Joined-up government

[altariel]

I'm researching and writing up a section on e-government for TBT, and two out of every three links on the subject that I click on around the government sites are dead, or lead to a wrong page.

There's a link in chapter 5 of the White Paper Modernizing Government which should go to a consultation document (Our Information Age) but which just goes to the front page of the 10 Downing Street website. Which is a nice touch.

Comments

[communicator.livejournal.com]

We have 'Our information Age' in our key documents at work, but alas only in paper form. This site seems to have an overview.

http://www.dti.gov.uk/infoage/infoage.htm

I wrote our organisations e-gov strategy (actually several versions over the past few years). My feeling was that expectation was low. I recommended to the DfES that they create a standard template and guidance for the strategies, to speed up the process and ensure all the main aspects were covered, however they seemed to find it hard to engage with the process in an active way.

My personal feeling was that writing the strategy did nothing to promote e-government; but that if it was the requirement to produce one, I wanted to do it in a dynamic and positive way.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Oh, brilliant, thank you!

[communicator.livejournal.com]

Another point, 'our info age' is 6 or 7 years old now, so may not be very useful

[altariel.livejournal.com]

That's OK - it's historical summary I'm writing at the moment.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

Heaven forbid that we should actually find out what they're up to.

Another nice touch, on the day that the Modernisation Select Committee is talking about making Parliament more accessible (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3809949.stm), is that the www.parliament.uk server appears to be off the network.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's a good one. (I did just kick some life out of it, if you want to try again.)

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

Nope, still not available from here. Looks like there's a break in the network somewhere between the academic network and there - network traffic gets so far and then stops. Maybe they just don't like academics.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Gah!

[iainjcoleman.livejournal.com]

Heaven forbid that we should actually find out what they're up to.

I direct my honourable friend's attention to TheyWorkForYou, a nice, usable interface to Hansard with a comments facility for sad political hacks. (Which reminds me, I must get round to posting something to it.)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Oh, now that's a pretty thing.

I love their revamped version of the National Rail Timetable; they're right - the official version is execrable.

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

Oooh, cool (not to mention pretty). There's just no comparison with the presentation on the official site. Thanks, Iain!


honourable

Oy, watch it. You'll give me a bad name.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

They COULD tell you. But then they'd have to kill you.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

My experience of online legal info wasn't great when I was setting up my company and trying to find out my precise obligations as an employer & wrt VAT. There's lots of stuff online, but it is by no means easy to understand its relevance to the situation we were in -- we ended up having to phone up human beings. I suspect that's a decent summary of an ordinary (& moderately e-competent) citizen's experience of e-government.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

If the content is rubbish, no fancy graphics or layout will ever make a site good.

Comparative governance

[(Anonymous)]

Those numbers match up well with my personal experience with the US government. I would say 2/3 of the employees I have spoken with on the phone or in person either were dead, but nobody had noticed yet, or were in the wrong room.

When I was young and foolish, I applied for a number of jobs as a government computer geek. I had excellent grades, and high marks on the official government pre-hiring test. When I went to job interviews, they never asked about anything having to do with working on computers. All the questions were of the brainwashing variety, such as; "Tell us about your worst personality traits.". Being stupid, I answered truthfully with gems like, "I have limited patience for stupid questions, and the people who ask them." Needless to say, I was never hired. I suspect this is typical of how governments everywhere select their staff.

Mike K

Re: Comparative governance

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I would say 2/3 of the employees I have spoken with on the phone or in person either were dead, but nobody had noticed yet, or were in the wrong room.

*snort!*

Hm, more coffee on the monitor...


"I have limited patience for stupid questions, and the people who ask them." Needless to say, I was never hired. I suspect this is typical of how governments everywhere select their staff.

LOL! Well, look on it this way - the environment would probably have driven you insane.