Archive for 'directgov'
Directgov's £15m ad budget
COI has announced details of the bidding process for the contract to promote Directgov. Four agencies are on the shortlist - Chick Smith Trott (incumbents), Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy, Clemmow Hornby Inge and Farm. Now folks, remember, these are advertising agencies: don't click those links unless you're ready for a full-on Flash assault.
And what'll it cost? The contract 'is expected to last two to three years with a budget of up to £15m.'
Directgov currently receives approximately ten million visits per month. Already.
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Civil Serf suspended
I'm reluctant to write this solely on the basis of a piece in the Mail (on Sunday?), but it seems Civil Serf has been identified and suspended by DWP.
Investigators hunting for the blogger summoned her to a meeting last week, when it is understood that she denied responsibility. She was told she was being suspended regardless and, when she was ordered to attend a subsequent meeting with the inquiry team, she finally confessed.
She was caught after the Government dedicated a team of computer experts to track her down across the internet. A source in the DWP said it was an extraordinary outlay of resources as the team was told to clear their desks of everything except their hunt for Civil Serf.
OK, if we try to strip away the inevitable tabloid hyperbole, which isn't necessarily straightforward... this is almost the worst possible conclusion. Denying responsibility was a bit daft, and probably only made things worse. It also leaves DWP looking just a bit reactionary.
What message are they trying to send, I wonder? And what signals does it send about DWP senior management's appreciation of the way communications are evolving?
Reminder: DWP takes ownership of the government's flagship web project in a couple of weeks.
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.
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Where's our Directgov blog?
When the Guardian's Michael Cross interviewed Directgov chief executive Jayne Nickalls in August last year, he wrote:
In its response to the Power of Information report, the Cabinet Office proposes that Directgov embraces Web 2.0 technology by incorporating a blog in which users exchange their experiences.
Now if it's really in the official Cabinet Office document, 'The Government’s Response to The Power of Information' (PDF), I'm damned if I can find it. But that's not the point. We were promised a two-way communication channel with Directgov... and nigh-on six months later, it's still not here.
Tom Watson's 'minister for e-government' role still hasn't been explicitly confirmed, as far as I'm aware. But if he's looking for ideas, there's one for a start. I hear the Directgov people are waiting to be given official guidance. But now we've got a blog-literate minister in charge, it's as simple as three little words - Yes We Can - and a quick trip over to wordpress.com. We could do it tomorrow. What do you say, Tom? Jayne? Anyone?
Directgov directorship details
I've found out a bit more about the recruitment of three non-executive directors for Directgov, mentioned a few days ago. There are three specific positions: one for a 'Finance/ Large Corporate' person, one for a 'Customer Champion', and one for someone with 'Digital Channel Experience'. One of the three will chair the Audit and Risk Committee. For ten grand a year, you'll be asked to attend ten meetings, two of which will be all-day away-dayers. Applications to be in by the end of January; interviews will take place in mid-February.
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