There was an initial buzz of excitement yesterday, at the launch of the new data.gov.uk interactive organograms… and then, by teatime, a bit of a backlash. I can see both sides myself. Yes, it’s a very cool rendering of potentially quite dull data, and it’s nice to see it done in javascript (jQuery) rather than … Continue reading On government organograms and RDF files (includes free WordPress plugin!)
One way or another, it’s going to be a momentous week for UK government. A lot of people will be leaving their Whitehall offices on Thursday evening, not quite sure who they’re going to be working for – in terms of the boss, and the organisation – on Friday morning. I’ve had calls from literally … Continue reading Why WordPress is a good fit for government
I thought it was about time I compiled a list of all the UK (central) government web projects I know of, which use WordPress. Partly because I’m meeting some people during the week to talk about it; partly to start preparation for the session I’ve volunteered to give at July’s WordCamp UK. This is off … Continue reading WordPress in UK government: an informal audit
So many new websites appearing at the moment, you’d think it was the end of the financial year or something. The new DIUS site is very pretty, although I hear it wasn’t cheap. There’s a new site for the Ministry of Justice, which (if I’m totally honest) feels a bit dated, and clearly has several … Continue reading WordPress co-founder's e-government work
Steph from the Department of Innovation is at it again. I’m really very impressed by his new WordPress theme, Commentariat, which effectively picks up where CommentPress left off. After an internal trial, he’s used it publicly for the first time, allowing people to comment on the Power Of Information Taskforce’s report. I think he’s correctly … Continue reading Government's WordPress theme for collaborative commenting
Can’t help but mention the sites.usa.gov project being run by the US General Services Administration, offering ‘a shared service to help agencies focus on creating great content rather than on building systems to deliver that content’. No charge initially, but looks likely in due course. And yes, of course it’s running on WordPress. By providing … Continue reading US develops shared, centrally-managed WP platform for government
We’re proud to announce that Facetious, a plugin we’ve been working on for quite some time, has now been released in the official WordPress repository. And we’d like to thank the UK taxpayer for his/her assistance in writing it. We do a lot of work for government departments, and on several recent projects, there’s been … Continue reading Facetious: CFTP's Advanced Search plugin for WordPress
I feel somewhat obliged to highlight the latest blog post by Stephen Hale, head of digital at the Dept of Health. As regular readers will know, Stephen switched the department’s web publishing strategy over to WordPress just over a year ago, and he’s written subsequently about the joy of making such a move. The countdown … Continue reading Dept of Health's eulogy for WordPress
The next phase of the gov.uk beta programme was opened last night: a six-week public testing phase for the ‘Whitehall’ information, now renamed ‘Inside Government‘ (complete with tautological URL). Ten departments are covered initially, including all the obvious online big-hitters such as Health, BIS, Defra, FCO and DFID. It looks very much like the rest … Continue reading 'Inside Government' opens for testing
Puffbox’s longest-standing working relationship in Whitehall is with the Wales Office; it was there, don’t forget, that the whole WordPress-in-government thing started back in late 2007. We moved them on to a multisite setup just before the 2010 general election; and we’re seeing the benefits, through sites like the one we launched in November for … Continue reading Bilingual maps with a WordPress custom post type