Section 3. PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS

INTRODUCTION

In an effort to measure success in obtaining the project objectives ABAG established performance criteria which included quantifiable criteria, products and milestones. These performance criteria are summarized in Table 3. Project accomplishments can be directly related to and presented in terms of the performance criteria. These project accomplishments have been categorized and presented quantitatively in the abagOnline Performance Tracking reports, the final report being included in this chapter. This analysis of accomplishments follows the format and organization of the Performance Tracking Report.


Table 3 - abagOnline Performance Tracking

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

PARTICIPATING AGENCIES

As of June 30, 1996, there are 80 cities, counties, regional agencies, and special districts plus 57 school districts participating with information on the Internet through World Wide Web home pages.

CITIES

City of Alameda

City of Belmont

City of Belvedere

City of Benicia

City of Berkeley

City of Brisbane

City of Burlingame

City of Cloverdale

Town of Corte Madera

City of Cotati

Town of Danville

City of Dixon

City of El Cerrito

City of Emeryville

City of Fairfield

City of Foster City

City of Fremont

City of Hayward

City of Lafayette

City of Livermore

City of Los Altos

Town of Los Gatos

City of Martinez

City of Menlo Park

City of Mill Valley

City of Millbrae

Town of Moraga

City of Mountain View

City of Napa

City of Newark

City of Oakland

City of Orinda

City of Pacifica

City of Palo Alto

City of Piedmont

City of Pinole

City of Redwood City

City of Richmond

City of San Carlos

City and County of San Francisco

City of San Jose

City of San Pablo

City of Santa Clara

City of Sebastopol

City of Sonoma

City of South San Francisco

City of Sunnyvale

City of Union City

City of Vacaville

City of Vallejo

City of Walnut Creek

Town of Woodside

COUNTIES

County of Alameda

County of Contra Costa

County of Marin

City and County of San Francisco (also included in list of cities above)

County of San Mateo

County of Santa Clara

County of Solano

REGIONAL AGENCIES AND SPECIAL DISTRICTS

Alameda County Water District

Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District [AC Transit]

Association of Bay Area Governments

Bay Area Air Quality Management District

Bay Area Rapid Transit District [BART]

Bolinas Community Public Utility District

CalTrain

Caltrans, District 4

Central Contra Costa Sanitary District

DSRSD-EBMUD Recycled Water Authority

East Bay Municipal Utility District

Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District

Hayward Area Recreation and Park District

Livermore Park and Recreation District

Regional Water Quality Control Board

Metropolitan Transportation Commission

Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District

San Mateo County Transit District[SamTrans]

Santa Clara County Transportation Agency

Solano County Water Agency

Solano Transportation Authority

Union Sanitary District

SCHOOL DISTRICTS

Alameda County

Alameda County Office of Education

Berkeley Unified School District

Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District

Newark Unified School District

Oakland Unified School District

Chabot-Las Positas Community College District

Peralta Community College District

Contra Costa County

Contra Costa County Office of Education

Martinez Unified School District

Mt. Diablo Unified School District

San Ramon Valley Unified School District

West Contra Costa Unified School District

Contra Costa Community College District

Marin County

Marin County Office of Education

Dixie School District

Kentfield School District

Larkspur School District

Lagunitas School District

Mill Valley School District

Novato Unified School District

Reed Union School District

Ross School District

Ross Valley School District

San Rafael City Schools

Tamalpais Union High School District

College of Marin

Napa County

Napa County Office of Education

Napa High School

Napa Valley Unified School District

Napa Valley College

San Francisco

San Francisco Unified School District

City College of San Francisco

San Mateo County

San Mateo County Office of Education

Belmont School District

Brisbane Elementary School District

Burlingame School District

Cabrillo Unified School District

Ravenswood City School District

San Carlos School District

San Mateo-Foster City School District

San Mateo County Community College District

Santa Clara County

Santa Clara County Office of Education

Alum Rock Union Elementary School District

Campbell Union School District

Cupertino Union School District

East Side Union High School District

Evergreen School District

Franklin McKinley School District

Fremont Union High School District

Palo Alto Unified School District

San Jose Unified School District

Saratoga-Los Gatos High School District

West Valley-Mission Community College District

Solano County

Solano County Office of Education

City of Benicia Schools

Solano Community College

Sonoma County

Sonoma County Office of Education

Links to all of these local government and school district sites are maintained as part of abagOnline at www.abag.ca.gov/abag/local_gov/. This number of participating jurisdictions exceeds the project target of 70. This number also represents a critical mass that will ensure growth through the addition of new jurisdictions and the expansion of information provided by existing jurisdictions. These agencies are in large part present because of the outreach elements of this project.

The quantity of accesses to abagOnline is one measure of the public's usage and acceptance of the Internet to reach local governments. During 1996, the abagOnline Web server was accessed:

January 1996: 116,414 times from 21,221 hosts

February 1996: 120,404 times from 21,788 hosts

March 1996: 120,084 times from 22,515 hosts

April 1996 165,656 times from 25,772 hosts

May 1996 167,995 times from 26,987 hosts

June 1996 130,091 times from 24,396 hosts

The level of usage for the entire grant period is shown below.

These accesses do not include ABAG computers or those of client (hosted) cities or contractors. Totals for the months of May 1995 and September 1995 were estimated from the log files of two different servers.

The number of accesses to the abagOnline Gopher server and the abagOnline FTP site have not been recorded. However, the accesses to the gopher server were on the order of 100 per month when the service was discontinued.LIBRARY ACCESS SITES

At the beginning of this project, there were no public library access sites to the Internet. Among the first libraries to offer public access were branch libraries in the City of Oakland, branch libraries in the City of the Berkeley, and the Livermore main library. These libraries established public access terminals early in 1995. The abagOnline Web site was a primary menu item on those early terminals.

In June 1996, ABAG staff have identified a total of 90 Bay Area public libraries offering use of Internet access terminals. The list is published on abagOnline at www.abag.ca.gov/abag/overview/abagonline/pubbacc.html.


OTHER PUBLIC ACCESS SITES

Smart Valley, Inc., a Palo Alto-based non-profit organization has been instrumental in establishing Internet access sites through a program called Public Access Network (PAN). Currently, as part of this program, Internet Web browsing is available to the public at twelve locations, with another three locations scheduled to open in July and August of 1996. One of the current locations is the MTC/ABAG Library, which opened a public access terminal on September 11, 1995. The location of the PAN sites is presented in Table 4.

The PAN program uses an image-map of cartoon islands to represent basic destinations in an on-line community. By selecting the government island and then selecting local, the citizen is directed to the abagOnline home page for access to all possible Bay Area government agencies.

Access to abagOnline is gradually increasing and currently represents a significant interest both locally and on national and international levels. One pleasant aspect of this project has been the inquiries ABAG staff received from other regions of the country and the international community. Other organizations look to abagOnline as a demonstration project about electronically connecting citizens and local governments. During the project, ABAG staff have received visitors from Poland, France and Japan, specifically requesting information about abagOnline. In July 1996, ABAG entertained a delegation from the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Olympic Project to explain how abagOnline was developed and is used.

TABLE 4: PUBLIC ACCESS NETWORK

Internet Access Sites Organized by Smart Valley, Inc.

INFORMATION DEVELOPMENT

Successful development of a Bay Area public access government network depends upon a variety of useful information being presented. It is not sufficient to post a single document home page and expect citizens to access that static information over the long run. abagOnline developed sample documents and researched web sites on a national scale, searching for examples of practical applications of local government use of the World Wide Web. These examples were then brought to the attention of Bay Area agencies as possible projects for local adoption. The following categories of information are presented on the basis of when they were first offered in the Bay Area.

General Public Agency Information

This information was available on the first day of the NTIA contract, October 15, 1994. At that time, general information was available from the Association of Bay Area Governments and the cities of San Carlos and Palo Alto.

Legal Notices, Agendas and Minutes

Agendas and minutes are published regularly by the City of Palo Alto and were available at the start of the NTIA contract, October 15, 1994.

The first legal notice on abagOnline, published October 18, 1994, announced a Workshop on the Draft 1994 Clean Air Plan to be held by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District on November 9, 1994 in San Francisco. Key elements of the Draft Plan were included as part of the notice. Figure 3 contains the menu page from the notice.

Figure 3 The First Legal Notice Published on abagOnline

Joint Air Quality Policy Committee

Notice of Public Hearing on Air Quaker Plans

The public is invited to comment on the following proposed air quality plans and plan components:

1. San Francisco Bay Area Redesignation Request and Maintenance Plan for the National Carbon Monoxide Standard (Carbon Monoxide Maintenance Plan),

2. Bay Area Transportation Conformitv Procedures.

3. Bay Area General Conformity Procedures.

4. Amendments to the San Francisco Bay Area Redesignation Request and Maintenance Plan for the National Ozone Standard (Ozone Maintenance Plan Amendments) (These amendments include a NOxR ACT control program and improvements to the existing basic I&M program), and

5. 1990 Emissions Inventory

at a public hearing scheduled by the Joint Air Quality Policy Committee (the Committee) of the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC). These three agencies have delegated authority to the Committee to conduct this public hearing. Comments received prior to this hearing, or made at the hearing, will be transmitted to each agency's board of directors.

These plans were prepared in response to the 1990 (federal) Clean Air Act (the Act) Amendments, and are intended to fulfill State Implementation Plan submittal requirements outlined in Sections 107(d), 110, 175A(a), 175A(d) and 182(a)(1) of the Act. Transportation and general conformity procedures were prepared in response to two federal regulations promulgated in 1993. Action by the Committee will not constitute adoption of the plans. After considering public comment, the Committee may make recommendations regarding the plans and refer the plans, comments and recommendations to the boards of each agency for action. Final action on the plans will be taken by each board, and further notice of those meetings will be provided.

The Plans may be viewed at any of ABAG's depository libraries, the ABAG/MTC Library at 101 Eighth Street, Oakland, or the BAAS Library at 939 Ellis Street, San Francisco. Copies may be obtained by calling the BAAQMD at (415) 749-4678. An electronic copy of each plan is available on the Internet from ABAG's www server: "url:http://www.abag.ca.gov".

The public hearing will take place:

Friday, July 29, 1994 at 1:00 P.M.
Metro Center Auditorium
101 Eighth Street, Oakland, California (opposite the Lake Merrit BART Station)

Written comments on the plans must be received by Wednesday, July 27, 5:00 P.M.
Send comments to:
Milton Feldstein
BAAQMD
939 Ellis Street
San Francisco, CA 94109

Forms and Government Business Documents

A complete guide to city business licenses and rates was available from the City of San Carlos on the first day of the NTIA contract, having been posted on June 2, 1994. San Carlos added a form for reporting needed city services on April 21, 1995. A copy of the current San Carlos menu page for licenses and rates is presented as Figure 4.

Public Event Notices

On June 23,1994 the city of San Calos posted on the abagOnline server a new section titled Parks and Recreation Services. This section provided information on the San Carlos Children's Theater Summer Performances and the Summer Concert in the Park Series.

ABAG began posting an updated calendar of agency events on October 16,1994. A current calendar of events from ABAG is in Figure 5. 

Publications available

ABAG has posted a catalogue of publications since May 1994. These publications were initially available by mail order only, but an online order form (Figure 6) was added in May 1996. The online order form uses encryption technology within the Netscape Commerce Server and compatible Web browsers (including Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer 2.0, and AmericaOnline 3.0) to allow secure transmission of credit card information.

In addition to offering an opportunity to order printed documents (plus maps, video tapes, and a CD-ROM), ABAG and other agencies also make documents available electronically. Several local agencies now provide publications via ftp or Web server or both. An example is the Tri-Valley Planning Commission, an ABAG subregional planning program, which provides its Draft Strategy Report via ftp (in Microsoft Word format) and via the Web (in HTML).

Employment and Requests for Proposals

The City of San Carlos posted an employment notice for Fire Chief on October 17, 1994. Employment recruitment notices have been available as a continuing service of abagOnline since June 15, 1995. Requests for proposals and bids have been available as a continuing service of abagOnline since May 15, 1995.

Quantity of Information

An assessment of the quantity of information available through abagOnline is difficult to reach. abagOnline contains over 2,000 pages or documents accessible by the public. Local jurisdictions add significantly more to the total. However, we can provide a count of the number of jurisdictions publishing information in basic categories. Table 5 presents this count as of June 1996.

TABLE 5: LOCAL GOVERNMENT INFORMATION

PROVIDED THROUGH abagOnline

A) General public agency information:

50 cities

7 counties

19 regional agencies and special districts

----------------------

75 entities total (counting the City and County of San Francisco only once)


B) Legal notices, agendas and minutes:

24 cities

5 counties

12 regional agencies and special districts

----------------------

40 entities total (counting the City and County of San Francisco only once)

C) Forms and government business documents:

13 cities

3 counties

4 regional agencies and special districts

----------------------

19 entities total (counting the City and County of San Francisco only once)

D) Public Events Notices:

24 cities

2 counties

5 regional agencies and special districts

----------------------

30 entities total (counting the City and County of San Francisco only once


E) Publications available:

1 cities

0 counties

7 regional agencies and special districts

----------------------

8 entities total

F) Employment and Requests for Proposals:

13 cities

4 counties

5 regional agencies and special districts

----------------------

21 entities total (counting the City and County of San Francisco only once)

These entities have elected to post employment opportunities, bid opportunities, and/or requests for proposals on their own Web pages. Several additional entities are participating in ACE and/or GLOBE as described under Section 2, Task 7 earlier in this report. Participants in ACE and GLOBE post notices under the appropriate section of abagOnline. Some of these are included above because they also post the notices on their own Web pages. Some are not included above because they post only through ACE/GLOBE.

Entities registered to post with ACE include:

18 cities

2 counties

13 regional agencies and special districts

----------------------

33 entities total

Entities registered to post with GLOBE include:

15 cities

1 counties

6 regional agencies and special districts

----------------------

22 entities total

G) Number of server accesses/hits counted:

In some cases, statistics about a particular site are made available to anyone visiting the site. Examples of this procedure include ABAG at:

the City of Pleasant Hill at:

www.ci.pleasant-hill.ca.us/wwwstats/

In other cases, however, statistics are compiled for internal use but are not made public. This makes it difficult to compile an exhaustive count of entities for this category. ABAG staff know of at least the following that compile statistics:

6 cities
2 counties (Alameda and Marin)
7 regional agencies and special districts
----------------------
15 entities total

USENET FORUMS ESTABLISHED

Two forums were established in 1995: abagNet-managers for City Managers and County Administrators and abagNet-infosystems for local government Information System professionals. The forums are not traditional USENET forums, but instead combine email and the World Wide Web. The forums are described under Section 2, Task 11.

In addition to these forums, two discussion groups have been established using email "listserv" techniques. Both of these groups are open to any interested individuals. They include a discussion of issues related to city and regional planning and a discussion of issues related to telecommunications technology, particularly as it relates to local government.

An additional "private" listserver has been established for hazardous materials management agencies in Alameda County. This listserver group was created at the request of the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, which needed a more efficient way of communicating with 13 agencies in the County.

ABAG also has contracted to create a listserver for the California Association of Public Purchasing Officers. This listserver group, to be established in the Fall of 1996, will provide rapid, efficient messaging for hundreds of local government purchasing agents throughout California.

The number of discussion groups created during this project did not meet our expectations. While ABAG staff did not have a specific target number, we did envision a flurry of communications activity among our local governments. What we found at the beginning of this project is that the vast majority of local government employees did not have Internet access, even at the basic level of email. Characteristically, at most agencies, one or two employees had personal accounts with Internet Service Providers. While this situation is improving, and cities ( or counties) are starting to provide and publish email addressees of employees, we believe that the Bay Area has not yet reached the critical mass of numbers needed to sustain more discussion groups among local governments.

TRAINING

When the abagOnline project was originally conceived, ABAG staff anticipated that local governments may need some Internet based training. Upon commencement of the project, it soon became apparent that local government employee access to the Internet was extremely limited, and therefore, so was the knowledge and experience base.

Even now, the training needs for the staff of participating agencies is frequently at the most elementary level of Internet access and how to use the Internet. Much of the training provided throughout this project was done to address this need. Eight basic "Introduction to the Internet" classes were taught by ABAG staff during 1995. Approximately 20 staff members from local government agencies attended each of these sessions. During 1996, ABAG held three introductory training sessions for the elected officials who serve on the Association's Executive Board.

At a slightly more advanced level, on-site training was provided on a contract basis by the UC Berkeley Center for Community Economic Research to the staffs of San Carlos, Mountain View, and Menlo Park. Approximately 20 staff members were trained. ABAG staff conducted additional on-site training on HTML document creation and ftp for the staff of Mountain View. This training took place fairly early in the NTIA contract period.

Later on, ABAG staff conducted a total of 35 half-day workshops on constructing a Web page and how to use the Internet. Well over 100 local agency staff members were trained in the basics of HTML during these hands-on sessions. Typically, participants were able to create a Web page that was ready for posting at the end of the workshop. These workshops, together with ABAG's ongoing offer to post a single Web page free of charge, provided an inexpensive and unintimidating way for local governments to become familiar with Internet publishing of information.

ABAG also conducted training during meetings of the abagOnline Advisory Committee throughout the grant period, as described in Section 2, Task 16, and at ABAG's annual environmental management conference.

These training classes are deemed very successful because they achieved several objectives, notably:

1. Local government staff were familiarized with the Internet, the World Wide Web, and possible local government uses of the new media.

2. Local government staff were taught the basics of Internet access and document publishing on the World Wide Web. This gave them the skills and confidence needed to continue publishing their jurisdiction's information.

3. The introductory html classes generated an agency's first Web home page. That home page often later led to expansion of the page with new data on a hosted web site.

Conference

ABAG conducted a successful conference on Electronic Government in San Jose on April 19, 1996. The conference was described earlier in Section 2, Task 20.

next section

Table of Contents