Collaborate, innovate and empower with aGov - open Drupal for .gov.au

There's a lot of talk about government collaboration in information technology, but the reality is that for many public agencies, collaboration has been difficult. Despite the best efforts and intentions, there are a myriad of bureaucratic and operational hurdles to jump before real, open collaboration can occur.

One area where some progress has been made is in content management systems, where a common investment in Drupal has enabled public agencies to break down the barriers and discuss common problems. Using Drupal as the common, neutral territory for collaboration, public agencies can start working together in a way not previously possible with convential proprietary publishing tools.

With that in mind, PreviousNext is proud to announce aGov (http://agov.com.au), a Drupal distribution built specifically for public agencies. aGov provides a base set of WCAG-compliant user interface designs, functionality and features that can be reused as the basis for any new Australian government or public sector website. For departments and agencies at a federal, state and local level, this will mean a large proportion of the work for any new Drupal website is already completed, resulting in substantial cost savings on a normal project.

Apart from covering compliance basics, such as WCAG, AGLS metadata, and basic security improvements, aGov also has some very nice features which help agencies to meet those requirements in a more effective way. For example, the WCAG-compliant theme is re-colourable, brandable, responsive, and comes with a theme starter-kit, just in case you want to take it further and extend the design. It integrates seamlessly with PreviousNext's WCAG validation and site archiving services, ensuring you stay compliant. And, it includes a range of easy-to-use editing tools and helpers to ease the task of creating engaging, user-friendly content.

From a business perspective, aGov offers you complete freedom in your choice of development path, pace, cost and delivery method. aGov is a truly open-source project, with no licensing costs, but backed by a commercial warranty and service agreement, if you want that security.

My favourite aspect, however, is that aGov is the first truly open-source CMS product designed and built specifically for the public sector in Australia. This offers development teams an unprecedented opportunity to focus collaboration and effort around a neutral, open product, leading to benefits for the team, the agency, and the whole-of-government, and that can only be a good thing.

A formal Beta release program for aGov is being held during November, 2012, prior to a full public release on Drupal.org. PreviousNext is currently seeking Beta testers working within government organisations to evaluate aGov - sign up at aGov.com.au.