Our industry is rife with comparisons to architecture. We create “site maps” and “scaffolds” all the time. It’s inspiring to know that the building of virtual spaces and real spaces face the same challenges – time, budget and will-power being paramount among them. Take, for instance, the building of the British Library. 37 years of continuous deployment, never knowing if there would be budget the next year or not. But eventually, they figured it out. What a beauty it is.
The British Library benefits from historical revisionism today as well as government support from yesterday. It’s a pity now that so much of our efforts in refining web experiences for government-run destinations receives only a portion of the resources. Perhaps disproportionately small budgets given the amount of work virtual spaces could in fact do were they constructed correctly and with an eye for permanence.
Look at the following. While you do, ask yourself what a grand, public space would look like online?
