[LINK] MMV - Equivalent in other states?

[Tom Worthington]

At 4/20/2004 09:07 AM, Chirgwin, Richard wrote:
>... Victoria's "online government" stuff has become harder and harder to 
>navigate. ...

Yes, but I still get the sense that there are people in Victoria who 
understand what they are doing and care about it, whereas some other states 
are just tipping content into a content management system (like tipping 
garbage into a compactor).

Even so, finding government information on-line is still much easier than 
the days of paper reports.

>... Hobson's choice:- try to find a hierarchical organisation that makes 
>sense ... or - skip the hierarchy and drive it with search engines and 
>indexes ...

The answer seems simple: do all of the above. It makes sense to have the 
organization put the information in a hierarchy they are happy with. Others 
can cross reference it in topic based lists and specialised search engines. 
However, it might be better to restructure the organization to match the 
customers needs.

In looking at the pile of NOIE generated reports outside the recent 
e-governance conference in Melbourne, it occurred to me that it would not 
be difficult to structure all government reports in a uniform way. Each 
report could still be printed and have its own look and feel, but the 
content could also be sliced and diced by web systems to provide efficient 
custom versions. As a byproduct this would save millions of dollars in 
preparation and distribution. More on how to do this at Open Publish 2004 
in Sydney, where myself and colleagues will be reporting on a system for 
ACS journals.



Tom Worthington FACS tom.worthington at 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
Visiting Fellow, Computer Science, Australian National University
Publications Director, Australian Computer Society