UK government tests radical new alpha.gov.uk site
The British government is stress-testing a new search-driven website that makes it easier for people to find the answers to common problems such as Should I register for VAT, How much is the minimum wage, and Where can I use my buss pass. The site has been built in only three months by a small agile team in the Cabinet Office. It's a demonstrator -- it's not meant to be permanent -- and it's not replacing any other websites. However, it could provide a "proof of concept" for a single UK government public service site.
The site at alpha.gov.uk was developed in response to the Race Online 2012 challenge issued by the government's "digital champion", Martha Lane Fox. The basic idea is that costs could be reduced if (almost) everyone was online, and if citizens found it easy to get the information they need. She commissioned a report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PDF) to assess the economic impact.
According to PWC's estimates, getting people on line could save the government £560 per household per year.
Instead of hundreds of pages of nested documents, the site is dominated by a large search box that says "I'm looking for….", and provides suggestions based on what you type in. You never have to ask yourself which government department handles, for example, National Insurance contributions or provides copies of marriage certificates. It's location-aware so it helps if you enter your Post Code. Much of the information "is available for reuse under the Open Government Licence."
The Alpha.gov team is being run by Tom Loosemore, who describes himself on the site's blog as: "Ex-Wired, BBC, UpMyStreet, mySociety, Channel 4 etc. I am now Deputy Director, Single Government Website, Cabinet Office. So if anything's wrong with this alpha, it's my fault."
Government sites are typically hard to use, because there are so many of them, because they are so badly integrated, and because they are rarely written and laid out to be accessible. Hundreds of departments and government bodies have their own sites and much of the content may be based on pre-existing leaflets and manuals, which don't work well online. A single "life event" -- such as a death in the family, or moving house -- can involve citizens in dealing with half a dozen sites, all with different aims and designs.
The site's About page says:
"What Alpha.gov.uk does do is trial a selection of new, simple, reusable tools aimed at meeting some of the most prevalent needs people have from government online. The aim is to gather feedback on these new approaches from real people early in the process of building a new single website for central government.
In a parallel business-oriented effort, the Cabinet Office has also launched a Red Tape Challenge. This site will publish all the regulations that govern particular industries (hospitality, road transport, health and safety etc) so that visitors can tell the government "what’s working and what’s NOT, what can be simplified and what can be scrapped".
AlphaGov's friendly 503 page [corrected from 404]