Section 2. COMPLETION OF PROJECT TASKS

The following tasks defined the basic workplan for the project to develop abagOnline as the San Francisco Bay Area's government information network. This section of the final report summarizes activities and accomplishments of each Project Task.

TASK 1 - ORGANIZE COMMITTEES

The Project Narrative originally envisioned establishment of Policy and Technical Advisory committees. ABAG staff, however, quickly came to the conclusion that the level of Internet and wide-area network knowledge among local governments was such that it would be fruitless to establish a separate Technical Advisory Committee. At the time, most local governments had little technical advice to offer regarding Internet-based networking, and, for the most part, had not studied the technology and had not thought about policy issues.

It became ABAG's intent to dedicate more resources to providing education about the Internet and bringing local governments up the learning curve. For the interim, the meetings of the abagOnline Advisory Committee were also to be used to ascertain the likely needs of local governments and community-based organizations from a regional computer accessible network.

abagOnline Advisory Committee meetings were held on: January 23, February 27, April 10, May 15, June 12, September 11, and November 13 of 1995 and February 12 of 1996. Topics discussed during the meetings included: basic Internet access, requirements for a Web server, security for a Web server, announcement boards for contracts and RFPs, local governments' citizen outreach, earthquake shaking hazard maps, earthquake preparedness documents, an employment board of recruitment of candidates, local Web publishing case studies, on-line interactive advice columns, the Internet shopping impact on local sales taxes, Internet-based local government permit processing, secure commerce servers, public key encryption, and Web publishing tools.

Special invitations to participate in our meetings were extended to city and county purchasing officers, public information officers and employees of special districts. Including presentations and discussions with specific professional groups, ABAG staff directly met with 1000 local government employees and citizens over the course of the project.

TASK 2 - CONDUCT NEEDS SURVEY

Initial needs surveys conducted just prior to commencement of the NTIA funded project revealed that the immediate need of local government was for information about Internet connectivity, both as users and providers of information services. Initial efforts of the abagOnline project were thus directed to fill this information need.

ABAG staff participated in a number of citizen meetings about the Internet in Contra Costa County and several key themes consistently emerged:

1. Governments should provide easy access for citizens who have older and slower computers and modems.

2. Governments should not create an elite service which bypasses the disadvantaged.

3. Government information collected with the assistance of tax revenues should be available for free (or at cost) over the Internet.

4. Local businesses are starting to sense the importance of the Internet for community economic development but do not have a clear idea of the best approach.

5. No one was sure of how to accommodate the publishing of government information on the Internet into the budgets and resources of local government.

On March 12, 1995 ABAG created a Web-based form which citizens could fill out and automatically post to a mailbox. The form could be easily accessed from the abagOnline home page by any citizen using any Web browser or the text-based browser - Lynx. Since that time, three hundred thirty-eight messages were received. These comments and suggestions were not the only ones received by ABAG. Numerous persons contacted staff by telephone or mail with similar concerns. The compilation of comments received via the on-line submission form is the most complete, organized, unconstrained survey of user needs from abagOnline.

Results of Needs Survey

The responses or submittals to the online comments form give an overall picture of users' needs and desires from abagOnline. The variety of comments is very broad, but it is possible to group comments by loosely defined categories.

Requests for Expansion of Data -

more earthquake hazard information - 22

more census data by city - 1

more housing information - 2

more information for a specific city or county - 7

additional listings of local elected officials - 1

more environmental information - 1

more Bay Trail maps - 1

more employment information -7

more of everything - 2

Requests for new Information -

There were also requests for new information that was not contained in abagOnline at the time of the request for a total of 39, including:

deeds of real estate property - 1

online medical billing services - 2

a listserver for local government purchasing agents - 1

minority/women-owned business opportunities - 3

tourist, hotel, and historical information - 2

highway construction plans - 1

Bay Area schools - 1

election information - 2

information on other ABAG programs - 7

web site access statistics - 1

list of public access Internet sites - 1

entertainment and events - 1

flood risk maps - 2

fire and safety information - 1

links to Bay Area publications - 1

online access to permits and ordinances - 1

business links - 2

taxable sales data - 1

county level agency listings - 1

population and economic projections data - 2

scenic photographs - 1

detailed street maps - 1

calendar of events for all cities - 1

real-time traffic information - 1

real estate information - 1

Citizens Requesting Additional Agency Participation -

A number of people inquired about online access to local governments or agencies not present at the time of inquiry as follows:

request for a Bay Area city, county or special district - 15

county tax assessor's information - 1

California Franchise Tax Board - 1

other non-Bay Area local agencies - 5

California Department of Justice - 1

User Complaints -

abagOnline evolved significantly since the beginning of the project. Not only were new features added, but mistakes, error or difficulties were corrected after being pointed out by users. Not all problems originated at abagOnline:

chastisement for delay in providing content - 2

requests for updated employment data - 4

America Online based and similar ISP users expressed difficulties accessing maps and tables - 19

errors pointed out in our pages or programs - 15

help was requested for text-only browsers - 3

complaints about colors or fonts - 3

complaint about access speed with slow modem - 1

complaint about content of an abagOnline page - 1

rambling complaint about the value of abagOnline - 1

non-specific complaint about inadequate access to government - 1

complaint about a particular city's services - 1

update information for city or county pages provided - 16

updated links to a local page provided - 12

Help Requests -

Several persons requested help or guidance as follows:

organizations such as councils of government or planning commissions in other areas of the country requested guidance for establishing their web sites - 6

requests were received for help in developing an RFP posting board on the lines of the ABAG Contracts Exchange - 2

requests were made for ABAG to create earthquake hazard maps for other regions - 3

agencies inquired about ABAG services to help them publish online - 5

help was requested for participation in abagOnline discussion groups - 3

Miscellaneous Messages -

A few miscellaneous messages were in the total. These included:

request for a link to a site in Italy - 1

inquiry about authors of a city web site - 1

comment about the ease of direct dial-up option for the ACE board - 1

request to find a link to another agency - 1

notice of a telecommunications resource site in Sweden - 1

notice of an RFP posting board in Los Agencies - 1

a general request to change the design of abagOnline pages - 1

requests to locate relatives or friends - 2

requests for more ABAG documents - 2

requests to help locate or reach businesses or organizations - 2

survey form asking about ABAG's web use - 1

miscellaneous test messages - 5

Responses to ABAG Earthquake Shaking Hazards Mapping Project

In a separately funded program, the ABAG Earthquake Shaking Hazards mapping project posted approximately 1,000 shaking intensity maps for the Bay Area on abagOnline. This project generated 311 comments to the authors. One-half were requests for more maps, one-quarter expressed happiness with the site and one-quarter had difficulties accessing the maps. An email-based survey form was sent to all 311 correspondents requesting their input on new earthquake-related features. Responses were received from 111 and their requests in order of frequency were as follows:

1. More hazard maps covering more cities

2. Better street representation on maps

3. More alternative earthquake scenarios to be presented

4. Mitigation measures to be provided

5. Pictorial examples explaining the mercalli scale

6. List of contractors who could provide retrofit services.

TASK 3 - ASSESS STUDIES CONDUCTED IN OTHER REGIONS

During the scheduled period for performing this task, staff had located only the Great Lakes Information Network as a regional Internet program connecting citizens, local and state governments. We have been in communication with GLIN staff and exchanged networking ideas. Although GLIN was created as a gopher-based network, GLIN staff suggested that ABAG staff use Mosaic to tour the Net. abagOnline then was created as a Web-based system and subsequently offered hosting services to local governments. GLIN staff have thanked us for the hosting idea. GLIN is now available on the Web at www.great_lakes.net.

Since that time, two good resources have sprung up that explore the questions and answers local governments face in participation on the Internet. The first is a listserver from North Dakota University GOVPUB@LISTSERVE.NODAK.EDU which contains significant discourses and advice on local and state government information on the Internet.

A second resource is the Northstar Project of the State of Minnesota. This demonstration project has two main objectives:

1. To build a citizen-focused, user-friendly, accessible place on the Internet for organized access to and coordinated dissemination of government information and services.

2. To help government across Minnesota gain the experience necessary to build a foundation for improved access . . . through the use of information technology.

The Northstar Project has developed an elaborate methodology to access citizen needs and seek citizen input. Many of the questions raised and the experimental pages posted have been announced to the GOVPUB listserver. There are no final results from the Northstar Project and we suspect there may never be inasmuch as local government participation in the Internet is an evolving process which, due to rapid changes in technology, may never reach a conclusive finality. The Northstar Project may be found at www.state.mn.us/interactive.

During the course of the abagOnline project, staff regularly compiled lists of exemplary sites on the Internet which demonstrated new, innovative uses of information technology. These lists were used during presentations at local government meetings. Soon it became obvious that the ability of ABAG staff to be present at every demonstration opportunity was a limiting factor in the "spreading of the gospel." The list was then converted to a demonstration page on the abagOnline Web site. Local government representatives wishing to further encourage others to participate could then easily refer to the same exemplary sites.

TASK 4 - SELECT ON-LINE SERVICES

ABAG had selected and established an experimental Web server prior to receiving the NTIA grant. Discussions with local governments and community-based organizations (CBOs) pointed out the need for access by citizens with slower modems. These citizens, and many CBOs, could not effectively use the World Wide Web because of their inadequate communication equipment. It was also anticipated that a number of years would pass before 28.8 kbps modems would be commonly used.

Therefore, ABAG selected to provide a gopher server and telnet access to abagOnline. The gopher server, which was in operation on the same platform as the Web server, mirrored the text information from the Web server. This was made possible by a software program written expressly for abagOnline. This program, called Gopher Maker, copied html pages to menu and text files for the gopher server. Thus, approximately 95 percent of the Web's text information was also available via the gopher. This information was constantly changing because ABAG was refining and modifying the Gopher Maker software.

In the fall of 1995 ABAG discontinued offering information via the gopher server for three reasons:

1. Rapid advances in the World Wide Web had greatly expanded our capacity to provide government information in an informative and entertaining manner. Yet, advances such as streaming audio and frames could not be reproduced on a gopher server.

2. The advances in the commonly used html specifications made it impossible to update the Gopher Maker software so that the gopher server content could be kept current with the graphical web pages.

3. By mid-summer of 1995, fewer than two dozen requests were made of the gopher server in a month compared to 5-6,000 per day on the Web server. This indicated that the vast majority of public were adopting the World Wide Web service of the Internet.

ABAG also had added telnet access to the Web server. Citizens with telnet capability could reach the Web server and start a copy of Lynx. This program is a text-based Web browser and provides the functionality of a graphical access to the Web, but without the images. Due to security concerns, the telnet server was disconnected in July 1995. We announced the pending disconnection several weeks prior to the event and received no requests to continue the service.

ABAG currently maintains a full Internet Web site at www.abag.ca.gov. ABAG also maintains an ftp site at ftp.abag.ca.gov to provide alternate access to earthquake hazard maps and large document files.

During the course of the abagOnline project, a new service had been added: the ABAG Contracts Exchange, or ACE. ACE allowed local governments to post pending contracts and requests for proposals on the Internet. In order to facilitate the access to the postings by contractors who did not have Internet access, ABAG established a dial-up account on our routers. Contractors with a computer and modem could dial 510/464-8482 and login as "contract" to start a limited text-based session on the ACE board and see the same basic contracting information.

ABAG had received requests from local government employees to establish discussion groups for their use. These were started and are discussed in Section 2, Task 11.

TASK 5 - DEVELOP PERFORMANCE CRITERIA

The intent of this task was to establish performance criteria for participants in abagOnline and the presentation of, and address to, information on the network. Soon after commencement of the project it became apparent that the local government participants were not prepared to decide any questions of performance criteria. Many were struggling with basic questions about Internet access and whether to participate at any level.

ABAG staff adopted the position that the market forces at play in the development of the World Wide Web would probably dictate the performance criteria for organizations wishing to publish information for public consumption. In a way, the development and evolution of Web browsers was both pushing and changing the expectations of users and publishers on the Web. At the start of our program, there was only one graphical Web browser, Mosaic from the University of Illinois. The Internet was heavily populated by University participants and the tools of the Internet were gopher, telnet, ftp and newsgroups.

Since October of 1994, several factors came into play which made performance criteria a rapidly moving target out of reach of the decision making process of local government. The first was the development of the Netscape graphical browser for the World Wide Web. The authors of this browser added new features almost on a monthly basis, spawning an industry of browser developers and add-on modules for multi-media communications. New enhancements now include audio, video clips, background and text colors, multiple frames, real-time chat sessions, interactive forms, secure credit card transactions, and shared white boards, among others. The Netscape browser is now estimated to be used by 75 - 80 percent of Web users. Commercial on-line services such as CompuServe and America Online with their own proprietary interface to the Internet have been forced by market pressures to offer their users the option of a Netscape browser.

The second major factor affecting performance criteria is the recent (12 months) widespread sales push by makers of personal computers to offer multimedia-capable computers for the home market. Customers who wish to purchase a home computer are hard-pressed to find a model that does not offer a modem, sound, and video replay capability with a graphics interface of Windows 3.x, Windows 95, or MacOS. Thus the domestic market is being saturated with computers that can take advantage of the features of the World Wide Web.

The third major factor is corporate America's rapid acceptance of the World Wide Web as a communications medium. Unavailable two years ago, but heavily promoted now, are Web sites from industry giants such as Time-Warner, Sony, CBS, Wall Street Journal, airlines, automakers, and the like. Developed with marketing glitz, and often using the latest features of the Netscape browser, these new Web sites create a content and an interface that, while it cannot be easily matched by local governments, raises the expectations of citizens seeking government information on the Internet.

At the beginning of the abagOnline project, staff selected a graphical user interface as the primary and future interface due to its ease of use and potential for increasing citizen interest in our content. During the major period of the project the abagOnline pages were designed to be viewed by the Netscape browser but also constrained to be acceptable via the America Online (AOL) browser. This is because the AOL service provided the largest single group of citizen users of the Internet, although its graphical browser lagged behind Netscape in features. With the announcement in the spring of 1996 that the AOL service would offer its customers the Netscape browser, ABAG staff are now designing pages to that standard of performance.

There are certain constraints on abagOnline page design. Text hot-link elements are added which let citizens using text-based browsers such as Lynx, or Netscape in text-only mode, access the majority of the content of abagOnline. This is in recognition of the fact that many citizens still use modems with speeds of 14.4 kbps and slower. Additionally, certain standards of "good" design are emerging and being reported in trade publications. These standards also acknowledge the lack of adequate bandwidth to present overly complex graphics or features, and ABAG endeavors to follow those guidelines.

Local governments in the Bay Area, with few exceptions, present basic information in simple formats and do not challenge or approach the possibilities offered by the newest browsers. This is due primarily to the lack of trained staff at local governments who could offer new designs or features and to the persistent resistance of local governments to radical change without a clear, perceived benefit to their operations.

The discontinuation of gopher and telnet services by abagOnline was discussed in Section 2, Task 4. No Bay Area local government offers gopher or telnet services to citizens.

TASK 6 - IDENTIFY SOURCES OF DATA

The intent of this task was to identify sources and types of data which should or could be presented through abagOnline. A user survey of local government employees conducted prior to the start of the NTIA funded project returned few responses. Those who responded felt they were too unfamiliar with the Internet to suggest which specific types of data or government information should be presented through abagOnline other than a standard answer of "agendas and minutes."

During the course of the project ABAG staff researched possible sets of government data for posting according to the following criteria:

1. Is the information of practical value?

2. Is the information available outside of a local host computer?

3. Is the owner willing to post the information on the Internet?

The highest priorities were placed upon information that demonstrated practical business application of local government participation in the Internet. Table 2 presents the data types and sources that have been made available through abagOnline during the course of this project.

TASK 7 - DEVELOP NEW DATABASES

The publication of government information on the Internet provides new opportunities for presenting data beyond the historical schemes of tables of census data or pamphlets on topical issues. What once was a singular piece of information from one jurisdiction can now be more readily combined with similar information from other jurisdictions to create a database. It was the intent of this task to develop new datasets for presentation on the Internet.

The first application so developed was a central database of local government requests for proposals for goods or services. This database was unique because a central compilation of local government RFPs had not previously existed, and because the content was frequently changing as new RFPs were submitted and old ones expired. The efficiencies of Internet communication made creation of such a database practical.

ABAG Contracts Exchange

ABAG staff announced to local governments the creation of the ABAG Contracts Exchange (ACE) for the posting of requests for proposals and requests for bids for public works projects, consulting contracts, franchise operators and equipment purchases in May 1995. A notice about the availability of ACE postings on the World Wide Web was also sent to contractor organizations, professional societies and chambers of commerce. Recognizing that many potential contractors may not yet have Internet access, the ACE database was also made accessible through direct dial-up connection for anyone with a computer and modem. The intent of the ACE services was to reduce costs to local government by increasing competition through wider dissemination of RFPs.

Table 2: Data Types Available through abagOnline

*All reference data may be reached at the abagOnline Web site atwww.abag.ca.gov.

ACE postings were accepted by email or by mailed floppy disk. Software routines were written to convert the files to a standard text file and to create a hypertext index on the abagOnline site of available RFPs. The resulting pages and data may be viewed at www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/commerce/ace/ace.html. After a slow start this has become a successful site frequently used by local governments.

A similar database has been constructed for the posting of local government employment opportunities at www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/commerce/globe/globe.html. Other new data sets developed or compiled specifically for posting on the Internet are designated as "New for the WWW" in Table 2.

TASK 8 - DEVELOP ORGANIZATION OF DATA

The ability of a user to find and access information on abagOnline could be enhanced through proper organization of user-friendly menus, pointers and references. The basic organization of the abagOnline home page and subsequent menu pages has undergone several revisions during the course of the project. Initially, when there was minimal content in abagOnline, much of the information presented was about ABAG programs and ABAG data. abagOnline reflected this prominence of an ABAG centered Web site. As additional cities joined the program and new data sets became available, the abagOnline menus were reorganized to present natural groupings of content, enabling the citizen to find information quickly.

Currently graphic images (buttons) and matching text are hyperlinked to menus representing major features of abagOnline. These features on the home page are What's New and Events, Commerce, Discussion Groups, Bay Area Projects, Local Government, and ABAG Services. Reduced font text and hyperlinks also lead to information about ABAG and abagOnline. If the home page could be designated a first level menu, then second level menus provide direct access to all major programs and data within abagOnline.

Numerous commercial sites on the Web offer extensive graphics and multiple layers of graphics and menus to provide an entertaining path to particular data sought by the user. At abagOnline, a decision was reached to keep graphic images on menu pages simple and to minimize the hierarchy of menus. This decision was made to help citizens with slower equipment reach their objective without unnecessary, discouraging delays. The abagOnline home page also offers visitors a localized search engine to help them locate documents where the categorical placement may be unknown.

The organization of individual data sets is highly varied, just as the content of these data sets can be very disparate. The organization of the first database, the abagOnline Contracts Exchange had been modeled upon an extremely simple-to-use, Web-based system at King County, Washington. The main categories of organization are, at this time,

Goods, Supplies, Equipment, Materials & Non-Professional Services;

Architectural & Engineering Consultant Services;

Professional & Technical Consultant Services;

Construction Services; and

Franchises, Leases and Concessions.

These are very simple categories which represent relatively consistent forms of structured information across the entire database. On the other hand, the main categories of organization for the earthquake information section actually represent very different subsets of data. What's New is a single text file relating recent additions to this section. On Shaky Ground points to over 1,000 earthquake hazard maps background information on earthquakes and liquefaction and frequently asked questions and answers.

In general, it can be said that organization of data on abagOnline has been determined by the nature of the data, the format of the data, and the capabilities of Web browsers.

TASK 9 - ESTABLISH DATA STORAGE FORMATS

Based upon recommendations from the abagOnline Advisory Committee, the data storage and presentation formats for abagOnline (and most of the participating jurisdictions) are to be ASCII text, html encoded text, and gif images. Where formatting is critical, text and embedded images would be presented in Adobe Acrobat® portable document format. These standards are widely followed on the World Wide Web today and deviation from these standards reduces the size of the potential audience that could view the respective documents.

The issue of data storage formats was far less clear at the start of this program. The world Wide Web was still very new and the html document markup standard commonly in use was version 1.0. We are now in version 3.0 with many browsers using or approaching that standard. The revisions to the html standard have greatly extended the ability of information publishers to present data as they wish it to be viewed. A second factor which influenced the decision for the abagOnline data storage formats was the recent and rapid development of document conversion software. There are now many software packages which will convert database, spreadsheet and text files to html format. Additionally, the major word processor and page layout packages now have the ability to almost automatically save files in Web ready html format.

There are three types of data available over the Internet for which no decision has been reached for abagOnline formats. These data types are sound files, video or animation files, and encrypted data files. The technology for these types is new, evolving rapidly and with no clear winner in the marketplace. abagOnline, and local government members will follow the market rather than unilaterally adopt standards or formats, which may become dead-ends. Until the picture becomes clearer as to the successful technologies and formats, abagOnline will experiment with different options. We have presented audio clips from the City of San Carlos in True Speech® format (www.ci.San-carlos.ca.us/), and we are accepting online credit card purchases of ABAG publications using the abagOnline Netscape Commerce Server® with secure sockets layer data encryption technology. abagOnline also offers Real Audio ® presentations about junk gun control measures at www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/junkguns/deanspeach.ra and a slide-sound show about the San Francisco Bay Trail at www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/baytrail/bayhome2.html.

TASK 10 - ESTABLISH abagOnline SERVERS

This task is the basic work task of creating and maintaining the features of abagOnline. The technical and design work of crafting pages, menus, CGI scripts, clickable maps, server enhancements and hosting administration are included in this task. The final abagOnline network configuration at the close of the project period is depicted in Figure 1.

TASK 11 - ESTABLISH DISCUSSIONS AND NEWSGROUPS

In this task, ABAG proposed to create several electronic discussion groups to facilitate the flow of information among government agencies and citizens. ABAG has created five groups using the listserv program. The five groups, created to let local government employees communicate with their peers are:

"abagNet - managers" for City Managers, County Administrators, and directors of regional agencies

"abagNet - Infosystems" for local government information systems departments

"planning" for city and regional planners

"Alameda hazmat" for hazardous materials regulatory agencies in Alameda County, and

"telco" for discussion of issues related to telecommunications technology.

An additional discussion group, currently in planning but scheduled for implementation in 1996, is for the California Association of Public Purchasing Officers (CAPPO).

Information about participation in the first four groups is available on abagOnline in the Discussion Groups section. The first two groups, abagNet - managers and abagNet - infosystems, can also be accessed, upon registration, via a Web browser or via email. The Web browser access was designed as an experiment in comparing the two methods of access for user ease and friendliness. Most users reported that they preferred the simplicity of receiving their newsgroup (listserv) postings by email. For this reason, the remaining groups were designed for email use only.

While the managers, infosystems, planning and telco listservers were created to serve the needs of Bay Area local government employees, the versatility of the listserver became apparent with the last two groups. The Alameda County District Attorney's office wished to regularly send notices and communications to 13 local agencies dealing with hazardous materials regulation or enforcement. Frequent copying and mailing were too expensive and too slow. ABAG volunteered to host a listserver for this group, at insignificant cost, and their communications have speeded up considerably.

At the other end for the size spectrum, the statewide CAPPO organization selected abagOnline for Web-based hosting services because of dissatisfaction with their previous electronic system, which was a bulletin board. The disadvantages of the bulletin board were that the telephone connection charges from remote parts of the state were too high and the bulletin board was a closed system with limited content and limited public access. CAPPO will be using a dual Web page and email system for their discussion group on abagOnline.

Traditional newsgroups using the national newsgroup and newsfeed system were not created by ABAG for the Bay Area. Sufficient groups currently exist, such as ba.politics, ba.smartvalley, and ba.internet.

TASK 12 - DETERMINE SHORT- AND LONG-TERM FEES

Under this task ABAG would establish appropriate fees for maintenance and operation of the network after the conclusion of the TIIAP funded project as well as short-term fees to raise matching funds for the grant. For a report on matching funds, please refer to the concluding Project Financial Report.

Long-term maintenance of abagOnline has been assured through a variety of mechanisms. First, abagOnline has become an indispensable method by which ABAG communicates with member governments and Bay Area citizens. Thus ABAG has committed to ensuring the continuation of abagOnline.

Fees for the support of abagOnline also are a way of ensuring continuation. ABAG provides hosting services for local governments and non-profit organizations (currently 25 total). These organizations have concluded that there is considerable cost-saving to them in using the abagOnline Internet server and the abagOnline T1 Internet connection through BBN Planet and paying a competitive $50 per month for 50 megabytes of on-line data storage. The abagOnline hosting service also provides an FTP account for jurisdictions to maintain their own Web pages and provides domain name service, so that jurisdictions may have their own name identity on the Internet. This service could be compared to a jurisdiction purchasing an Internet server, router, digital modem, firewall and software for approximately $20,000; leasing a slow speed Internet connection for $300-400 per month; and hiring a system administrator knowledgeable in UNIX. By hosting their information, abagOnline allows jurisdictions to save money and concentrate on World Wide Web content rather than connection technology. Information about abagOnline hosting services is available at www.abag.ca.gov/abag/overview/abagOnline/offr-mem.html.

Additional plans for generating revenue to support abagOnline include charging fees for the posting of information in public databases. Specifically, posting of a complete request-for-proposals package on the ACE board would be charged a fee, whereas the notice of an RFP availability would continue to be posted at no charge. Additionally, if the project to electronically publish draft environmental impact reports (CEPEC) is successful, then the fees from each posting would help support abagOnline.

Finally, although local government information on the Internet often does not have the glamour or entertainment value of large commercial sites, it can be unique and desired. This presents an opportunity to attract advertisers and advertising revenue. The abagOnline earthquake hazard maps provide unique information visited by thousands every month. Four companies providing earthquake related construction services or supplies currently post advertisements in that section of abagOnline, each for a modest fee of $50 per month. They may be seen at www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/eqmaps/eqmaps.html.

TASK 13 - MARKET abagOnline TO LOCAL JURISDICTIONS AND AGENCIES

Under this task, ABAG personnel were to visit local jurisdictions and demonstrate information available on abagOnline and explain the many possibilities inherent with participation. The immediate and primary method of promoting abagOnline was through presentations at abagOnline Advisory Committee meetings. During the course of the project, 700 persons attended at various times the meetings of the committee. The majority of attendees were local government employees but also included citizens and business representatives.

ABAG staff attended meetings of county mayors' organizations, city managers' associations, information systems employees, city councils, boards of supervisors and professional organizations. Appendix B, the abagOnline Project Log includes the visits ABAG personnel made throughout the region during the project. At the meetings, the presentation usually consisted of an online demonstration of the ABAG Web site and other examples of government on the Internet. The presentations were made with an AST® color notebook computer and InFocus® portable liquid crystal display projector using a dial-up ppp account with CRL Network Systems. Handouts included brochures about abagOnline, literature about hosting services and special features, and a mousepad with the abagOnline URL. Appendix C presents the basic promotional literature for abagOnline. Partly as a result of the abagOnline promotional program, Bay Area local government participation as providers of information on the World Wide Web rose from two in April 1994 to eighty by June of 1996.

TASK 14 - ESTABLISH COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS

At the start of this project there was a belief that ABAG and local governments, special districts, regional agencies, state agencies and federal offices would sign cooperative agreements for participation in abagOnline. Central to this belief was an implied understanding that abagOnline would somehow coordinate, manage or direct the participation of other organizations in the Internet. Subsequent developments have clearly shown that participation in the Internet and publication on the World Wide Web are highly decentralized and driven by individual vision and creativity, not central management or direction. Coordination of organizations at highly varying levels of skill and experience could only be accomplished through example or "doing it first." Doing it first can be seen in the ABAG Contracts Exchange, where the creation of a practical, well-designed service precluded the development of alternative, fragmented services.

Coordination and cooperation have actually been enabled and enhanced by the tools and standards of the World Wide Web. It is possible for organizations to develop and present their own Web sites and even passively cooperate in regional efforts. For example, abagOnline maintains a central directory (www.abag.ca.gov/abag/local_gov/) of Bay Area cities counties, special districts and state and federal agencies. Citizens can select an organization from this list and be provided with information from the abagOnline server or a remote server, seamlessly through the magic of hypertext links. Similarly, at the abagOnline earthquake information pages, a single list of resources can reference local documents or the U. S. Geological Survey computer in Menlo Park.

Two areas where cooperative agreements actually are necessary are contracts for hosting services, presented in Appendix D, and registration for participation in the ABAG contracts exchange (ACE) and Government Listing of Bay Area Employment (GLOBE). These registrations are a form of cooperative agreement and are necessary to validate postings to the respective bulletin boards. In registration, local governments designate a contact person. This contact person is automatically sent copies of postings received by abagOnline from a specific jurisdiction. This contact person's responsibility is to identify a fictitious posting not actually coming from the represented jurisdiction. ABAG would then be contacted to remove the fictitious posting.

TASK 15 - DETERMINE TRAINING NEEDS AND RESOURCES

ABAG staff surveyed local government needs for Internet related training and found some surprising results. It was originally thought there would be a demand for advanced Internet topics such as TCP/IP protocols, UNIX programs, or firewall administration. It turned out that only a few jurisdictions were interested in, or could discuss, such topics. The overwhelming need, during this project, was for education in basic topics such as

what is the Internet?

what is the World Wide Web?

how do I get connected?

what can you find on the Web?

how do I use email?

how can I prepare an html document, or

what can my city (county) do with the Internet?

These questions/topics formed the basis of the training classes offered in Section 2, Task 16.

TASK 16 - CONDUCT TRAINING SESSIONS

ABAG staff and guest instructors offered World Wide Web related training to public agency staff, the business community, and interested citizens. This training was offered in four forms: presentations of one-half to one hour during abagOnline Advisory Committee meetings; half-day short courses held at the ABAG offices; on-site staff training for selected cities; on-site staff training for selected cities; and full-day training at the ABAG conference on environmental management-HAZMACON.

abagOnline Advisory Committee

Early in the project it became apparent that abagOnline Advisory Committee meetings would generate minimal advice when the overwhelming local government need was for basic information. Therefore, a portion of each meeting was devoted to one-half to one-hour lectures on technical or fiscal issues related to Internet participation. Specific topics presented at the meetings included the following:

Internet connectivity options

servers and server software

firewalls and security

sending documents by electronic mail

using selection lists and maps in your html pages

impact of Internet purchasing on local sales tax revenues

online submittal of forms and permit applications

Web-based discussion groups

Internet secure communications and data encryption

HTML authoring tools

Short Courses

The most frequently requested topics for training were how to use the Internet; and, how to generate an html page. ABAG staff created and presented a half-day class "Introduction to the Internet" which was offered, with hands-on practice, to small groups of no more than twelve local government employees. This course was offered eight times.

ABAG staff also developed a short course teaching the fundamentals of the hypertext markup language and how to use common tools. During the class, students were helped to convert their text files to html pages which were subsequently posted, at no charge, as the first home page of a local jurisdiction. Class size was limited to two students from up to three jurisdictions and the course was given 35 times.

On-Site Training

On-site training was provided on a contract basis by the University of California Berkeley Center for Community Economic Research to the staffs of the cities of San Carlos, Mountain View and Menlo Park. These were the first cities to use the abagOnline hosting service. Approximately 20 staff members were trained.

Full-day Courses

HAZMACON, ABAG's annual environmental management conference, was used to promote Internet awareness and practical uses of Internet among citizens and local government employees. During this project, HAZMACON was held at the San Jose Convention Center on April 4-7, 1995, and the Santa Clara Convention Center on April 22-26, 1996. In 1995, the class, "Using Online Databases, Bulletin Boards, and the Internet to Get the Information You Need," was offered to 20 students. In 1996, the class "Environmental Management Tools on the Internet" was offered to 34 students.

TASK 17 - PROVIDE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

ABAG staff provided technical assistance to local agencies in five ways. During abagOnline Advisory Committee meetings, the staff led discussions and presented guidance on Internet related topics. Also, hands-on practical advice was offered during the numerous classes taught by ABAG staff.

A third mechanism for providing technical assistance was through email and telephone consultation. Email messages were often received from citizens seeking help with accessing local government information through the World Wide Web. Frequently these citizens were experiencing problems with their browsers or Internet service providers. ABAG staff were usually able to explain the nature of the problem and sometimes offer a solution. Direct telephone consultation was usually employed by local governments seeking help with connection or publishing problems. A typical example would be helping to solve a domain name registration request by a city.

A fourth method of providing assistance was indirectly through consultants. Consultants which assisted ABAG or presented lectures at the abagOnline Advisory Committee were introduced to local agencies for possible contractual work. For example, Ms. Strata Rose of Virtual Net Consulting, a major supporter and contractor for abagOnline, subsequently was hired by San Mateo County to help develop their wide area network connection to the Internet.

The fifth method of providing technical assistance was through direct services, specifically hosting services. More than half of the Bay Area local agencies/governments currently publishing on the World Wide Web would not do so if they also had to install and maintain an Internet server and leased line connection. Often the difficulty came from a lack of experienced staff and almost always cost was a factor. An inexpensive hosting service from ABAG that dealt with the technical complexities and provided for a sharing of leased line costs allowed participants to concentrate on content.

TASK 18 - PARTICIPATE IN NATIONAL CONFERENCES

ABAG staff attended national conferences to keep apprised of the newest developments in Internet technology and to share with others the progress of abagOnline.

ABAG's computer system administrator, Atti Williams, attended the Networld+/Interop conference and trade show in April 1995 and 1996 to learn about technologies, integrating local area networks, and the Internet. This was in order to better provide services through abagOnline. The Networld + Interop exposition, held in Las Vegas, Nevada, draws many thousands of attendees from a national audience.

In April of 1995, ABAG Executive Director Eugene Leong and abagOnline Webmaster Michael Dufner gave a presentation of abagOnline at the annual meeting of the California Council of Governments in Monterey, California. The purpose of the presentation was to encourage other California COGs to participate in the Internet.

On May 17-19, 1995, abagOnline was demonstrated at an exhibit booth at the Government Technologies Conference in Sacramento, California. Thousands of governmental employees attend the GTC. Hundreds of state and local employees stopped at the abagOnline booth and asked for more information about publishing local government information on the World Wide Web.

On August 24, 1995 abagOnline was demonstrated at an exhibit booth in the Online Pavilion at the Northern California launch of Microsoft Windows 95.

On September 17 through 20, 1995 abagOnline was showcased in a booth at the International City/County Managers Association Conference in Denver. City and County managers from throughout the country stopped at the abagOnline display, which included an active Internet connection to the ABAG Web site, to learn about how their jurisdiction could participate in the World Wide Web.

The final national conference attended by ABAG staff was in June, 1996. ABAG Executive Director Eugene Leong and ABAG President, Supervisor Mary Griffith attended the annual conference of the National Association of Regional Councils in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A presentation was made about abagOnline and ABAG received the Meritorious Achievement Award for producing abagOnline.

TASK 19 - CONDUCT PUBLIC OUTREACH PROGRAM

ABAG conducted a public outreach program using news releases and presentations to community groups and non-profit organizations. News releases often associated with a new feature added to abagOnline, would be used in stories published in Bay Area newspaper, and even television news, reaching millions of residents. One example of this process was the unveiling on May 4 of over 300 maps in gif format covering every city in the Bay Area, and providing earthquake shaking intensity hazards. Every major Bay Area newspaper and all four TV networks promoted the availability of earthquake maps on abagOnline. A direct consequence of this campaign was the increase of visitor hits to abagOnline from 17,000 per month to over 20,000 per day. Two months later, the visitor hits stabilized at 3,000 per day, but have since grown to 6,000 per day.

The abagOnline Advisory Committee hosted on June 12, 1995 a special meeting of public information officers (PIO) from local governments. About 60 PIOs attended and discussed how to improve citizen outreach using the Internet.

TASK 20 - CONDUCT CIVIC NETWORKING CONFERENCES

ABAG requested, and received approval for, a revision to the project workplan reducing the number of networking conferences hosted by ABAG from two to one. The request was made because greater effort was expended than originally anticipated to educate local government staff about the Internet and the World Wide Web.

The abagOnline conference, Electronic Government: Opportunities in Conducting the People's Business on the Internet, was held on April 19, 1996 concurrently with the ABAG General Assembly at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose. Over 140 persons registered for the Electronic Government conference and attendance was augmented by elected officials visiting from the General Assembly, which was held in an adjoining room.

The keynote presentation was by Mr. John Huang, Project Director, Information Technology Initiatives, Vice President Gore's National Performance Review. The conference program brochure is included in Appendix E.

TASK 21 - ESTABLISH PERMANENT ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE

abagOnline is supported primarily as a program of the Association of Bay Area Governments as a service to the local governments and citizens of the San Francisco Bay Area. The continuing operation of abagOnline will be under the auspices of the ABAG Executive Board and the Finance and Personnel Committee. These committees are comprised of locally elected officials representing their respective cities and counties.

TASK 22 - REPORT TO NTIA

Quarterly progress reports were submitted to NTIA administrative staff during the course of the project. The current report is the final report submitted in fulfillment of requirements for Grant 06-60-94003.

next section

Table of Contents