
The UK government's Github - lutfidemirci
https://github.com/alphagov/
======
TazeTSchnitzel
No, the _Government Digital Service_ (<http://digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/>)
GitHub account.

They're building a new, single Government website, currently in beta at
<http://www.gov.uk>, to replace the current <http://direct.gov.uk> and other
government websites.

~~~
jamiecurle
From a presentation I caught earlier this year they're planning to start
rolling this out later on in the year. The approach they've taken is very
refreshing on eye and quite joyful to use - the new vat rate page[0] compared
to a current vat rate page[1] is a nice example.

Also, it's been featured here before, but it's worth adding that I love how
visible they've made their design principles[2].

[0]: <https://www.gov.uk/vat-rates>

[1]:
[http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/Taxes/Beginn...](http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/Taxes/BeginnersGuideToTax/VAT/DG_190918)

[2]: <https://www.gov.uk/designprinciples>

~~~
kierank
It only looks refreshing because it lacks detail. Anyway this whole project is
blatantly political. Directgov was a product of the last government so why not
spend money making a new one and show how we've made all government services
go online in a web2.0 fashion when we could fix the current one.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
>It only looks refreshing because it lacks detail.

It doesn't lack detail. It just lacks unnecessary detail.

>why not spend money making a new one and show how we've made all government
services go online in a web2.0 fashion

Uhm, gov.uk is a response to a report suggesting "Revolution not Evolution",
among other things. It is not being done because the government wants to leave
its mark, it's because Directgov is horrible.

[http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-
library/directgov-2...](http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-
library/directgov-2010-and-beyond-revolution-not-evolution)

~~~
sequence7
I'd like to agree with you but nope it clearly does lack detail, looking at
that page I've a few instant questions

* If I'm a business how do I get my VAT right?

* What goods/services are VAT exempt

Now they're a little specific because I deal with VAT regularly but the fact
that the VAT rate is 20% is easy to show and it's a headline piece of
information. However tax and everything else involving government is always
complicated and presenting it simply is incredibly difficult. The questions
that a user landing on that page will want answering are diverse and as much
as I'd like it to be as simple as showing a simple table with some data I
doubt whether that's going to answer the question the average user has. The
current directgov page is full of links to and information that might help,
the new snazzy page - nope nothing.

I don't think this is purely political I honestly believe there are people
trying to make government sites more simple but I also don't think just
throwing away whatever information _you_ don't need is not particularly
helpful. The reason most gov websites are hugely complicated/confusing is
because gov is hugely confusing/complicated and while I applaud any effort to
simplify the presentation simply dropping a bunch of information and claiming
you've solved the problem doesn't cut it.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
There's more than one search result for 'VAT', that's just the quick answer,
although you're right it's a little lacking in links to more info. But in
which case, submit feedback.

------
philipashlock
There's also the US Government's Github including the White House:

* White House: <https://github.com/WhiteHouse>

* Other Federal Agencies: <http://gsa.github.com/federal-open-source-repos/>

Some state and local ones are listed at:

* <http://wiki.civiccommons.org/Public_Software_Repositories>

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eckyptang
Now I'm not bashing anything by this comment, but I'm surprised they built it
in Ruby/Rails.

It doesn't really match the traditional integration paths that they're going
to have to deal with across direct.gov.uk and I'm genuinely not sure it'll
scale up that high if they are pushing people down that route.

We all know what happens once a year when we have to do our tax returns and
that's all on a huge Java EE cluster apparently.

~~~
smcl
Is it not the intention to replace directgov, rather than integrate with it?

~~~
eckyptang
Yes. I am considering the integrations which are going to have to be moved
from direct.gov.uk to their new Rails platform.

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lifeisstillgood
I am utterly utterly overjoyed seeing this, even with caveats.

Government has been described as the engine of a lawn mower and the brakes of
a Rolls-Royce - so it's good to see the brakes off for a while.

I do worry about those brakes though. In the design principles they
disparagingly refer to an article on beekeeping as not a core focus for
government (you did not know Ron Paul was a RoR guy did you?).

But beekeeping is on the live site because it represents a constituency of the
live governemnt. Although they are under the cabinet office and so
theoretically able to say no, I think hoping you can slim down government
through web design is a bit - optimistic.

Dirctgov started off as optimistic as these guys - and what is not on github
is the decision making process - when their mailing list is world readable as
well as their code then we shall have open government

till then, the beekeeping lobby will have it's way - eventually.

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DrJokepu
I wonder what the legal background of this is. My understanding that every
work created by the UK government is protected by crown copyright which is
only waived in certain very specific cases (and this is not listed amongst
those). Can anything under crown copyright really be considered open source?

(It doesn't say anywhere that it is, by the way, although there is a BSD-style
license).

~~~
grabeh
As you suggest, I would imagine crown copyright still applies but is simplu
being licensed out.

Pwrhaps ironically, the existing direct gov page has information on permitted
uses of crown copyright materials.

<http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/SiteInformation/DG_020460>

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sylvinus
How much of it is UK-specific? It would be interesting to have other countries
forking these tools ;-)

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Daviey
I was really excited to see this.. then saw that most of it was in Ruby.
Sad4us.

~~~
AlexMuir
At least you were able to see what it was in. That alone in a massive step
forward. And I don't see any problem with Ruby - at least it isn't some
proprietary Accenture framework.

