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  1. Comment by paul c posted on

    Great start to using open source. Interested to know whether you implemented basic wordpress security on the site such as renaming the database prefix, not installing in the root directory and locking down the number of login attempts? Surely the government web guidelines state you have to do this else the domain is vulnerable to attack? On the other hand you could be using something like vaultpress to monitor the security of the installation?

  2. Comment by Taking government APIs seriously posted on

    [...] one day a few weeks ago, it all stopped working. The Civil Service site revamp hived off the jobs site to an external portal provided by WCN Recruitment, commissioned by MOD/HMRC. Sans API. Sans, indeed, even the ability to [...]

  3. Comment by Taking government APIs seriously | Helpful Technology posted on

    [...] one day a few weeks ago, it all stopped working. The Civil Service site revamp hived off the jobs site to an external portal provided by WCN Recruitment, commissioned by MOD/HMRC. Sans API. Sans, indeed, even the ability to [...]

  4. Comment by Louise posted on

    Thanks James.

  5. Comment by UK Civil Service Site Switches To WordPress posted on

    [...] We chose to use WordPress as it offers a simple, quick (with such a short development window) and flexible open source solution to a site primarily designed for publishing content. As such it is easy to use for a wide range of content editors and, of course, provides significant cost savings for maintenance and development. Rather than develop a theme ourselves we chose to use a theme called ‘striking’ developed by Kaptinlin that fitted what we needed with a little customization. – Via Holding the Fort [...]

  6. Comment by Louise posted on

    Are you advertising jobs to work on GDS on the Civil Service website?

    • Replies to Louise>

      Comment by James Taylor posted on

      All Civil Service jobs are advertised on the CS Jobs portal here: https://jobsstatic.civilservice.gov.uk/csjobs.html

      Hope this helps,

      James Taylor
      GDS

      • Replies to James Taylor>

        Comment by Louise posted on

        Thanks. Are any/all GDS jobs advertised there as I'm not sure they're actually classed as civil service jobs. Are they advertised elsewhere, or do you use particular agencies? I frequently check[ed] the old and new job portals and haven't seen anything.

        • Replies to Louise>

          Comment by James Taylor posted on

          Hi Louise,

          Apologies for the delay.

          Currently there aren’t any job adverts on the Civil Service jobs portal for the Government Digital Service but we are in the middle of a re-organization so do keep your eye out for adverts.

          All roles in the GDS have to be filled in line with the Recruitment Principles published by the Civil Service Commission.

          The Commission excepts certain appointments from the principle of appointment on merit through fair and open competition where it believes this is justified by the needs of the Civil Service. In the case of the GDS, some roles have been considered to be exempt under the following condition.

          See Annex C of the Recruitment Principles:

          3. Appointments of individuals with highly specialised skills and experience for up to two years to allow highly specialised people to be brought in without a competition for a particular one-off job on the basis that such a process would be a mere formality. Any proposal for a longer appointment at the outset or to extend an appointment made under this exception beyond two years requires the approval of the Civil Service Commission.

          Hope this helps,

          James

  7. Comment by Lux posted on

    Will you be sharing the theme that has been developed for this WordPress site?

    • Replies to Lux>

      Comment by Chris Watson posted on

      Lux - Due to time constraints we did not develop a theme in-house. We purchased the "Striking" theme and then modified it ever so slightly to fit our needs. If you are interested in using the theme then it is available through its developer, Kaptinlin.

  8. Comment by Jon (@publicsectorpm) posted on

    Cool. Glad to see that WordPress is getting more use in Gov. Still not convinced about custom dev of your Single Domain framework... do you have a requirements spec for that published anywhere? Cheers, Jon.

    • Replies to Jon (@publicsectorpm)>

      Comment by James Stewart posted on

      There isn't a published requirements spec, as we've not mapped out requirements that way for the single domain. We're taking an agile approach, driven by the needs as described in Richard's post a few weeks back http://digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/2011/09/19/introducing-the-needotron-working-out-the-shape-of-the-product/ - the technical requirements are to balance that with appropriately high levels of uptime, stability and security.

      • Replies to James Stewart>

        Comment by Jon (@publicsectorpm) posted on

        Interesting but i think u are missing a trick. your need-o-tron should be customer facing. how do you know that the needs that you think are important internally really matter to us, the great unwashed?

        u need something like basecamp answers http://answers.37signals.com/basecamp where actual customers make feature requests. voting on feature request by other users enable you to prioritise requirements properly based on real customer insight... (im sure you're aware of this kind of thing already...)

        I'm concerned that your dev is slightly inward looking at present?

        love the agile approach though - big thumbs up for that. also love how you take time to respond to my comments.

        cheers
        jon