Back to HCI2003 Conference - THAT document

Quick feedback from Bath on the e-Envoy's Quality Framework for UK Government Websites, or as it is now being referred to in some quarters, 'THAT document'. [See this post and my articles on eGov Monitor and Usability News and also a later short article from Ann Light entitled 'Some History to THAT document']

Andrew Pinder, speaking in an interview to Ann Light at the Bath conference last week, apparently gave assurances that a further iteration was definitely on the cards. In conversations with me that very same evening at the Bath Pump Rooms - lovely venue, indifferent food and bad wine - Geoff Ryman assured me that there was no way that the document would be revised in any shape or form. Resources move on, other projects are picked up, and relics are left along the way, Frameworks included.

I shan't attempt to judge who will end up being right on this one - I'm not a betting fan. My points would be:

- The rejection of the model of an updatable website concerning usability in the government context etc., because perhaps it does not fit within government processes, is a poor reflection on public sector attitudes and systems. This really has to change. How on *earth* can Pinder talk about dialoguing with citizens via formats such as blogs - which he did last Thursday in Bath - when the Office can't even trust a professional community to dialogue about their professional specialism via a website, without a whole series of committees and approvals?

- On the other hand - and extreme - if they are going to go down the road of committees and approval mechanisms, is there something to be learned from the ISO process here?