Noah Shachtman’s new Wired blog, The Danger Room, is holding a competition to expose the web’s worst defense-related government websites. Shachtman explains:
The federal government started building websites for its various agencies back in the mid-90s. The idea was to better inform the public — and to share information across bureaucratic silos. Even back before most folks had ‘net access, these websites seemed like the best way for letting the public know what they were getting for their tax dollars, and for helping the government run a little more efficiently.
At least, that was the theory.
And the first nomination goes to,
an absolute stinker, from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology & Logistics). The website for the Systems and Mission Integration Directorate–responsible for “overseeing systems integration effects in support of combat capabilities across all joint warfighting mission areas”–hasn’t been updated since 2005. Its “news” page: “Under Construction.” Its “education & training” page: “Under Construction.” And its “related information” page? You guessed it. “Under Construction.”
Your tax dollars hard at work. I imagine our readers would have quite a few websites to nominate for this competition.
