SOCITM, ‘the professional association for public sector ICT management’ aren’t doing themselves any favours by publishing so little information about their annual e-government survey, Better Connected. I’ve seen very little mention of it, and it was published almost a fortnight ago. Indeed, virtually all the coverage I’ve seen so far has been critical of the report and its methodology:
Better Connected is failing to accomplish anything other than paint a gloomy picture of play and upset Local Authority rulers and those of us really making an effort. When does it get positive?
BC’s assessment of the accessibility of local authority websites is fundamentally flawed. Admittedly this is a reflection of the use of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 as the instrument of measurement, but it’s flawed all the same.
Socitm clearly doesn’t have its members’ interests at heart with the publication of this idiotic report. The time, effort and resources wasted in its production would have been far better spent helping web managers improve things rather than creating a meaningless yardstick with which to beat them.
Ian Dunmore, Director of Public Sector Forums (quoted by 24dash)
Way to go, fellas. Hiding your report behind a paywall, with absolutely nothing in your website’s News section (including this startling press releases area) is no way to win friends or influence people.
Response
Sorry to be a pain… (no problem Lee, attribution change made as requested)