Here’s the new website for No 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the UK Prime Minister.
My crop does not do it justice, so click through here to see more of it.
What strikes me immediately is how much like a blog it looks. Note the use of feeds such as Twitter, Flickr and YouTube to deliver content (just like our own KBB site). And, according to Puffbox’s Simon Dickson, built on blogging platform WordPress. The only thing missing is what I would call the Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s digital identity which seems to have been subsumed into one about the building. He is missing a trick there to show us what he is really like!
Brown certainly had nothing to learn from the current White House. Its site ignores Twitter or Flickr entirely preferring to emulate the Eisenhower era instead. So Brown has done well there. But will he be able to keep up with the digitally aware Barack Obama if he wins this November? The latest offering on his official site is a sign-up page so that supporters can be “the first to know” who his choice of running mate will be. What a great way to build up an email list for the future election. Now that is digital!
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John Welsh's Blog 
Using WordPress is a good thing; using WordPress with sloppy code and launching such a presitgious website as a “Beta” is another. Given the reported 6 figure budget there is no excuse for this. The Government has very comprehensive guidelines on standards on its own websites. Have the developers not read them? See:
http://www.webswonder.co.uk/wordpress-release-10-downing-street