Government hunts webmaster general
The government has begun a search to find a webmaster general - a role created to cement plans for it to be online by 2005.
The successful cyber applicant for the £60,000-a-year post will be based at the Cabinet Office. Webmaster duties will be to ‘stimulate and police the government’s use of the web and new media to provide services and information to the public’.
However the recruitment has fuelled fears the government is creating an increasingly tangled web of e-ministers.
Ian McCartney, minister of state at the Cabinet Office, was appointed to be responsible for putting government online and is an e-government minister.
Patricia Hewitt, small business minister, looks after e-commerce and is an e-minister. While civil servant Alex Allan – who reports directly to the Prime Minister and Hewitt, was appointed last year.
The webmaster will report to Allan and manage the content of the government’s UKonline portal, a single electronic gateway into public services.
He or she will also advise ministers and public-sector organisations on the use of web technology.