Building the perfect council web site

On the 14th of July Abacus was at the Building Perfect Council Websites event held at Olympia. Thank you to all of you that came to see us!

This annual event - which is supported by SOCITM and e-government bulletin, focused on the latest ways to create easy to use, compelling and engaging web sites.

Abacus e-Media exhibited at this year’s event where we unveiled Webstructure.NET, the new version of our flagship CMS for the public sector.

We also held two round table discussions, one of which was in partnership with Peter Barton from Lincolnshire County Council.

These were the two discussion topics at Abacus’s round table:

Web platforms and content management systems: opportunities to exploit developments from the media sector? Stephen Cave, Director, Abacus e-Media
In addition to working with the public sector, Abacus e-Media is the market leading provider of content management systems to UK business to business publishing companies. These include United Business Media, EMAP, Macmillan and Thomson Reuters. A core theme - particularly at the moment - amongst media owners is how the platform can provide maximum flexibility to allow them to make speedy changes to their websites without incurring development costs. This round table discussion will look at how the public sector can capitalise on and exploit the flexibilities demanded by the media sector, what benefits could be achieved and how these changes can be realised at minimum cost.

Driving down total cost of ownership:  the regional partnership approach
Peter Barton, Head of Web & Information Governance, Lincolnshire County Council/Stephen Cave, Director, Abacus e-Media
Lincolnshire County Council is working with Abacus e-Media on an innovative project which will make the functionality of the Council's main website available to its partners - at greatly reduced cost. The Council's partners will be able to benefit from powerful, flexible web sites which would normally be completely out of the reach of these smaller organisations. This round table discussion, led by Peter Barton who is the driving force behind the project, will look at the issues involved, the hurdles to be overcome and the benefits which can be realised by all parties. Abacus e-Media will discuss the architecture of the solution which is not only capable of driving multiple sites - as required by Lincolnshire - but which can also deliver individually-branded sites for its partners.

The round table discussions were a great success with lively discussions and interesting issues being raised.

Here is Peter Barton’s blog with his thoughts on the event and the talks that were given:
http://uklgweb.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/the-age-of-the-git-citizen/

Also see our pictures from the day:
http://twitpic.com/25hhmr

Thanks again to all those who came, we hope to see you again next year!