Monday 11 February 2008
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.
- Tags
- directgov
Comments ( 2 )
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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.
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...