How

Department Faculty

Each department, and there will be nine of them, is going to have its own crew of leaders, advisors, partners and advocates. This team is the "Department Faculty."

The Faculty will be the steering committee for the courses it is to offer and maintain.

Voting is a pivital role in the process for the faculty members.

Critical Mass

The nine departments each with nine distinct courses should allow for a critical mass of activity and make for a sustainable operation.

MATHER'S LAWS DECRY MATCHSTICK TOWERS

The government is in danger of reproducing its over- compartmentalised, department-based structure on the web, according a leading architects of web policy, Alan Mather.

The government's methods resembled "lots of matchstick Eiffel towers dotted around - they look lovely but they aren't actually doing much: No sign of critical mass, no common design, limited transactions and no customer focus.

He unveiled 'Mather's laws' of e-government which included "the number of technical solutions implemented by departments to solve identical problems quadruples every twelve months", and "80 per cent of the money spent on e-government to date has been spent on things the customer never sees".

The way forward is for convergence across government on common systems and applications, with departments co- operating to solve problems. There was also a need for a far greater number of compelling, citizen-focused services to drive take-up, although "there is probably no single 'critical app' - you need more clusters or packages of useful, transactional services, perhaps with private services too". The presentation.

CLOH.Org's efforts is a convergence the corsses common systems and applications. The departments at CLOH.Org are formed to solve problems. This is a citzen-focused service that can drive to the edge and be the trailblazers, with the hub as the clearing house.

SOCIAL HOUSING

The internet could increase social exclusion. But some social housing tenants are defying such predictions by using the web to arrange house exchanges and gain significant social benefits.

Informal networks of enthusiastic amateurs can lead. Most internet-initiated exchanges arise from bulletin boards and chat rooms run by unpaid volunteers.

In the UK, the internet is being used to organize complex exchange chains with public housing tennant. These services are grass-roots efforts.

Meanwhile, the government's answer to these voluntary initiatives is a 'HomeSwap' register of would-be exchange partners. But, the precise number of successful exchanges initiated through the official government sponsored web site seems to be less than with the other, volunteer site. Users of the volunteer site are rather more forthcoming with their success stories, perhaps because as a mark of gratitude to the site's volunteers.

Unlike the Council Exchange, the official/government site has no plans for a chat room or bulletin board.

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