A quick check-up on e-government’s response times, as of 3.45pm on Friday afternoon:
- Full marks to DTI, the Ministry of Defence and my current employer, DfES for having full biographies and photos of their new secretaries of state on their respective sites.
- Home Office has a story on its front page about John Reid’s appointment, and whilst the ‘organisation‘ page has purged all mention of Charles Clarke, there’s no biography of Dr Reid as yet.
- Transport has (just about) got Douglas Alexander‘s name on their pages, but that’s yer lot.
- DEFRA hasn’t yet removed Margaret Beckett’s name… and the FCO hasn’t yet added her, either. Has she definitely moved?
- As for the Office for the Deputy Prime Minister… well, that one’s going to be tricky. I notice that a newly written description of the Office’s structure has been tactically removed from the homepage since this morning. The list of ministers now includes John Prescott’s name among the ‘former ministers’ – and whilst the page ‘is being updated’, it doesn’t yet feature Ruth Kelly.
Special mention to DEFRA’s new man, David Miliband – who posted a farewell message on his ODPM-hosted ministerial blog at lunchtime. His status as Britain’s only blogging minister is apparently on hold: ‘I’m very much hoping this won’t be the end of my presence on the blogosphere…please keep an eye out.’
And at 19:17 the new blog was up and running – although at the moment it looks like it is being re-directed to DEFRA from ODPM.
And at 19:17 the new blog was up and running – although at the moment it looks like it is being re-directed to DEFRA from ODPM.
http://www.davidmiliband.defra.gov.uk/
Yes… looks like a simple DNS tweak to point davidmiliband.defra.gov.uk to the original ODPM address. An important gesture, though… and it’s sparking thoughts in my mind about the power of the individual vs the power of the big bureaucracy.