On to Decatur Strategic Plan Goal 6!

Goal 6: Strengthen communication and involvement in and among neighborhoods, city government, volunteer boards and commissions, institutions, community organizations, local businesses, and Decatur as a whole

Task 6A: Provide communication in a variety of formats to reach a broad audience. Expand the use of social media and electronic tools such as Open City Hall to encourage citizen participation.

Task 6B: Reorganize city staff assignments to provide focused support to improve interaction between neighborhood and community groups, and focus on developing a community that supports aging in place.

Task 6C: Create a Decatur smart phone application to serve as a visitor and resident guide for local businesses, as well as a source of event and other information.

The final of Decatur’s three Strategic Planning sessions took place from June 1st thru 5th, where residents were asked eight questions on the topic of communication.  In his Session 3 report, summerizer Otis White boiled down the essence of the eight questions to just these two:

How can the city strengthen connections between the city government and citizens and among the citizens themselves; and what roles should citizens, organizations and institutions play in improving Decatur?

From the nearly 70 pages of answers, White determined that the main concern of citizens was both a “desire for more information, delivered in different ways” and a “desire for more and different groups to be involved and effective”.

I scrolled through those 60+ pages of answers and noticed that some of the suggestions were things the city was already doing.  So I thought a quick recap might be useful to old-times and new folks alike:

• You can watch all Decatur City Commission meetings on Comcast Channel 25 live on Monday nights beginning at 7:30p.  (The production value of this is really quite good!)
• The City has three official blogs run and written by city staff:  The Decatur Minute (run by the Community & Economic Develeopment Department), Be Active Decatur (formerly 231 Sycamore) and the Decatur Tax Blog.
• The city also maintains a Facebook page and a variety of Twitter accounts: such as Downtown Decatur, Decatur HR, Decatur Forums, and DecaturNext (specifically created for the Strategic Plan).
• You can submit service requests – from complaints about barking dogs to requesting maintainable at many city-owned properties – online HERE.
• Decatur doesn’t just have a Code Red telephone alert system for “emergency situations”, but also one for “Weather Warnings”.  If you’re not getting either of them currently, you can sign up for them both HERE.

That’s by no means a definitive list of every Decatur communication tool available to you – feel free to chime in with others – but hopefully it gets a few more people in the know!

UPDATE: The action item passed unanimously though a resident did stand and ask questions about the cost. Patti Garrett also mentioned several emails she received this afternoon about the cost.

One clarification: Decatur companies WERE solicited for the redesign according to Linda Harris.

The redesign has been in the planning stages for two years. Most of the commission members expressed frustration with the current website.

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On the agenda for tonight’s Decatur city commission meeting: a new city website.

City staff is recommending that the city pay Vision Internet $46,630 to develop a new website for Decatur.  Aside from informing us that decaturga.com gets on average 3,960 page views a day, Linda Harris’ note to the commission (page 57 of agenda materials pdf) details many of the proposed site’s new features…

The redeveloped site will be user-friendly and make it easier to complete tasks such as paying parking tickets online or finding out the sanitation schedule.  It will have a number of programs that will enhance the website including the ability to forward content on a webpage through email; print-friendly webpages; automatic news updates on the homepage using RSS feeds; a survey creator; a high functioning events calendar; an image library; interconnected pages that can be updated simultaneously, preventing fewer chances for out-dated content; and, sign-up options to allow citizens to receive e-newsletters about specific topics (late breaking news, retail and restaurant info, upcoming festivals, etc)  It will be a place where the community can gather online through integrated social media and electronic feedback.  It will also include a platform that will allow the city to add a streaming video component to provide real-time viewing of commission meetings online and technologies to produce webcasts.  And it will also include a mobile application that will allow users to download the site easily on any type of mobile device.

Obviously there has been a ton of talk across the internets about this “Virtual Decatur” concept, but I noticed that – not surprisingly – nearly all of it is just packaging and repackaging of what’s already stated on the city’s Virtual Decatur page.  Personally, I was curious where this idea originated and if the city was surprised by the amount of attention its getting from tech blogs/websites worldwide.

So, I followed up with the city yesterday and RFI coordinator Lena Stevens was good enough to reply to my inquiry earlier today.

She reiterated that no money has yet been budgeted for Virtual Decatur and no timelines on decisions have been established.  If/when a time comes for decisions to be made, Stevens reassures us that there will be ample oppertunity for public comment.

In terms of where the idea originated, Stevens explains that the Decatur City Commission thought it up with the original intent of viewing potential Decatur development in a 3D space  and the idea “branched out” from there “to include the entire Decatur experience – people, businesses and government. Rather than reading about Decatur on a flat website, users could experience the community by interacting with one another as well as with city officials.”

In regards to the online response, Stevens says that the city was “surprised by the amount of media buzz surrounding the release of the Request for Information”, but chalks it up to the cutting-edge aspect of the technology being considered.

Though the city has yet to receive any final submissions for Virtual Decatur, Stevens says that “10-15 companies have notified me of their intent to respond.”  She also promises that “more details about this project will be made available after the responses have been received and analyzed.”

Speaking for myself, I would like to see a comparison of the cost of the commission’s original idea (a 3D model of a potential development) versus this more involved and expanded one.  Because while I have reservations about the “Second Life” version, I think a place to view 3D models of potential developments from a bunch of different angles could be quite useful.   While I appreciate the city thinking outside the box in terms of communication, I’m worried that the more far-reaching version could potentially overshadow the original idea.