Twenty years ago today, we launched South Australia Central, the pioneering, whole-of-government web portal.
Groundbreaking in its day, SA Central (Mark 1) was a pre-Google directory and catalog of every South Australian website and all online information about SA from government, business and community sources.
One of the very first government portals to provide a single point of entry to government information and services, it used library-standard cataloguing to ensure that people could easily find the information they needed. That led to the subsequent development of website metadata to accurately describe websites and their contents.
In parallel, our e-Business team also began to work with government agencies to help them develop and transition their services to online delivery mode, so that SA Central could become a one-stop shop for government information and transactions, evolving over time into today’s online government presence and services.
Launched at the former Ngapartji Cooperative Multi Media Centre in Rundle Street, it helped position South Australia in the global ICT scene.