puffbox

How many Directgov sites?

You know the way all government sites are meant to be merging into Directgov… does that or doesn’t that cover externally located subdomains of direct.gov.uk? I did a quick bit of Google research and uncovered the following non-authoritative list:

• ema.direct.gov.uk (plus moneytolearn.direct.gov.uk and yp.direct.gov.uk)
• studentfinanceloangrantcalculator.direct.gov.uk
• countdowntouni.direct.gov.uk (plus unimoney.direct.gov.uk and bursarymap.direct.gov.uk)
• taxcredits.direct.gov.uk
• nextstep.direct.gov.uk
• actonco2.direct.gov.uk
• jobseeker.direct.gov.uk
• local.direct.gov.uk
• nuclearpower2007.direct.gov.uk
• togetherwecan.direct.gov.uk
• volunteering.direct.gov.uk
• bluebadge.direct.gov.uk
• sharp.direct.gov.uk
• kids.direct.gov.uk

Several (although not not all) of these sites clearly required functionality which the Directgov platform couldn’t offer: database integration, mapping, etc. And that’s where Directgov’s problem will come. If you’re going to bring everyone on board, you need to be offering adequate functionality - or at least, access to adequate external functionality - to meet everyone’s perceived needs. As it stands, we risk ending up with a proliferation of subdomains.

• Jeremy Gould at 10:58 pm on 11 February 2008

  There are plenty of good reasons why sub-domains might exist. For instance for campaigns or specific audiences. Don’t think they necessarily exist because of the underlying functionality of the platform, and it doesn’t contradict the convergence / rationalisation ethos as far as I can see.

• Directionlessgov at 2:52 pm on 8 April 2008

  As someone who has been involved in migrating a stand-alone site into Directgov I believe that while some subdomains may exist to aid campaign promotion I would argue most are actually “white-labelled” externally hosted pages that simply can’t be replicated on the Directgov infrastructure at present. Of course with £30m coming Directgov’s way this year it may well only be a matter of time if the will or expertise remains post-migration.

  I’ll leave the benefits/efficiencies (or lack thereof) for others to discuss…

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