[LINK] Fwd: New Ministerial Media Release

[Tom Worthington]

At 12:11  4/03/02, Chirgwin, Richard wrote:
>Can I ask a dumb question about australia.gov.au - why? Didn't we already 
>have a fed.gov.au? Wasn't that supposed to be a single entry point thingy? ...

If I was being paid by the government to answer,then I would say that 
australia.gov.au is as an inclusive entry point for the nation. fed.gov.au 
provides more detailed information on Federal (national) government 
matters, with details of individual government agencies.

As I am not being paid by the Government at the moment, then the cynical 
answer is that there are few points to be scored in the dreary and 
difficult business of maintaining an existing information service. It is 
much easier to invent a new single entry point. This will create an 
unmanageable mess, but that will be someone else's problem as the initiator 
will have collected the kudos and moved on before that happens.

If that sounds too cynical, I have direct experience of when one agency 
decided to create a whole-of-government entry point and plagiarised 
material. This was deliberate, premeditated and there was no apology from 
the agency.



Tom Worthington FACS tom.worthington@tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd ABN: 17 088 714 309
http://www.tomw.net.au PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617
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