Section 6. Lessons Learned

Section 6. LESSONS LEARNED

The abagOnline project, supported by a grant from NTIA, was the first in the country trying to encourage and develop local government participation in the Internet on a regional basis. After 24 months of effort, ABAG increased local government participation in the World Wide Web from two to 80 organizations. In achieving this target we attempted different tasks and approaches, some of which were successful and some were not. The assessment of lessons learned is based upon our experience in the San Francisco Bay Area and may not be wholly applicable in other regions and states.

LESSONS CONCERNING THE INTERNET

The primary lesson we learned about the Internet is that its growth and evolution far exceeded our expectations and vision. Technological features now available via the World Wide Web include real-time voice transmission, multimedia, multi-point broadcasting, real-time video broadcasting and secure encrypted communications for graphical browsers. These features did not exist in April 1994 when ABAG submitted our proposal to NTIA for funding abagOnline. Our vision at that time encompassed gopher information servers, static Web pages, and a slow growth in technology development.

Future programs/projects using the Internet and World Wide Web must be prepared to accommodate major technical developments, and concomitant obsolescence every year or two. Future projects could figuratively shoot for the moon in their objectives because rapid technical evolution in the commercial sector would have tools ready when the projects need them. Setting conservative designs and objectives does not take advantage of the ongoing developments in tools and features.

A second lesson concerning the Internet was that ABAG overestimated our ability to create or set standards for local government participation. Once the Internet and Web became market growth areas for major corporations such as Microsoft, Netscape, Oracle and Time-Warner, the ability of a single council of governments to influence directions shrank dramatically. Software standards, data formatting and publishing, and even home page content will be determined by large corporations, the huge international marketplace and the creative talents of thousands or millions of Web developers.

The role for local governments is to try to present a somewhat consistent interface for the citizen and to try to develop policy for the appropriate release of government held information to the Internet community. In the Bay Area, the most effective tool we had used to foster a consistent interface was to create prototype pages of information and fill the pages with ABAG's information and that of early participants. Then, as local governments developed Internet skills and their own local pages there was a natural tendency to join the established system rather than strike out in a new direction and create a radically different web site. Innovations are still possible, but working together in abagOnline, Bay Area cities and counties can share and benefit from each other's innovations.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACCESS TO THE INTERNET

In April 1994, many cities and counties were not as prepared or equipped to participate in the Internet and World Wide Web as we had originally perceived. The larger cities and counties had networked computers, usually on a departmental basis, and few modems. Many smaller jurisdictions had stand alone PCs or Macintoshes with few computers per employee. Knowledge of the Internet was usually held at the personal level by the random employee. For this reason, the early efforts of this project were directed at basic Internet education and demonstrations. Local governments, staff and elected officials needed ground level introductions to the possibilities of email, listservers, discussions groups and Web pages before they could even think about participation.

ABAG staff learned that many local agencies were heavily burdened by existing obligations and did not perceive themselves as having the financial or staff resources to spare for "yet another activity." In presentations to local agencies, ABAG staff stressed the potential for some government operations to increase efficiency by using the Internet/Web and ultimately lower costs. The City of San Carlos used the Web to let citizens report problems to City Hall and receive a quick reply. This improved the image of San Carlos among its citizens and was noted by other jurisdictions. Gradually, local agencies saw that email was quicker and more efficient than letters. They also noted that multiple copies of documents, notices or agendas could be distributed far more cheaply via the Internet. In time, Bay Area cities and counties began to accept the Internet/Web as inevitable and made provisions for staffing and resources.

Among many local agencies, the World Wide Web was initially perceived as a toy; at best a new form of colorful brochure. ABAG staff had to research or create practical government business applications in order to demonstrate the utility of the Web to government operations. For this reason, abagOnline contains examples of local government Web applications. ABAG also had to create new applications to demonstrate the potential benefits to local agencies from the Web. Examples of those prototype applications are present throughout abagOnline and include:

Transit information at www.abag.ca.gov/abag/local_gov/transit.html

RFP notices at www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/commerce/commerce.html

Government employment opportunities at the same location and also economic development information

Earthquake hazard data at www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/eqmaps/eqmaps.html

New telecommunications resources for government planners at www.abag.ca.gov/govnet/clearinghouse

Draft planning documents for public review at www.abag.ca.gov/govnet/clearinghouse

Census data and regional economic indicators at www. abag.ca.gov/datacenter

Environmental help-line at www.abag.ca.gov/govnet/environmental_help/env_helpline.html

ABAG staff have learned that as local governments start to publish information on the World Wide Web, the program will often reside in the hands of a few persons. Many other employees in those agencies do not have access to computers or if they do, are not provided Internet access accounts. Before there is a wide-spread movement to empower all local government employees with Internet access, we believe there need to be compelling government business applications on the Web. These applications would help justify to management the granting of resources to give most, if not all, employees access.

The importance of a shared (in our case regional) approach cannot be overstated. Time and again ABAG staff encountered the same questions, issues and problems among the cities and counties we visited. In the absence of a regional approach to developing a local government Web presence, individual jurisdictions must each totally "reinvent the wheel." This can be time consuming, expensive (imagine the same consultant report resold to each isolated jurisdiction) and ultimately discouraging.

ABAG has found that sharing the experience of joining the Internet does more than reduce individual agency research and start-up costs. The common experience encourages more agencies to participate. It also emboldens the lone champions of the Internet working in a jurisdiction to press for their agency's involvement. We deeply believe that the cities and counties of the San Francisco Bay Area would have eventually developed a presence on the World Wide Web. The TIIAP grant made the shared journey possible and shortened the time span by three to four years.

One additional unanticipated consequence of the shared program was the development of healthy competition. Cities and counties take pride in their accomplishments and each wants to do at least as well as their neighbor. We have often seen a city add a feature or change a page design because Jurisdiction X had done it. This friendly competition helps improve everyone's level of performance.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT PRESENCE ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB

The following points are drawn from conversations with local government staff, our experience in establishing a regional Web site, and participation in several national listserve discussions about electronic government. These points are suggestions and observations about local government Web sites.

1. Publishing information on the Web, particularly using a hosting service to carry that information on a Web server is a minimal least cost way for agencies to sample the Internet waters.

2. Local government Web sites will never be able to compete for visual appeal or entertainment value with the expensive, professionally developed and maintained Web sites of major corporations such as Time-Warner, Sony, the Wall Street Journal, or Disney. This does not mean that local government Web sites can be constructed of text only pages. Visual appeal is important to help clarify the content of the site and encourage citizens to look deeper for information. However, local governments need to concentrate their efforts on presenting government business applications. Such applications, perhaps voter registration, permit assistance or payment of parking fines, require citizen contact with government and are not dependent upon entertainment value. By using the World Wide Web to help ease citizen access to necessary government services and functions, local agencies will ensure a continuous stream of visitors to their site.

3. Citizens will visit a local agency Web site which primarily features "About Our City" only a few times. Local government web sites need to provide useful, needed information. One of the most powerful tools to attract citizens are interactive Web pages. There, citizens can send messages of information or seeking help to their jurisdiction and receive a reply or action from government. This improves dialogue between citizens and government and could raise citizen satisfaction with their representatives.

4. Public agencies with unique databases can publish information on the Internet at less cost than using print and postal distribution. We encourage cities and counties to evaluate their databases and make available those which could benefit the community without compromising required privacy. These databases could be property tax rolls, zoning maps or bus routes. The abagOnline site has published a unique set of over 1,000 maps depicting earthquake damage risks for all the cities and counties in the San Francisco Bay Area.

5. Local governments must start or join the public debate on which items of government data are suitable for publishing on the Internet. Currently in Oregon there is a great public furor because an individual somehow managed to obtain drivers license records from the state and publish them on the World Wide Web. Local governments should participate in the national discussions and among themselves on the appropriateness of data release. Alternatively the decision could be made by the lone individual as in Oregon, or dictated through federal or state legislation.

5. Local governments can establish or improve their Web sites by involving citizens and the community. The abagOnline directory of cities and counties is full of example sites which were assembled by citizen volunteers, and in the case of the City of Orinda, as a Senior Girl Scout project. Other sites have been collaborations with business and chambers of commerce. These joint efforts do more than stretch limited government resources. They often ensure an interesting Web site by expanding the information content and providing additional ideas and perspectives.

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