Highlights - this week marks 6 months of GOV.UK, with some great statistics including 187 million visits to the site and 546 million page views since launch. We were really pleased this week to be chosen by the Design Museum as their Design of the Year 2013 - not just for the team in GDS, but for all the departments who've been supporting work on GOV.UK. The Digital by Default Service Manual was also launched this week; we'd love your feedback - get in touch through the site. And another big departmental move to Inside Government, with DWP's corporate content coming over.
Next week sees two more departments moving over: Treasury and Education, and we're also holding the monthly meeting of departmental Digital Leaders. On the agenda are a presentation from Tim Brooks, from our Digital Advisory Board, and a look at training for service managers. We've also got some international visitors, including ministers from Indonesia and South Africa.
(Full transcript below)
What have we been up to at GDS this week?
Well this week we had 6 months of GOV.UK having gone live. We had some great statistics. There were 187 million visits to the site; huge numbers and of that, 546 million page views. It is fantastic that so many people are accessing the site.
What has been even more fantastic this week is that the Design Museum kindly chose us to be their ‘Design of the Year’. We were against some fantastic competition, not just in the digital space, but also things like the Shard and the Olympic Cauldron, so we were thrilled to receive that. Not just for people here in GDS, but actually for all the people in departments who have supported us, not just over the last 6 months, but for years now, in building GOV.UK. So great credit to everybody for that.
The other thing that we have built, again with lots of input from many people across Government, was released on Tuesday and that was our Digital By Default Service Manual. That was a commitment in the Government Digital Strategy and that has now gone live, as Version 1. We would really welcome people’s feedback and there are links on the site to do that, so please do get in touch.
On Wednesday, we had our next move onto the Inside Government bit of GOV.UK. So DWP [the Department for Work & Pensions] moved over to become the next department, and again great thanks to Liz Curbison and Kevin Adams who did so much work in DWP to make that happen.
That sounds like a busy week. What do we have coming up next week?
Well some more departments moving onto GOV.UK, so next week we have the Treasury and the Department for Education. We are looking forward to welcoming them; lots of work going on behind the scenes to make that a seamless and smooth transition.
We have also got our next Digital Leaders Monthly Meeting. Two of the things to flag on there; the first one is our regular presentation from a member of the Digital Advisory Board. We have got Tim Brooks coming on Wednesday, which will be fantastic.
We are also considering a paper about training for service managers. Again, having service managers for each service is a commitment in the Government Digital Strategy. This is about how we are actually going to start their induction training. Digital leaders will consider, and make sure we have got everything we need in that training package.
We have also got lots of international visitors next week. This week, looking back, we had the Deputy Chief Secretary from St Helena who came over and spoke to us. Next week, we have got the whole of the Open Government Partnership, so countries from across the world who are coming to visit us in London and share their experiences. Particularly we have got some ministers from Indonesia and South Africa who will be coming into GOV.UK to find out more about what we are doing and also share their learnings. So we are really looking forward to that.
