Broadcasts

Weekly Broadcast Thursday 25 August 2011

Future plans for Better connected 2012

Socitm Insight announces important changes in the way in which council websites will be assessed for the Better connected 2012 report.

These changes reflect the way in which Socitm Insight believes that council websites should be evolving to meet the needs of their existing online customers and encourage more people to shift to the web channel.

The changes embrace the concept of top tasks. The 2012 survey will focus on top tasks and the accessibility assessment by RNIB will change in line with this. Visit Socitm.net for further information about the detail of the changes.

We are holding an event in London on 15 September to provide more background on the changes and reasons why we have made them. Internationally renowned champion of  web content, Gerry McGovern, will lead the event with a key note presentation on the importance of top tasks. There will also be an opportunity to hear about the practical experiences of those who have already adopted the top tasks concept and to discuss details of the changes in workshops.

Weekly Broadcast Thursday 18 August 2011

New open public services white paper...

Socitm invites your comments on the Open Public Services white paper

The Open Public Services White Paper sets out how the Government intends to improve public services by putting choice and control in the hands of individuals and neighbourhoods, encouraging public services to become more responsive to peoples' needs. Five broad principles are set out in the paper for modernising public services:

• increasing choice
• decentralising power
• making public service provision open to a range of providers
• ensuring fair access to public services
• making public services accountable to users and taxpayers

Socitm will be responding to the consultation in September and invites members to offer their questions comments now, via the Socitm blog.

Weekly Broadcast Thursday 11 August 2011

Cookie management service - initial audit available shortly

Headline results from an initial audit of all local authority sites undertaken for Socitm Insight's new Cookie management service will be available within the next fortnight.

The headline results will show the number cookies found on each council's main website.

Socitm Insight will be sending the headline results of the audit to all local authorities. Recipients will then be invited to sign up for the Cookie management service, which will deliver a report on all cookies found on their individual website, with the locations, as well as a 'plain English' guide to managing cookies.

Mailing of the headline report and availability of the paid for items is slightly later than the 31 July date advertised earlier, for which apologies.

The Cookie management service has been developed to help public sector website owners to deal with the implication of the EU 'cookie' directive effective from 26 May 2011.  Read more about it at www.socitm.net/cookies

Weekly Broadcast Thursday 4 August 2011

All about your web team - and everyone else's

Socitm Insight is supporting an initiative by Ian Watt, Aberdeen City's e-government manager, to investigate the size, shape and governance of local authority web teams across the UK.

Through our work with web managers, Socitm Insight is aware of the huge diversity in the make up of local authority web teams, in terms of numbers and skills employed, whether centralized or dispersed, number of sites responsible for, where the team is located (ie comms/customer services/IT), etc.

It would be really helpful to share information on these issues, (not least to support business cases for resources!) so please complete Ian's questionnaire by August 12. Results will be shared in the Web Improvement and Usage Community.

If your access to the Google spreadsheet is blocked at work, we have put up an Excel version on the Socitm website.