About Us
On this page:
Overview
Victoria Online (www.vic.gov.au) is the fastest way to find local, state and federal government information and services, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Victoria Online is a 'portal' - a specialised website that helps you find the information and services that exist on other government websites and can then take you directly to those websites. It is both an easy-to-use directory and a powerful search engine. You'll find local, state or federal government information and services through Victoria Online (as well as organisations that were previously government-owned), all organised in a way that does not require that you have knowledge of government or the way government is structured.
Who owns and runs Victoria Online?
Victoria Online is owned by the State Government of Victoria, Australia. It is administered by the Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development in Melbourne. Victoria Online is an outcome of the Victorian Government's eGovernment strategy: Putting People at the Centre.
How Victoria Online works
Victoria Online has been designed with its users in mind.
One of the difficulties we have addressed is that in one sector, for example Education & Training, many different government organisations can provide information and services. Trying to work out who does what can be time consuming.
Victoria Online has done this thinking for you. We have researched how people think and deal with government and have classified the information provided into categories that our research has shown makes sense. However, because people think about information in different ways, this means that some subjects will appear in multiple places. We call this providing "multiple pathways" to the information you are seeking.
We have also provided two main ways to find information - either by Search, or by Browsing through a topics list. Victoria Online's search capability is very powerful. For example, if you search on 'aged care' you'll find information and services from local, state and federal government all within the same set of search results. You just choose what's most useful to you.
How do we keep track of all this?
Behind the scenes we classify important website pages from across government using 'metadata'. Metadata is a system of describing information - whether it's on websites, or in a library.
Victoria Online's metadata complies with the Australian Government Locator Service (AGLS) standard. Victoria Online has produced the Victoria Online Metadata Application Profile which implements AGLS, with some extensions.
This metadata, professionally created and maintained by Victoria Online, helps to provide more precision in what you find, with fewer results to look through. This is a big step forward from typical portal and search engine behaviour, which can overwhelm users with a vast quantity of low-value results.
Victoria Online leads you to the right information
The information you find through Victoria Online is held on the individual websites of local, state and federal government organisations. Victoria Online has done everything it can to ensure that the information on the portal is correct. However, it is not responsible for the information on each government organisation website.
If you do not understand the information on a website you link to through Victoria Online, you can either contact the government organisation concerned, or Contact Us and we will pass your comments on.
"Latest News" management
The Latest News items generally relate to government information of interest to Victorians, particularly relating to topical matters, current communications campaigns and government related (or sponsored) events.
To have your news item listed on Victoria Online send an email to victoria.online@diird.vic.gov.au.
Technology
Supported browsers
Microsoft Windows platform:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer Versions 6 and 7
- Firefox Versions 2 and 3
Apple platform:
- Safari Version 1
Problems may be experienced with early versions of Internet Explorer that do not support web standards for Cascading Style Sheets. Upgrading to a later browser version should solve these problems.
More information:
Supported screen resolutions
The portal has been optimised for screen resolutions of 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768.
Reading PDF documents
On occasion, a web page link on Victoria Online will lead you to an Adobe PDF document. Documents created in PDF (Portable Document Format) need the Adobe PDF Reader to be viewed. If this Reader is not already installed on your computer, you can get it, for free, by clicking on the image below.
Quick Links, Featured Services & Payments, Popular Search Terms and Related Sites
'Quick Links', 'Featured Services & Payments', 'Popular Search Terms' and 'Related Sites' provide fast access to external sites or items within Topic areas that are considered the most relevant or popular links. These links are selected by analysis of site statistics including most popular search terms or most popular external sites. These items are ranked alphabetically.
Planning and delivering Victoria Online
Extensive research was carried out to find out when and how people use government. Sometimes it's to find out information, other times it's to provide information or to obtain licences, permits and registrations.
We involved people from government, community groups and the general public to help us with this in order to build a portal that would be useful.
The next challenge was to build a portal that was easy to understand and use. Important, high relevance web pages that provide or lead to information or services provided by government had to be grouped into subject categories. This was no easy task, and took many months to achieve what you see today. This is an ongoing process as we strive to reflect the needs of our users.
Selected research on Victoria Online's development is publicly available on the eGovernment Resource Centre - Victoria Online.
Test, test and test again
Testing, including consumer testing, focus group testing, usability testing and accessibility testing, is fundamental to the design, development and ongoing management of the site. Testing ensures that information in Victoria Online is current, relevant and grouped in ways which make sense to people outside of government. Testing also ensures that the portal is easy to use and understand.
Listing and Linking
How can I get my site listed on Victoria Online?
Victoria Online has been developed so that Victorians can easily find information relating to Victorian State, Victorian Local and Federal governments. If you represent a government agency under one of these categories and you can't find it on Victoria Online, please send us the URL and your contact details via the Feedback form so that its inclusion can be investigated.
Can I use the images/logo from your site?
Images/logos used on Victoria Online are copyright to the State of Victoria or used with the permission of the copyright owner. It is forbidden to use these graphics elsewhere without our expressed permission or the permission of the copyright owner.
However, permission is granted to use either or both of the two graphics shown in 'How can I link to Victoria Online?', above, subject to the conditions shown.
Are all the links in the results government authorised sites?
Victoria Online provides links to sites that are from the Federal, Victorian State and Victorian Local Governments. In addition, it provides links to some sites from organisations that are associated with government, were formerly associated with government, or are considered by some of the public to provide "government" style services.
The actual authority of a site linked to from Victoria Online needs to be determined by the user from information provided on the linked-to site itself. The fact that a link exists from Victoria Online does not guarantee that the site is government authorised.
Why do all the pages you link to look different from each other?
Victoria Online provides links to sites that are from the Federal, Victorian State and Victorian Local Governments. In addition, it provides links to some sites from organisations that are associated with government, were formerly associated with government, or are considered by some of the public to provide "government"; style services.
Victoria Online does not control these other sites. It only provides a service that allows users to discover government (and government related) information and services from these sites. Victoria Online is both a directory and a search engine to help you find government resources. Its relationship to the sites you find through Victoria Online is like that of a catalogue in a library to the books in the library - we are not responsible for the content or look of these sites.
Accessibility
The Victoria Online site conforms to W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines at Level AA.
Information on the accessibility of Victoria Online can be found in the Accessibility Statement.
Thesaurus
The Victoria Online Thesaurus was developed to improve information discovery within the Victoria Online search facility. It is a subject based natural language tool providing high level descriptors for government. The thesaurus is being used to ensure consistency of language in cataloguing government websites and to assist users in narrowing their search result. The thesaurus is publicly available at the eGovernment Resource Centre - Victoria Online Thesaurus.
Employment
Victoria Online has no current employment vacancies.
For employment opportunities within the Victorian Government see Careers with the Victorian Government.
Publications and media
- Victoria Online
- Victoria Online research papers and publications.
- Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development Publications
- Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development (DIIRD) corporate-wide publications and links to other publications pages.
- Media Releases
- State Government of Victoria media releases.
Contact us
Victoria Online welcomes your comments, queries and feedback-planB-old. The preferred method of contact is by the Victoria Online Feedback Form.
Alternatively, you can Contact Us by mail, telephone or email.
