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Regional or countywide local government 'portal' web sites are providing
patchy coverage and in many cases have low visibility despite large amounts
of money being spent on their development, according to research due to be
published next month.
The research was carried out by the Society of IT Management (Socitm -http://www.socitm.gov.uk ) as part of the annual 'Better Connected' review of
all council web sites. For the first time this year, Socitm web reviewers
looked at every English region for evidence of formal collaboration between
councils to provide joined-up information or services online through an
extra web service which sits alongside the councils' own individual sites.
In some areas, such as Cambridgeshire and Warwickshire, no partnership sites
were found; in others, such as Devon and Kent, there are embryonic sites
(Devononline at http://www.devononline.gov.uk/ and Kent Connects at http://www.kentconnects.com/ ); and in some places such as Surrey there are
several sites that are better-established ( http://www.surreyonline.info ; http://www.surreyjobs.info ; http://www.surreywaste.info ; http://www.urcountyursay.net ; http://www.surreyalert.info ; and http://www.surrey50plus.org.uk ).
Salford City Council Web Development Manager John Fox, a member of the
Socitm review team, said one of the problems he had noticed with
collaborative sites was that councils within an area did not properly
present or promote the service.
"In one area, nearly all the authorities had a link to the area's portal
site, but it was just a logo - there was no explanation of what the site was
or why people should go there. They were not thinking about how the citizen
is going to use it, and how they were going to integrate it with their own
sites," he said. In other areas, there was unnecessary duplication of
content already found on individual council sites, Fox said.
Another local authority web expert said that many portal projects run into
political problems, with argument between the council partners on how they
should be developed or presented. And she said significant sums of money
were being wasted: "It is worrying that a lot of these projects are funded
by central government, with huge amounts of money, but often there is very
little evidence of anything to show for it."
However Martin Greenwood, programme manager for Socitm Insight, said it
should be remembered that many portal projects were still relatively
immature. "They will need time to establish themselves and become more
integrated," he said.
Better Connected 2005 is due to be published in March.
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