Planning the end of a widget campaign
Back in the old days (maybe in Web 0.9) Analog, the popular web analysis program, automatically added a ‘Valid HTML’ button at the bottom of each report page it produced. This was before the W3 Consortium took up the banner of validation, so the button was provided by a third-party site (webtechs.com). Either through a ‘clerical error’ or an invoice not paid the domain name being used to supply the image lapsed - and it was then taken over by someone else who decided to add in a completely inappropriate picture with the same filename.
If we move forward to the present day, then in Web 2.0 the idea of bringing in content from other sources is the distinct flavour of the month. In some cases this is still just images (for badges), but the norm is either to have RSS feeds (essentially bringing in HTML code, usually with no filtering of what is displayed) or JavaScript files (running programs in the end-user’s browser).
So you can imagine the following fictitious scenario. A well-known charity runs an extremely successful campaign using all the tricks of the social web trade. They’ve had fund-raising plugins downloaded & added to thousands of WordPress blogs; widgets on MySpace to email the key people concerned; badges appearing left, right & centre and RSS feeds being devoured. All being served from www.examplecharitycampign.org, which once the campaign is over is no longer required and the domain registration lapses.
In those circumstances it could be very easy for someone else to step in, and cause havoc - unsuspecting people could find themselves on what looks like a legitimate donation page, email addresses could be harvested if those were in forms, JavaScript programs not adding visible content to a page but still active (waiting for a browser security loophole, analysing what else is on the page, etc.), hidden links in RSS feeds to help with search engine ranking schemes, etc.
So it is important to plan what happens at the end of a campaign right from the start, rather than casually abandon it or start the process once it’s up and running. Amongst other things you need to decide whether you’re going to keep the domain name for the long term (in which case it needs to be treated like your organisation’s domain), where content is going to be made available (e.g. it could come from your organisation’s domain or from another ‘permanent’ address such as YouTube) and develop methods to try to keep in touch with your supporters/activists (not the easiest thing with viral marketing).
