Make Government Information Accessible and Easy to Find (NL0013)
Overview
At-a-Glance
Action Plan: Netherlands Action Plan 2013-2014
Action Plan Cycle: 2013
Status:
Institutions
Lead Institution: Ministry of General Affairs (Information Council), Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and Association of Netherlands Municipalities
Support Institution(s): NA
Policy Areas
Capacity BuildingIRM Review
IRM Report: Netherlands Final Report 2013-2014, Netherlands Progress Report 2013-2014
Early Results: Did Not Change
Design i
Verifiable: No
Relevant to OGP Values: Yes
Ambition (see definition): Low
Implementation i
Description
Exploratory study to enhance findability
Actively disclosing information involves more than simply publishing documents. Information has to be released in a communicative and accessible manner, so that it actually helps citizens and stakeholders independently form their own opinion or take decisions. Information must be presented in a form appropriate to the context in which citizens and stakeholders operate, particularly when it is made available in greater quantities than is currently the case. There are various approaches to releasing government information. The Council for Public Administration recommends an activities index. Other approaches may be based on life events or top tasks (see below). Active access to government information requires ease of access via rijksoverheid.nl. The ministries’ communication directorates and the Public Information and Communications Department are willing to advise on the best way to release information in a communicative and accessible manner.
Top tasks
People generally access a website with a particular goal in mind. The websites of public-sector organisations contain huge amounts of information. Confronted by this, people often find it difficult to achieve their goal (make an appointment, submit an application), or perhaps they are not able to find an answer because the website does not ‘speak their language’. Some do not even manage to reach the site they want because they use a search term that the organisation concerned does not use (e.g. a brand name that has become the generic term for something, such as the ‘kliko’ bins used in the Netherlands; most local authorities do not use the term ‘kliko’).
Liverpool City Council (UK) has already introduced the ‘top tasks approach’, and thus constitutes a good example for the Netherlands. Top tasks are identified by researching which products and services people most frequently search for, and what search terms they use. Those products and services are then given a prominent place on the website. For local authorities, for example, these tasks are likely to be associated with waste disposal and passports. These tasks can also be made more findable by adding synonyms and ensuring that the most important information shows up as the first search result. This sounds logical, but most public-sector websites are not set up like this. Thinking in terms of top tasks requires a different attitude, oriented more towards demand than supply.
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