Digital Digest for 17 August 2021

I had a week off last week, spending it in Sherwood Forest with my daughter. We did lots of Robin Hood type things, as well as exploring caves, visiting castles and riding ponies. An awful lot of fun was had and fresh air ingested. I recommend it!

I also recommend John Carey’s A Little History of Poetry. Hugely informative and a great read, I actually laughed out loud at various points.

Onto the digital bits - there’s a bit of content management theme to this issue.

All you need to know about LocalGovDrupal (and pies) 🥧

LocalGovDrupal with Kate Hurr and Will Callaghan

LocalGovDrupal is an open source implementation of the classic Drupal content management system hat has been developed by councils for councils, with the help of some funding from MHCLG.

It is, by my reckoning, the best example I have seen of open source use in local government, largely because councils are contributing to the project as well as consuming it.

16 councils are now involved and conservative estimates calculate that millions of pounds have been saved compared to using commercial off the shelf alternatives.

What is great is that councils are using those savings to invest in other things to make their websites better, like content design and user research.

In this video, Will Callaghan, who has been the main driver of the project, gives us some of the background, while Kate Hurr talks about the progress Cumbria Council are making in implementing LocalGovDrupal.

Watch the video now!

A quick reminder to take a look through all the videos I have shared, including great chats with CDOs like Kit and Ben, the legends of low code, Ben P on data, and Sharon on digital workplace.

Juicy content on SensibleTech 🤤

To follow on from a content management system related video, my first post this fortnight is also on that theme.

What content management systems are used in local government?

Just before I went on holiday, I spent a bit of time one evening researching what content management systems (CMSs) are used by local councils in the UK. A CMS is the software that runs a website, just in case you didn’t know.

The results can be found in this Google Spreadsheet, as well as the summary pie chart above. There’s been a lot of discussion about it on Twitter, which you can follow up from the replies to my original tweet.

I need to give a big thanks to everyone who has helped fill in some of the blanks, but a special thank you to Colin Stenning from Bracknell Forest Council, who has combined some previously research he has done, as well as making other updates to clean the whole thing up a lot better.

Here’s the summary findings:

Jadu is the current market leader, with their own commercial product. 70 councils use it, according to the data at the time of writing
Umbraco and Drupal are next, showing a strong use of open source software in the sector. These numbers could potentially increase in the next year, particularly with the LocalGovDrupal project proving very popular. Of course, these open source systems will be supported by a range of different agencies and suppliers. It’s hard to estimate the potential size and variety in this market.
GOSS ICM comes next, the fourth most popular in total and the second most popular commercial system
Then there’s a bit of a drop, and the Consensis CMS comes next.
There are several other open source CMSs in use, including WordPress, Squiz, DNN, Liferay and Joomla
There are a couple of councils who appear to be rolling their own CMS rather than using something prebuilt (whether commercial or open source). This strikes me as being rather eccentric, but I’m sure they have their reasons.

Read the rest of the analysis (including a pie chart!) on SensibleTech.

Which local authorities are blogging?

Another research-y type post this one. I’ve made a list of all the local authorities that are maintaining blogs. Fair to say there are more than I thought.

If you know of one that’s missing, just hit reply and let me know!

Spotted elsewhere 🕵️‍♂️

Interesting stuff I’ve come across online in the last couple of weeks that you too may find useful. If not, sorry.

Digital government - stuck in a groove? Jerry Fishenden is always worth reading for his perspective on what’s happening with technology-enabled public services. This is a point very well made: “I also suspect that much of the so-called ‘digital’ training is only making things worse, with its focus on aspects of ‘agile’ and ‘scrums’ and developers. It’s the equivalent of explaining to politicians and senior policymakers the nuts and bolts of how a car factory assembly line works, when their focus needs to be on how to design a better form of transportation.” Read it now.

dxw share tips on setting up projects to succeed from the get go. Read it now.

Fixing Digital Funding in Government is a really interesting report setting out how the thorny issue of paying for digital transformation in public services could be resolved. It recommends funding less, but more often. This better matches the rhythms of digital delivery and the agile approach. Read it now.

LGIU share some useful tips on chairing online meetings.

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That’s it for this time. More soon, promise.

Cheers

Dave xxx