Comments on: Ofcom blogging at last

By: Simon

Simon — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 14:28:49 +0000

In fact, I used to use one.com myself, but hit a problem with domain name transfer... can't remember what exactly, but that's not the point. These days I'm using eukhost.com: UK-based, cPanel / Fantastico account management, and packages starting from £23/year. It won't take too much detective work to see I'm putting some fairly high-visibility websites up there (and this one), with no complaints.

By: Jon Worth

Jon Worth — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 08:33:24 +0000

Very valid point about the credit card and just managing to get the thing working without needing to speak to the IT department... I wonder whether something in between would be appealing - a kind of wordpress.com+ option where you automatically get an installation of a proper version of Wordpress, but it works straight away once you paid? As for price: you can run Wordpress off servers from One.com - full featured blogging with a proper installation of Wordpress for 90p a month. It's very handy for low budget projects.

By: Simon

Simon — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 08:10:45 +0000

@Jon You're preaching to the converted on that one, mate! But Typepad's big plus point, as Tom L's comment demonstrated, is that you can whip out the corporate credit card, pay a pittance per month... and neither the IT department nor Procurement is any the wiser. It's no longer quite as clear-cut as it was, with WordPress.com offering respectable customisation options (via custom CSS) and the ability to present the blog under your own domain... cheaper than Typepad, too. (Plus, Blogger has come on a lot, after a post-acquisition period of stagnation.) But certainly, it's my experience that mere blogging isn't enough for people in the longer term; they want to take it further. And there's no doubt in my mind, WordPress is the only choice in such circumstances. PS: I'm expecting two big WordPress-in-government news stories in the next couple of weeks. Details as soon as I feel it's sensible to release them.

By: Jon Worth

Jon Worth — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:24:03 +0000

Another recent gov.uk launch on Typepad is the Dept of Health’s Diabetes blog, for whom Typepad’s instant availability was the primary motivation

I'm a bit surprised by that. Wordpress runs on almost any PHP/MySQL server, there are loads of free templates (or you adapt the standard one), and it's much more flexible, even in the short term. Working an hour or so a day on it I managed to launch Alex Brodkin with Wordpress within 4 days of the order being made - and that time included server config, domain name registration etc. I reckon you should offer a 'Wordpress blog in a week' service to government departments - it will take government comms people longer than that to muster up the first post for the blog anyway!

By: Tom Loosemore

Tom Loosemore — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:42:21 +0000

Agreed that it's long overdue - and I can see the long term risk of using Typepad, but in the short term you can't beat $14.95/month to try something out.

Of more interest in the long term may be the way we've put the review itself up online: http://ofcompsbreview.typepad.com/summary/

It let's you link to and comment upon every paragraph of the PSB Review's exec summary, as well as allowing us to link through to the related evidence slide (via a presentation on slideshare)

By: Alan in Belfast

Alan in Belfast — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 10:54:44 +0000

It was funny to hear the PSB blog being mentioned near the end of the formal presentation at the PSB review launch in Belfast this morning.

The quote ran something like "it would allow (quotes fingered in air) dialogue (close quotes) around some of the ideas but shouldn't take the place of your formal consultation response"

At least it's started with a few light-hearted comments. I recommend Ofcom plant a tree for every printed report that someone takes out of their building!