[LINK] MMV - Equivalent in other states?

[Chirgwin, Richard]

Jan,

You know, it would be interesting to compare MMV "now" to the excitement
when it was shiny, new, and with scope appropriate to a startup program.

MMV these days has a budget to defend (like all government departments), and
an expanding brief. As a result, IMO, Victoria's "online government" stuff
has become harder and harder to navigate.

In particular, the "single portal" approach - common to all state
governments I guess but modelled on Victoria's example - has become a
labirynth in which you can start out looking for something which should be
obvious, but find yourself being redirected to the same entry point, over
and over and over and over; where the search engines take you back to the
same starting point; and where even if you know the name of the thing you
seek, there's no guarantee you'll actually find it.

This might seem off-topic, so I'll bring it back ... we're talking about
accessibility here. Well; if you have the ten thousand programs of a
government, putting them under a single portal - because of a religious
belief that "portal is better than fragmented sites - you have a Hobson's
choice:
- try to find a hierarchical organisation that makes sense to end users
(practically impossible, because nobody ever seems to follow up site design
with usability studies); or
- skip the hierarchy and drive it with search engines and indexes (so you
end up with an index showing ten thousand individual entries, organised by
people who know where stuff is, and what it's called).

Try, for example, this exercise: how many clicks do you need from
www.vic.gov.au to find the home page of Victoria's Rural Infrastructure
Development Fund?

Richard C

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jan Whitaker [mailto:jwhit at melbpc.org.au] 
> Sent: Sunday, April 18, 2004 2:57 PM
> To: link at anu.edu.au
> Subject: [LINK] MMV - Equivalent in other states?
> 
> 
> HI, Linkers.  Does anyone know if other states, particularly 
> NSW, has an 
> equivalent office/program to MultiMedia Victoria?  Vicnet 
> like or Skillsnet 
> projects?  I'm curious where to start looking for any 
> equivalent public 
> policy efforts at the state level to overcome accessibility 
> and equity 
> issues re ICT in state government services, and particularly 
> for disabled, 
> but mainstream would be ok, too.
> 
> Thanks,
> Jan
> 
> JLWhitaker Associates
> Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
> jwhit at melbpc.org.au  --  
> http://member.melbpc.org.au/> ~jwhit/whitentr.htm
> _ __________________ _
> 
> 
> 
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