Dubai e-Government reviews new content management system

The meeting, chaired by Ayesha bin Beshr, website developer at DTCM, focused on devising ways to publish integrated content on the portal in a cost-effective manner and was attended by 24 representatives of 24 government departments.

'The standardization of content for easy integration with the www.dubai.ae portal is a significant aspect of Dubai e-Government's task and this process has been accelerated with the adoption of a more advanced content management system (CMS) as part of the overall revamp of the portal,' said Anas Haddad, Content Manager, Dubai e-Government. 'The portal has benefited considerably from the advanced CMS which enables faster and easier publishing of content.'

'With the implementation of the new CMS, integrated content on the Dubai e-Government portal www.dubai.ae can now be categorized more systematically, thus facilitating easy access to the e-Services. This system has been adopted on the basis of the results of a detailed study launched by the content department, to ensure that the content management on the portal is conducted in a methodical and organized manner, using best of breed technologies,' he added.

Haddad further pointed out that the Dubai e-Government portal currently offers 110 e-Services, which have been classified according to the nature of the users, whether business, individual or people with special needs. 'In order to ensure easy access and retrieval, the services have been categorised under various channels including business, educational, employment, health, residents, legal, security and tourism. In addition, the e-Services have also been packaged into clusters for easy access to related services,' he said.

Haddad noted that significant progress had been achieved by the different departments in integrating their Web services with the unified portal and made suggestions for further improvements and upgrades. The board discussed the key elements of the portal, which facilitates decentralized content management, allowing each department the freedom to manage its own content, while remaining an integral part of the portal.

Sally Ahmed, the representative from the Department of Health and Medical Services (DOHMS) demonstrated the benefits of the new content management system and showed how information could be updated and retrieved at a fast pace. Under this system, departments can also obtain and use content of other departments, in addition to automatically updating it whenever the parent department updates it. DOHMS, which is the first department to adopt the new system, took just two weeks to install it.

The members were also briefed on the facility of having individual press releases and newsletters posted on the www.dubai.ae website for wider exposure. All departments were urged to make use of this facility.

Haddad noted that a standardized content management system was essential to fulfil the goal of providing the whole gamut of services online, through a model that will be followed by each department to offer common standards for search and retrieval. Further, the advisory board has to ensure that government departments are well-versed in the technical aspects of uploading and publishing content on the portal.

Rami Kallawi, a representative from the Auqaf and Islamic Affairs Department suggested the incorporation of voice features in the e-Services for the benefit of visually impaired people. The IT subcommittee of the board agreed to study the proposal and explore the technology that is needed to add such a feature to the services.

Ayesha bin Beshr, website developer at DTCM, said: 'The meeting reviewed the achievements of Dubai e-Government portal in adopting the new content management system. It was encouraging to see the progress made by DOHMS as the first department to adopt the system. The facility provided by the portal to post the press releases of all departments is also a praiseworthy service. Finally, providing audio text for the benefit of the blind is a humanitarian feature that needs to be lauded, and we are confident that this will become a reality soon.'

The content advisory board of Dubai e-Government has been in constant touch with the various Government departments by organizing training sessions and workshops to provide them with the expertise to upload content in a standard manner. This in turn ensures that users can expect uniform standards of service and efficiency across all government department websites. The e-Government portal integrates with the various departments through the highly complex Government Information Network (GIN), which provides network connectivity, inter-departmental connectivity as well as Internet access to and from the department. GIN allows government departments to access the e-Government server and utilize the content management software to publish their content.

The advisory board meeting comes at a time when some departments have already revamped their offerings as per uniform e-Government portal standards while many are gearing up to go live with the first compliant services.