In a series of articles on government websites, Gerry McGovern (on the Giraffe Forum blog) gives a good overview of the difficult path to the creation of a successful citizen-centric site. The argument is developed by looking at a good example, some typical pitfalls in the way content is written and organized, and at the insights provided by government web professionals about their own websites (the study was conducted in Canada, UK, New Zealand and the US). By looking at the evolution of the paradigmatic Salford City Council website, the conclusion is that the process may be painful, but progress is inevitable.

 Recent news are that the €45.000.000-worth Italia.it portal is probably going to be closed by the Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli. Soon after its evidently unsuccessful launch (last February), the RItalia alternative project was spontaneously born out of indignation for the poor quality of the costly portal: it did not get an official endorsement, and this probably caused it to lose momentum and go into sleeping mode. A lost occasion for the official stakeholders, I daresay. I just hope that all the lessons that have been learnt in the process will not be wasted: simply closing it down (and chasing the culprit for the waste of money) won’t heal the situation, while having a fresh start and redefining the approach may do.

[For a detailed history of the RItalia initiative, read Robin Good’s report here.]