The UK government's Github

#1

Post by lutfidemirci » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 3:19 PM UTC

Re: The UK government's Github

#2

Post by TazeTSchnitzel » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 3:37 PM UTC

No, the Government Digital Service (http://digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/) GitHub account.

They're building a new, single Government website, currently in beta at http://www.gov.uk, to replace the current http://direct.gov.uk and other government websites.

Re: The UK government's Github

#3

Post by eckyptang » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 3:54 PM UTC

Now I'm not bashing anything by this comment, but I'm surprised they built it in Ruby/Rails.

It doesn't really match the traditional integration paths that they're going to have to deal with across direct.gov.uk and I'm genuinely not sure it'll scale up that high if they are pushing people down that route.

We all know what happens once a year when we have to do our tax returns and that's all on a huge Java EE cluster apparently.

Re: The UK government's Github

#4

Post by smcl » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 3:55 PM UTC

eckyptang wrote: post #3

Now I'm not bashing anything by this comment, but I'm surprised they built it in Ruby/Rails. It doesn't really match the traditional integration paths that they're going to have to deal with across direct.gov.uk and I'm genuinely not sure it'll scale up that high if they are pushing people down that route. We all know what happens once a year when we have to do our tax returns and that's all on a huge Java EE cluster…

Is it not the intention to replace directgov, rather than integrate with it?

Re: The UK government's Github

#5

Post by eckyptang » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 3:58 PM UTC

smcl wrote: post #4

eckyptang wrote: post #3

Now I'm not bashing anything by this comment, but I'm surprised they built it in Ruby/Rails. It doesn't really match the traditional integration paths that they're going to have to deal with across direct.gov.uk and I'm genuinely not sure it'll scale up that high if they are pushing people down that route. We all know what happens once a year when we have to do our tax returns and that's all on a huge Java EE cluster…

Is it not the intention to replace directgov, rather than integrate with it?

Yes. I am considering the integrations which are going to have to be moved from direct.gov.uk to their new Rails platform.

Re: The UK government's Github

#6

Post by jamiecurle » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 4:26 PM UTC

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #2

No, the Government Digital Service ( http://digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/ ) GitHub account. They're building a new, single Government website, currently in beta at http://www.gov.uk , to replace the current http://direct.gov.uk and other government websites.

From a presentation I caught earlier this year they're planning to start rolling this out later on in the year. The approach they've taken is very refreshing on eye and quite joyful to use - the new vat rate page[0] compared to a current vat rate page[1] is a nice example.

Also, it's been featured here before, but it's worth adding that I love how visible they've made their design principles[2].

[0]: https://www.gov.uk/vat-rates

[1]: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/Taxes/Beginn...

[2]: https://www.gov.uk/designprinciples

Re: The UK government's Github

#7

Post by justincormack » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 4:37 PM UTC

eckyptang wrote: post #3

Now I'm not bashing anything by this comment, but I'm surprised they built it in Ruby/Rails. It doesn't really match the traditional integration paths that they're going to have to deal with across direct.gov.uk and I'm genuinely not sure it'll scale up that high if they are pushing people down that route. We all know what happens once a year when we have to do our tax returns and that's all on a huge Java EE cluster…

direct.gov has been a monumental failure, which is why it is being canned (at vast cost due to contractual terms, I believe). If the "traditional integration paths" are broken they will need fixing too.

Re: The UK government's Github

#8

Post by kierank » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 5:21 PM UTC

jamiecurle wrote: post #6

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #2

No, the Government Digital Service ( http://digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/ ) GitHub account. They're building a new, single Government website, currently in beta at http://www.gov.uk , to replace the current http://direct.gov.uk and other government websites.

From a presentation I caught earlier this year they're planning to start rolling this out later on in the year. The approach they've taken is very refreshing on eye and quite joyful to use - the new vat rate page[0] compared to a current vat rate page[1] is a nice example. Also, it's been featured here before, but it's worth adding that I love how visible they've made their design principles[2]. [0]: https://www.gov.…

It only looks refreshing because it lacks detail. Anyway this whole project is blatantly political. Directgov was a product of the last government so why not spend money making a new one and show how we've made all government services go online in a web2.0 fashion when we could fix the current one.

Re: The UK government's Github

#9

Post by sylvinus » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 5:26 PM UTC

How much of it is UK-specific? It would be interesting to have other countries forking these tools ;-)

Re: The UK government's Github

#10

Post by DrJokepu » Thu, Aug 30, 2012, 5:32 PM UTC

I wonder what the legal background of this is. My understanding that every work created by the UK government is protected by crown copyright which is only waived in certain very specific cases (and this is not listed amongst those). Can anything under crown copyright really be considered open source?

(It doesn't say anywhere that it is, by the way, although there is a BSD-style license).