government

This page is under construction. We'll shortly be pointing to Australian and overseas government electronic publishing standards, initiatives and studies.

In Australia the Commonwealth government has recently abandoned  its ambitious Information Management Website (IMW), intended as a major resource for electronic recordkeeping and publishing within the bureaucracy. 

The AusInfo Guidelines for publication of information in electronic formats are still online, along with the National Office for the Information Economy's Guide to Minimum Website Standards, a Commonwealth Agency Website & Internet System Security Checklist (PDF) and Best Practice Website notes. Less useful is the 1997 report on Management of Government Information as a National Strategic Resource.

Overseas the US Federal Government Accounting Office April 2001 86 page report (PDF) on electronic distribution of federal government publications examined the impact of providing official publications solely in an electronic format (ie via the web) and archival questions. The Government Printing Office currently provides online access to around 203 thousand documents (around 50% of government hardcopy and electronic publications) and retails around 9 thousand documents, with 12 million copies being sent to various depository libraries.

The US National Commission on Libraries & Information Science published its final report on A Comprehensive Assessment of Public Information Dissemination in April 2001. The report is available in three volumes, each of around 300 pages.

Volume 1 (PDF) offers the executive summary, report and first ten appendices. Volume 2 (PDF) deals with legislative and regulatory proposals. Volume 3 (PDF) supplies supplementary reference material.

In the United Kingdom the e-Envoy has published guidelines for UK government web sites.

The US Cyberspace Policy Research Group (CyPRG) offers assessments of government web use across the globe, with a particular emphasis on opennness and transparency.

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