Puffbox

Today sees the launch of version 2 of the website I designed and built for Lord Darzi’s national review of the NHS. V1 was built in double-quick time during the summer, and for reasons of cost and speed, used the Typepad blogging platform. Over the last month or so, Typepad’s limitations have become more and more apparent… so it was time to migrate to WordPress. Which, of course, is what I’d always wanted.

All the juicy new stuff hangs off the homepage. ‘Latest news’ is (as you’d expect) a listing of the top news updates, using a special ‘homepage’ category to give the authors total control. ‘Lord Darzi’s blog’ is the latest blog to be written by a government minister, but unlike some, we’re positively encouraging comments. Finally, there’s the ‘latest video’: the review team is producing quite a lot of video content, so we’re sticking it on YouTube, and using YouTube’s little-known RSS feed functionality (with a bit of string manipulation) to pump it back into the site.

The primary navigation is a mix of blog categories and static ‘pages’: hey, if you dig deep enough, there’s even an old-school image map! How long is it since I did one of those? We haven’t made any distinction between the two; I’m not sure it really matters to the punters.

As it’s WordPress, we’ve got full comment functionality if we want it. The plan is that blog posts should generally have comments enabled, but news posts won’t. However, if we fancy it, we can. To draw attention to the items where comments are ‘on’, there’s a little speech bubble icon which appears against the relevant headlines. A minor thing, but it catches the eye really well.

Overall, it’s taken less than a week to recode the templates, develop the new functionality, and import the content. Importing from Typepad was relatively painless: the initial process took seconds, but then you’ve got the hassle of setting summaries for each item, identifying and repointing all the manual inline links, etc etc. I’m glad there wasn’t too much content to worry about. DNS changes and server reconfiguration took about a day and a half, which was a real disappointment, but at least it’s done now.

I’m really pleased with it; the initial site was OK, particularly given the laughably short timeframe, but I knew we could do better. I’m afraid the exercise has put me off using Typepad, though: although it does have some pseudo-CMS functionality, my feeling was that it’s too tied to the concept of blogging.

Next steps? We’re thinking of a photo gallery, and maybe even some delegated authoring responsibility. But that’s all for another day. My next WordPress-in-government project is looming, and is likely to be even bigger. 😉

OK, so HMRC is getting what looks like an entirely justifiable kicking for (a) losing the CDs in transit, and (b) having a system which allowed a junior member of staff to burn the most sensitive data to CDs in the first place. But that isn’t the end of it.

Have a quick glance through these PQs on VAT registration, answered last month, which received virtually zero media coverage. HMRC has a target time of 14 days to process an application to register for VAT. Since the start of 2007, in their best month (January), they failed to meet that target in 79% of applications. Let me repeat that: the best they’ve managed is 79% failure. The worst – 93% failure in April. Things are on the up since then, but the September figure was still over 80% failure.

(For the record: the First Great Western train franchise, the worst performing in the country,  fails to meet its service delivery target – train punctuality – in just 17.4% of cases, according to the latest data from the Rail Regulator.)

FST Jane Kennedy is contrite: ‘HMRC recognise that in recent months there have been some unacceptable delays for genuine businesses. Several factors have contributed to this, including an increase in the threat of fraud, an increase in the number of applications, and both resource and IT pressures.’

This is a problem which has been raised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales; in June, they identified VAT registration delays as ‘the biggest single VAT issue facing our members and their clients.’ I’m afraid I was one of them, and yes, it was a major inconvenience at the very moment I was trying to get a small business off the ground. It’s just as well I could live off my savings for a few months.

Version 2 of the NHS website has now gone live, with a few significant changes. First off, the homepage: gone is the smiling lady with her head in the clouds. Now it looks a lot less ‘2.0’, and a lot more businesslike, which is probably a good thing.

There’s much greater prominence for things like ‘calculators, quizzes and interactive tools‘, and a whole new ‘Behind the headlines’ section which will provide ‘an unbiased and evidence-based analysis of health stories that make the news’ – including links to both the media coverage and the source material (where available). The aim is to respond on the day; an RSS feed is available immediately, with an email alerting service to follow. For what it’s worth, I think this is a brilliant addition to the site. And so far, they’re doing a good job of keeping it readable.

PS: Not the only NHS site to get a facelift this week, as I’ll be revealing shortly… 🙂

I’m reluctant to mention this, as I’m not a fan of Second Life (and never was, for the record). But I think we’re in for something of an e-government first this week (unless, of course, you know different):

On 21st and 22nd November, staff and stakeholders involved in the Our NHS, our future review will join internationally acclaimed health experts at a pioneering summit to showcase examples of leading-edge care from the UK and around the world… For members of Second Life, the keynote speeches can also be viewed live on the 21 November, and you will be able to register your own opinions and meet and chat with the speakers online.

Thankfully there’s also going to be a normal webcast of proceedings. The thought of medical gurus tinkering about in Second Life just seems wrong somehow.

MyGuide.gov.uk is a Department for Education and Skills Children, Schools and Families project to ‘provide a ‘radically simple’ way of using the Internet’:

The Internet is fast becoming a part of our every day lives, influencing how we work, learn, communicate and even shop. But there are many who still do not or cannot use it because for them the Internet is not accessible, and certainly not encouraging and engaging to use. And so they miss out on the many economic, employment and social opportunities that it brings.

Research and consultation showed that the market was not going to meet the needs of these people coherently and effectively. Therefore, the Department, working with a wide range of stakeholders, undertook to fill the gap. In doing this it hopes to support wider participation in e-learning but also wider use of online information and facilities across the public service, especially through Directgov.

It’s gradually opening up now, following a pilot last year. Predictably, it’s got that kind of ‘reassuringly large buttons’ look which people give sites like this. Unexpectedly, it’s got a downloadable web browser (based on Firefox, I think), and its own hosted email service – although just 30Mb storage space, which embarrassing these days.

But I’m afraid I didn’t get much further: the registration process wants to know all the classic ‘personal questions’ data, which is probably all that protects your bank account from outside interference. When it started asking me for my pet’s name and memorable date, I’m afraid I went elsewhere.

Who needs David Miliband? Word reaches me of a new blogging initiative coming out of Defra. There’s a new server located at blogs.defra.gov.uk: only one blog on there so far, but the use of the plural noun has been noted.

Launched last week, the Bali Diary – led by junior environment minister Phil Woolas (with others in due course?) – sets out to describe preparations for, and proceedings at the big UN climate change conference in Bali next month. With climate change so high on the public agenda, it’s an ideal topic to be covering; and the tone of the minister’s initial items is perfect blogging – very down-to-earth, passionate and not a little outspoken. Several of the early items, for example, lambast the mainstream media for missing what he sees as key developments. (In fact, he seems to be claiming personal credit for a new carbon trading system in the US Mid-West?)

The biggest catch, I suppose, is the lack of comment functionality: ‘We are not currently inviting comments on diary entries,’ they say on the About page, ‘but we may in the future.’ Why so shy? I can only assume they’re scared of hearing from hundreds of conspiracy theorists.

A quick peek at the site’s feed – only appearing in Atom format as I type this, despite what the page ‘About RSS feeds‘ – reveals it’s running on WordPress… a departure, then, from the Community Server platform used to house Miliband’s blog (and subsequently shipped over to the Foreign Office). Of course, I make no secret of my preference for WordPress (of which more, possibly, later). Plus of course, with Defra facing serious budget cuts, it does the web team no harm to be seen to use open source.

PS: I should have something more to say about Ministerial blogs later in the week… 😉