(If you're in the UK) Are you following the development of GOV.UK? So far, it's been great. I think the most impressive aspect of it has been how open the development is. The blog is really good: vibrant, busy, has multiple contributors each with their own angle and area of focus. Then there's the nationwide beta testing. Has that happened before? Ever? Anywhere?
Last night I had a brief exchange of DMs with Chris from Front who said he felt "proud to be part of a country that 'gets it' to that extent". I agree. So far, so good.
But that feeling of pride; it's like what we should have felt when the Millenium Dome went up and how we should feel about the run up to this year's Olympics. Despite wanting to feel really positive about both of these things, I didn't/don't. External forces weigh heavy. National cynicism annoys the hell out of me but why does it happen?
The thing with GOV.UK is how the openness, of course, makes you feel like you could have a say. Actually, you can. The national beta testing prompted immediate and actionable feedback.
I suspect it's no coincidence that Ben, who if you don't know by now is part of the GDS Team, had pictures of Festival of Britain paraphenalia on his blog a few days ago. Who knows what it felt like in the UK when the Festival was developing; different times I guess. Perhaps there was a mountain of cynicism directed at that on the run up to 1951. But when you look at what happended, well, it looks pretty damned exciting.
Right now, GOV.UK does, in a 2012-digital-kind-of-way, feel a bit like that.
First I heard of it! Looks like a great idea though, would be a huge step forward.
Posted by: Luke | 06 February 2012 at 08:57 AM
encountered a problem on initial landing at gov.uk: they apparently failed to consider really large viewports. thus the satellite view of portsmouth gets tiled on my scope. alistapart had a great piece about dealing with this very issue.
Posted by: bloodnok | 12 February 2012 at 03:35 AM