ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

Date: February 13, 2001
Author/Local: MWhite/7094

RTS No. 01860

CC File No. 1188

Council: February 20, 2001

TO:	Vancouver City Council
FROM:	General Manager of Community Services in consultation with the City Manager, General Manager of Engineering Services, General Manager of Parks and Recreation, General Manager of Corporate Services, Director of the Vancouver Public Library and City Clerk.
SUBJECT:	City of Vancouver Community Web Pages

RECOMMENDATION

THAT Council approve funding for completion of the Community Web Page project, including $46,000 in the 2001 Operating Budget and $30,000 ongoing thereafter, with the source of funds to be taken from annual Operating Budgets.

COUNCIL POLICY

The Better City Government (BCG) initiative and CityPlan identified public involvement in City decision making as a priority, including improving existing processes where required and establishing a broader set of relationships and links to communities. In 1998, Council adopted a set of Guiding Principles for Public Involvement.

PURPOSE

This report updates Council on the City of Vancouver `s Community Web Page project and advises of an award given by the Municipal Information Systems Association (MISA) of British Columbia for the Community Web Pages.

BACKGROUND

The Community Web Page project was initiated in November, 1999. It was created in response to directions from the City's Public Involvement Review and Community Visions process that called for improved communication within and between the City and Vancouver's communities.

The MISA Spirit of Innovation award is presented in recognition of outstanding professional achievement and technological innovation. The objective of the award is to foster communication amongst member municipalities. The City of Vancouver won the Spirit of Innovation award in 1998 for the QuickFind project.

DISCUSSION

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The Community Pages, as part of the City's Public Involvement Review, are helping improve information sharing and ongoing partnerships within and between the City and Vancouver's communities. They are a key element of e-government in the City of Vancouver. The Community Pages build on the City's website, providing current information on City programs, projects, services and events. They also provide links to various community organizations and allow the public to post community events.

Some of the unique features of the new Community Pages are:

· Re-design of Community Pages to facilitate access to new and existing information on a community basis and to create a more attractive, user-friendly look with standard graphics and colour theme.
· Projects and Construction Database - a searchable database of City projects and activities occurring across the city, including rezonings, major development applications, street and sewer construction, etc.
· On-line Parks and Recreation Guides - a searchable database of Vancouver's recreation centre programs.
· Community Calendar - a calendar of City and community events. Non-profit and community organizations can submit postings directly over the internet.
· Integration with the City's Quickfind on-line directory of community organizations - sorts information by community and allows community groups to submit and update their listings via the internet.
· Future Link to VanMap - capacity to act as a data source for VanMap, allowing projects and construction data to be displayed geographically.

THE PILOT PROJECT

Pilot Community Pages were launched in 1999, for the five communities that have or are creating Community Visions: Dunbar, Kensington-Cedar Cottage, Killarney, Victoria-Fraserview, and Sunset. Results of the pilot project have been very positive. Usage (measured by the number of user sessions) has increased substantially for the Community Pages and their features. It has grown from below 3,500 user sessions per month from before the pilot to over 21,000 user sessions in January, 2001 (after Winter Recreation Guides went online). Feedback via an online survey form confirms the success of the project, with the most common question being when Community Pages will be rolled out to the remaining 18 communities. Staff response has also been positive. Features such as the Projects and Construction database arehelping staff track projects in a single database and provide information to the communities that staff are working with.

PUBLIC AND STAFF INVOLVEMENT

The "community" that the project reflects is both the public communities in the city, as well as the staff "community" at the City of Vancouver. The Community Pages have been created with the advice and feedback of the public and staff through a variety of meetings, workshops and an online survey. The project has been guided by an ever-growing partnership between the City, Park Board and the Vancouver Public Library, as well as, community agencies such as Vancouver Community Net and Volunteer Vancouver.

CITYWIDE IMPLEMENTATION

An implementation strategy has been created for citywide rollout of the Community Pages (Summarized in Appendix A). Community Pages will be created for the remaining 18 local areas by Corporate IT by March, 2001. An administrative and marketing strategy has been put in place to maintain and increase usage. This includes a Community Web Page Administrator working out of the City Clerk's Office, to approve entries, ensure accuracy of information, track frequency of updates, respond to public and staff inquiries and help promote the Pages. This will be a temporary position for the first six months, after which time the roles and responsibilities will be reviewed to determine the long term administrative needs of the Community Pages. Should it be determined that this position should be permanent, staff will report back to Council.

To complement this administrative role, Corporate Communications has created a marketing plan. This includes making presentations to staff and community groups, creating products such as mousepads and bookmarks for local libraries and pursuing various opportunities to promote the pages, such as the "Greater.Vancouver" program.

To date, development of the Community Web Pages has been funded from the Strategic Initiatives Fund and by allocation of existing staff to the project. However, further development of the pages will require additional funding. Anticipated costs for implementation are $46,000 for year one (2001) and $30,000 annually thereafter. This funding will provide for the temporary position noted above as well as for miscellaneous expenditures related to the marketing program. The source of funding will be annual Operating Budgets.

CONCLUSION

The City's Community Web Page project has won the 2000 Municipal Information Systems Association Spirit of Innovation Award. The Pages improve communication within and between the City and Vancouver's communities by providing information on current City projects, programs and services, links to community groups and community events. Community Web Pages will be created for all of Vancouver's 23 local areas by March, 2001.

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APPENDIX A. Community Web Pages: Citywide Implementation Summary

Item	Year 1 (2001) ($)	Annually ($)
1. Information Technology Requirements (Corporate IT): - reformatting remaining 18 pages by March, 2001 - enhancements to Projects and Construction database and Community Calendar - completion of the Online Recreation Guides - administrative requirements - ongoing technical support	9800.00	Included in Annual IT Support Budget
2. Marketing and Promotion (Corporate Communications): - generate awareness and increase usage of the Pages through: - publications, bookmarks, mousepads, posters, brochures, etc. - presentations and meetings with local media, organizations and City staff - will use "in-house" services (e.g. printing) whenever possible	10,000.00	6000.00
3. Administration (Temp 0.5 Clerk IV, City Clerk's Office): - approval of Calendar entries - tracking frequency of department updates - work with IT on system improvements - making presentations and assisting with promotion - responding to staff and public inquiries - needs and duties will be re-evaluated after 6 months to establish ongoing role	23,410.60	23,286.70
Contingency (15% of Items 1 and 2)	2970.00	NA
Total	46,180.60	29,286.70

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(c) 1998 City of Vancouver