SantaBarbaraCA.gov has been recognized by Juggle as one of the top city government websites in the state of California. Below you'll find an interview with Scott Nelson, Webmaster for the City of Santa Barbara.
- SantaBarbaraCA.gov is a top-notch web portal; what has been your role in its development?
The City of Santa Barbara web site provides content-rich online services to our community and visitors from all over the world. The City's web site is the destination to over 4,500 visitors per day and hosts well over 36,000 pages and documents. As Webmaster, I am responsible for site administration and work with over 200 City staffers in order to maintain and update site content on a daily basis.
- Can you summarize the history of Santa Barbara's web portal?
The City of Santa Barbara launched its first web site in the mid-1990s. In 1999 the City Council made a commitment to the community to create an e-Government web presence. To this end, on November 1, 2004, the City of Santa Barbara launched a new web site utilizing Microsoft Content Management Server (MCMS) 2002 technology. The site was the culmination of a year-long Web Site Upgrade and Redesign project. I was the lead staff on the project and the Civic Resource Group (CRG) (http://www.CivicResource.com/) was the vendor who conceptualized, planned, and implemented the project.
Over the years, we have added e-Commerce services, streaming video, online job applications, permit and parcel lookup, interactive City maps, and much more. The City site continues to grow and provide more services and information to thousands of visitors each day.
- What are the overarching objectives of Santa Barbara's current e-government initiatives?
The overarching goal is to provide access to City information and services via the City web site on a 24/7 basis. The web site architecture creates a citizen-centered information hierarchy to allow visitors to the site easy access to the information they seek.
- From a marketing standpoint, what are some of the strategies that you have utilized to draw attention to the information and services provided by SantaBarbaraCA.gov, both on- and off-line?
Our marketing strategy seeks to draw visitors to the site via print advertising in water bill inserts, news paper advertisements for summer camps, and a variety of signage throughout the City.
An emphasis is to provide electronic versions of information and traditionally printed materials in order to conserve paper. Simple request for graffiti removal, some fire inspections, streetlight and sidewalk repair cut down on direct phone calls to the City and allow reporting 24/7.
- How has citizen feedback influenced the development of Santa Barbara's e-government services?
Citizens wanted access to see their local government in action. In June of 2006, the City Council meetings became available for live streaming. We have built an archive of City Council meeting videos for on-demand play-back. Each of the meetings has an accompanying agenda packet, staff reports and summary minutes. The agenda items are linked to the place in the meeting video that discussed that item.
Since that time we have added live and on-demand videos of 10 of the most popular Boards & Commissions, in addition to many public service announcements, and general information videos. The City site offers a live 24/7 stream of our Emmy Award winning City TV-18 broadcast.
- What is the most-used feature or service on the site?
Santa Barbara is sometimes referred to as the American Riviera. Her beautiful beaches, majestic mountains and colorful culture make Santa Barbara a premier resort destination. It is probably because of this that our Visitors section is the most popular area of the site.
Santa Barbara is not only a beautiful place to live, we are also fortunate to have an abundance of activities, employment opportunities, and resources at our disposal. Our online class registration and facility reservation application, e-Recreation, is also among the most popular areas of the site. This e-Commerce application allows visitors to sign-up and pay for an abundance of recreation classes and summer camps offered by our Parks & Recreation department.
- What led you to launch your e-subscription service? How successful has the service proven, and what kind of feedback has it received from citizens?
With all of the diverse content on the City site, visitors needed some way of knowing when content they are interested in changed. E-Subscriptions allows web site visitors to subscribe to email alerts from any number of the more then 40 list alert options. Visitors can manage their own subscriptions, opting-in and out as they wish. As of this writing, we have almost 2,000 subscribers utilizing the e-Subscriptions system.
- What has been the biggest hurdle in developing and/or maintaining Santa Barbara's web portal, and how did you overcome it?
The biggest hurdle continues to be organizing the tens of thousands of pages and documents so that web site visitors can find what they want with the fewest number of clicks. Best practices dictates that our four top-level categories; Government, Residents, Business and Visitors, tends to be the architecture of choice for the best local government sites.
In 2011, the City intends to offer an “I want to…” application that will help citizens find out how to request services, find information and navigate the site without having any knowledge of the City’s organizational structure.
- 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 Santa Barbara's web portal?
We see much more interactivity and 2-way communication. As the web site offers more information and more services, it will become more responsive to our community’s needs.
Social networking will become a part of the City government web communication strategy. We have successfully piloted a Twitter feed for Fire Department tweets (http://twitter.com/SBCity). Social network integration allows the City of deliver information and services directly to the places our community members spend their time.
- What else that you would like to tell us about SantaBarbaraCA.gov?
The City of Santa Barbara is dedicated to “transparency” in government. We openly publish videos of public meetings, minutes, and agendas. We have salary and benefit information for all City positions listed and easily accessible on the web site. It is important that our community feel engaged, informed and a part of their local government.