Software Cooperative News

Using gov.uk websites is an ordeal at the best of time. Even the most polished websites tend to reflect the structure of the government body, which I find counter-intuitive – and I’m a councillor who pays attention to these things.

Few websites are polished though. Most don’t even seem to reach “competent”. After reports of 60% of UK government websites containing HTML errors and local government sites containing porn-links, there’s recently been reports about Birmingham City Council’s website costing nearly £3m and still not capable of basic features like apostophes. Have you got a horror story to top that?

Why does this keep happening? Good cooperatively-developed web applications and tech worker co-ops are available. I’ll be musing on this and other council-related topics over at Parish Councillor for FOSS for the next little while if you’d like to join me.