarchy once owner leaves CERN

Test websites

  • CERN SSO cannot be removed
  • Website will feature a non-removable banner indicating it is a test website
  • Websites will automatically be purged after six months or owner leaving
  • If a request to promote to Official is made: same procedure as Official website creation