There is a trend in government to set up Digital Services departments, such as:
UK: Government Digital Service, Parliamentary Digital Service
USA: U.S. Digital Service, 18F, Colorado Digital Service, Defense Digital Service
Canada: Canadian Digital Service, Ontario Digital Service
Australia: Digital Transformation Agency
France: beta.gouv.fr
Related: Budgeting practices for major software initiatives by Waldo Jaquith (18F) at the Michigan Senate Appropriations Committee.
WikiSuite is a superb choice within the toolbox of a Digital Services departments. WikiSuite is the "most comprehensive and integrated Free / Libre / Open Source enterprise software suite"
- Features: Chances are, whatever you need now and in the future is an existing feature.
- No need to manage complex licenses with fees. Just agree to standard the Free / Libre / Open source licences
- Full access to the source code makes it easy to make any necessary modifications to work in your specific infrastructure
- Your Digital Services department (or external firm) can proceed to a security audit of the code.
- You can self-host or get it hosted by one of the Service Providers
- Ex.: start outside to confirm the platform corresponds to your needs, and transfer internally when it makes sense (confidential data, IT is ready to provide support, etc.)
- Community-managed: You can get involved and influence the roadmap!
- Extensive web admin panels: Power Users can configure the tools without the need for software developers or to edit configuration files. Once it's installed, you almost never need to use server access.
- Wiki pages are used for templates, and thus, there is inherent versioning and permissions, and everything is stored in the database.
- No lock-in
- Built-in enterprise features such as connecting to Active Directory
- Both community and enterprise Support are available. The architects of the solution are available for consulting (Support, sponsored development, training, configuration and customization, business consulting, etc.)
See also: Deployment scenario: Enterprise department
See also