[LINK] website details gov. economic stimulus plan

[Sylvano]

So Kevin sends out a twitter telling me and others:

"KevinRuddPM Check out whats happening in your community at the new Economic 
Stimulus Plan Map http://cli.gs/MnQRh0 #KevinPM Team" 

This is an Australian Government website.
 http://www.economicstimulusplan.gov.au/

Allegedly. 

And it's crap.  

You get to read ministerial pieces, or watch a video instead. Yawn.

We get to be impressed with the interplay with Google maps on who's applied 
for insulation, which schools will eventually receive funding, etc, etc.
Big deal.  Where is the downloadable table of data?

Why do I have to go around and in and out of links to discern the picture of 
what they're doing?

Maybe this site just rubs me up the wrong way and I am biased by that.

Anyway, the navigation's wonky, with no clear 'home' button, and the 'about' 
link is not promiment, with the following:

<quote>
Today I have launched a website which will provide a one-stop shop for 
information on the Australian Government’s Economic Stimulus Plan.

Australia, like governments around the world, is responding to the worst 
economic downturn since the Great Depression. Our economic stimulus is not a 
silver bullet to the global recession – but it will help cushion Australia 
from the full impact of the global downturn.

It’s important that Australians see how their money is being spent. The 
economic stimulus plan will be delivered with full transparency.

I urge you to stay in contact with this website and monitor our progress. We 
will be updating the website regularly and will be adding new features over 
time.

Together we will get through this global downturn.
</quote>

Now what's odd is that there is no sig, but I assume it's Kevin.  But then 
maybe it's Wayne. Who knows?

Oh, and I think I have just violated the copyright/terms of use conditions, 
which state (in part):

<quote>
Republishing Material from our Website

If you wish to republish any material from the Department of the Prime 
Minister and Cabinet website on your own website you must seek written 
permission.

A key issue for the Department is accuracy of the information it publishes. If 
you publish a version of our information you must ensure that you display the 
latest version.

Requests to publish Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet content may 
require written confirmation from you that you will access our website at 
least every 30 days to ensure you are displaying the most recent version.
</quote>

Mind you, I need to have someone remind what the status of an email list 
archive is in that regard.

And what's the fuss anyway when there own disclaimer page states you can't 
trust the information anyway:

<quote>
This website is presented by the Commonwealth for the purpose of disseminating 
information free of charge for the benefit of the public.

The Commonwealth monitors the quality of the information available on this 
website and updates the information regularly. However, the Commonwealth does 
not guarantee, and accepts no legal liability whatsoever arising from or 
connected to, the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of any 
material contained on this website or on any linked site.

The Commonwealth recommends that users exercise their own skill and care with 
respect to their use of this website and that users carefully evaluate the 
accuracy, currency, completeness and relevance of the material on the website 
for their purposes. 
</quote>

The feedback box doesn't let you use the return key to space out paragraphs, 
and instead forces a submit.  Which is annoying and also not obvious at first 
because you are not taken to a thank you for your feedback page or response.  
You are left exactly where you are at the input boxes.  This makes one further 
doubtful that transmission is occuring at all.

Now while there's a coat of arms with Australian Governement in the top left 
of every page, the whole thing comes across as a straight up party political 
promotional prop.

Call me suspicious, but can anyone assure me that the "subscribe to updates" 
so prominent atop each page that also asks for postcode is only being used for 
the purposes of distributing updates.

May be I ate too much at lunch and the dispepsia is spreading to the brain.

;-)

</rant>

Sylvano	




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