On Mon, 26 Apr 2010 21:39:00 +0100 mick mbm@rlogin.net wrote:
See http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/26/web_gravy_train/
Apparently Norfolk was the No 2 spender on web services. (But at least they appear to be running apache on unix (according to netcraft))
There is a model publication scheme from the Information Commissioner's Office in connection with the Freedom of Information Act which councils of various sizes were required to adopt by 1st January 2009 along with some government departments. Part of the scheme is for the council to decide what information to publish and there is strong encouragement for councils to put as much as they reasonably can on a web site rather than wait for people to submit access requests.
Personally it seems to me that having plenty of information about the services the councils provide with the money we pay them can only be a good thing provided people can still see the wood for the trees.
The usefulness of the information depends on how accurate, up to date and complete it and whether it is easy to find rather than on how flash the website is and I'd be skeptical of claims that an expensive content management system would be the only way to achieve that.
Steve.