Whitehall Webby - digital media in government

Went to an interesting session today, where GCN and the Henley Centre were presenting their second report on media and communication trends. You may remember the first iteration of this research did the rounds around government about 18 months ago.

My recollection of the first report was that it was full of fascinating stuff but there was so much to take in it was almost impossible to know where to start. This time it was different - slicker, more digestible and seemingly more authoritative because it had the baseline from 18 months ago to compare against.

One clear message this time is the rise of social media and the implications of this for government. The audience, who were mainly heads of marketing or similar, were alert to this and there was some lively discussion afterwards about the implications of all this for them.

Some of the points made included: (more…)

Not perfect yet but we’re working on it. Will explain more about the site when I’ve had some sleep…

Screengrabs of our new corporate website pages building a site map on the wall of the office. Its coming together slowy but surely.

There’s always a lot going on, as you’d expect, but there are three things going on at the moment that are taking up most of my time:

A new website for a new department - my current employer effectively ceases to exist on 8 May and will be replaced by a new government department. My team and I are working furiously to build and test a new corporate website to launch on 9 May.

Website rationalisation - you may have seen this announcement a few months ago. Needless to say, it means a lot of work for the likes of me.

Social media review - helping the Cabinet Office to understand government’s role and legitimacy in this space. Interesting work and a chance to actually spend time and talk with experts whose work I find interesting but never normally have time to follow up. I’ll write more about this shortly.