UK government platforms – the state of the art according to GDS
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Platform	Purpose	Status*	Mentioned by GDS	ID #
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GOV.UK	Publishing	Live	Frequently, normally in the context of being "award-winning".	1
GOV.UK Verify (RIP)	Identity assurance, for transacting with government and for use by private sector entrepreneurial apps	Public beta	Frequently and, so they say, openly, in order to build trust.	2
Performance	Performance measurement of public services	Public beta	Rarely, but please see for example Telling stories with data: the Performance Platform as a tool for digital engagement.	3
Pay	Payments (unidirectional, from people to government)	Alpha	With growing frequency, please see GDS to handle Govt payments? What could possibly go wrong?.	4
Government Gateway	Transacting with government	Live	Sparingly and only ever to criticise despite the fact that the Government Gateway must by now in its 15-year life have been instrumental in raising several trillion pounds in tax to fund public services.	5
DirectGov	Transacting with government	Live	Frequently mentioned in the past, normally in the context of having been replaced by GOV.UK. It hasn't been replaced by GOV.UK, that claim is false, try applying for a blue badge for example, you'll find yourself on https://bluebadge.direct.gov.uk/directgovapply.html. The false claim that DirectGov has been replaced by GOV.UK has now, after several years, been removed from the GOV.UK home page.	6
BusinessLink	Transacting with government	Live	Frequently mentioned in the past, normally in the context of having been replaced by GOV.UK. It hasn't been replaced by GOV.UK, that claim is false, try registering as an employer offering a job on the Universal Jobmatch service, you'll find yourself on DirectGov's http://jobvacancies.businesslink.gov.uk/account/dwp/RegistrationRequest.aspx. The false claim that BusinessLink has been replaced by GOV.UK has now, after several years, been removed from the GOV.UK home page.	7
Transformation	Transforming government	Dead	Frequently mentioned in the past, subsequently archived, after which the GDS director of transformation transferred to Methods Digital, a consultancy providing services to government. The Methods Group, of which Methods Digital is a member, "came up with the concept for NHS Jobs which was the first national ‘open’ web platform for public sector services in the UK, and has saved the NHS over £1Billion". GDS sometimes float the idea of a pan-government prison-visiting platform. But they never mention the NHS Jobs platform.	8
AdServer	Serve relevant advertisements to people while they're transacting with government or afterwards	None	Never. But. The attempt to identify cross-government platform services pre-dates GDS's birth in 2011. The G-Digital Programme, for example, conducted a survey and published their findings in January 2010. They produced a list of Business Services (please see p.9), candidates to be shared across government, including for example an email alerts service, case management, complaints-handling and ... an ad server. That's one of the platforms the respondents to the survey wanted even if GDS don't mention it. C.f. Verizon, one of GDS's "identity providers" for GOV.UK Verify (RIP), quoted on AdExchanger.com: "Ultimately, we don’t see ourselves as a data provider; we see ourselves as an ad platform that helps brands and consumers connect".	9, 10, ...
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Please see GDS's Service design phases.				*