ColumbiaTN.com has been recognized by Juggle as one of the top city government websites in the state of Tennessee. Below you'll find an interview with Rick Harrison, Director of Management Informationn Services for the City of Columbia.
- ColumbiaTN.com is a top-notch web portal; what has been your role in its development?
I supervise the staff that work on the site, provide direction, and assist in updating the site. The entire MIS Department contributes ideas, and other city employees have helpful suggestions as well. We rely heavily on the departments to provide relevant content, and our mission is to present it in a pleasing, timely, and well-organized fashion. We’re constantly on the lookout for new ideas and methods with which to keep our public informed and maintain an on-line presence.
- Can you summarize the history of Columbia’s web portal?
Like most websites, it started small and grew over time. It’s been redesigned and reorganized at least three times since I’ve been responsible for supervising its maintenance over the past five years. We’re constantly on the lookout for new and better ways to present information and improve the site, so it’s constantly evolving. We try to take advantage of new ideas and features available on the Internet at no cost to us. I give credit to my staff who have worked hard to make it a top-notch site.
- What are the overarching objectives of Columbia’s current e-government initiatives?
We want to provide timely information to the public and make government more accessible. Many public records, including budgets, ordinances, construction projects, current events, community calendars, meeting agendas and minutes, are available in PDF format for easy download and viewing. Pictures and status reports of ongoing projects are posted regularly. During the spring flood that affected so much of middle Tennessee, we kept the community informed by placing press releases regarding flood levels, FEMA information and forms, and messages from emergency services. Communication with our citizens is absolutely critical to our operation.
- From a marketing standpoint, what are some of the strategies that you have utilized to draw attention to the information and services provided by ColumbiaTN.com, both on- and off-line?
On-line we’ve found that the use of Google Site Search to create a site search engine has been very beneficial both in convenience to our readers, but also in terms of our visibility on Google’s global search engine. Off-line we use our local public access cable channel to promote the availability of information on the website, in press releases, and printed flyers for selected events. Public service announcements on radio are also used.
- How has citizen feedback influenced the development of Columbia’s e-government services?
We welcome input from citizens and have placed convenient links to email addresses to encourage their feedback. If we see a trend in requests for information or services not available, we try to enhance the site accordingly. Citizen input is important in measuring the success of our web portal.
- What is the most-used feature or service on the site?
I would have to say the basic design of the page is what’s most used. We’ve attempted to organize the site in such a way that the viewers are never more than a few clicks away from their destination. The home page contains easy-to-use menus and direct links to popular features. People quickly lose interest if they have to navigate through a complicated nest of menus. The average person expects to spend only 30 to 60 seconds searching for what they’re looking for and quickly lose interest or become frustrated if their search takes too long.
- What led you to incorporate a virtual tour book instead of simple text to share information about the Columbia community?
We live in a society that has become more and more dependent on multimedia-based information. Our City Manager, Paul Boyer, Jr., felt it important to provide a more personal window into Columbia through the use of technology. Each viewer has a menu of selections to choose from that feature a welcome message from the Mayor, and topics such as education, quality of life, real estate and relocation, economic development, and recreation and other things to do. The virtual tour book allows the viewer to experience our community in a way that text-only simply cannot achieve.
- “Beer Board” is an interesting name for one of your committees; what do they do, and how do you work with committees like this to cover a wide range of information on your site?
The Beer Board is a panel of citizens, appointed by the Mayor and City Council, that review and approve applications for stores that wish to sell beer within the city limits. The City Manager’s office is the clearinghouse for all committees, including the Beer Board, and provides information to the MIS Department to post on the website.
- Where do you see e-government heading in the next 2-3 years? Are there any exciting new features or services currently in the works for Columbia’s web portal?
We have a number of exciting improvements on the horizon. A provision for online real property tax payments is planned for early winter, followed later by payments for permits, licenses and other transactions. We’re in the process of selecting a vendor to host a customer resource management (CRM) solution for which our site will be a portal. This will allow citizens to request services online and track the progress of those requests from inception to resolution. We recently launched a community awareness program, nixel.com, that allows citizens to sign up to receive neighborhood public safety and community information using text messages and email. Our most exciting new feature was just announced this week, our partnership with crimemapping.com to furnish map-based crime data via the web. Viewers can quickly get a visual summary of crimes committed in the community. The database is updated daily and contains history for up to 90 days. Viewers can zoom into their neighborhoods to display crime trends, and even learn the distance from crimes to their residences. The system integrates information from our GIS-based maps, Google maps, satellite imagery, and our crime database.
- What else that you would like to tell us about ColumbiaTN.com?
I’d like to commend my staff for their excellent work on Columbia’s website: Melissa Baker was responsible for much of the site’s recent redesign; Shonda McCord also worked on the design and did most of the photographs that appear there; Julian Bankston, and the others update the site as needed. Our portal is a work in progress, we’re constantly striving to improve it.