Project lead Amelia Bate has blogged about the project:

We wanted to make the FCO’s human rights report more visible, accessible and easy to distribute. We wanted to provide regular updates on our countries of concern to keep stakeholders and public informed throughout year, rather than just on an annual basis (the first updates were published on 31 March). We wanted to reach a large and engaged online audience, and to make the report easy to read, print and share – both in the UK and overseas.

After some discussion, we decided we wanted to make the report commentable for the first time. Crucially, this gives stakeholders and the public a direct route to leave feedback for policymakers. It also upholds our values of supporting democracy and freedom of expression, and supports our transparency objectives.

Finally of course, we wanted to do things cheaper. It’s no surprise that in the current climate, the government is looking for more cost-effective ways of doing things – and so we should. The online report cost significantly less than the traditional printed version – and this way, we won’t run out of copies. It’s also much easier for people to read, share and host the sections that interest them, whether through Twitter or Facebook or by embedding it into their own websites.

It’s a great example of using the platform in combination with services like Scribd, YouTube and Twitter to create a polished but good value digital engagement platform, which can adapt to the changing needs of projects.

They were looking for help to ensure the draft guidance takes account of views from within the sector, and from the wider community with an interest in open data, and we’re really pleased they chose Read+Comment to help them with the project.

We worked with them to develop a look and feel reflecting their new branding, including partner logos, and helped to load content and provide ongoing support and advice around site moderation and layout.

The result: over 4,000 visits in the first two weeks, with detailed comments being submitted across both documents.

The request came in on a Friday morning, the site was set up for the team within hours, and went live 10am on the following Tuesday, launched by the Director of Digital Engagement on Twitter.

It’s a simple example of how the flexibility of Read+Comment makes it a good fit for projects looking for a flexible, good value online platform to host projects seeking public debate around policy issues.

The first set of semi-private beta invites have gone out, so if you want to have a play, just get in touch. We’d love your help on understanding:

• Is the Read+Comment feature set right? Are these the kinds of tools you need to respond to demands for public feedback?
• Does the platform work OK for you? Can you get started and set up your own commentable documents based on the guidance available?
• What are the barriers to getting Read+Comment adopted as a platform in your organisation?
• Is the price point and business model about right for this audience and the current climate?

We hope this is the beginning of a tool that can help to make commentable documents part of everyday life in policy development – and to do that, we need your help.