But also to answer your question, the history of ‘e-magazine’ is in early attempts to monetise the web by Vanity Fair etc. way back magazines produced versions which literally attempted to replicate themselves online, same look’n'feel. A fetishisation of magazine design which came out of the 90s revolution in magazine design.

This local thing is as Tim says aimed at a – let’s be kind’ – rather limited understanding of what the web is by fund sources. I guess this speaks to the need for ‘us’ to find simpler models to explain to such people what the web is if such companies can get away with ‘e-magazine’ …

leveraging their e-magazine to deverticalize the core competencies of the multifarious stakeholders and providing a broad incentivization driven virtual economy…

or some other such b’lox.

(Sorry, just one of my many driving-related hobby horses… Next week: on-the-spot penalties for people who drive into parking spaces instead of reversing into them.)

(viz: the irresponsible lack of use of https:// to encrypt the personal information demanded on the form)

Futhermore, the usual .gov.uk domain specific usability and accessibility rules do not apply, so they wash their hands any problems.

Anywhere near?

It also might be said, John, that given your profession and prodigious reading habits, you are more comfortable with with text than most people?

Another simple way of adding some quick – perhaps superficial – involvement from the public would be to publish photos that people could upload of traffic problems that they spot – ‘Snap a jam’ or something. Fine, it wouldn’t actually add a huge amount to the debate, but it might be a useful way of bringing attention to the consultation.

There’s a lot of text on the site, which could so easily be augmented with some short video clips explaining what the whole thing is about

Yes, but… I can’t be the only one who hates most video content on websites. The thing about it is that you have to sit through however long it is to find out what it’s telling you, whereas with text it can be scanned through as quickly as you like. I’d go so far as to say that video should never be used without available text at least to summarise what it’s about – particularly on the likes of the BBC news site. Web developers may like putting video in as part of their attempt to “be less boring,” but it should only ever be a supplement to rather than a replacement for instantaneously available content.

“Fully interactive and professional looking, eMagazines have proven to be an exciting way to engage with staff, partners, stakeholders, members and residents.

They are budget and environmentally friendly with a clever back-end system which allows you to publish new editions yourself- quickly and easily.

Viewable also on PDAs and mobile phones, readers can interact via online polls, surveys and links, giving valuable feedback.”

Sounds like an agency has found a neat way to monetise the befuddlement of local gov comms people – sure sounds like an email to me It would be very interesting to find out how much this kind of rubbish costs…