Among the many interesting points of view and commentaries spoken today at WordCamp UK came some attention-grabbing news from Simon Dickson in his presentation about blogging and developments in government.
The official website for 10 Downing Street is about to be relaunched, and it will be based on WordPress.
Not much information available yet on the thinking behind why launch the site on WordPress, but Simon does offer some reasons in his post, including:
[…] If it feels a bit bloggy, there are a couple of good reasons for that. In part, it’s a recognition of the role now played by blogs in national political life. The political anoraks who are likely to visit a Downing Street site are probably spending the rest of their time on the political blogs, so it makes sense to adopt the same presentation methods. And yes, as you’ve probably guessed, the underlying technology is WordPress.
If it also means implementing the major elements of blogs that engage with people – comments and trackbacks, for instance – it could turn the official online presence of the British Prime Minister into a place for direct dialogue with the online public.
What an idea!
9 responses to “New 10 Downing Street site runs WordPress”
Downing Street sneaks out new site images via Flickr…
The digital comms team at No 10 Downing Street are currently on fire doing all the right things in the online space. Not only have they started using Twitter in a way that should be a case study for other…
Sneaky snaps of new Downing Street website on Flickr…
The digital comms team at No 10 Downing Street are currently on fire doing all the right things in the online space. Not only have they started using Twitter in a way that should be a case study for other…
[…] New 10 Downing Street site runs WordPress > Neville Hobson Number 10 is apparently attempting to mirror the familiar look and feel of political blog sites. […]
10 Downing Street http://tinyurl.com/685jdn runs on WordPress — appearently
[…] built in WordPress (open source blogging software). I found out about the PM’s new site from a blog; and you can see screenshots of the beta on the prime minister’s Flickr page; or you can hear and […]
[…] New 10 Downing Street site runs WordPress […]
Using WordPress is a good thing, using WordPress with shoddy code and launching such a presitgious website as a “Beta” is another. Given the reported 6 figure budget there is no excuse for this.
http://www.webswonder.co.uk/wordpress-release-10-downing-street
[…] Dickson on the new site, courtesy of Neville Hobson: “If it feels a bit bloggy, there are a couple of good reasons for that. In part, it’s a […]
[…] Dickson on the new site, courtesy of Neville Hobson: “If it feels a bit bloggy, there are a couple of good reasons for that. In part, it’s a […]