Style, content and management guidelines for government websites were launched yesterday by e-minister Patricia Hewitt in an effort to refocus its hotchpotch of Web development.
The move marks the first step in a reinvention of the government's Web strategy, tearing up the existing approach of Web publishing by department to creating citizen focused websites.
Hewitt said that government "hadn't been using the Web as well as it might" and described the long term vision as creating a "my government" website in which a citizen accesses a portal with content selected to their preferences.
Drawing on familiar examples in the private sector, Hewitt also stressed that government needed to do more to develop transaction based sites. She suggested that government departments follow Federal Express and show the public exactly what stage their casework is at, and hinted that government needed to copy Amazon's "one click ordering" so the public "don't have to give personal information on each interaction."
The guidelines for government websites will, according to the official responsible, "shortly" be available at www.iagchampions.gov.uk. Currently in draft form, they will be finalised following industry and government feedback in late November.
The sections addressing procurement, management, contents, design and corporate strategy will be known as "joined-up government". They form the initial part of the government's first ever corporate IT strategy, which is now slated for publication in March.
Meanwhile, Web marketing 'best practice' was also published today by advertising umbrella body, the Incorporated Society of British Advertiser (ISBA) in conjunction with IBM. Called 'The Internet: a practical guide for marketers', it costs £25.
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