Parowan.org has been recognized by Juggle as one of the top city government websites in the state of Utah. Below you'll find an interview with Jerry Bixman, Webmaster for the City of Parowan.
- Parowan.org is a top-notch web portal; what has been your role in its development?
Volunteer Webmaster and developer of parowan.org for 12 yrs.
- Can you summarize the history of Parowan’s web portal?
The Parowan Chamber of Commerce hosted an airshow for 3 years from 1998, at that time there was a website to promote the event. After the end of the airshow the website morphed into the Parowan City website.
- What are the overarching objectives of Parowan’s current e-government initiatives?
Parowan, population 2800, is located in Southern Utah, amidst many National Parks and scenic attractions. Tourism is a great value to the community and the website provides a presence to attract visitors from around the world. Because of the small population, there are no local newspapers or other media to disburse information to the residents, the website provides this outlet.
- From a marketing standpoint, what are some of the strategies that you have utilized to draw attention to the information and services provided by Parowan.org, both on- and off-line?
Residents are encouraged by the local governing bodies to consult the website for information and e-forms available there. The name Parowan is distinctive enough that most search engines will put the website at the top of the search results so marketing of the name has not been a pressing need, but we do have incoming links from many other tourism entities.
- How has citizen feedback influenced the development of Parowan’s e-government services?
Membership growth has been slow, probably because there is no real need to become a member in order to derive any additional benefits from the website. Without a large membership base very few suggestions are submitted by the users.
- What is the most-used feature or service on the site?
Local News and Calendars are the most visited pages. The most used "features" are the traffic court and utility bill pay links.
- What is the “Who’s Online” feature, and what data are you hoping to collect from it?
The feature is to show users how many other visitors are online at any given time, no data is collected at this time.
- 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 Parowan’s web portal?
One goal would be to provide either video or audio, both live and recorded coverage of the City Council meetings for those who are unable to attend. Another would be to provide an interactive community area for discussion and suggestions regarding local issues and concerns.
- Is there anything else that you would like to tell us about Parowan.org?
Last year parowan.org was ported into a Joomla web environment, which has opened up the availability of many extentions providing much of the current flexibility and usefulness of the website. I look forward to the growth of this platform and the additions it will provide to continue the success of parowan.org