Here's Alan, apparently advocating that government rips off UpMyStreet
"The killer applications for online government... three, a single place where you type your post code and everything you need to know about anything that concerns you and the area is displayed - this is a combination of what upmystreet did so well, the ONS Neighbourhood statistics site I talked about the other day, your local authority site (for information on when rubbish is collected, what your local schools are up to) and other sites (like Hometrack or the Environment Agency's flood warning site)."
It's not a combination of what UpMyStreet did so well with some other stuff, it is exactly what UpMyStreet did, or would have done, or does, if
a) the government had been remotely co-operative in providing usable information, or dealing with us in a timely, decent, manner. (more on that later)
b) We hadn't been too busy trying to stay alive (more on that later)
I've read the press release ( it's here, somewhere) that ONS put out regarding Neighbourhood Statistics. It reads exactly like Upmystreet's used to, except they have to say "Down your way" instead of Upmystreet. I've also heard that the Home Office is planning an Upmystreet rip off site too. I'm also old enough to remember the day Tony Blair announced UKOnline, where 'people would be able to access all their local information, accessible by [you guessed it!] postcode.
Answer me this:
- Will the various government departments creating these sites agree to provide the data to external parties in a timely, helpful, manner?
- How will you ensure a level playing field, given the huge financial clout of government itself, not least in that whenever ONS put out a press release they get many column inches of news coverage
Or it's all fishing licences over again, isn't it?
(actually, I'm not so worried, because government's build-sites-by-committee approach will never produce a site that captures the imagination)
Oh yeah, and I glad to see you've finally cottoned on to the problems with the government's domain naming. I'll give you the answer for free: alias them all, so that ordinary users can find them. Peasy. just do parliament.gov.uk while you're at it.
Ooh. I seem to have my anger back.