An interesting snippet from the May issue of E-GOVERNMENT BULLETIN The Email
Newsletter On Electronic Government,
UK And Worldwide.
Terry Hanstock
Faculty Liaison Officer
Library & Information Services
The Nottingham Trent University
The Boots Library
Goldsmith Street
Nottingham
NG1 5LS
Direct line 0115 8482893
Fax 0115 8482286
e-mail [log in to unmask]
AS ONE PORTAL CLOSES, ANOTHER SHUTS
Two of the main current online gateways to government information, the
government-run `open.gov.uk` and 'ukstate.com' run by privatised official
publishers The Stationery Office, are about to be switched off.
On 1 July open.gov.uk will merge into the Cabinet Office's UKOnline portal
(http://www.ukonline.gov.uk). The site was created in 1994 by the then
government computer agency CCTA, which from April this year has been
subsumed into the Office of Government Commerce at the Treasury.
The service has been hugely popular, with several kinds of interactive index
to all kinds of public-sector information.
Though the relocation was described as a "planned transition" on the web
site, several open.gov.uk users have contacted E-Government Bulletin to
express concerns that the site could be downgraded.
The OGC said such worries were unnecessary because all of the site's
functionality will be maintained. But the Cabinet Office was rather more
cautious, saying that the precise practical details of the amalgamation of
open.gov.uk into UKOnline are still being discussed.
The OGC flagged up possible changes in a little-read document published
called 'The OGC alignment review' published in November 2000. The document
can be found in the publications section of the OGC site:
http://www.ogc.gov.uk
Meanwhile visitors to UKState.com, launched only last year in a fanfare of
publicity, will shortly be redirected to the Stationery Office's online
bookshop clicktso.com.
According to Julian Fagandini, the managing director of the Stationery
Office's enterprise division, the company has realised it cannot compete
with the government`s own service. But he says the Stationery Office has in
any case been involved with the UKOnline project since its inception through
a relationship with UKOnline contractor BT.
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