Is Directgove wasting money?
February 3, 2009 //
Today saw the launch of a new site developed by Directgov. I’ve no idea what their intention is, other than to demonstrate their ability to build a site, so, I’ll provide an excerpt:
The adverse weather has shown us that sudden events need rapid and effective responses. Particularly when people need information from many places, very quickly. Sometimes information from people out there on the ground can get round this in a very simple way, but it can also have risks. One thing we know is that people want easily accessible, reliable information on which schools are closed because of snow.
Further down the same Web page it says:
Try it out – it’s not intended as a live service, but will help us understand what sort of products we can develop in the future so that government can give the best possible quality of service, easily and reliably, in times of need.
Before I commentate, I must point out that I’m not a Government basher and in fact, I think the British Government has one of, if not the best, digital inclusive strategies worldwide.
As I stated in the comments of Emma Mulqueeny’s blog:
The site is nothing more than a search feature that sits on top of an outdated list of schools. What’s the point in demonstrating that you can do that, *and* not be able to get it to work properly? I conducted a search for a few schools I know of and it returned 0 results.
I’m not alone, according to one commentator on the Directgov site:
The school data is out of date (I know because the school my daughter goes to merged last year, and this isn’t reflected in the school listings). You’d have to consider how to keep the school list up to date over time.
As you can see from the second quote above, the site is not intended to provide a live service - so, what is the purpose of the site exactly? No parent will benefit from the current site or indeed the finished product from what I can see. Every parent has the phone number and address of the school their kids attend - if they don’t they should be locked up. If the site provided a live feed from each school who provided regular updates, I could see the attraction.
From what I can tell from the site and what they’ve written about it, it’s a couple of developers who dabbled in a bit of development to see if they could throw something together and position it as innovation from Directgov because they wanted to impress Tom Watson who threw out a challenge on Twitter. See Emma’s blog for the fine detail.
So Directgov, why not load schools with the ability to easily provide updates which are streamed to a central Web site. Allow teachers and parents to commentate - you might even build a lots of min social networks for each school and one big one for teachers and parents in general - what you could do is limitless. However I don’t see such intention from the current site 
Am I being cynical due to my damn pleuris that won’t seem to go? Or, am I right in thinking they should work out at least a rough objective or two, before designing and developing Web sites of any size?
marco goldschmied says 
jamesq says 
Sharon Crossley says 
Grant Bannister says 
LOL… must be the pleurisy, but what you say is true and the point really is for Directgov to change the way things are done and developed in government, I presume, chuck it up, refine it and make it better. It was done by the innovations team, not the megalith that is Direct.gov.uk. They are changing and shaping it as it moves on - but yes, you are right.
February 3rd, 2009
@Emma you need to at least have an idea about what you want to chuck up. There's no point in building something within an innovations team for the sake of it
February 3rd, 2009
Paul — no, it's not perfect. But it's amazing that it's there at all. Hopefully it's a sign of good things to come.
More: http://www.thedextrousweb.com/2009/02/innovatio...
February 3rd, 2009
Harry - why is it amazing to have a Web page with a search box? Do you know how much budget the government has? I mean, they do some great things as I've said, so what's the big deal with this site? We shouldn't be thankful for tiny mercies…
Again, I don't wish to detract from the great work they do.
February 3rd, 2009
Well if the intention was to impress me, it worked
To me, it's not the tool - you can't possibly expect that to work perfectly in a day - it's the fact that they've opened themselves up to innovation. It's a big step for those guys; one that I'm very keen to support them in. And like the digital realm in the private sector, that means a little more tolerance when things do not go right first time.
As an Elder of the Internet, I think you should give them a little more encouragement. In fact, I think you should offer to take the team that did this out for karaoke. Just to show them you care.
February 3rd, 2009
Tom - I do care, which is why I wrote about it. Let's ignore the fact that stuff doesn't work as that isn't important. I think it's equally important to at least have a very rough objective prior to starting anything 'innovative'. It's like when people get in touch with me to review their business models - my least favourite are the Twitter-clones which are built because they're easy to do - unless they have a purpose and people are likely to use them etc. then there's no point.
As the saying goes “just because you can, it doesn't mean you should”. I knew my commentary would be seen as less than supportive - but I thought it was worth a note if only to balance all of the 'oh this is great innovation because you built it in a day' type comments.
Something built very quickly doesn't equal innovation in my world - whether it's a government department or a seasoned entrepreneur…
As for Karoke, it's not my bag - I will however meet them on the dance floor at Little Italy.
February 3rd, 2009
A central list of school closures made up from locally sourced information, with the ability for parents and teachers to add content. That strikes me as a good thing.
In fact, it's the only way you can draw up a list with such short timescales.
Test it. If it works iterate, iterate, iterate. If it doesn't work, throw it in the bin.
The only way they're going to be truly excellent is by “us” allowing occasional failure. And the only way we can move them from zero risk taking to a little risk taking is to praise and encourage.
I know you care. That's why I'm taking what you say so seriously.
February 3rd, 2009
Tom - I agree with what you say - there's a need for constructive criticism too. I guess I could have prefaced my post with all my positive thoughts about the site rather than assume people would read everyone elses and see that I was trying to balance the books.
BTW, I wish the damn schools wouldn't close for so long - it's forcing parents to take time off work. It's nice to be an employee but it's not for employers beyond the day 1 snowball throwing episode
Thanks for contributing to the debate - it's very very cool to attract people like you and Emma to my blog. I wonder if any blogger has considered putting on a networking event specifically for the community of people who contribute to their blog.
February 3rd, 2009
Emma is the cool one. I am the old and haggard one
February 3rd, 2009
Tom - after a few beers you start to look attractive to me.
February 3rd, 2009
*Laughing* a lot…
February 3rd, 2009
Very badly done also badly coded. Data digging is done by via a search - it could not find none of the searches I made.
Is someone seeking publicity or what?
February 4th, 2009
Hi Paul,
I think this is quite an important site, because it begins a culture shift within government web communities. Here they are responding to an immediate problem and getting their heads around how to present live and changing data (including thinking about how it can be updated) to provide an online resource that is immediately useful for people.
Certainly it is not right - and they don't claim that. But the muscles of rapid development and instant response need exercising before they can be fit. That's what's happening here.
Rising to a challenge is a great attitude to have amongst civil servants - who often prefer to sideline such things. So Directgov may not yet be as talented as mysociety in putting together an effective and fast mashup, but wouldn't you like it if they were?
February 4th, 2009
The dilemma of any start-up regardless of 'weather' it is government or a home-based initiative is relevance.
An initiative like this requires organic growth, an inside out approach.
If they intended to provided a list of the schools and contact details then fine, however they choose to look at this as an initiative that would allow and require 'interaction'; this is then only as good as the people who buy into it. For this case it would be the parents of the children of the school(s) and the teachers.
it will not make any sense if
a) you can not get hold of the teachers for feedback.
b) neither the governors.
c) nor parents know of this initiative.
Just to put up a sign saying 'we are open' does not invigorate,since schools will have an obligation to inform all parents of opening dates anyway and parents an obligation to make sure children attend when opened to ensure children meet the maximum attendance.
personally I do not believe practicality has been considered. I working closely with council and government I am fully aware of the ability to waste time, money and resource.
February 4th, 2009
I agree.
February 4th, 2009
I also agree with this point. Both this and Nick's are valid.
February 4th, 2009
Hey look, it is a start, a step that was far greater than you can ever imagine to take. Personal risk, simmering civil service risk aversion set aside, everything was ignored to prove that something can be done quickly - that was the point. Could it have been done better? Probably. I don't know am not a coder, (we will see what happens hopefully at Rewired State).
It is a case of damned if you do and damned if you don't - but it happened, and it is developing right now, and maybe in a week or two it will work well. To my mind this can only be a good thing, if only to show that something CAN be done, it might not be the right thing nor the most necessary, but it is proof that the public sector can move quickly. THIS is the point - and this is what should be applauded.
Anyone who has worked in this space is right now gathering their jaw off the floor that something was created in 24/28 (whatever) hours.
Who cares if this works, it is an innovation site and is designed to prove and test stuff that can be done. That is the point and that is what we should all be beginning to sit up and take notice of: the potential is extraordinary.
Rant over
February 4th, 2009
I'm delighted that the government innovated like this.
If government can't innovate like this - and get things wrong semi-publicly - then it ends up in public sector risk aversion, expensive procurement contracts and late delivery. Launching a site which cost almost nothing, demonstrates proof of concept and teaches everyone a few lessons is infinitely preferable.
February 5th, 2009
Hi Paul,
In answer to your question Both!
The MP in question is seeking publicity in sensationalist remarks
They have been noted well.
Ok first of all ask the right questions.
Not the ones MPs ask.
In a time where budget constraints are extremely tight you will forgive this citizen feeling really let down by an MP and this little sensationalist project for several reasons.
1. This Citizen knows that in a time where it’s hard to find budget for the continued upkeep and updating / upgrading of services that any transfer of funds away from services by this little sensationalist project/ projects actually over time effects the other services.
To Note:
Your costings will increase dramatically in labor and in architecture as all schools hit the service to update their information – and as all parents, pupils hit the service. Load Testing.. You were thinking of testing it.
***
The minister is uninformed. Consider the minister now informed.
***
2. In a time when the IT policy by IT professionals is to make Data available via web services and that the convergence strategy of government is to reduce drastically the number of websites and not increase the number - this little sensationalist project is at variance to that directive.
That directive being lets save money - make citizen services more efficient and the collection of data for that service more efficient i.e. one place to update. (less websites not more)
***
The minister is uninformed. Consider the minister now informed.
***
3. Why is the channel already open to schools (all of them) to update their information not being asked to add this as another function? There is one already in existence.
***
The minister is uninformed. Consider the minister now informed.
***
Is there anything technically in place already?
Yes
A system that has one point of access for all schools.
Yes
A system that works within established protocols of a Government Department.
Yes
Is the closed school due to bad weather a new function?
Yes
Should we scope that development properly?
Yes.
I suggest DG seek out more information..
What are we actually seeing here?
The fragmentation of an organisation; Directgov, as different parts of itself try to out do others. They are supposed to propose solutions to the teams involved with delivery of services.
Who asked for the development of this project and who implemented it at Directgov?
“The innovations team”
Did you map your data sources? Looks like you missed one!!
Still you did take two days to do it…. ahhh Bless
The new slogan
———————-
Directgov - “Cheap and cheerful services - we do it quicker than anyone else can as long as no one looks too deeply into it and anyway we're Directgov! hoorah!!”
Directgov have proved that they don't actually work with Departments
They don't know what is there and what is in development within Government IT
Their out on their own doing their own thing … oh dear! oh deary deary dear. Blue sky !! Lets Blog it up !
Its amazing (in a zombie voice..)
February 6th, 2009