LaVergne.org has been recognized by Juggle as one of the top city government websites in the state of La Vergne. Below you'll find an interview with Matt Appleton, Director of Information Technology for the City of La Vergne.
- Lavergne.org is a top-notch web portal; what has been your role in its development?
The Information Technology department is fortunate to have dedicated personnel for developing and maintaining our web portal. All development and maintenance is done in house which allows us full control over the site and allows us to make adjustments quickly. As director of the department, I oversee the web portal and give direction to the personal that handle the day-to-day operation of the site.
- Can you summarize the history of La Vergne’s web portal?
The web portal underwent a major overhaul in 2008 when it was completely rebuilt and moved onto a new server. Citizen feedback on the new site has been very positive. The new web portal is now much easier to adjust in fact we make changes to it just about every day.
- What are the overarching objectives of La Vergne’s current e-government initiatives?
The major objectives of the current web portal is to provide citizens with quick access to the information on services provided by the city, as well as providing city government with a place for current and new employees to get information and understand of the structure of departments within the city’s government.
- From a marketing standpoint, what are some of the strategies that you have utilized to draw attention to the information and services provided by Lavergne.org, both on- and off-line?
Off-line we include our web address in all materials produced for the public. We also have some custom addresses that allow citizens to reach specific pages quickly. For example, http://otd.lavergne.org will take you directly to our Old Timer’s Day event page.
On-line we optimize our website to be picked up and categorized easily by search engines. Some of our regular sponsors for city events also place links on their websites to ours. Recognition from sites like Juggle help as well.
- How has citizen feedback influenced the development of La Vergne’s e-government services?
Citizen feedback has helped us identify areas to add to our web portal that we might not have thought of. Citizens are becoming more accustomed to using online services which in turn is pushing government to provide these services. Some times it takes longer to implement services than Citizens realize. We have a responsibility to protect information from abuse and misuse, while allowing citizens access to the information easily.
- What is the most-used feature or service on the site?
By far the most-used feature of our site is Old Timer’s Day area. Old Timer’s Day is our annual city celebration event. We combine 4th of July Fireworks, Christmas Parades, and a good old time festival all into one day. It takes a lot of work to bring this event together and we put a lot of work into that area of the website to give citizens information and get them excited about the event.
- How has your site’s downloadable newsletters made government information more accessible to citizens?
Previously, we mailed out the newsletters once a year to citizens. While this was effective for reaching the greatest number of citizens, it was a costly process. Publishing viewable/downloadable newsletters allows us to give citizens quicker access to information and allows us to publish newsletters more frequently. These downloadable newsletters allow us to be more environmentally friendly while the savings from paper and postage is put into other programs that directly benefit citizens.
- How many citizens participate in the surveys you post, and how do you use the information gleaned from each survey?
On average between 100 and 150 participate. It depends on the survey. Some questions are just for fun, others are designed to draw attention to an upcoming event, the remaining are usually used to gauge public interest on a particular topic.
- 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 La Vergne’s web portal?
Through the President’s transparent government initiatives, the ability to interact and obtain information/services will likely dominate the development of our web portal over the next few years.
We have some ideas in the works; but nothing we are ready to release yet. Most involve bringing more interactivity to the web portal.