Is the 'online' government 'offline'?

A Cabinet Office website launched to publicise its e-government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) and 'Modernising Government' White Paper has 14 inoperative links out of a total of 17 and a complete lack of content beyond its front page. UKTECH asks the Government - Do empty sites mean empty words?

The site which details how 'Better public services tailored to the needs of the citizen and business… requires the seamless flow of information across the UK public sector' on its front page, currently delivers little in the way of being seamless or a service to those who visit it.

The site, which describes itself as part of the 'UK GovTalk' initiative, also proclaims that it is 'a joint government and industry forum for generating and agreeing standards'. Agreeing to an interview outlining exactly what these standards are, regarding both the e-GIF site and other government sites in general, Cabinet Minister spokesman Ben Wilson addresses the issue of its temperamental drive towards an 'e-government'.

UKTECH - There doesn't seem to be any content on the Government's newest website [e-GIF]. Is it that there is some sort of technical problem or has the content not been submitted yet?

BW - The site was temporarily down over the Christmas period for routine maintenance. The site was launched full of content in early November and has been operational 24 hours a day seven days a week until the Christmas period. Documents are put up on the site for comment and automatically disappear when the deadline date is reached. The new content for public comment either on the site or soon to be on the site includes four e-government frameworks on Metadata, Authentication, Confidentiality and Trust Services. This reflects a broadening out from e-GIF of the site's role.

UKTECH - When will the site be up and running with everything the front page says it currently does?

BW - The site is up and running. The Public Sector, Industry and other interested parties are working together in developing and agreeing policies and standards for e-government. Please look up the Membership Area to give you more details of the Working Groups and people involved. As stated on the homepage the site is currently in its initial stages. The RFC and RFP processes have only had since November to operate but have both been used to attract comments and the first agreed standards relating to XML will appear on the site shortly. Much work on XML is in the pipeline in the public sector and public consultation, when drafts are ready, will occur on the UK GovTalk site. This will lead to the building up of a sizeable repository of agreed XML schema. A draft copy of the next version of e-government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) will be put up for comment.

UKTECH - Is it normal procedure for the government to launch a site first then add the content later?

BW - No, it is not normal procedure and is not so in this case.

UKTECH - The lack of working links doesn't seem to reflect well on the 'seamless electronic government' claim on the site. What is being done to make this and other government sites more 'seamless'?

BW - The working links were temporarily suspended for the Christmas period routine maintenance, as explained above. To ensure increased accessibility of official information online of the many Government web sites already created, a Director of e-Communications was recently appointed heading a team with a roving role right across Government. A major audit has taken place and a "cyber summit" will be held with all Government's web designers and staff to discuss how improvements should continue.

The Prime Minister launched UK online in September with £1 billion to develop online government. December saw the go-live of UK online Citizen Portal (www.UKonline.gov.uk) as a consultation beta test of the first ever single entry point into government. In the first two weeks it received half a million hits. e-GIF applies to the UK online Citizen Portal. The Citizen Portal is part of a much bigger UK online campaign with the major challenge of getting all Government services online by 2005.

UKTECH - Does the lack of working links/ content, etc... have any bearing on the current skills shortage. Is there a lack of qualified technical staff to maintain government web sites?

B.W - The UK GovTalk site has no bearing on a skills shortage. The Government has the staff to maintain 1,000 web sites - this is quite an achievement in itself. Government has an obligation to offer a very diverse range of services accessed by 1 in 5 UK Internet users. Research has shown that the average unitary local authority has more than 700 service areas, compared to around 12 in a typical bank. The answer to Point 4 covers how further improvements will be carried forward.

UKTECH - www.govtalk.gov.uk is a currently empty site proclaiming on its front page a great recognition of a service the government could provide, is it also a case of 'empty words' as some contractors are alleging?

BW - These are not empty words for the reasons given above. Government has the support of both the public sector and the private sector including major industry competitors who all shared the same platform at the Ministerial public launch of e-GIF by Cabinet Office Minister Ian McCartney in October. Industry and Government have been and continue to work together to achieve the challenging but rewarding task of seamless interoperability, a cornerstone of e-Government.

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Richard Powell