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Frequently asked Questions
Here are some of the questions that are frequently asked about Opquast. :
- What do you mean by best practice in the context of Opquast?
- What do the levels correspond to?
- Are Opquast best practices applicable to different types of on-line services?
- Do the best practices essentially cover all possible legal requirements?
- Who created Opquast and wrote the best practices?
- What role does Temesis, the company, play?
- Why did you choose to put the list into the public domain?
- Can spin-off work be derived from the project?
- Under which conditions can I use this tools and the resources that are provided.
- Can I sell services that rely on this tool?
- How do the best practices evolve and what is the procedure?
- Will the project led to a certification process?
- I wish to make a proposal for a best practice. How do I go about it?
- Can I take part in the elaboration of the best practices? And if so how can I go about doing so?
What do you mean by best practice in the context of Opquast?
Opquast best practices should reply to the following three rules.
They should be:
- Realistic: A best practice is valid only if the work needed to implement it can be carried out on the majority of the services provided, and that at an international level.
- Useful: A best practice is valid only if it adds value or makes a tangible user ?non value? risk disappear. Ideally it's implementation will also reinforce the control that the site administrators have over the site.
- Checkable: A best practice is valid only if it is possible for a person not involved in the site to check on-line that it has been implemented. It should be possible for these checks to be carried out either manually or automatically.
What do the levels correspond to?
The levels correspond to successive degrees of maturity. Each level constitutes a group of best practices, and thus enables the progressive improvement of on-line service quality. For this reason we sometimes refer to them as stages.
Defining three levels makes it possible to follow and measure improvement of quality regarding different aspects that are present in the best practices list i.e. Navigation, accessibility, client service etc.
The objective of a site is to progress from level 1 to level 3 in order to achieve excellence on all of the aspects of an on-line service.
- Level 1 represents the minimum, but nevertheless insufficient, degree of maturity required, which addresses the worse defects of the site. It allows for an on-line service that functions satisfactorily. Achieving level 1 quality requires a reasonable amount of effort for an immediate result.
- Level 2 corresponds to the degree of that should be achieved short term by any professional internet site in order to be able to provide a quality service for its users. Compared to level 1, which is a preliminary improvement stage, it is a very acceptable level of quality.
- Level 3 corresponds to excellence. It implies constant and systematic satisfaction of users needs both during and after their visit to the site. This level should be the mid term objective of all professional on-line service.
Are Opquast best practices applicable to different types of on-line services?
All the best practices are not applicable to all to all types of on-line services. For example, shopping cart systems are not relevant to sites that don't operate on-line transactions. It is because of this that we provide a tool that delivers ?on requirement? best practices according to the relevant on-line service. The best practices are organized as follows:
- General best practices.
- Additional service : e-commerce.
- Additional service : Syndcated content.
- Additional service : Newsletter
- Additional service : ...
New aditional services will be progressively added.
Do the best practices essentially cover all possible legal requirements?
Opquast is a quality improvement tool with an international vocation and not a tool for any particular national legal conformity.
Some legal provisions in a given countries regulations might be integrated into the Opquast best practices only if they lead to a real added value in quality terms to the service in all countries.
Our objective is not to comply with every legal provision of every country that has legislated on information and communications technology (ICT) as this would be unfeasible
Therefore :
- The best practices as a whole does not contain every existing legal provision in full.
- It can not be said under any circumstances that a site that complies with all of the best practices also complies with the legal provisions of the county where it is hosted
- The fact that some legal provisions might not appear in the best practices does not dispense a site from keeping aware of and complying with the mandatory regulations that it is obliged to respect.
- The fact that a best practice is part of, for example French legislation, does not mean that we have to put it at level one of our list.
Who created Opquast and wrote the best practices?
The project initiated on an initiative by Elie Sloïm, managing director of Temesis, which provides expertise and training in quality improvement of on-line services, and Fabrice Bonny co-founder of OpenWeb. The initial list of best practices was proposed by Temesis and then enriched by the work of Fabrice Bonny, Elie Sloïm, Denis Boudreau, Laurent Denis, François Palaci and a number of other contributors.
Opquast is a French registered trade mark N°04 32 77630 (4th March 2004), with the INPI (Institut national de la propriété industrielle ) by Fabrice Bonny and Elie Sloïm.
What role does Temesis, the company, play?
The initial list of 190 best practices was drafted by Elie Sloïm Temesis. The company carries and coordinates the project and finances developments, hosting and maintenance of the Opquast.com and Opquast.org sights. It also commercializes and manages associated services, sets up and signs partnerships does all the communication surrounding the project.
Why did you choose to put the list into the public domain?
Despite the fact that the initial work was done and made public by Temesis, the best practices were refined and improved through a community effort. This community participation in the elaboration of the best practices implies that everyone should be able to freely access and reuse them.
Can spin-off work be derived from the project?
In order to give the Opquast project credibility we have chosen to have the best practices validated by as many actors as possible. At the outset of the project we don't have the intention of allowing actors to select specific parts of it in order to decline specific or sectoral referential lists. This would go against the basic principle of the project which is to bring things together into a shared basis.. For this reason the elaboration of derived works was prohibited during the setting up phase of the project.
From now on the content that is provided here is free access. If you wish to copy, modify or redistribute this content or if you wish to elaborate derived work products or services, you must respect the terms of the license creative commons CC-BY-SA.
In addition nothing pleses us more than to know that the best practices list is in use and credible, so if you plan to use it please contact usand give us your opinion
Under which conditions can I use this tools and the resources that are provided.
Naturally you can access and use the resources that we provide here as much as you want. With regards to copying material, elaborating derived products or services (both commercial and not) and redistribution etc. we ask you to consult the license
Can I sell services that rely on this tool?
Yes, on condition that you respect the license relative to content provided by Opquast.
How do the best practices evolve and what is the procedure?
The elaboration of version 1.0, which is currently available on-line at opquast.com took roughly one year. Version 2.0 is planned for January 2006. And with this in mind collaboration for the setting up of this version are taking place on opquast.org. There is a evolution calendar available on the project presentation page.
Will the project led to a certification process?
It is not excluded that this list will one day be the subject of dependable third party certifications. But this is not the initial aim of the project, and it is not our role or objective to certify sites. We don't have the capacity or the legitimacy to take on the role of of dependable third party. If certification of your sight, in accordance with these best practices constitutes to your mind an added value, contact us and we will try to help. You can also contact certification and normalization organizations who will provide you with information on this area. They in turn can inform us of any requests for certification in conformity with this list.
I wish to make a proposal for a best practice. How do I go about it?
You can propose a best practice by submitting it to discussion on the opquast.org site. However please make sure that the best practice is not already part of the list. Then formulate your best pratice in a way that it is realistic on an international level, useful for site users and administrators and can be checked on line.
Can I take part in the elaboration of the best practices? And if so how can I go about doing so?
Yes, you can. By taking part in the work carried out on the Opquast.org site. A code of conduct exists on this site which entails respecting other users and providing an alternative for any solutions which you do not agree with.