The latest in a series of posts on City government
Been two weeks since Gadfly posted that the new City web site went “live.”
Gadfly can imagine that there were “bugs” no matter how much the tech wizards pre-tested and that it will take a little time for things to run completely smoothly.
Been there, done that.
So he has refrained asking for immediate follower commentary.
But it is getting about that time.
Gadfly wishes he had a volunteer crew to divvy up the site and go deep on individual sections, compiling helpful commentary for us as users of the site and also helpful commentary for the behind-the-scenes guys — what’s good, what needs work.
So he does herewith and now invite you to go deep on a section or sections, take notes, and report to Gadfly.
What is there to like and that we all should know about? And what are the places where there’s work to be done?
Gadfly will compile worthy material, organize it, and forward to City Hall.
Constructive comments, please.
But Gadfly will say immediately that he is disappointed about one big thing.
Almost the first problem that Gadfly noticed at the beginning of his novitiate year was the difficulty for the public in finding out about meetings.
His very first public comments at Council meetings had to do with the desirability of a master “calendar” of all meetings (City Council, the ABC’s, etc.).
Gadfly imagined an online calendar, month by month, that would contain meetings for each day (time, location) with a link to an agenda if one were available.
He believes he remembers being told that one was in the works.
Apparently not.
Now perhaps that’s a “huger” technical project than the ol’ professor who was known as “Edward Scholarhands” for his technical and mechanical ineptitude imagines.
And it would need a good detail person to stay on top of it to make it effective, maybe an additional personnel slot. Can you see the ad for a “Calendar-Keeper”!
Two strikes.
But Gadfly wonders if there isn’t something commercially available. Follower Holland had (has?) a prototype using Google calendar.
Such a master calendar need not be restricted to “business” — it could be a master list, a one-stop resource for all different kinds of City-sponsored events.
It would be “the” place to go to see what’s going on in the City on a day or a future period of time.
Gadfly just feels that a core, unified tool like that would be a tremendous practical as well as symbolic resource for people who want to participate in city government.
And, by the way, was there ever any kind of report on the Communication Survey that was done by the City some months back now?
Gadfly was looking for that.
I encourage you to continue your Sisyphean struggle to make City meeting schedules accessible to the city residents and the public in general.