A lot of things have transpired on the home front here in Singapore. The Prime Minister himself broadcasting live on Qik, the formation of AIMS - The Advisory Council on the Impact of New Media on Society and their 105 page report making recommendations to the government. Ivan does a great job summarising the paper so you won’t have to plough through it.

Personally, I think the paper does a decent job of making pragmatic and forward-looking recommendations to the government. But here at WebSG, we’re inclined to look at the practice, rather than the talk of using technology.

Granted that the website wasn’t created by the AIMS team itself, the lack of technological know-how is a little jarring when you consider that AIMS is helping chart the Singapore Government’s foray into the online space.

The AIMS website fails on a number of fronts. It is visually cluttered without a consistent means of navigation. Both visually and technically, the website looks like a teenager’s room. Information is haphazardly plonked on any available space. There is a great burden placed on the reader to make sense of it all.

I had no idea that the tag cloud was a means of voting. There is absolutely no indication whatsoever, nor am I told what the votes translate to. I would have liked to comment on the use of flash for the tag cloud and how it creates inaccessibility, but the site itself isn’t particularly usable on any level.

I haven’t been able to create an account on their forums using Firefox. AIMS needs to be aware that these technical barriers can be easily misconstrued as a closed door for feedback and participation.