Government Information: Introducing the Beta of Gov.uk
From the UK’s Office of Government Digital Services:
A few minutes ago we released the first phase of the beta test of GOV.UK – the next step on the journey towards a single domain for central government. As Mike Bracken, HMG Executive Director for Digital said, our aim is to deliver simpler, clearer, faster services for users and savings and innovation for Government.
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The beta of single domain was given the go-ahead in August 2011. There are three phases:
- Public beta test of the site delivering the mainstream, citizen-facing aspects of GOV.UK.
- Private beta test of a shared GOV.UK ‘corporate’ publishing platform, aimed at replacing most of the activity currently hosted on numerous departmental publishing environments.
- A first draft of a GOV.UK ‘Global Experience Language’, to provide clear, consistent design, user-experience and brand clarity for those developing sites for the single GOV.UK domain. (see BBC.co.uk/gel for an example).
Today we have released the first phase. The second is on track to be released in a few weeks, with the third set fair for the end of March.
Read the Complete Blog Post
Take a Tour of the Beta Release
See Also: Gov.uk launches official single Government website beta (via The Telegraph)
Filed under: News, Patrons and Users, Publishing

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.