Behold the power of referral logs! I’m not sure I’m supposed to know about the new Directgov ‘internal’ blog which was started last week by e-government veteran Paul Cronk. But since he linked to me, and since someone clicked on it, I now know about it. (Since it’s explicitly internal, I won’t link to it… unless Paul gives me the OK to do so?)
Its aim is to ‘communicate actions, changes and information around the content of Directgov’ – and of course, a blog is a great way to do so; good on them for trying this. My thanks to Paul for linking to me… but I think it’s a bit harsh to say the various external e-gov-centric blogs are ‘not comfortable reading… critical of Directgov’. On the rare occasion I am critical of it, I hope it’s constructive criticism. We all need a better Directgov; and I’m sure we’re all equally impatient about getting it.
Responses
Let’s get this right.
The bods at Directgov have set up an ‘explicitly internal’ weblog. On the public WWW. Which you can freely access.
Is this a belated April Fool’s joke????
[…] Published May 30th, 2007 E-government You know that ’secret’ Directgov blog I mentioned last week? It’s gone. Wasn’t me, […]
Simon
I’m really unclear if the blog was ever public. As you’re not quoting, I’m assuming you’re quoting your mate’s description of it’s content.
Since I know they’ve been reading my posts on directgovkids it’s amusing to think they’re ‘not helpful’, especially when I post that they’re doing better than other national governments.
Actually, it’s disturbing that my, essentially, usability analysis is ‘not helpful’.
But since directgov people seem to assume they know everything and a dialogue implies criticism I’m not surprised. Paranoia must be part of the job description.
My biggest beef with directgov is not this sort of thing but their failure to leverage their position to help everyone else.
Just working with Google to boost eGov PageRanks would do more to send traffic to online services, many times more, than the entire multimillion pound ‘branding’ mess they’re running. Their link campaign is a sad joke.
Also, their marketing online is a mess. I will post an analysis of this soon.
What annoys Council web workers like me about directgov is the arrogance when they quite clearly wasting vast amounts on vanity projects (directgov kids being one of them if it’s a one off and ends up neglected) rather than website basics which Tim’s Corner Shop website would know about.
I recall a conversation with one of the guys running it eighteen months ago when I had to explain what ‘organic’ search results were and ‘keywords’. The ignorance was breathtaking but IME normal and – worse – acceptable. The environment in eGov’s walled garden encourages it. I won’t name him, but he wouldn’t have lasted one minute in a commercial environment. This was/is typical. As was the patronising attitude of ‘who are you to tell me anything? I’m an important person”.
It’s no way to run a web site.
When you see vast amounts wasted on exercises like ecitizen, when no conference on the horizon is discussing Google, how else to perceive them but as arrogant and disconnected?
A public or even closed space where we can talk to them would be nice but totally counter to their instincts. Unlike corporations, they still haven’t a clue how to make use of criticism in order to improve.
Am I wrong Simon?
Paul Canning
Paul: yes, it definitely was ‘public’. I’m not currently in government’s employ (in any way), and I could see it. I even captured the RSS feed, and stored it in my Bloglines account – which, helpfully, means it’s archived for all to see.
The full text of the post I quoted is as follows.
One day soon I’ll write the post on my feelings re Directgov, Paul, I promise…
[…] June 3rd, 2007 E-government I really set the cat among the pigeons when I noted the existence of a Directgov internal blog (which subsequently disappeared). I sort of regret mentioning it now; although it was a bit daft of […]