ORCity.org has been recognized by Juggle as one of the top city government websites in the state of Oregon. Below you'll find an interview with David Knoll, Information Technology Supervisor for Oregon City.
- ORCity.org is a top-notch web portal; what has been your role in its development?
We started working on an action plan for the website redesign in 2008. My role was team leader for our website group. Generally I developed and organized the many requests we had from staff and citizens for improved web tools and created specific tasks for a website rewrite and scope of work. My role then expanded to team lead for a logo and graphic design revamp as well, before we actually rewrote any web content.
- Can you summarize the history of Oregon City's web portal?
Until 2008 we had pretty static website, written with applications such as Frontpage and Dreamweaver, and a number of band-aid applications. Starting in 2000, we did major rewrites and added new tools every 2 years or so, but realized the need for more dynamic tools and information. We’ve had an interactive GIS mapping site up for several years, but in 2008 we began work on a more integrated, interactive website presence. We also realized the need for a facelift graphically, to reflect the dynamic Oregon City business and residential environment that exists today. We started with the creation of a new logo and branding materials that reflected a more modern City presence.
- What are the overarching objectives of Oregon City's current e-government initiatives?
On a simple level, our goals are to save staff time and enable users to find the information they need so they are more prepared when they do need to come in to the City. Ideally this would include online tools so that a citizen can do their business over the web and avoid having to come into City Hall at all.
- From a marketing standpoint, what are some of the strategies that you have utilized to draw attention to the information and services provided by ORCity.org, both on- and off-line?
We promoted the “new look and new tools” of the website in conjunction with our new City Hall construction (completed in Nov 2009). We helped advertise the changes in our quarterly newsletter the Trail News (on and offline) and in email taglines promoting certain features of the site (for instance, GIS folks added a tagline for the mapping site, City Recorder added a tagline about the streaming media and online ordinance searches, Community Development added a tagline about our inspection requests, Utility Billing added one for online UB payments, Code Enforcement added one for online parking citation payments, etc.). I used the parking citation payments tool myself a short time ago, although reluctantly.
- How has citizen feedback influenced the development of Oregon City's e-government services?
We formed a group during development of the logo, the branding process, and the website itself that consisted of City staff, business and citizen leaders, and Mayor Alice Norris. We wanted to be sure we developed a site consistent with our Commission goals and Citizen needs. The feedback I’ve gotten has been very positive and on that end I think we have succeeded.
- What is the most-used feature or service on the site?
Not surprisingly in today’s economic climate, the “Jobs” page gets threefold the traffic of any other page, which is pretty common of any municipal site. Our Library, Swimming Pool, GIS, and photo galleries also are very popular. In terms of tools, the Streaming Media Commission meetings and integration of an Agenda/Minutes application, the News and Rss feeds, online payments for Utility Billing, Permits, Business Licenses, and Parking Citations all get heavy traffic.
- Your site includes an online edition of the Trail News publication; in what other ways is your portal meeting the information demands of citizens and the online community?
The RSS Feeds enable news to be delivered directly to those who request it; we also have a number of forms where users can subscribe to Neighborhood newsletters, Police bulletins, Historic information, and just recently, in response to a great reaction to our Main Street Oregon City program, we’re committed to developing an Economic Development section for businesses wishing to know more about operating in Oregon City.
- Your portal contains an online mapping feature; how can this be used as an information resource for citizens, and how do you plan on developing the service in the future?
OCWebMaps is one of the most popular applications on the site. Users can generate their own taxlot and land-use reports, and bring these in during pre-apps. Reports generated from OCWebMaps are required for several application processes. There are advanced GIS analysis tools available that most folks don’t even use, but for planners, developers, and engineers who wish to do research, it provides a lot of information that can be easily accessed and utilized in a number of ways. We are developing this tool to allow users to access other publicly-available GIS services in their own analysis.
- 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 Oregon City's web portal?
We plan to streamline our online payment processes to be more user-friendly and expand the types of purchases available on the web. We plan to further integrate our mapping tools with Permits, and especially with our Asset Inventory programs. One primary focus is the move to web-based tools for as many applications as possible. This allows application access without heavy client software installs. This year, field workers will be able to navigate via GPS to a utility, update any maintenance or activity on it, and make edits to the GIS data, which then get sent back to the GIS for approval. We also have established a web 2.0 policy which includes guidelines for Social Networking and blogging, so we anticipate using these tools more in the future.
- What else that you would like to tell us about ORCity.org?
I would like to acknowledge both Alcheme Design, who did our logo and graphic design of the website, and Aha Consulting, who did the website programming. They managed to turn our needs and requests into a visually pleasing and effective website, and both teams were excellent partners in our branding and website efforts.