Global Reproductive Health IT Support list

["Tor de Vries" <TDevries AT engenderhealth.org>]

When I first heard about it, I asked a few questions.  The first was "how soon" (with an answer of "now").  Here are some other general questions, with the answers:

 

Q. Is a disclaimer needed when a project site links back to the managing partner’s site or to any other partner’s site?
A. Yes, if these sites have links to outside organizations.

 

Q. One of our projects, which is an African regional project, has a web site that sometimes links to documents on country Ministry of Health sites; again, disclaimer needed?
A. Probably not MOH, but to be safe, wouldn’t hurt. Also would give the MOH the distance from the project it might want.

 

Q. Are these rules/guidelines regarding linking specific to web sites (which are accessible to the entire world), or do they also apply to project intranets?
A. Does not apply to internal web sites.

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From: grhits-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:grhits-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Jojo Almario
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 9:10 AM
To: Global Reproductive Health IT Support list
Subject: Re: [grhits] Typo3 Link Disclaimers

Thanks for this info, Tor.  We will check with our Comms department about it also.

 

From: grhits-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:grhits-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Tor de Vries
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 8:09 AM
To: Global Reproductive Health IT Support list
Subject: [grhits] Typo3 Link Disclaimers

 

Hey all...

 

Last week, I was notified that USAID wanted web sites to include legal disclaimers on external links -- e.g. you click on a link to an external web site, and before you go there, you are taken to a page with a legal disclaimer to remind you that you're leaving the officially-supported web site and going out into a scary digital wilderness beyond our control.  At the end of this email, I've included the criteria that we received from a CTO at USAID/W.  I am told this is effective immediately. 

 

This affects some of EngenderHealth's sites, particularly ones powered by Typo3, the open-source content management system (CMS).  After some monkeying around with various band-aid approaches in PHP, I finally realized the solution should just be a Typo3 extension.  There already was a legal disclaimer extension in the T3 Extension Repository (TER) but it had no documentation and I couldn't get it to work.  So I spent the last couple of days developing a working and fully documented extension.  If you use Typo3, and if you have a need for this kind of legal disclaimer, you can get the "Link Disclaimer" T3X extension file from the TER:

 

http://typo3.org/extensions/repository/view/link_disclaimer/

 

I've tested this on several sites, both under IIS and Linux/Apache, and Typo3 versions 3.8.0 and 4.1.3.  If you need it, I hope it's useful to you.  Of course, I wish we didn't need it......

 

 

Regards,

Tor

 

--

Tor de Vries, MFA
Web Producer/Senior Designer at EngenderHealth

Phone: (212) 561-8538
Skype: tordevries
Email: tdevries AT engenderhealth.org
Web: http://www.engenderhealth.org

Support EngenderHealth!
http://www.engenderhealth.org/donate

 

 

 

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Criteria for Links to Non-USAID funded websites or documents from GH/PRH funded websites

Websites funded in whole or in part by GH/PRH may include links to non-USAID funded documents and/or non-USAID funded websites. However, when determining the feasibility of a link, think about the purpose. USAID funded websites and publications are intended to provide credit to USAID for its work and technical leadership. When our information is co-mingled with other sites, this leadership gets lost. As a result, LPA recommends stand alone websites as the best solution. 

When a stand-alone website is not feasible, we should encourage partners to import material to the site (i.e., pdfs of documents), rather than provide links to other sites. However, if this, too, proves impossible, links for documents/websites must meet the following criteria:

• The material in the linked document/website must be focused and germane to the area of FP/RH programming being undertaken by the CA managing the host site

• The intended audience of the linked document /website is program managers, policymakers, and/or researchers working in health, specifically FP/RH.

In addition, the GH/PRH funded website/document must be set up so that users who follow a link first reach an interim page informing them that they have left the host site. The interim page must include a disclaimer. The following language is suggested:

For documents:  The author’s views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government.

For websites:  You are leaving the official website of Peeps for Planning.  The information provided on the web site in this link does not represent the views or positions of the U.S. Agency for International Development or the U.S. Government.

[Tor's note: after discussion, we have combined this arbitrary pair of disclaimers into one single disclaimer: "You are leaving the official website of Project Name Here. The information provided via this link does not represent the views or positions of the U.S. Agency for International Development or the U.S. Government."]

Furthermore, the CA managing the host site and the CTO will be responsible for reviewing the content of all links every six months to ensure that they continue to meet the above criteria.

Issues to consider:   IPPF, SIECUS and Advocates for Youth, for examples, have numerous quality documents for programming adolescent RH/HIV, which do not include mention of abortion, as well as an important manual on integrating GBV into FP/RH services.  These documents could be included if we import this material to the website.  However, a link, even with the disclaimer, often is interpreted as tacit support for an organization’s policies or positions and can still get us in trouble with vigilant link followers.  Therefore, not having a direct link in these cases would be best, and make routine checking of the site much easier.