Local Government on the Web | ||
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Overall Winner:
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Winner: St. Albans District Council
Runners-Up: Wansbeck District Council, Birmingham City Council
We also found a disheartening number of very poor sites, which did their owning authority a complete disservice. There were no less than 11 of the 41 sites that we felt should be disconnected until they have been improved.
Local authorities currently spend millions on printed literature - much of that is suitable for web publishing. Savings in reduced print runs would amount to ten's of thousands of pounds per annum.
Many sites were dull, unfinished and untended. The worst case, but not atypical, was the site with 2 pages that had been "under construction" for 2 years.
Most sites failed to promote any economic development.
Most sites failed to deliver any useful information
Most sites failed to provide any feedback capability
It is understandable at this stage of the web's development that a number of these sites were marked as "experimental". However, many of these trials had been running for over a year and had not crossed the threshold to being an accepted part of the council information service.
Those Authorities that have no Internet and World Wide Web strategy need to define one quickly. Their neighbours - and competitors - will be doing so. For those Authorities already hosting web sites they should actively review their web strategy.
Conclusion
Our Local Government Web Site Review shows that the best of the web sites are good and using the medium to good advantage. Sadly it also revealed a high number of poor web sites.
At present the potential of the web for local authorities is clearly under used. All the standard benefits of the web such as low-cost, timeliness, content, world-wide audience are applicable to local authorities.
Those authorities who fair well in our review are already reporting significant benefits - including new investment, new jobs and reduced costs. Other authorities should be doing the same.
All the key contact information was presented, along with some interesting looks at features of the area. Overall we felt that the visit to the site was a welcoming and worthwhile visit.
The site is bi-lingual offering both English and Gaelic versions of the pages. The site is a simple black background with text colour changes to add variety from page to page. It looked attractive and was quick to load.
Significantly the site did not suffer from failings of larger, and more heavily funded sites, namely no heavy "waffle" factor, no broken links or errors and no over-large graphics.
http://www.open.gov.uk/westisle/wiichome.htm
The designers had used the Internet to best advantage, with much of the site actually being developed and held on other web sites. This has enabled them to create a very powerful resource for the Newcastle community - without having to generate all the material themselves.
The site also offers a selection of six other languages, Arabic, Bengali, Cantonese, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu. Full marks for such a broad coverage.
http://www.newcastle-city-council.gov.uk/
Alongside more generalised information there were good sections on business within the community and leisure and pleasure activities.
The site is clearly being updated on a regular basis, a very important feature, and offered reasons for coming back. The "since history began" What's New page shows a very active and developing site.
http://www.worldserver.pipex.com/stalbans/
The Liverpool site had a stylish design, carried through the pages well, in particular the opening front page was reminiscent of more commercial sites. Liverpool also had an audio welcome to the site.
The Mendips was a gentle site, you felt it was true to its location with gentle rolling countryside forming its menu structure. Sadly a note on this site reports its originator has left the council and the site has not been updated for some time.
Liverpool: http://www.connect.org.uk/liv_council/public/
Mendip: http://www.mendip.gov.uk/
Wansbeck had a wide range of information and even ran its own newsgroup - although sadly most Internet services providers would not make this available. The site had both search facilities and sitemap - making it much easier to find the information required.
Birmingham's site covers a lot of ground and is updated frequently. While not presenting the detailed level of information at some sites it did provide a broad spectrum at a higher level.
Wansbeck: http://ww.ace.co.uk/CityCard/
Birmingham: http://birmingham.gov.uk/
The site was a little overburdened with longs lists of selections, but everything you wanted to know to plan, book and enjoy your holiday was presented.
Technically the site was well managed. It was quick to view, with plenty of attractive photographs that did not take an age to download. The site was unique in offering a mirror site in case you had problems.
It never lost site of its purpose, with numerous routes to book holidays, including regular mentions of freephone numbers and even a discount to Cityscape Internet subscribers - although why other ISP's were excluded we don't know.
The biggest problem is the rather obscure site name, as witnessed below:
http://www.gold.net/users/cx47
We have a number of special pages devoted to
Local Government
needs and requirements. We provide links to the winners of our Local Government Web Site of the Year award. The site also contains a longer listing of registered Local Government Web Sites and you may register your own site there. Finally, there are a number of white papers and support documents discussing local authority web usage.
Centreline 2000 was responsible for the first UK web publication of local authority council minutes. This project was in conjunction with Hart District Council whose minutes went online in May 1996.
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Centreline 2000 - Uniplex, Unix, Windows and Internet Arle Court, Hatherley Lane, Cheltenham, GL51 6PN Tel: (UK) 01242 255 000 |
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URL: www.c2000.com/lgovt/lg_reprt.htm © 1995-2001 Centreline 2000 Last Updated: 1st August 1997 |
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