Comments on: Number 10’s new site misses the 2.0 mark

By: Number 10 website highlights what is social, and what is not | Completetosh.com, by Neil McIntosh

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:14:06 +0000

[...] My comments yesterday about the new Number 10 site provoked a variety of responses. [...]

By: 10 Downing Street Website on WordPress | The Rouseabout

10 Downing Street Website on WordPress | The Rouseabout — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 19:27:33 +0000

[...] head of editorial development for guardian.co.uk has laid into the site on his personal site here: http://www.completetosh.com/we.....r_10_site/ Share and [...]

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:06:25 +0000

Taking a rack-bought wordpress theme – Networker1.0, I believe – and sprinkling rounded corners and mismatched fonts all over it is certainly one way of making a site. What bothers me is the mismatch between what they have to play with, viz a distinctly non-interactive, non-webby PM, and the choices they made. It’s as if they were out to impress an audience solely consisting of slightly-out-date social media consultants. I mean: Flickr and YouTube logos on the frontpage? Twitter? Digg? For the Prime Minister? Did they lose their dignity along with the cross-browser testing?

Gravitas, dear boy, we need more gravitas.

By: Craig McGill

Craig McGill — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:27:05 +0000

Modesty forbids I name the multinational giant that I was recently involved in helping set up a website for and I was all web2.0 for parts of their site (as it had a role to play) and not only did it get to the stage where they made the flick site private (along with nearly every permission turned off), they did the same for the blog parts of the website because they:

a) didn’t want nasty comments
b) didn’t want bad publicity from nasty comments
c) have someone monitoring the site on a regular basis
d) have to come up with responses to the aforementioned nasty comments
e) be seen to not be in control of the website

(all matters, incidentally, from a PR point of view that are easily solved)

By: onionbagblogger

onionbagblogger — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 12:39:55 +0000

Design wise it looks a little like a school website that the PE teacher has knocked up during his lunch break.

There’s no point in doing all the social media nonsense unless you can do it properly. We’re a long way off from truly interactive government in the UK. Plus I doubt if any politician in government, from any political party, truly wants to open up to all the potential 2.0 pitfalls that transparency brings.

I don’t think the electorate want a social media savvy PM anyway – they want a PM who can govern. Not really my thing… but the Monarch’s website reeks of authority, as it should be. I don’t want the Queen (or Gordon) as my Facebook friend, thank you very much!

By: Daniel Bennett

Daniel Bennett — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:20:01 +0000

I like the last paragraph here. It’s relevant to other people, organisations and companies that merely pay lip service to Web 2.0, without investing in it properly. As you suggest, interactivity is not a magic wand – it’s darn hard work.

By: Better plumbing at No. 10 « Perfect Path

Better plumbing at No. 10 « Perfect Path — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 08:38:18 +0000

[...] from the Prime Minister’s Office has begun. Neil McIntosh just popped up in my feed reader tearing it apart for limiting conversation and some poor planning/research around the branding of the video channel. And then Tosh minor [...]

By: And

And — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 07:51:39 +0000

I agree that this is pretty hollow. If they can live up to the social stuff they have peppered on the site then it could be interesting.

Hmmm.Hollow to interesting…not a great cheer that is it