Effective Content
Effective Content - Government Content and Services for a Connected World
As part of a key recommendation of the UK Government's Digital Strategy (endorsed by the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in March 2005), BERR championed a project on effective procurement of broadband content by the public sector, which was intended to help the content industry, especially SMEs, sell more effectively to government. The BERR initiative, informed by an industry perspective, focused on how a broadband-enabled approach can make a difference to public service delivery. Now that the majority of Internet connections are via broadband, this presents a great opportunity for the public sector to develop new approaches to the communication of government content and services, shaped by an industry perspective and harnessing best practice.
Why public sector bodies should be interested
The potential for cost savings by the public sector as well as better engagement with their customers using innovative, rich content is significant and the initiative aims to help change mindsets so as to enhance the way the public sector as a whole deals with businesses and the general public.
Effective Content supported the delivery of key government agendas, including:
- The Digital Strategy - focusing on digital inclusion, led by Margaret Hodge as Minister of State for Industry & the Regions at BERR, with the full support of No 10;
- Innovation - stimulating innovation in government procurement, encouraging creativity in the design and operation of e-government services;
- Transformational Government - Enabled by Technology;
- eAccessibility - How broadband can help reach the disabled community by providing new sound, animation and video-based content;
- SMEs accessing the Government market place - the content industries are characterised by large numbers of SMEs.
Available now, are the brochure , flyer and content commissioning guidelines on the initiative, which gives you an idea of what can be achieved through effective use of content.
BERR held 3 workshops, which brought public sector and private sector representatives together to draw on their experiences and share best practice in delivering content and exploiting New Media, and to produce recommendations to carry forward on this initiative. You may also wish to look at the events section for the summaries from them.
The messages from this initiative are now being incorporated into the wider Transformational Government agenda led by the Cabinet Office.
Newsletter
Effective content newsletter: April 2007 (22KB)
Effective content newsletter September 2006 (7KB)
Events
Effective Content Workshops
The Effective Content Workshops were intended to help the public sector make the most of the latest developments in rich digital media to deliver engaging services to citizens and businesses as well as help achieve best value for money. They brought public sector and private sector representatives together to draw on their experiences and share best practice in delivering content, and to produce recommendations to carry forward.
Effective Content Initiative workshop - 16.11.2006 - A comment by Angela Law, workshop chair and Director of Every Sense (15KB)
Effective content initiative workshop 16 November 2006. Transcript (35KB)
Public Sector Communications - New Directions, New Opportunities - A joint initiative by DTI and IVCA - Summary of workshop held on 6 March 2007 (868KB)
Are you making the most of the broadband revolution to deliver public services? DTI futurefocus workshop (14KB)
BERR became the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), June 2009
