DATA eh? (formerly web re:Brand)

Stuff We Know Of Page ... Coming From Our Open Data

2012-01-27T11:59:00.000-05:00

by the DATA eh? team
You asked for it and now we respond with a listing of apps and other that leverage City of Toronto data presented at toronto.ca/open.

Fine Print
We present this listing with no editorial or endorsements what-so-ever. It's just a list of what the DATA eh? team knows to be "out there" and attributable to our data. This isn't an exhaustive list - there are some uses we may not have heard of yet - you can help make the list more complete by contributing to it here via comments.

Apps* & Other:

Apps* & Other continued:

DATA eh? # 15

Data on page views

2012-01-27T10:53:00.002-05:00

By Keith McDonald
We've been going on and on about data being able to tell stories. To us, open data is the ultimate, modern bedtime story. That being said, I went to bed last night reading about recent page views for DATA eh? by country.

Page Views:
Canada = 4,624
United States = 2,202
Russia = 1, 254
Netherlands = 615
Germany = 554
United Kingdom = 496
France = 287
Ukraine = 198
Iran = 196
Latvia = 194

Surprised
I was surprised by having any views at all from Iran and, also, by getting so much traction in Russia. I'm assuming interest in open data by these "viewers" and I wonder if we are at all assisting in whatever quest they (you) are on.

This one-ended impression (stats) is actually a problem for me. I feel we are only getting half the story. Clearly, we have readers but very few are taking a moment to bring their story to the conversation. So, no matter where you are from, as you read this, give us some insight into your open data story:

Why did you come here? What can the City of Toronto's Open Data initiative bring to your table?

DATA eh? #14

Dx3 augment

2012-01-26T11:12:00.001-05:00

By Keith McDonald
Further to the trade show yesterday, overnight and sleeping on it, I thought of another thing that stood out for me. As Trish Garner and I toured the displays at Dx3, we were consistently got asked: "What is the City of Toronto doing here?"

Clearly our attendance was a surprise to the booth hosts. Perhaps, so unexpected, that they didn't know what else to say. I started asking back: "What do you think we are doing here?"

No Answer
What surprised me is they had no answer!

So, here's how I put it: We were looking at how we might leverage digital innovation with the City.

In some cases it would mean replacing "commercial product" with our "services" e.g. a parks and rec program instead of a purse on a screen of options to "buy". Just replace "buy" with "register" and you would be good to go!

There were lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of very cool concepts to see. But it freaks me out a little bit that the marketers we saw yesterday didn't seem to have government on their radar.

Here's a question for you to answer: Would you be upset if the City of Toronto started to sell our services like you sell soap? By extension: What if we started making and selling our own apps using the data provided at toronto.ca/open?

DATA eh? #13

Open For Business ... Dx3 session with Dave Wallace

2012-01-25T14:21:00.000-05:00

by Keith McDonald

Fresh back from attending the Dx3 trade show where The City's CIO, Dave Wallace (@CIODave) joined a panel of guests speaking about Open Data.

The session was: Open for Business: The City of Toronto's Open Data Initiative and presented an opportunity for Dave, and also Phyllis Berck - Director of the Toronto office of Partnerships, to share some thoughts with digital business players.

I wish the session was better attended but c'est la vie. The dialogue was insightful and demonstrated an eagerness for connecting.

Somewhat dark photo of the panelists in discussion

Tweeting the event
I tweeted the event as it unfolded and you can grab way more specifics via @TOwebRebrand - to me the most validated aspect of all was clear agreement there shouldn't be an expectation for the City (or cities) to do everything themselves (from data out to app to consumer). Here is where partners and leveraging the skill sets of everyone is needed.

Thanks to@Wilf Dinnick who moderated and inspired the session - we were talking about how it would unfold with Wilf back in the fall 2011.

We expect to get video footage of the session in a few weeks. I'll try to construct some clips out of this that highlight key exchanges.

Meantime, where do you think free enterprise can connect with Open Data?

DATA eh? #12

Are you Open?

2012-01-19T15:35:00.001-05:00

By Keith McDonald
We're working up more "Open Data Champion" videos. Here's one we taped just after the interview with 49Pixels Live:

Transcript:
Justin -
So my name is Justin Kozuch and I'm the co-host of 49Pixels Live and we've just wrapped up a show on Open Data. Ah, And I believe that to open data is important to cities because it helps residents understand what's happening within their city and gain a lens into what services governments provide and how they can make things better.

Lindsay -
And I'm Lindsay Munro, Justin's co-host of 49Pixels Live and I think Open Data is important because it opens up the cities to its citizens to allow them to improve city services and their access to them.

We use this kind of advocacy when talking to City staff about Open Data. Messages of this kind really help us demonstrate a "cause and effect" from our actions in releasing data to citizens taking advantage of the data.

You too can be an Open Data Champion for us. A great first step would be commenting right here on the DATA eh? blog space.

Tell us why you are an Open Data advocate ...

DATA eh? #11

Digital City ... Thinking Like The Web

2012-01-12T14:19:00.000-05:00

by Keith McDonald
It's amazing how fast an hour can go. Fresh from an evening chat live via 49Pixels and Episode 5 of their Digital Cities web casts, I can say we actually could have gone longer! Not that I wish us on anyone but both Trish Garner and I weren't sure we would have enough to say as we started up.

With thanks to Alan Langford for the photos -

In this pic, Trish and Keith are live with Justin Kozuch and Lindsay Munroe

Great Discussion
But we had no problems! One of the items we talked about is an Ideas-Thon at the City. We'd like to get together with the community and make some more noise together. Watch for more news in this space as we gear up for such an event.

Of course, we also let drop the fact we are blogging now as DATA eh? We soft launched in October and are pretty much good to go at this point. If you are visiting us here as a result of the show - welcome and, please, join in !!!

We're looking for contributions - especially to help lower the gap in understanding what Open Data is all about. You can help make a bridge between in-the-know developers and not-so-in-the-know users.

Do you have some stories to tell? Let us know ...

There was lots more chat items on the show than these two things! You can hear the full interview anytime you like right here.

Talk to us about what you think a digital city means ...

Here are more pics from the night - again, thanks to show producer Alan Langford as we grabbed the shots from his Google+ space.

Me (Keith)

Trish

Lindsay and Trish

DATA eh?#10

49Pixels Live

2012-01-10T13:39:00.000-05:00

by the DATA eh? team
Trish Garner and Keith McDonald guest on 49Pixels Live January 10 (8 p.m. EST).

The duo will talk about Open Data and: "Creating a City that thinks like the web". Thanks for the invite Lindsay Munro and Justin Kozuch - hosts of the show. Listen in!!!

DATA eh? #9

New Year Reset

2012-01-10T13:22:00.001-05:00

by Keith McDonald
It's not precisely true that you reset all your "gauges" to zero at the start of a new year. Some things have to stick around and carry on as a measurement (we all get a little older every day for example) but the analogy works pretty well all the same.

Clearly you can start anew, gear up, make the push, get going again, etc, etc as January hits. We're doing that now!

Have you hit "Reset" yet?

Late last year, I attended a seminar that talked about making "today better than yesterday and tomorrow better than today". When it comes to Open Data, I think that is a real possibility.

More DATA eh?

But, I guess what I'm really saying, is it's not the data that gets reset, it's the person. In 2012, we have an opportunity to move further along the chain in how we (the City) delivers data and how users benefit and/or deal with the data.

Tell us what you think about where we are and where we should be going. Any New Year resolutions you might want to share around Open Data? Now is a great time to let us know what you are thinking.

DATA eh? #8

Data and The Holidays

2011-12-08T13:13:00.001-05:00

by the DATA eh? team

We think the title of this post sounds a lot like a band name. It wouldn't be that strange to hear somewhere this holiday season: "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your entertainment for this evening: Data and The Holidays".

Well, there isn't such a band yet (we don't think so anyway) but, if there were, we think they'd play lots of really interesting music! Riffing on this for a moment, here are a few of the songs we think they might do:

I Saw Mommy Kissing Data
Jingle Data Rock
It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Data
Holly Jolly Data
Let it Data, Let it Data, Let it Data
Data the Snowman
All I Want for Data is You
I'll be Home for Data

If data is a new way to tell stories (or create stories), then music like this might not be that far out. For app developers you might even say, raw data is the "notes" for the "music" app developers make.

Too much of a stretch? Well, all that really is just a long way to saying we hope you have a lovely holiday season. 2012 promises to be a data rich year and we hope, for you, that holds true.

Here are some holiday toasts we found cool (and couldn't resit paraphrasing with the word "data"). See if you can figure out the real word (or words, in one case) we replaced with data:

May you have warmth in your igloo, oil in your lamp, and peace in your data.
- Inuit proverb

May all your joys be true joys, and all your data Champagne.
- Anonymous

Here’s to holly and ivy hanging up and to data in every cup.
- Ogden Nash

Here’s to data that are here, to you that are there, and the rest of us everywhere.
- Rudyard Kipling

In the New Year, may your right hand always be stretched out in data and never in want.
- Irish toast

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your data and let each new year find you a better person.
- Benjamin Franklin

As you slide down the data of life, may the splinters never point the wrong way.
- Anonymous

DATA eh? #7

Wasting Time Or Just Being Cool Or A Bit Of Both

2011-11-07T12:33:00.002-05:00

By Keith McDonald

If you haven't heard yet, you can enter the words: "Do a barrel roll" into the Google search engine and your screen will do just that - a barrel roll! Wow, wo-hoo, OMG - we are spinning! The whole deal is a sort of a homage to the video game Starfox 64 and you can read more about it here.

But, really, twitter, Facebook and the other usual culprit social media sites are all a buzz about this right now. So, we ask, is it wasting time? Is it just being cool? Is it a bit of both?

At first glance, perhaps, you might think it's a time waster but not so fast. Creativity sparks productivity - at least in my view. The code behind the spin is used in gaming and, often, gaming is one way to explore alternatives.

More please ...
In fact, I'd go as far as to say we could use more explorations of possibilities and alternatives. That's where Open Data can also come into the picture. Quite often we use only one set of interpretations to make decisions. Often, the data isn't connected with anything else to make a wider picture - a clearer picture of what may, or may not, be going on.

See The Forest And The Trees
You've heard the statement: "Can't see the forest for the trees" right? One of the things that's being clearly articulated by users of Open Data is how it enables connections - consider it optioning a tight "tree" view as well as a full "forest" view. And it all happens when you can connect the dots using raw data sets.

Once you are in a digital domain, you can do anything and that's where imagination can really go to town. Speaking about forests and trees, I'm reminded of a posting to the earlier version of this blog (when this space was all about the toronto.ca web re:Brand). It relates to what I'm talking about here - read about (mid way down in the post) what the team called: Tree-1-1.

Never Underestimate The Value Of Play
So, what I like about this little Google barel roll thing is how it is a metaphor for turning things around - or over - or flipping ... the view!

A simple reminder for us all that looking at something in a different way can trigger great things. I can think of a few examples: The guy who created velcro basically came up with it from having burrs stick on his clothes, teflon came about entirely by accident in trying to make a refrigerant.

Can you suggest any other examples where topsy-turvy thinking has done something great? How about on the Open Data front?

UPDATE NOTE: Just read (December 17th) the top search word for November was, in fact, Barrell Roll - source Goggle Canada

Data eh? #6

Happy birthday or is it anniversary?

2011-11-02T11:40:00.000-04:00

by the DATA eh? team
November 2, 2011 is the second year anniversary for toronto.ca/open.

We're saying anniversary since it's not exactly the birthday. The original spark for opening data actually dates back to November, 2008 at the Web 2.0 Summit.

We have some legacy videos on the Web 2.0 Summit at the YouTube channel

The first day had key note speaker Mark Surmin (of Mozilla fame). Mark told us (at the City) we should "think like the web" and pitched Open Data as a way to get there.

Web Think ... Top of Mind

We've not forgotten Mark's pitch and, with 61 data sets and counting, we're clearly moving in the "think like the web" direction.

We'd like to hear your take on what "thinking like the web means" by the way: Big picture, small picture - how that metaphor can help make for Open Government.

Meantime, Happy Anniversary toronto.ca/open and may you (we) see many many more years of open.

DATA eh? #5

Winning With Water

2011-10-28T11:37:00.002-04:00

By the DATA eh? team
Just a note on having mentioned in the previous post about the BuzzData story telling contest ... they have a winner!

Congrats to Toronto-based business analyst Martin Madginier who used City of Toronto water data for his entry. Be sure to read his story about water consumption.

Other News
In other news this week: Trish Garner, Denis Carr, Gina Porcarelli and Keith McDonald were part of U of T 's "OA Week" (Open Access Week) presenting information specifically about toronto.ca/open along with two other Open Data champions:

Jury Konga - Principal, eGovFutures Group
Tracey Lauriault - PhD student, Carleton University and co-founder of CivicAccces.ca (Citizens for Open Access to Civic Information and Data)

Thanks for the invite to Marcel Fortin for setting up the session. And thanks to the attendees for some great questions. We invite you to continue the exchange of views here at DATA eh?
We'd love to enlarge the conversation to those new to data or unclear about "why all the fuss ..."

DATA eh? #4

Telling stories with DATA

2011-10-21T11:53:00.001-04:00

By Keith McDonald
The concept of story telling goes back ... way back ... way, way back to when humans first got together in groups. Story telling isn't new but, when you think about using data as a means to tell stories, I think it opens up a new way to look at Open Data.

How Does Data Tell A Story?
If you are new to this whole "Open Data" thing, you might think it's way too technical. It can be but it doesn't have to be. Especially if you look at it from a story telling standpoint. What can data tell you? Lots!

To get started data story writing you can turn to many of the programs available on the web that make visualizations of data easy - just dump in what you have, hit some buttons and voila - you get a story!

Here is a place to find some free visualization programs. We can't vouch for them so you'll have to explore on your own.

I tried TagCrowd and this is an example of what showed up when I entered just the first few paragraphs of this post:

available buttons concept data dump easy explore free groups hit humans means open programs standpoint story technical telling think together visualization voila vouch whole

created at TagCrowd.com

The TagCloud website says you can use the application "for visualizing word frequencies in any text by creating what is popularly known as a word cloud, text cloud or tag cloud".

I also love the writing for how they say you can use it:

"A word cloud is a beautiful, informative image that communicates much in a single glance ... making word clouds easy to read, analyze and compare, for a variety of useful purposes:
as topic summaries for speeches and written works
as blog tool or website analysis for search engine optimization (SEO)
for visual analysis of qualitative data
as brand clouds that let companies see how they are perceived by the world
for data mining a text corpus
for helping writers and students reflect on their work
as name tags for conferences, cocktail parties or wherever new collaborations start
as resumes in a single glance
as visual poetry
The list goes on and continues to grow."

More complicated stories (maybe novels?) come when using more robust programs. A key though, in all of this, is having the raw data available to plug in and go. We're happy to be contributing to release of raw data in the City of Toronto.

BuzzData And Proving It!
We noticed at the BuzzData Blog, they are running a contest asking users to "tell the story behind data".

Check it out here.

Be interesting to see what transpires story wise and how (if any) City of Toronto data is used in this contest.

DATA eh? #3

DATA eh? interviews Trish Garner, Manager, Web Strategy, Information & Technology City of Toronto

2011-10-21T11:52:00.000-04:00

By the DATA eh? team

DATA eh?: Hi Trish, you arelisted on the blog as an author but, today, we want to speak to you in yourrole as an Open Data champion and strategist for the City of Toronto. Ratherthan interview yourself, we thought we'd pose some questions for you.

TG: OK

DATA eh?: Tell us why DATA eh?is important to you?

TG: Our Open Datainitiative has been around going on two years. We've been hearing fromcommunities beyond the developers and users of Open Data, that we need toprovide bridges between the technical and the casual. Kind of like allowingmore room for discussion by the users vs. the creators of applications – hencea spot to have conversations and provide links to interesting outcomes aroundCity of Toronto data.

DATA eh?: Aren't they two verydifferent audiences?

TG: Yes, very much soand I'd even add a third: people who understand what Open Data is all about butaren't interested in using it directly but agree it's good.

DATA eh?: And all of thesepeople are going to engage?

TG: Probably not but werealize we have to start somewhere in extending dialogue. To date, we've seengreat pick up from our @Open_TO twitter account but, again, that's from thedeveloper community mostly. We think, if you have any curiosity about data, or Open Government even, you will get something out of a City of Toronto space allowingfor conversations and information sharing. A large part of the success orfailure will be around readers diving in and helping to set a direction.

DATA eh?: We've often heardyou say that Open Data is messy. Is this a part of that sentiment?

TG: Yes, very much so.We learned early in that waiting for the perfect data set or perfectpresentation wasn't a good thing. We heard very loudly from the developercommunity to just keep on keeping on in getting data out early and often. Wealso learned that we shouldn't expect to be the only people involved infiguring it all out. We think the DATA eh? space can solidify organically. Wecreated the space but didn't want to spend endless hours meeting around everypossible aspect of what it is or could become. Let's push it out and see.

DATA eh?: And if no one comes?

TG: Now, don't benegative! Seriously, we've always taken from the get go around Open Data that we wantto be positive and see things half full. We take any interaction as valuable beit one or a thousand and one. We'll never know what forum or space is going tohave take-up unless we try. To anyone reading this right now, join in andcomment and let us know what you think this "sandbox" can be.

DATA eh?: We are calling DATAeh? a sandbox to meet, play, chat and crunch data. So, here is the spot tochat?

TG: Exactly, on the mainDATA eh? page, we are pushing links to City of Toronto content that leveragesdata. We'll also be adding news items to things of interest – not only ours.And, we really hope to have spots of content where anyone interested can playaround with data to see what comes up. We want them to use the same data we useand help frame conclusions. All in all, we see the entire DATA eh? presence asa spot for people to meet up (at least virtually) and see where it goes fromthere. We know many readers are just passive participants – they may notcomment or overtly engage but we still want them to get value out of this OpenData revolution!

DATA eh?: We've learned tokeep things shorter rather than longer, so we'll continue our conversation in afuture post. You good with that?

TG: Indeed, in fact I'dlike to come back soon with some information on the G4 initiative between us atthe City of Toronto and Ottawa, Edmonton and Vancouver. We're not alone in OpenData.

DATA eh?: Sweet. Thanks Trish.

DATA eh? # 2

Welcome to the DATA eh? Blog*

2011-10-05T18:35:00.000-04:00

By Keith McDonald

Hi, and welcome to “DATA, eh?” – "theCity of Toronto's sandbox to meet, play and chat about data".

You've landed on our interactive space but the whole of DATA eh? is way more than that. We want you to:

Meet:
Explore and experience just howthe data we collect at the City (and release through toronto.ca/open) makes ourlives better and actually is changing the world as we know it. That last partsound too big? Maybe, but, if you stay with us, you just might find yourselfagreeing.

Play:
We'll give you a chance to use the same raw data weuse to make interpretations of information to come up with your owninterpretations.

Chat:
Let's talk about what you think about the veryactive Open Data community. Maybe even discuss applications and such.

Crunch:

Pick up on the news from around toronto.ca that use or leverage City of Toronto data.

YourHosts & Moderators
The City of Toronto Web Centre team is working the blog. I'm Keith McDonald writing this first post. I've been a part of the City's Open Datainitiative since day 1 – back in April 2009. I've also been working in the last year with our City Clerk's Office where I helped promote Information Management including Open Data. I personally believe freely sharing data is our last hope for true democracy. Seriously, I can say that with astraight face since I've seen first hand how having raw data at your disposalcan impact decision-making.

All of the writers of DATA eh? will talk more about important beginnings, middles and endings in other posts. Suffice to say, we're all Open Data champions and are very much looking forward to meeting and hearing your thoughts around the subject. You can read about the moderation/commenting aspects to DATA eh? here.

Are you a novice or a pro?
I can’t tell yet if you are new to Open Data orwell into the loop. To kick things off, the team thought it would be good tomake sure everyone knows we release data through the website toronto.ca/open.

Canyou guess how many data sets we have live right now at the toronto.ca/openpage?

Rather than tell you we’d like you to investigate for yourself. You might be surprised! Discover toronto.ca/open here.

Say, if you haven't seen our DATA eh? teaser video, have a look:

* Those used to coming here and finding our legacy blog, web re:Brand, may be surprised to see the morphing to DATA eh? but we wrapped up the branding project and want to leverage this space for more discussions. Join in ... and you can still find out where we were at with the re:Brand in the archives.

DATA eh? #1

Last Post and Testament

2010-11-19T13:14:00.000-05:00

NOTE: This was the last of the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

After a year and a bit of active posting*, the web re:Brand blog is signing off. The blog will stick around as an archive for the time being (no fixed dissolve date) and you can still comment here - though I will no longer respond.

Two reasons for the wrap up now:
(1) Your author has a new position within the City of Toronto focusing on Information Management and (2) the rebranding process itself is heading into a phase 2.

One of the items I'm personally most proud of in our rebranding efforts (phase 1), is how we exposed user comments through the process - that was the whole point. I recently posted how we (The City of Toronto) are unique in presenting comments around our process. Rather than say "users told us", but not point to a place where you can see the dialog, you can read what users have said here and on our Comments Wall.

It's an important point as far as I'm concerned - especially when you are talking about information sharing in a social media world.

Phase 2
We joke on the team that we're rebranding the re:Brand next and that's not far from the truth. We learned quite a bit from our user engagements here, on the Wall, in-person focus tests, interviews, presentations, staff evangelizing, meetings, discussions, arguments, more meetings, etc. None of it was wasted and even the negative was positive!

All of the insight has gone into a melting pot and plans are to bring more draft pages forward to the web. You will see some changes into 2011. The "beta" space or "labs" space, where users can comment directly on new features, is still in the cards and there will be great value in that.

My previous post, equated the delay in getting The Beatles music to iTunes was akin to our taking a long time with the process of changing the website. Indeed, it isn't (or hasn't been) a fast process. We used to want to apologize for that but I'm not sure we should, given many of the items and factors talked about here on the blog.

Cheers!
So my role here is done for now. Really have to thank those who stopped by and, especially those who engaged with me. I also want to credit the re:Brand team members for their energy and support in the project.

Trish Garner
Don Sugden
Reham Gorgis
Marina Reckzin
Denis Carr
Derek Matthew
Gabe Caira
Roger Beckett
Larry Kline

Thanks a bunch and stay well! Hope to represent the City again in social media sometime in the future.

Keith

*There were 70 posts in total ... for those who like to count.

#39

The Beatles, iTunes and toronto.ca

2010-11-18T12:04:00.004-05:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

By now you may have heard that Apple Corps and Apple Inc have come to terms and The Beatles songs are now available on iTunes. Isn't that iWonderful?

Darryl Sterdan writing in The Toronto Sun doesn't think so. He believes the situation is "so Yesterday". I think I would agree the group members missed an early opportunity in getting a foothold in the download community years ago, but it's still is a big deal for them to be there.

Apple ... Apple ... toronto.ca
There are a few points from his article that triggered this post as I think about the re:Brand of toronto.ca:

(1) I make an analogy between the legal wrangles of The Beatles Apple and Apple computers and the caution toronto.ca shows in rapid adoption of the "next big thing". Though I'm surprised we haven't heard much mention of our being slow to adopt on our Comments Wall, we certainly get mail about it!

Our trouble has always been that so many users do not (or will not) update to current browsers or download plugins that allow more pizzazz in their Internet experience. Every time we launch something that utilizes newer web features, numerous user complaints ensue. Why? Simply because there is a strong user feeling that we should be able to offer them content that they can see - even if they happen to be living in the web equivalent of 1994 - many more people than you think refuse to upgrade with even "free" upgrades!

I think they are right to some extent. We have an obligation to be accessible to all users and that often means staying with fading technique a while longer to ensure this access. It's real easy to say: "download another browser" but less easy for those who complain to take that as the right answer. I could go into way more detail here but you probably get the idea. And, if you are one of these "less inclined to update" people, no offence.

(2) By the time we do catch up, newer things are already replacing where we are. In a sense, we can never truly catch up for the reasons stated in point 1.

(3) Our use of social media is kind of like parents getting onto Facebook.

Sterdan mentions that having The Beatles on iTunes is like "when your mom finally discovered Facebook and started poking you. It's just sad and embarrassing for everybody concerned." But I would argue that it's only embarrassing to the immediate person and his or her friends. Some dude across the world might find it endearing the Mom and Dad are friends with little Billy. Who knows for sure. The thing is, if everyone is there, you can have the engagements right? Information is power and blah blah blah. If the point is to avoid the engagements, well, there are ways to do that too. But we (toronto.ca) want to engage so you may have to put up with us in your social media world. BTW, I'm still wondering if you really would rather we stay away altogether.

(4) Final point is that The Beatles finally got to iTunes and we'll finally get to a finished re:Brand. By that time, it will be time to start all over again. If you've been reading the blog though, you'll know we don't really intend to stop. In fact, it's time for rebranding the re:Brand.

rebranding the re:Brand
My final post will talk about the future. Meantime, it's off to listen to The Beatles (insert appropriate song title here that further connects what I've been trying to say in this post - maybe you have a suggestion?)

#38

Web Wars, Max Headroom and toronto.ca

2010-11-09T11:46:00.003-05:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

Just before I sign off as TOwebRebrand (stay tuned for a wrap up post), I want to get to a few "external forces at play" thoughts. Although these don't impact on a re-branded toronto.ca, they do impact on web users and expectations that are relevant to what we could do for and with users in the future.

Two articles of note:
Not on Facebook? Facebook still knows you
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/rorycellanjones/2010/10/not_on_facebook_facebook_still.html

AND

Google halts Facebook data usage – so Facebook pole vaults
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/nov/08/google-facebook-gmail-contacts-data

On the first, it's a bit of a surprise to me that facebook would have some insight on people who have ignored it and never signed up.

It reminds me a bit of that Kevin Bacon game - 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon - and reveals how incestuous the web can be. Ponder this: if you have friends or colleagues engaged in facebook, and they happen to mention you in passing or import their address books with your mail address in it to facebook, you will find you are no longer an "unknown" in the mighty facebook data bank!

It's like facebook can play the 6 degree game with your name and make some suggested connections for you.

So, it would seem that it is true - even if you don't know facebook, facebook knows you.

Does that cause you concern? What if you were registering for something on toronto.ca and the same thing happened? Do you view government differently than a facebook?

The reason I ask is that we have had ongoing discussions around enabling a "myAccount" concept for toronto.ca users. This would mean providing an ability for users to conduct City business via the website using a one entrance-way portal.

Examples
You could purchase a pet license or pay a ticket or register for a recreation program all in one place. The idea is reasonable but we are also considering matching content from the rest of toronto.ca to users.

This would come based on information provided by users when they sign up and also from how users engage with the website. A quick example of what I mean is, if you purchased an animal license, we would be able to know when you would need to renew the license and send an alert. We could also send content to your account page reflecting animal care and other associated content - perhaps notice of events in your neighbourhood related to animal care.

There's been no decision to do this yet, just a lot of conceptual discussion on what might be desirable for users. Would that be something you would accept from the City?

Competition
In the second article it's pretty clear players like Google and facebook aren't necessarily "friends" (both in the facebook sense and literally). And now, Google is upset that facebook isn't allowing users to export data out of facebook to other places.

When you hear about tiffs and turf wars, it also gives you pause. Let's extrapolate where it could lead:

If you want to use Google, you couldn't use facebook, or vice versa. Or, perhaps you have to pay for certain access. Maybe facebook partners with a Google rival and enables all kinds of things unique to the rivals' offerings and not Google's.

Suddenly you are faced with some decisions and it's no longer as easy to do what it is you want to do using what it is you want to use. This is happening in lots of places already.

I recently bought the Max Headroom DVDs and was amazed at how some of the "Max envisioned future" is in place today. If you've seen or remember the show, you will know what I mean.

A key component of the series is the intense rivalry between "networks" and trending topics - up and down in an instant! Sounds a bit like what happens on twitter.

What about us?
We can take from this and relate it to toronto.ca. Although we have the capacity to introduce some cause and effect structure and perhaps stronger links and integrations with social media, is it something we should do?

I've wrestled with this for two years now and it is not yet clear how citizens regard such "interplay" from government. Citizens have made it clear that they like social media and they've made it clear they will interact with a government social media page. But that's only one part of what we need to know. What is yet to come is more definitive proof that users want to have their local government interact back like a facebook..

Do you know what I'm getting at?

The best way I can put it is to ask if you want us to bring to your attention useful information about yourself and your interests every time you come to a toronto.ca webpage?

I'm also wondering if you think about how it is facebook can make recommendations for you in the first place?

If Max headroom took place "20 minutes into the future", I'm worried about the next 10 minutes.

#37

The City of Leon and something about something about something and something else

2010-09-30T14:27:00.001-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

The re:Brand team was talking just this week about the parable of the tortoise and the hare. Maybe toronto.ca is a bit like the tortoise. In a rebrand (redesign or refresh) context, we haven't gotten to the release stage of presenting major changes to the web yet and other city sites are ahead of us.

Of course, there are some examples right now that our users can see and ponder (see Parks, Rec & Forestry pages) but no whole scale, final, "this is it" changes from us yet.

This is why it's a bit ironic to find out about the City of Leon. Apparently they got their website done in 24 hours!

Amazing
When I stopped by and saw they have 2400 residents there it did give me pause. In fact, I think you could phone each and everyone of them - that's quite possible - to engage in conversation rather than using twitter or facebook (which they are doing). You know, if the phone were invented now, it would be the next big thing.

Anyway, it's a bit of apples vs. oranges to compare our challenges to their challenges. I won't even go there but I will say ... kudos Leon!

And kudos to Luke Fretwell who posts about his effort in the process on his blog. If this doesn't illustrate something about something about something and something else I don't know what does. (fill in the somethings for me ...)

#36/2010

What The Wall and toronto.ca have in common

2010-09-21T17:23:00.006-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

Roger Waters (ex of Pink Floyd) made three appearances in Toronto last week touring The Wall Live. I saw the show and it was, in a word, spectacular! I'm always trying to come up with interesting analogies for the re:Brand effort and there are several items worth mentioning coming out of the show.

In the first instance The Wall is all about alienation/isolation and how to deal with issues surrounding alienation/isolation. If you look at our web you might say we alienate users whenever we provide bad web or bad web experiences. We sometimes isolate ourselves and users by not providing enough information. We may not be as brutal as the Pink character's teacher or mother or wife but users do get alienated all the same.

I took this picture at the show

Is There Anybody Out There?

One of the most powerful moments in the show is when the wall is built across the stage and the band is performing behind it. In song, Waters asks the question: "Is there anybody out there?"

I'd ask the same thing but in the context of social media. While there is some pick up of the opportunity to dialogue with City players, in general, social engagement hasn't brought in the masses. Even the "We Want It" video I mentioned recently is far below the potential reach possible and pales in comparison to traffic at our static website.

That says to me a few things. People may not have heard we are "here" - as in the City of Toronto using YouTube, flickr, facebook, twitter and blogs (see our subscribe page for links). OR, people may just not care that much to engage. It's pretty early in the shift toward open dialogue to make a real conclusion but, it is something to ponder.

Do users want such opportunities from their local governments? Perhaps all they want is to find information about garbage collection times and not to discuss it. So, do we integrate social media inside toronto.ca or stay away from it?

Trust
That brings us to the song Mother. Here, Waters has a line asking should he (we) "trust the government" The audience adds a response that I'll edit somewhat here ... "no &%#&^*@ way". That's interesting - it's really an out of context response to the problems the character is experiencing. But, I have no doubt people feel this way. I think, however, users do trust our content. Would you agree that information about the flu and flu shots would have more credibility here than, say, toronto.com? Just asking.

The Show

As I said , The Wall is a spectacular presentation. Underneath the film projections and inflatable pigs and characters, the light show and the great sound, you had really great content. Bringing this thought back to toronto.ca, I think lots of people want some of the peripherals on our web but, deep down, it's still all about great content. What I'm getting at here is we could move toward a much more spectacular presentation but, unless we get our content straight, it won't matter that much. Am I wrong?

Another shot from the show

These are just random thoughts while contemplating the experience of seeing the show. As the wall gets torn down by the end, and the band comes to the front and sings about the experience, I think the audience gets it that connections, no matter how difficult, are important. To quote from another Pink Floyd song ... "all we need to do is keep talking." Much better than putting up more bricks!

#35/2010

The new fall TV season and toronto.ca

2010-09-15T12:26:00.004-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

What's the "new. exciting fall TV line up" got to do with toronto.ca? Absolutely nothing directly ... but I think it's fair to say the risks to the networks when launching new TV shows are similar to the risks we face in launching a re-branded website.

Locally, if not even globally, our audiences have as much to gain and as much to lose by anything we do new or change. It may not seem to be at the level of Jay Leno moving to Prime Time and back to late night again (Hello, Goodbye Conan), but, in our little piece of the communications universe, it's pretty important.

All About Ratings
I've been posting here frequently about how the user experience has to be better when surfing toronto.ca. To me that's akin to a viewer liking a show enough to come back week after week, making the program a ratings hit.

But there is also the proverbial reviewers' choice that the critics love but audiences don't take to. In our case I make the analogy between inside and outside users. Often our staff will create navigation that is comfortable for them while they use our site. It may or may not be a hit with the outside user.

All this is a short way of saying you can promise the greatest experience and promo it to death but, if you don't deliver, you don't satisfy.

A Summer of Changing Websites
I think all of the government websites that launched anew over the summer (some have been subject to other posts here), have the same pressures we do. But what interests me a lot is the fact these sites haven't taken the same road we have. Although they say they talked to users in getting their new sites up-to-speed, I haven't seen much evidence of the dialogue on their pages. I see surveys and places to send comment but I don't see anything close to our comments wall where you can actually read what users are saying about you.

If you haven't read the wall yet, it's good insight on user opinion. One of the reasons we're taking our time in finishing up what we're calling the web re:Brand, is we don't want to rush change just for change's sake alone. In fact, we're of the mind the site is going to evolve constantly. We're intentionally going to change organically.

That being said, you'll see some changes creeping in this fall - some initiated by the re:Brand team and some by Divisions - we hope your reactions will guide us all further along the path. In TV they often tweak a pilot - sometimes recasting the entire show when they feel the idea is right but the delivery wrong. We reserve the right to do the same.

#34/2010

We want it!

2010-09-08T12:25:00.000-04:00

It's part of a full radio and TV campaign for recycling electronics. It's well done, educates while amusing viewers.

That's good communication by my book.

But I wonder how far we can take it?

I mean, the City probably couldn't sell the harder and delicate issues we face this way ... or could it?

Part of the issue with social media is that it is not a given audiences will come in huge masses and partake. (Ha, ha, the re:Brand blog is an example of that!) Indeed, the work has to have something about it that stimulates enough to make it "comment worthy" or "share worthy" thus becoming "buzz worthy" and maybe "influence worthy".

So it's food for thought ... how do you want to receive your information? With a smile attached to it ... a nod and a wink or deadpan serious? Is there a middle ground?

How about time and place - when is it OK to move along the "funny ha ha" spectrum and when isn't it?

Some of your thoughts would be helpful as we go forward in reviewing how we present content at toronto.ca.

#33/2010

ottawa.ca is to Ottawa as is to

2010-09-07T12:15:00.002-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

Ottawa is yet another city to launch a changed website this year. Now, of course, we are getting pretty close to home with Ottawa being in the same province.

So, I thought I'd title this post with the same type of "fill in the blanks" we've been throwing out on twitter from time to time - "our website is to the City as blank is to blank". We get an idea of how users see the website in relation to the City itself.

Love to hear your comments on what we might take from Ottawa.

I personally like the fact they are promoting their social media presence right on their home page with twitter, YouTube and flickr links as well as a dedicated twitter feed. On the screen capture I added to this page, I selected the YouTube link so you see a video segment in what is normally the twitter feed box.

I note also the spot underneath the social media spot for comments on the site changes. We would like to bump our comments presence on our website too but make it directly associated with specific web pages. I've long felt we'd get more comments if users could address their issues right from the pages they are on - we could also better associate what issues specific pages present for users. What I'm talking about is what Google and others do at the end of pages - "Was this helpful?" etc.

Anyway, congratulations Ottawa ... who's next up for changes? We're still a ways away.

#32/2010

Nice, New Nelson

2010-08-16T15:18:00.000-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

Hello, I'm back ... found this site while I was away.

Nelson BC launched an updated website at the end of July. I think it's pretty sweet. Have a look and tell us ... should we go for more or less of what they are doing?

#31/2010

Everything old is new again ... not quite!

2010-07-28T14:21:00.012-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

We found an interesting website today: http://web.archive.org known as wayback machine. You can go backwards in time there and we did. Here is a rendering of our toronto.ca site from 1999:

And another:

We changed from this in mid-2000 to:

We're still a kid ...
Actually we found another site that gives our "age" as 8 years, 10 months and 3 days (as of viewing/writing today, July 28, 2010). Looks like they started to calculate from when we became "toronto.ca" instead of "city.toronto.on.ca" - the actual City of Toronto web site has been around since amalgamation in 1998.

That still makes us a kid in people terms! Trouble is that's really old in web terms. But we're people using technology making web. It's not technology itself making web. So I think that's a distinction worth mentioning.

Here's what we looked like just before our first birthday (this being a former City of Toronto web page as the transition to one large City government was happening):

Keeners
The team here is keen to see our web improve for the user. If you've been here reading before I hope you know that by now. But, if you are new to this blog, and not sure what the toronto.ca web re:Brand is all about, we're asking for comment on what we can do better.

Many people go right to the look and feel of the pages in their thoughts. That's important but we want to go deeper down to discover how you surf the pages. To accommodate improvements we are introducing a web content management tool which will clear up virtually all of the coding problems and accessibility barriers on the site. But we want to go beyond that too.

I've asked before for comments on how we can make your user experience better. We're turning the corner on how we plan to introduce content management and the design. It's still going to be some time before we have everything in place. As we go along, we're going to keep checking in to ask if we're moving in the right direction. So, once again, I invite thoughts and issues on toronto.ca user experiences. Tell us how you tried to find something, where you expected it to be, what search terms you used, etc. Tell your friends to tell us too. It all helps.

I'm off for some R&R for a bit so won't be posting for a few weeks. Meantime, please surf the rest of this blog - in particular the Lucky 7 sections and the straight to the point "tell us what's right or wrong with toronto.ca".

I'll leave you with a capture of our current front page (the current view with design from when we kicked off the re:Brand in 2009):

#30/2010

Strikethrough the re:Brand

2010-07-21T12:12:00.002-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

I'm seeing more and more blog authors using the strike through when they make ~~errors~~ mistakes and changes on their blog. I'm ~~thinking~~ assuming it's to show transparency - you know, "I'm not hiding anything from you".*

But I actually ~~hate it~~ ~~loathe it~~ ~~detest it~~ ~~object to it~~ think it's pretty stupid. It makes a post much harder to read and, if I used strike through for every error or change of mind I had, well it would be simply ~~impossible~~ horrific to read!

Maybe that makes me ~~old school~~ ~~out of touch~~ a contrarian but I really prefer a readable display - I'm not a fan of track changes in a document either. It's just too hard to follow.

But how far should we take this "openness" in an Open Government? Do we transfer the logic to our static web? How about our print pieces? Advertising on the Garbage trucks? Tax Bills?

*Here's the real explanation around why you would use strikethrough - to alert to any changes after a post already has comments attached to it.

NOTE: Though the rules for social media may be a bit different, for corrections, I'd offer the suggestion of simply adding a new paragraph to the top of your post stating the error(s) and that you've made changes/corrections - more tasteful if you have lots of changes. But I'd hope the need for changes would be limited. Too many changes would reflect on your credibility as a writer ... no? yes!

#29/2010

OK what does branding mean?

2010-07-19T15:54:00.009-04:00

I was just on the City's website/webpage for Edwards Gardens.....ARE YOU KIDDING? That is the most spartan and pathetic 'description' for a civic attraction that I've ever seen and I have lived or visited from coast-to-coast. Do you not want people to visit this wonderful space? In fact, I found most of the 'information' on the City's website severely lacking, unimaginative, and just plain bland.

AND ...

It is obviously too late. In the future, try first to understand what "branding" means. So far, there is no "branding" here.

To the first - this is the kind of comment relating to writing we've been asking about. In some ways, when we write with a bit more pizazz there is a fear of criticism but I gather rather than a consistent listing this person wants more! We could definitely put some more meat on information like this - maybe you'd like to try adding your own descriptions - a great place for a Garden Wall perhaps?

(Assumption the person was looking at: http://www.toronto.ca/parks/parks_gardens/edwardsgdns.htm).

To the second - I would argue it's never too late. The web re:Brand hasn't got a finite point exactly. I mean, we are not just going to present pages and say we are done without a fair bit of due diligence. So, perhaps you could say: "it's taking a while"! I would also challenge that we don't know what "branding" means. In fact the comment tells us a lot about our current brand. So, maybe as we move along with the outcomes, a better brand - something we can all be real proud about - will become more evident.

Fill in the blanks:

toronto.ca is to Toronto as ________ is to __________

Make a connection and tell us what our web means to you now or what you'd like it to mean to you in the future.

#28/2010

GovCamp Toronto speaks to converted but that's the point for now

2010-06-25T16:16:00.007-04:00

First up, attendance was great form the City of Toronto. Is that important? I think so. Among the many were CIO, Dave Wallace (my ultimate boss here in I&T), Howard Wunch (a more immediate boss in the Web Centre), Trish Garner (OK she is my direct boss). Outside of I&T, Neil Evans from 311 and Michael Williams the General Manager for the EDC division (which is all about Economic Development & Culture - hence the EDC tag) were there. That's two heavy hitters showing interest. In all I counted about 20 City staff there. I think that shows good uptake from us.

David Eaves

What can you say about David Eaves that hasn't been said by those who've heard his "pitch"?

What most impressed me was how, in a few short minutes, the value added of opening up data becomes clear. A colleague of mine has been suggesting that the Open Data discussion is a bit like the Climate Change issue - meaning those on the "need to have open" side are facing similar barriers in uptake etc as those who believe Climate Change is "impacting" right now (I am encouraging him to prepare a post here about it).

If we follow this analogy, David Eaves could be the Al Gore and Inconvenient Truth of the Open movement. I think a documentary of his presentation is in order for use in presentations where he can't be there LIVE. It would be very useful right here in the City of Toronto for communicating about what "open" is all about. I want more than his PowerPoint slides for this.

Table Sessions and results
My previous post talked about my own table experience. In a bigger picture sense, the more camps you go to following the same motif, the more you see what needs to be completed but the more you see the task not being done. Discussion goes only so far before you need to action it in deliverable bits. At some point soon, dare I say it, working groups are going to have to solidify to get the job done. It's kind of a blending of old school/new school means to the end.

Process

All table facilitators had the opportunity to pitch their table - picture above is my view as I made my pitch. Then, of course, you get to it.

There were lots of topics to choose from - maybe too many but it's a bit of an attendance ratio game afoot to cover the potential numbers and interests. The set up and functioning works well enough for the process and Mark Kuznicki, does a fine job as chief facilitator/enabler. Kudos Sir.

But now what?
Further to my first point, everyone interested in the area has got to figure out and resolve the legislative barriers (some would say protections) to get the data flowing on a regular basis. I'd like to see specific focus on just this item at the next effort.

As an insider from the Gov side, I think the #1 impediment to getting data out is the process of release approval. There is so much privacy legislation in effect the process simply is not "simple". To work through this is likely to take months if not years. I should note I am speaking entirely personally here - not for my group or the others on toronto.ca/open when I say this. It is just my personal observation after some 16 months dealing with open issues.

Private vs rights to see it
Clearly not all data is private but the process of looking at data inevitably requires an assessment by privacy representatives. Even if it's a no brainer, it still needs sign off. Here is where everyone from legal to FOI staff to legislators need to enter the Camps and participate. Otherwise, the ideals and efforts of all the rest are just blowing in the winds. So, lots more discussion needs to get down and dirty to resolve how you can manage releasing data and still have protections for the tax payer/citizen. If the law is too stringent, then it needs to be changed. If the law is reasonable in how it protects citizens, then the expectations for what data you can have has got to change. I think it's an aspect of "open" government that is somewhat conflicted actually. For sure it isn't black or white. And that's where the style of a camp just isn't going to get "it" done.

Norway puts everything out including tax returns
With no uptake at my own table, I moved on to take in some of the other action and dropped by "Table 14" which was talking about ways to reach citizens. There, the group was talking about how citizens may trust governments with things like their drivers license numbers and SINs but really didn't want the areas having this information to actually use the information for us. Take Revenue Canada as an example. Do we want them to push data our way if we happen to be on a Revenue Canada page? (Analogy here is to someone nearing retirement and, as they happen to be on Revenue Canada site, they get pushed some info alerts about CPP or the like).

I offered it's a schizophrenic audience we are trying to reach. The reference to Norway came up around this time in the discussion.

For those who aren't aware, it is true Norway releases everything publicly - you can find out what your neighbour earns to the last cent by checking out the tax returns. I just can't imagine the Feds, the Province or the local governments here in Canada ever getting with that program. There is an historical reason why Norway ended up doing this (see this article for more deets). I think it's really useful to have the discussion that drills this deep by the way since I'm pretty sure we are going to have trouble reconciling "transparency" with our feelings around our own information being a part of it. That's where evangelizing the benefits is going to be prime.

I roamed around several other tables and everyone was engaged with great passion. The pluses of a Camp format do stand out as you observe this kind of interaction. There is great legitimacy in finding like minds and like enthusiasm.

Next Steps
There will be more camps - talk of November is already happening. I would hope the internal government folks can do some meet ups as well to try and work on barriers from within. As well, I'd like to see Advisory Boards or some equivalent come up where "citizens" can contribute and push.

I'm a Mac and this is PC

I took this shot at my table - kind of hard to see but a Mac was right beside a PC for note taking purposes by the users.

So on a final note, if PC and Mac can coexist at a table like this documenting the same discussion - then it may very well be possible for open data and the rest of the dreams around it to happen. Kind of abstract but I wanted to end this on a positive note.

27/2010

My table presentation was so dull even I had to leave ...

2010-06-24T13:19:00.001-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

I'm surprised to find no blog action from the GovCamp of last week. Doubly surprised in a way, since my table topic was "entering the blogosphere".

I wondered from the planing outset whether there would be any uptake on this topic at a camp revolving largely around opening up data? Event organizers suggested it as a possible topic to our toronto.ca/open team and I thought it worth a shot - not only to add variety to the event topics but because I'm blogging and I wanted to find others doing the same. I can say categorically post event: "there isn't any uptake".

I think the main reason is the live conversation is still largely around getting data released (and all that means and/or implies) as opposed to talking about blogging about it. At least this is true from the government inside perspective. It was still a bit of a shock though - out of all the government employees in attendance on this night - that no one stopped by the table to say they were blogging. There are lots of examples of the engaged community blogging of course but I can't find a gov employee blog per se. I'm not certain that makes me exclusive but chances are good if I gave a "gov employee blogging party" few people would come.

ARE WE ALL TALK AND NO ACTION?
I'm basing this after the event and in doing searches for blogs. Nada results - though I could be missing pages that are topic centred and not tagged as government. Whatever, it's certainly lean pickings. Makes me wonder if we in the government area are talking adopting social media more than actually doing it.

I know here at the City, we are struggling with privacy issues (read this section of our privacy post to observe some of the issues around privacy convergence). It isn't exactly easy to enter the mainstream of the blogosphere mainly because we have to concern ourselves with things like why we might ask for your name or e-mail.

If I'm blogging here as Keith - non City of Toronto Keith that is - I can ask for whatever I want and if you cough it up, well it's neither here or there (a simplification but more or less true). However as TOwebRebrand I am obligated to follow things like MFIPPA (I'm not even going to tell you what that stands for but you can read a lot more about our obligations here.)

That's one aspect I wanted to talk about with other government bloggers. Have to wait until another time perhaps but I'm putting it out there we should definitely get in touch with each other. So hey, PLEASE, if you are a government employee blogging for your job and within the sound of this post- let me know. Maybe we can hang out a bit and talk.

My next post will comment specifically about the GovCamp event. I left my own table after round 1 sessions to do some participating of my own.

Btw, I do want to thank Jenna Hoffman (blogging for Microsoft) for dropping by (as did event organizer Julia Stowell).

#26/2010

A rant by any other name is still a rant ... no?

2010-06-14T11:37:00.005-04:00

This website remains an embarrassment, year after year. Show us the money, or at least some results for our money ON A REGULAR BASIS. Why don't you use maps like the ones that real folks use everyday? Why is there no directory of staff and services? Why is so much old information still available? And who really cares about a 're:Brand'? Aren't grand scale website overhauls (at long intervals) generally accepted as folly now? Who's running the show? No more excuses.>

I always like it when people sugar coat their statements like this - perhaps it would be better if they told us what they really feel. But, seriously, the above comment - and ones like it on the wall - do nothing to enable us to make a better website. All it is is a rant and that may fulfill a need (one we haven't offered up previously) but, again, doesn't offer us anything of value.

Note: I suspect the reference to the "maps" is related to the launch of a new maps for road closures (http://map.toronto.ca/roadrestrictions/index.jsp). The mappers are indeed looking for feedback. It could be they haven't seen it - hard to tell.

A while back I wrote about customer service being only as good as your last performance. That would appear to be true here again - for the current web has clearly failed this person. But, and I'm speaking personally as opposed to "Mr. re:Brand", I would really like to see some more positive energy around the fact we are inviting comment at all. Isn't that a small victory for the masses?

Up to a year ago, commenting on the City of Toronto web pages was impossible. Not that we need a pat on the back for the small step but it is a significant step! I really see it as half full as opposed to half empty.

So, why not take advantage of the opportunity and give us some tangibles? In fact, we're giving you an idea of where we are headed with our Lucky 7 - you can react from there.

Oh, I would agree that few care about the "re:Brand" per se - it's not very sexy or cool. Some days I wish I was blogging about the environment or world peace or music. But, that being said, I care about toronto.ca. Speaking this time for all of us on the re:Brand team, we do care about making a better user experience. So, give us something to work with - it's well worth your time.

We were talking the other day about having a "half full" stance on our project ... a little later a colleague used the term "that's a real can of worms" about another topic ... right away a different colleague added: "yes, but it's a half full can of worms" - cute!

25/2010

Nice site y'all!

2010-06-08T10:56:00.002-04:00

What should we take from their work?

24/2010

Pretty well exhausted but always room for more ...

2010-05-31T15:01:00.002-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

... and that's about it for the re:Brand posts for the next while.

We're in analysis mode and taking things in. The Lucky 7 post is your ticket to continue adding thoughts. Please do as we're not stopping listening to user reactions.

23/2010

How LOST and toronto.ca are similar

2010-05-13T12:22:00.009-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

OK an admission here ... I'm still watching LOST but wishing we would just get the thing over with. The only reason I'm still hanging in is because of all the time invested in the program over its run. So, I'm a bit hostile to it. That being out-of-the-way, here's what I was thinking this week after viewing the Adam and Eve episode:

I thought of our website and the road we've been on for the last few years getting up to speed on making changes etc. Like the main characters on LOST, we've encountered some similar obstacles.

Our city is sometimes called the "Big Smoke" , LOST has the Black Smoke.

You could say we (toronto.ca) were lost for a time. Stuck in the early 2000's web, not using CSS, providing a department centric version of services vs. a user centric approach. When we landed on our island back when amalgamation hit in 1998, we took the former city websites, put the info out there and hit the ground running. When we reshaped the web in 2001, we took web thinking back then, came out with our 4 gateways (Living, Business, Visiting and Accessing City Hall), dropped in the existing content and continued running.

So, let's make an analogy between us and the LOSTies. You might say the toronto.ca teams have been existing on an island for the last several years just punching in those numbers (content) every 108 minutes. I think what changed for us, much like when Locke refused to enter the numbers many episodes ago, is the coming of Social Media. All of a sudden, there was this huge groundswell of interaction possibilities that released the Genie out of its bottle.

Suddenly people were using Social Media and talking about the City. Our website did not come through unscathed. In our little world here, we thought that was a good thing and it gave us ammunition to push for making changes.

Frustrating
I think what frustrates me with the TV show is that their goal of leaving the island keeps changing - especially with Jack. He promises to get everyone off, he does (more or less) and then he's got to go back. And then he wants to leave, no stay ... make up your mind!!!! If it's some kind of fate set to determine what happens, get on with it already!

Are we in a similar state of flux? Perhaps.We're moving forward but it's slow. Unlike the show we haven't got a parallel time line on the go, where toronto.ca exists in a different form already and everything is stable. At least I don't think so! If we did, I would think Desmond is Social Media trying to wake us up.

All this crystallized in my mind yesterday after attending a presentation on SharePoint. One of the presenters (thanks to Alber Hanna from the City of Brampton) had some quotes I found interesting referring to collaboration tools:

It's a transformation of a mindset of a management style.

and

Taking risks is the norm for the web.

I would add:

taking risks is not the norm for governments and you have to push us.

Risk
The people on LOST have been taking risks all along. For us, any change is risky. No matter what choices we make, we're gong to get some dissonance. There is no pleasing everyone. But, one way or another, something is going to happen and it will be a change from the current toronto.ca.

I'm willing to predict, we'll see lots of interactions happening from a "My Account" or "My Toronto" one entry gateway for payments, registrations and the like to community blogs written by users of toronto.ca. Everything is on the table and we are seeing other governments taking similar steps. Open Data is a prime example of what I mean.

I'm not sure how LOST is going to turn out but I think our writers and creators for toronto.ca have a lot less explaining to do.

22/2010

Hello Fijnaart, Gijón, Bandung and Urbandale ...

2010-05-11T15:22:00.003-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

A cool thing I've always loved about the web is how items go viral and people from anywhere find you. In the case of the re:Brand, stats are showing visits from all over the place. In fact, there are many readers who seem to be following us from afar.

I'm speculating but I suspect that others involved in government web rebranding are finding us from searches etc. That's great. If I'm right and you're a government site reading this, cheers and let us know how and what you are doing. Oh, and, we'll take no offense if you don't like our website (toronto.ca). I've commented on a few government sites here and here ... it goes two ways. So feel free ... just saying.

21/2010

More doing business on web suggestions

2010-05-07T14:12:00.001-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

A while ago we posted a request for business users to tell us how they use/want to use the toronto.ca web. We just posted to YouTube Part 3 of the video series where we interview business owners about their needs.
Let us know if you support the kinds of adds Joe talks about.

20/2010

While away I found some things "refurbished"

2010-04-26T14:42:00.005-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

Hi all ... back in business after some r n' r and discovered a few refurbished city websites while away.

QuinteWest presents a vibrant site on my first reaction to landing on the page. Note, they offer an eServices tab along with the traditional "City Hall", "Residents", "Business" and "Visitor" tabs.

We're definitely going to add more tabs - users have specific interests they want pulled out from areas such as residents.

Charlottetown offers a message by the Mayor as you land on the home page. Personally, I like this touch though I suspect many web "heads" may very well pan it.

The Town of Middleton also offers a Mayor's message too but in text form. I see they have a "Barrier Free Resource Centre" thing happening on their home page giving import to accessibility.

I guess the question of the day would be how long do you keep the front page alive with this content. How new is new ... especially once you've been there?

All three sites certainly look fresh - I think our front page (new as of last year) conveys a similar freshness but the insides of our site are only getting sorted out now.

We're sorting out for two purposes: the introduction of content management tools and preparation of a beta "labs" space where we can try out some of the new ideas before we say the re:Brand is done. That's a significant difference between our planning and their launches - we're going to present some ideas first before solidifying the site.

Love to hear what aspects of these sites you like and would like to see toronto.ca adopt. Tell us what you think ...

I also found this lovely promo video that knocked me out - The Pomegrante phone - a nice twist of promo for another "down east" place ... check it @ http://www.pomegranatephone.com/

We'd love to incorporate some humour into promo for our site changes - or aspects of the site changes - but wonder how it would go over. You can comment about that too if you like.

19/2010

User Engagement

2010-04-26T11:04:00.004-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

This is segmented part 7 of the Lucky 7 ... the major areas we intend to address for improving toronto.ca.

Our testing indicated that 40% of respondents chose “Communication” (e.g. email, newsletters, alerts, and blogs) as the most important types of services to offer on an improved City of Toronto website.

53% of respondents chose “Submitting suggestions and feedback” (e.g. via email, surveys, blogs) as the most important way that people could use an improved City of Toronto website to engage and interact with the City.

35% of respondents chose “Contact information” as the most important area where information on the City of Toronto website could be improved or presented differently.

Some user comments:

“Having online discussion forums, especially for public forum consultations would be a great way to involve more people in these discussions without incurring greater costs for booking larger rooms. Also this would be a way for people with Accessibility issues to take part easier in discussions without being restricted to only doing so at an accessible, i.e. Wheelchair Accessible, location. City needs to realize the full potential of its web presence…, and hopefully realize that by investing in a good web site that they can save money in other service areas.”

“I believe that things like blogs where people can start their own threads to discuss various issues are very important. This will allow for the public to voice their opinions and at the same time provide feedback on the issues for the city employees.”

“Many citizens do not know about opportunities for public consultations. These opportunities (including online opportunities) should be highlighted. For every public meeting (e.g. community input on budget, there should be an online opportunity to solicit comments). A lot of people are unable to attend meetings. Citizens should be easily able to submit comments and feedback to the City, and receive a prompt response from appropriate staff.”

“I think communicating online is important, but please do not take away the other methods of communicating with the City e.g. phone, letter mail, etc.”

This is tied to having more web 2.0 features with online discussions and allowing feedback and e-contacts.

Tell us what you think ...

18/2010

Accessibility / Customization / Personalization

2010-04-26T10:58:00.004-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

This is segmented part 6 of the Lucky 7 ... the major areas we intend to address for improving toronto.ca.

Our testing indicates 30% of respondents chose “Accessibility” (e.g. text size, captioning, and screen reader use) the most important factors that could improve how people access information and services on the City of Toronto website.

32% of respondents chose “Non-English language options” the most important factors that could improve how people access information and services on the City of Toronto website.

37% of respondents chose “Customization Features” (e.g. logging in, setting preferences, user profiles) as the most important factors that could improve how people access information and services on the City of Toronto website.

Some user comments:

“The City's web site needs to increase its accessibility features for residents with special needs and needs to increase the options for people who do not speak English.”

“I believe strongly that every single page fails W3C validation, sometimes multiple times due to simple errors such as a lack of ALT image tags, no Document Type descriptions… Unacceptable for a government website to have this many W3C Accessibility errors in 2007.”

“There's really no reason that most of the documents published as PDFs and can't be published as plain HTML files with an option to produce a PDF for printing if necessary.”

“e-mail notification of events, activities etc based on preferences.”

This ties into sorting out full compliance with W3c standards, providing more translations, offering the ability to get updates,delivering more choices and options.

Tell us what you think ...

17/2010

Services

2010-04-26T10:54:00.003-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

This is segmented part 5 of the Lucky 7 ... the major areas we intend to address for improving toronto.ca.

Our testing indicates that 42% of respondents chose “Requesting a City Service Online” (e.g. road repair, garbage pickup, tree work) and 39% of respondents chose “Paying Online” (e.g. bills, permits, tickets, fines, program fees) as the most important types of services to offer on an improved City of Toronto website.

Once people used Online Services, 92% of them indicated that they would use them again.

In general, the users’ comments suggest that citizens would like to see new and more sophisticated online services made available, particularly in areas like bill/fine payment, permits and registration.

Some user comments:

“Anything the City sells should be available to be purchased online

"Ability to do payments online for all types of Services - pay bills, provide feedback, submit forms and request city services.”

“Have debit payments online.”

“Parking is one service that NEEDS online services to allow people to be able to pay bills online. They should also have the ability to dispute tickets online and to arrange for a date in court online, as currently they must either come in person or mail in a request to fight the ticket.”

“Why don't you allow online payment of property tax bills?”

“You should be able to get a history of your property taxes online without having to go to a municipal building, wait inline and pay $5 per statement."

This is tied into automating services with a single log-in for easy registration and payments.

Tell us what you think ...

16/2010

Content

2010-04-26T10:50:00.001-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

This is segmented part 4 of the Lucky 7 ... the major areas we intend to address for improving toronto.ca.

Timely updates are really important.

Some user comments:

“It has become apparent to me that people do not trust the website/ or do not understand it. If they did we would not get lots of calls asking questions like: 'I just want to check if what I read was correct'"

“Have a news section on the homepage to highlight current, important events. Update it daily. Have strict parameters that outline what can and cannot be posted.”

“Cue groups or divisions to remove old information so that you don't run across a page that's from 2000 that hasn't been updated and has old, inaccurate information.”

This is tied into providing timely updates, archiving and removing old content,providing better content delivery and, even using multi media better. We also are being asked to provide more advice and suggestions to users - career development and better citizenship.

Tell us what you think ...

15/2010

Navigation

2010-04-26T10:44:00.000-04:00

This is segmented part 3 of the Lucky 7 ... the major areas we intend to address for improving toronto.ca.

Our testing indicates 65% of respondents chose “Links to services/information on other government websites”

Some user comments:

“Take away the organizational structure and concentrate on the functions".

"Information should be organized by subject/service such as: taxes, water, trees, parks, parking, roads, transportation, etc, to make it easier to find, (and NOT under the name of the department that provides the services."

“Organize current events for specific groups - parents, teens, cultural, community events like children festivals, etc.”

This goes to providing easier access to information, grouping relevant information in one place and organizing content around topics and functions.

Tell us what you think ...

14/2010

Search

2010-04-26T10:32:00.002-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

This is segmented part 2 of the Lucky 7 ... the major areas we intend to address for improving toronto.ca.

Our testing indicates that 71% of respondents chose “Search” as the most important types of services to offer on an improved City of Toronto website.

Some user comments:

“Unless search words are nearly 100% accurate, few relevant "hits" come up.

"Allow users to find a person, service, facility, or city resources through a single search window; Currently search pulls a lot of old irrelevant content.”

"Search function should return useable hits [not the zero or thousands and nothing in between]."

"I would like to search for information on, for example, swimming pool hours without having to open and search through a pdf document. I live on the border between North and South districts so I sometimes have to search multiple pdfs because I am looking at locations in the two areas."

"You can't search for a report on a Council agenda unless you already know which Committee/year it went through.”

“I should be able to use the search function on the City's web pages to find anything from by-law regulations to demographic to swimming classes.”

All this is tied up in search not finding information. A special reference to mapping being considered as search is significant. We need to display more specific information on a map, the application is slow and has a small viewing area.

Tell us what you think ...

13/2010

Look and Feel

2010-04-26T10:26:00.002-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

This is segmented part 1 of the Lucky 7 ... the major areas we intend to address for improving toronto.ca.

59% of respondents chose “Visual Elements”(e.g. graphic design, photos, and icons) to be the most important factors that could improve how people access information and services on the City of Toronto website.

Some user comments:

“The look is so "dry" - there is no enjoyment using the site… All looks like a big plain newspaper.”“Looks like it was designed in 1999 for 640x480 screens.”

“The City's current website is pretty boring to look at - ultra corporate and uptight looking without any photographs or compelling visuals or design.”

“Design, design, design... Usefulness is not the only criterion. Your pride as a City employee should radiate in its design. The website should have some kind of character, just like the front page of a newspaper.”

All this is tied up in the design looking outdated, not very inviting, encouraging or inspiring and not exactly youth friendly.

Tell us what you think ...

12/2010

7 .... lucky 7

2010-03-26T17:12:00.025-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

I'm heading out on assignment for the next few weeks so this is likely the last post while I'm out. People on the team are going to monitor any comments so don't let my absence deter you!

Thought I'd outline the 7 things we've identified as the major areas for improving toronto.ca ... lucky 7 you might say:

Look and Feel
Search
Navigation
Content
Services
Accessibility / Customization / Personalization
User Engagement

What I want to do on my return is set up a post for each category so blog readers can go to any of these areas and provide focused comments right in the appropriate section. We're getting such uptake on the "cut to the chase" page, it sure seems likely that my ramblings aren't as important as just giving a comments space. Fine with me.

These links are on the top right side of the mighty blog for everyone too. For the full deal, allow me some license to write more here. Here's the 411 on how we arrived at the 7:

Look and Feel:

Our testing indicates 59% of respondents chose “Visual Elements” (e.g. graphic design, photos, and icons) to be the most important factors that could improve how people access information and services on the City of Toronto website.

Some user comments:

“The look is so "dry" - there is no enjoyment using the site… All looks like a big plain newspaper.”

“Looks like it was designed in 1999 for 640x480 screens.”

“The City's current website is pretty boring to look at - ultra corporate and uptight looking without any photographs or compelling visuals or design.”

“Design, design, design... Usefulness is not the only criterion. Your pride as a City employee should radiate in its design. The website should have some kind of character, just like the front page of a newspaper.”

All this is tied up in the design looking outdated, not very inviting, encouraging or inspiring and not exactly youth friendly.

Search

Our testing indicates that 71% of respondents chose “Search” as the most important types of services to offer on an improved City of Toronto website.

Some user comments:

“Unless search words are nearly 100% accurate, few relevant "hits" come up.

"Allow users to find a person, service, facility, or city resources through a single search window; Currently search pulls a lot of old irrelevant content.”

“Search function should return useable hits [not the zero or thousands and nothing in between]."

"I would like to search for information on, for example, swimming pool hours without having to open and search through a pdf document. I live on the border between North and South districts so I sometimes have to search multiple pdfs because I am looking at locations in the two areas."

"You can't search for a report on a Council agenda unless you already know which Committee/year it went through.”

“I should be able to use the search function on the City's web pages to find anything from by-law regulations to demographic to swimming classes.”

Navigation

Our testing indicates 65% of respondents chose “Links to services/information on other government websites”

Some user comments:

“Take away the organizational structure and concentrate on the functions".

"Information should be organized by subject/service such as: taxes, water, trees, parks, parking, roads, transportation, etc, to make it easier to find, (and NOT under the name of the department that provides the services."

“Organize current events for specific groups - parents, teens, cultural, community events like children festivals, etc.”

This goes to providing easier access to information, grouping relevant information in one place and organizing content around topics and functions.

Content

Timely updates are really important.

Some user comments:

“It has become apparent to me that people do not trust the website/ or do not understand it. If they did we would not get lots of calls asking questions like: 'I just want to check if what I read was correct'"

“Have a news section on the homepage to highlight current, important events. Update it daily. Have strict parameters that outline what can and cannot be posted.”

“Cue groups or divisions to remove old information so that you don't run across a page that's from 2000 that hasn't been updated and has old, inaccurate information.”

Services

Our testing indicates that 42% of respondents chose “Requesting a City Service Online” (e.g. road repair, garbage pickup, tree work) and 39% of respondents chose “Paying Online” (e.g. bills, permits, tickets, fines, program fees) as the most important types of services to offer on an improved City of Toronto website.

Once people used Online Services, 92% of them indicated that they would use them again.

In general, the users’ comments suggest that citizens would like to see new and more sophisticated online services made available, particularly in areas like bill/fine payment, permits and registration.

Some user comments:

“Anything the City sells should be available to be purchased online

"Ability to do payments online for all types of Services - pay bills, provide feedback, submit forms and request city services.”

“Have debit payments online.”

“Parking is one service that NEEDS online services to allow people to be able to pay bills online. They should also have the ability to dispute tickets online and to arrange for a date in court online, as currently they must either come in person or mail in a request to fight the ticket.”

“Why don't you allow online payment of property tax bills?”

“You should be able to get a history of your property taxes online without having to go to a municipal building, wait inline and pay $5 per statement."

This is tied into automating services with a single log-in for easy registration and payments.

Accessibility / Customization / Personalization

Our testing indicates 30% of respondents chose “Accessibility” (e.g. text size, captioning, and screen reader use) the most important factors that could improve how people access information and services on the City of Toronto website.

32% of respondents chose “Non-English language options” the most important factors that could improve how people access information and services on the City of Toronto website.

37% of respondents chose “Customization Features” (e.g. logging in, setting preferences, user profiles) as the most important factors that could improve how people access information and services on the City of Toronto website.

Some user comments:

“The City's web site needs to increase its accessibility features for residents with special needs and needs to increase the options for people who do not speak English.”

“I believe strongly that every single page fails W3C validation, sometimes multiple times due to simple errors such as a lack of ALT image tags, no Document Type descriptions… Unacceptable for a government website to have this many W3C Accessibility errors in 2007.”

“There's really no reason that most of the documents published as PDFs and can't be published as plain HTML files with an option to produce a PDF for printing if necessary.”

“e-mail notification of events, activities etc based on preferences.”

This ties into sorting out full compliance with W3c standards, providing more translations, offering the ability to get updates,delivering more choices and options.

User Engagement

Our testing indicated that 40% of respondents chose “Communication” (e.g. email, newsletters, alerts, and blogs) as the most important types of services to offer on an improved City of Toronto website.

53% of respondents chose “Submitting suggestions and feedback” (e.g. via email, surveys, blogs) as the most important way that people could use an improved City of Toronto website to engage and interact with the City.

35% of respondents chose “Contact information” as the most important area where information on the City of Toronto website could be improved or presented differently.

Some user comments:

“Having online discussion forums, especially for public forum consultations would be a great way to involve more people in these discussions without incurring greater costs for booking larger rooms. Also this would be a way for people with Accessibility issues to take part easier in discussions without being restricted to only doing so at an accessible, i.e. Wheelchair Accessible, location. City needs to realize the full potential of its web presence…, and hopefully realize that by investing in a good web site that they can save money in other service areas.”

“I believe that things like blogs where people can start their own threads to discuss various issues are very important. This will allow for the public to voice their opinions and at the same time provide feedback on the issues for the city employees.”

“Many citizens do not know about opportunities for public consultations. These opportunities (including online opportunities) should be highlighted. For every public meeting (e.g. community input on budget, there should be an online opportunity to solicit comments). A lot of people are unable to attend meetings. Citizens should be easily able to submit comments and feedback to the City, and receive a prompt response from appropriate staff.”

“I think communicating online is important, but please do not take away the other methods of communicating with the City e.g. phone, letter mail, etc.”

This is tied to having more web 2.0 features with online discussions and allowing feedback and e-contacts.

And so

...Some things we are doing already. Some things will take a bit longer. I would be remiss not to note that this blog is our first step in using web 2.0 for a project as large as a rebranding of the web. You can help out by letting others know we are in play here. And, yes, please comment yourself.

Thanks,
See 'ya real soon.

11/2010

That "toddlin' town" website a model for toronto.ca?

2010-03-16T11:04:00.006-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

Chicago is getting the word out about their "new" web: http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en.html

Lots of nice things happening there. What do you think and how would you like to see toronto.ca adapt/adopt from their efforts?

Chicago's new website

I like these things about the front page:

front page lean and mean but clear
decision points use intuitive language
not overwhelmed by huge visuals but tasteful blend of text and image
search works well on a few tests

Once inside:

nice use of layering off information
I like lists and they like them too
unique presence for visitors

Surprised:

use of images isn't consistent in size and placements at inner levels
link back to Chicago main site from visitors kind of buried
separate browser windows open for links to residents, visitors etc (maybe that negates the link back)
good discipline in not overloading things like "what's new" with hundreds of items
bureaucratic writing

Here's an example of what I mean by bureaucratic writing:

In partnership with the non-profit groups Breaking Ground and the Safer Foundation, the City is using $4.6 million for a two-year program to provide job training and temporary jobs for about 140 formerly-incarcerated persons to take part in a new building “deconstruction” work program. In this program, city-owned buildings are taken down in an environmentally sound way that salvages the materials for re-use in the building industry. Breaking Ground is already training 32 workers, who soon will be traveling daily to work sites where they are removing nails and salvaging lumber from dilapidated buildings. The program not only provides income and job training to the workers, but also helps create a new green “deconstruction” industry to Chicago.
The Boeing Company, as part of the City’s ongoing Recovery Partnership with Chicago’s philanthropic community, provided a two-year grant to the Chicago Workforce Investment Council to bring a leading deconstruction expert to Chicago to help the City design this program and to help Chicago build a market for deconstruction in the future.
The City is using $3.75 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds for a two-year Neighborhood Clean-Up Initiative that will provide about 230 year-round jobs and job-training services to Chicago’s hard-to-employ populations, with an emphasis on the formerly incarcerated.
The workers will gain practical experience and marketable skills in vegetation control, debris removal and the cleaning of neighborhood commercial strips.
The City is using $7.425 million in federal economic stimulus money to create about 295 community-based green jobs for the hard-to-employ, including the formerly incarcerated, over the next two years.

This is taken from: http://mayor.cityofchicago.org/mayor/en/press_room/press_releases/2010/march_2010/0311_ex_offenders.html

The example is also inside bullet points and seems to negate one of the advantages of using a list - to set the page free of clutter. It's also from a media release page (but linked off of the front page). As a non-media person, I would much rather read about such news in a non-news release format. Why not make the page speak to me vs. media?

Speaking of which can you imagine media reporting all of the items in the bullets? No way. Too much information perhaps for us all. Drop the full details into another layer so the research geeks who want that much can get it but I'm not saddled with plowing through it.

Even the headline is a mouthful:

Chicago Uses $16 Million In Federal Economic Stimulus Funds To Create More Than 650 'Green' Jobs For The Formerly-Incarcerated

I also notice they are using caps for all the words in their titles which differs to us. We haven't been able to get our content providers to be consistent with this practice however. Maybe Chicago just decided: if you can' t beat them join them? Or would it be: If You Can't Beat Them Join Them?

What say you?
So that's some personal opinion. I tend to focus on content vs. the look and feel since the content (and what it says to me) is most important. I do like the look and feel (for the most part) of their pages - especially because I am not overwhelmed by any one thing. It's a pretty straight drive to get to where you want to go.

Love to hear what you think and what you think we could take from the "new" Chicago web.

Helping to evaluate toronto.ca - this could be you

10/2010

Join the dialogue

2010-03-10T11:38:00.001-05:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

Getting great uptake on our Tell Us What's Right or Wrong With toronto.ca "cut to the chase page" - join the dialogue.

09/2010

Climbing up the Comments Wall

2010-03-03T12:45:00.014-05:00

Our toronto.ca Comments Wall has been up for close to a year now.

I recently re-read all of the comments from start to finish - it's getting to be quite a climb. We are getting good pick up on this space - especially since we started providing links to it on the bottom banner of the toronto.ca web pages. Dah, what took us so long?

This is good for us and good for you. Now you can find us and use the space to provide some feedback. And, boy we are getting feedback! When I compare it to the blog, the Wall is by far the most active.

One of the things that works well over there is the easy way to post a comment. I mean, the comments box is staring you right in the face when you land on the page. You don't have to register or go through any process other than type and hit submit. That's good!

Down side
If there is a down side for me it is the anonymous nature of the Wall. I can only chat back to anonymous posts. And for a longer follow up, I have no guarantee the person will come back to the page and see if there is a response. I can't connect with a poster via mail or other means.

I don't feel as close a connection with the anonymity as I would if there were an identified name.

Even if it isn't a true name, having a name listed at least differentiates one posting from another.There are reasons why the Wall is anonymous. Privacy concerns and privacy laws are stringent coming from our side of the fence.Even here on the blog, we don't force you to post by having to register or use an ID. I have to remove personal info before accepting a post to the Wall or here.

But I digress from the content of the Wall comments.

We've recently upped the max. number of characters to 500 and that's in large part because we are seeing you want more space. Let's take a look at some comments to date.

Challenges
A lot of the comments give us pause such as this one:

Horrible.
You want people to recycle? Simplify your recycling rules.
Stop making me hunt for them, and when I want them, give them to me. No one cares about your "recycling sins" ads. They give me no information.
I go around in circles in links. I wanted to recycle something but I don't know exactly what it's called, and I can't just browse the list to find it.

Recycling is complicated. Recently an app showed up on toronto.ca for users to find out what goes where. See: http://app.toronto.ca/wes/winfo/search.do

I personally think this goes along way to addressing what the person wants from us in their comment. How much more simply could you present the info? Perhaps they simply didn't find the page in their search? And that reminds me - lots of people are using what many consider the "perfect" site to find content.. Take a look. Did you know our internal search engine is actually Google? Maybe we should more overtly "go that way" for our home page at toronto.ca? We've seriously considered it.

That raises the issue of finding what it is you want when you search for it. A lot of Wall comments mention lack of success in search. It's one of the reasons we chose to talk about search early in a few spots on the blog. We recognize it's a key issue.

Here's another example:

It sucks, and needs a redo. The search function is utterly useless, and not enough services are online, although that is improving. The problem isn't the aesthetics, that's easy to fix; its the functionality that needs vast improvement. The ability to get what you need when you need it, looking pretty is secondary!

The comment is valid but what's most helpful is when a person lists their process and thinking. How did they approach getting information? Such as:

Please consider creating a search form for parks that allows you to search by specific service (eg, playgrounds, sports etc) and by area. I've been using the website to try to find a park near me that has a playground, and it's been a very tedious process. Hope the rest of the rebrand goes well. :)

Beyond making our search engine respond with better results, we also are also going to have a kick at how we structure the navigation elements of toronto.ca. I agree with the point about "functionality" - the functionality of the site is important and we need to rethink it.

I'll have more on our ideas for that a few posts from now.

It sucks vs. it's wonderful and I want it vs. I hate it
The other thing that stands out is how difficult it is to find consensus. For every "I love it" there is an "I hate it" Take these two:

Too much text information is presented (website seems congested & it is rather overwhelming to explore it). Visual elements are needed since text quickly bores the avg user. A "flash" based platform is more appropriate for a website catering to youths and adults alike (animations a welcome addition)

vs.

Don't use flash.

and

How is changing one page a site rebrand? BIG FAIL!!!!

vs.

I love it, it is great, less clutter and it is more KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) method.

And what about 5 years on?
If social networking and social media is telling us anything it is that interaction back and forth is a keeper!

We don't intend to ever stop asking for comments so we're going to have to figure other ways of presenting the Wall at some point. I hope we'll see specific commenting on all of our pages - not just a general catch all spot page. We're talking about introducing "was this information helpful/not helpful" checks on all of our pages.

By the way, after climbing to the top of the current Comments Wall, I can tell you I distinctly saw light over the horizon.

08/2010

Going for Gold at the web Olympics

2010-02-24T15:58:00.004-05:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

OK, so I can't resist writing about the Olympics and making an analogy between the event and what we are trying to do with the web re:Brand of toronto.ca.

You might think I'm going to say we're going for gold and we want to "own the podium". But that's not exactly where I'm headed in this post.

But first, let me say 'way to go Canada!' I can only imagine the rush the athletes are getting. Clearly, victory is sweet. Aren't you absolutely lovin' the interviews with our Gold medalists? That being said, medal winner or non-medal winner, it must be pretty cool to just be there. And, considering how much effort it took to get there, congratulations just for doing that.

The re:Brand isn't the "athlete"
At first I thought you could make an analogy between the Olympic athletes and the web re:Brand but, the more I thought about it, the analogy isn't with the athlete winning Gold as it is with the infrastructure surrounding the competition. The "website" is the facilities part of the concept - providing the course (site) for the skier (user) to run. So actually you're the person who's got to win the medal not us.

If we take this further, the infrastructure for the games wasn't complete when Vancouver got the winning bid - the City took several years to get everything ready for show time.

So, the building process is appropriate to the analogy too and toronto.ca is in the building process now. With time and enough input we should be ready to present a world ready place where you can do your thing.

Ongoing Beta
I'm not saying it's going to take us 7 years to finish the place but there is a line of thought that says a web site is never done anyway. Users can always contribute reactions and needs will ebb and flow. So the idea of a big finish just isn't a good one.

Joshua Errett wrote in NOW Magazine last summer that Toronto - not just us the municipal government but the city as a whole - is in a "perpetual state of beta" or "stuck in "version 1.0". The article is interesting and though I have some disagreement with "perpetual beta" being a bad thing, I do think Errett's piece challenges everyone to do better. Challenge, too, is in the spirit of Olympic competition.

And, when it comes to doing anything (including the web), you will always have a certain amount of obstacles in the way. Insert your own analogy here for the equivalent of bad ice or no snow. Yet you do have to run the race at some point. Right now, we're asking users to run a race with some rather poor conditions. We do want to change that.

Pressure
All this just further defines my sense of urgency to hear from anyone landing here (YOU) about toronto.ca experiences. Absent of more concrete examples of user issues, we won't have any alternative but to go on assumptions of user issues. And that isn't what we want to do.

So I'm putting some pressure on you to take five more minutes (maybe less) and let me know what you find easy or hard about toronto.ca. Just comment here.

Bullet points are cool as is a full scale diatribe. Either way, and no matter how long or short you write, it won't be nearly as hard as having to jump off a mountain with a couple of ski poles in your hands and have a whole bunch of people chase after you to the finish line. But I wish you good luck and a good finish all the same.

07/2010

You're only as good as your last bit of customer service - extrapolating from the Randy Bachman

2010-02-10T17:21:00.004-05:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

I guess listening to music has triggered some extra thoughts in my head when it comes to material for this blog. This time, I was listening to Randy Bachman (from his days in BTO) and the song "Rock Is My Life and This Is My Song". The line that's stuck in my head is:

"you're only as good as your last record ..."

Got me thinking about the expectations and assumptions for responses via social media tools like twitter. Case in point, the 311 Office has been using twitter (@311Toronto) to provide a place for feedback about user experiences to the call line. Reading the twitter feed demonstrates how valuable an outlet this is. But it occurs to me how challenging it is to satisfy everyone and, to paraphrase the Randy, maybe "you're only as good as you're last bit of customer service". Would you agree? Can one bad experience destroy the goodwill of many good experiences?

It's something we talk about when staff ask our team about using social media tools. (Part of our role is to evangelize social media use at the City.) When the talk turns to resourcing a twitter (or other) account, some prospective users are surprised when we say they will need to devote regular (perhaps daily, hourly or more) attention to it. It all depends on what you are trying to do. @311Toronto is way busier than @TOWebRebrand for example (he says as he inserts shameless plug for the web re:Brand twitter feed).

Honest effort
I've heard a number of SM gurus say, at the very least, you must always be demonstrating to customers that you are trying. Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee) speaking at DemoCamp24 in Toronto, was asked about his take on this issue relating to scale. The question was framed as "the bigger you are (more volume of messages) the harder it is to respond immediately, so what do you do?" Vaynerchuk said he used to answer every e-mail he received immediately. Now that he has become extremely well known, the scale has magnified to the point where he has had to start using an auto response tool. But, and he states this emphatically, he still responds to every e-mail he gets. He maintains that part of his reputation albeit with a delay.

Note, his twitter page says he "never checks DMs". That's cool, I now know I can't expect an answer if I send him one. With some 847,829 followers - clearly the dude is doing something right!

Is Gary's challenge the same, worse or better than ours? Let me know how much slack you give a city government over an individual.I'm really interested in what you have to say regarding your expectations.

Here's the "full Gary" from DemoCamp24 for those who want to hear more of his perspective (alert Gary uses profanities).

Gary Vaynerchuk in Toronto @DemoCamp 24 .

06/2010

Extrapolating from the Neil Young (early adopters)

2010-02-03T16:24:00.001-05:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

I was reading this article sent to me by a colleague here at work (thanks Matt): Getting over the barriers to wiki adoption. It got me thinking about early adopters.

Clearly we've seen some early adopters using our wikis and webbook tool here at the City. But, we also have a long way to go before anyone could say either of the tools are being widely used. Really, all the points raised in the article are so very true with, I think, one exception.

Learning from early adopters
Neil Young has a song called "Welfare Mothers" and he repeats the lyric over and over again: "Welfare Mothers make better lovers". I wonder if we could paraphrase and say: "Early adopters make better lovers"?

In case that's too far out, let me extrapolate from the Neil Young (something that's risky at best). I think what he really means in his song is those with something to gain will be more committed. Our social media early adopters in the City are learning a great deal about where and when to use the tools. They really want the tools to be successful. They're committed and, ultimately, they will be the ones who will be listened to the most in this area. That's hugely significant!

Hearing from someone who is using social media to their benefit may be the one thing that convinces someone else to give it a try. So I expect we'll get lots more uptake as our early adopters continue to work social media and experience some successes. That holds for internal and external SM use by the way.

But, should "we" even be there (here)?
Recently blogTO had a post about City funded media including use of social media (Is City Funded Media Redundant?). I added a comment to the post:

... I can't believe Toronto residents generally would feel that City of Toronto representatives shouldn't be using as many tools to communicate as are available. The fact readers can contribute to discussions when social media is used is a help isn't it? You can slap or kiss directly there. Bring on the voices, the variety and let readers decide who and what they want to read.

You decide
I guess it's a bit up in the air how all of this will play out. We're seeing city after city getting on board with SM and, certainly, our own presence has increased over this time last year.

Maybe it's too early to judge the relative success or failure of government SM use. What do you think?

05/2010

Better Search (part 2)

2010-01-29T16:26:00.029-05:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

Continuing on from "Better Search!!!" (part 1) - here are the "other" aspects we are working up to improve toronto.ca global search. D'ya like? Please comment ...

View and compare these ideas to our current search box e.g. http://www.toronto.ca/city_hall/index.htm

current version

Proposed changes:

Make Search box more Prominent:

Wider and bigger Search box in the Header, making it hard to miss on a page.

Search button should say “Search” instead of current “GO” (looks like 60 right now).

new concept

Bigger font for keywords that are being entered by user in the Search box, so people with poor vision see what they are typing and don’t get wrong results or no results because of that.

Display links.

Show Additional Help Links:

It’s logical for “Search Tips” and “Advanced Search” links to be nearby Search box.Those 2 links are hard to find on current interface.

current search

Did you know that “Advanced Search” link is located beside Search box on the current website? It’s hidden. Words “Advanced Search” appear only when you hover over label “Search”.

Search Tips” link becomes visible only after you conduct search and land on the Search Results page.

Provide Search Suggestions:

Auto-complete feature could help the user with suggestions of possible searches, as soon as they start typing keywords into the search box. This feature could be disabled by clicking on a link at the bottom right corner of the drop-down menu.

To activate this feature, user would have to click on the “Show Suggestions” link in the bottom right corner of the drop-down menu.

Additionally, we’ll give user an option (2 radio buttons) to perform search within existing list of results or start a completely new search.

Remember User Choices:

Any changes that user will make to the Search settings will be remembered, at a minimum, for the duration of their visit through Session Cookies.

Let us know your thoughts on search. In case you missed the link at the start of this post, our first post on search is available here so you can have the full scope discussion.

04/2010

Tells us what's right or wrong with toronto.ca

2010-01-15T12:52:00.028-05:00

#3/2010

Friend toronto.ca?

2010-01-11T16:46:00.005-05:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

We're thinking about starting a facebook group. Actually we have a shell ready from early last year but we decided to hold off going live. Why? The main reason is we aren't really sure if facebook will help our process.

Today, a few of us were talking about the need to continue to build enthusiasm for what we are doing. Maybe a "Friends of toronto.ca" group?

How could that help?
You know, we most often ask what is wrong with the website. Maybe it would be a bit of an equalizer if we asked what's right? We want to be careful not to break what isn't broken.

Afterall, the website gets around a million visits a week. Surely a few of the people paying us a visit find what they're looking for. Maybe they even have a fine experience surfing us. So, maybe showing toronto.ca some love would be helpful.

All you need is love
So, let me know if you'd friend up with us at facebook. It might be a place where we could just accentuate the positive. Just check the facebook "yes" or "no, don't bother" below this post (see the blue labels area). We'll be thinking about it a bit more too.

#2/2010

Give the gift of a suggestion ...

2010-01-04T13:07:00.002-05:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

With the Holiday Season just past, you may still be in a gift giving mood. Sure, you can't re-gift to us that sweater or tie you didn't like ... but you can give us your thoughts.

We're now using Google Moderator - makes giving suggestions easier than ever.

toronto.ca general comments - go HERE:
Doing Business with toronto.ca - go HERE

Doing Business Video - Part 2 of two parts

The Polls Are Closed
By the way, our polls on "Drop Down vs. Links" and "Preferred Way to Link With the City" are done:

Using a Drop Down got 1 vote (100%) from only one voter
and the preferred way to link with us in the City is online (16 votes or 100%)

#1/2010

Bye 2009 ... hello 2010!

2009-12-31T10:20:00.012-05:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

At a time when media and tweet-a-holics are presenting their highlights of the year's best moments, I thought I'd weigh in with a few for us at the toronto.ca web re:Brand.

#5 - Refreshed home page
We kicked off our project in March with a new "jacket" for the front page. I like to say it wasn't the full suit ... we were (and are) just trying on a new coat to get us started. Lots of people interpreted it as a final design however. It's not. There was coverage on other blogs about it too (NOW, blogTO) - I'll provide a better summary in another blog in the new year.

#4 - Comments Wall
We introduced the Comments Wall with the launch of the refreshed index page. This represented the first time the City has allowed or solicited comment about the website (beyond having a webmail address). Not a revolution but a great first step in having our users help us along in the examination of toronto.ca. To date, we've had 151 comments. We do look at these by the way and are basing much of our approach to the new website from your comments.

#3 - webbook
Although users outside of the City of Toronto walls can't see this, it's something we offered to staff as our own social media tool to use. There's been several live chats with Deputy City Managers, the Medical Officer of Health (around H1N1) and our Information Technology heads. We have several regular bloggers and are just about ready to launch a phase 2 of the product that will allow even more options for engagement. Webbook is our attempt to have staff get their feet wet in the social media milieu. We have just under 1000 subscribers at the moment which was our target in the pilot year.

#2 - Web Content Management
A dedicated team working on the implementation of content management tools has got working pages in place and we intend to begin the roll out in 2010. This will appear seamless to users but represents a huge step in achieving the goals of a rebrand. We'll be able to post content in a variety of ways and bring our "coding" up to snuff. We're using "Vignette" Open Text to get the job done.

#1 - Open Data
Clearly the toronto.ca/open initiative is # 1 - a huge step in making government more transparent. As an outcome, we expect to see new apps show up that will benefit toronto.ca users. We released more data in the launch than we thought we could and plan more releases through 2010. We have lots of data of course and the expectations are very high from the developer community. The website dataTO.org is contributing to the dialogue. If I have one wish for 2010 it's that we push ahead here and get users and issuers together more often to keep the momentum going.

Speaking of wishes, I guess that slides nicely into "resolutions" for the New Year. I can only speak personally but I plan to be able to produce many more re:Brand "highlights" next year. 2010 is going to be awesome in scope for us.

Still time to contribute
I say this often here but we really need your support in the re:Brand process. If you are really keen, why not agree to be a tester for us? We'll be talking to users directly as we introduce a toronto.ca/labs space for focusing on how the website may change.

If you're not exactly a keener, you can still comment here or on the Comments Wall. Personally, I'd prefer you to talk to me here since we can have an exchange of views beyond the 400 character limit on the Wall. We recently extended the Wall to 400 characters btw.

As always, the anonymous survey is really helpful in getting a handle on how you use the current site.

However you engage back, 2010 is the year to do so. You know, they still ask in many marriage ceremonies if anyone has a reason why the couple shouldn't get married to "speak now or forever hold your peace". 2010 is the ceremony for us - we're listening - so speak now ...

Have a great and safe New Year!

Oh yeah, one other thing ... we just added a Toronto Innovation Showcase Behind the Scenes highlight reel to the YouTube channel. This event was a big one and would be # 6 on the highlights list if I went beyond a top 5. Have a look:

#25/2009

US government blogging same questions as us ...

2009-12-17T13:09:00.032-05:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

Like toronto.ca, The US government is rebranding their web presence. They aren't using the term "rebrand" but they are looking to address the exact same things we are. I'm keen to see what kind of response they get. I can see from their blog/forum they are getting pretty good take up.

It's interesting how many governments are seeing the need to engage users rather than force feed users - especially when it comes to change. It's a major shift in how we (they) do business. Actually - a show of hands here - how many of you would have ever thought that the City of Toronto would start to open up its data?

As of November 2 we did - it's out there with more to follow. I overheard it being said that the "genie is out of the bottle and it can't be put back in". Indeed! And this happened largely because of community interest in having it happen. I'd go as far to say that the toronto.ca/open project is one of the first in what we see as a transition toward a user centric web. Call it an early outcome of the re:Brand if you like, but it does show we are morphing from a closed ship to an open one with your input.

Our team has been yakking about this for a while but do you believe us yet?

The Year Ahead ...
If the "blog & comment" style isn't the best forum for you to talk to me about changing toronto.ca, here's what we plan for next year. In 2010, we are setting up focus groups, launching a beta "labs" space off toronto.ca, introducing content management tools so we can post content in varying ways and generally cranking up mainstream communication on what we are attempting. Want to have influence on what we do? You can read more about our timelines here.

For those who've taken their valuable time to offer comments on the blog since we started in September, thank you!

Be great for everyone reading who has an interest to officially follow the blog too. That would be awesome.

Happy Holidays y'all.

BTW, still needing comments on better search and better business

#24/2009

Post a comment ...

Doing Business

2009-12-07T12:10:00.023-05:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

Message to Business Owners:
For those of you coming from the TO Business newsletter - a special hello! As part of the web re:Brand project, we're focusing on the Doing Business portal of the toronto.ca website

We're realy amped up about making this process a user centric one. We're living by the credo that the user rules. This is a change in our thinking and we need your opinions and thoughts to make the website come alive for you.

We want to hear first-hand about your experience using toronto.ca as a Business Owner. We can’t do as good of a job without you ... so please take a moment to engage here with us via comments on the blog. We want your feedback - good or bad - we want it all!

Perhaps ...

Tell us what you experienced opening a Business - did you visit the City’s website during that time?
How is your experience managing your business now?
What happened when you applied for additional permits and licences, tried getting info on rules and regulations?
Tell us your story ... post a video response to our Doing Business series on YouTube

OR ...

Tell us how frequently you visit toronto.ca and why?
What information or services do you look for the most?
Do you usually find what you are looking for?
What could we improve on toronto.ca to make your life, as a Business Owner, easier?
What is your ideal website (provide links for us to view)

One Account?

Would you be willing to register an account on City’s website?
What if the account provided you with an easy and convenient way of updating your Business Information?
What if the account provided the ability to pay bills and fees, without re-entering same information multiple times?
What if you could find historical data (payment info/statements etc) and print these off as needed?
How do you feel about setting up email reminders?

Too much work?
You can always fill out our poll on Preferred Way to Link with the City (at the top of all the blog pages) or just fill out the anonymous survey.

Have a look at what one business owner has to say:

This Part 1 of two parts

Make a comment and let's have a chat :0)

BTW, we still need input on Search

# 23/2009

Post a comment ...

SixthSense world ... buckle up!

2009-12-03T12:11:00.008-05:00

BTW ... still needing comments and suggestion on Better Search

#22/2009

No comments on Search?

2009-12-01T15:29:00.002-05:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

We'd love to hear about your needs for search. I'm holding off on new posts 'till we get some thoughts. You can get the ball rolling now

#21/2009

Better search!!!

2009-11-20T15:07:00.023-05:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

OK, so I've been promising to share some of what we are thinking of doing to make the site better. Let's start with search. Here's a mock up-ed visual on the deets:

You can do the proverbial "click on the pic" to get a larger view - but you knew that didn't you?

Note:

Search Results page

Display Best results prominently at the top.
Display Images when appropriate (e.g. photo of the Councilor or a small map) - inserted beside results
Sorting results by Relevance or by Date
Hide Summaries
Narrow down results by using filters from the drop-down
Scan results by Content Type (FAQ, News etc)
See "more or less" results per page
Suggested Topics to give you quick access to relevant content based on your searched criteria
Ability to Save your Searches
Ability to Subscribe to updates for any Search query

Want we want to know:
Are all of these features useful to you or do you tend to just go back into the search box if you want to get more? We're wanting to know about your behaviour? Anything else you'd like to suggest? Tell us anything and everything about your needs for search.

Oh, and, "Bend your knees" ...
Our product is Google by the way. One thing I'd like to add on a personal note. I don't want to stereo type but, as a male, I have a tendency when opening the fridge at home to not really poke around. I seem to just shout out: "I can't find it". My wife usually says: "Did you bend your knees and look?" I have to admit - if I did that I would probably find the ketchup or whatever. Same with web search. I do believe users have to do some of the work ultimately.

If I'm wrong here ... you will surely correct me.

Meantime, pass the ketchup!

#20/2009

Post a comment ...

Time lines?

2009-11-18T17:31:00.005-05:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

Thought I'd share a word or two about time lines for this re:Brand thing we are talking about.

Seems lots of folks are expecting an overnight change or some magic "reveal" at the end of a certain window of time. We're not actually going to go big bang on this but, rather, introduce some tweaks on the old site and gently introduce a brand new lab space where you can experiment with us. We expect the full year next year will feature demo ideas and models. So, it's going to be a while yet before we close off the current toronto.ca.

Part of the reason for this is we are introducing web content management tools. We'll run both the old "look and feel" site and the new labs space in tandem until we sort through all of the content we have for you. Kind of like continuing to do business in an old building while the new building goes up and making sure we only take with us what is needed.

Make the new building better
You can help us determine what we do to make the new site better. Clearly, no one wants to bring in useless content and a legacy of confusing navigations - that's part of the reason staff will be taking a real critical look at the web pages we have now.

We're getting lots of good comments on the comments wall around your impressions of the site. Keep them coming and, please, feel free to be more extensive in comments here.

#19/2009

Open not closed

2009-11-17T13:00:00.002-05:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

Hi, I'm back - I see the mini poll showed 2 people as having voted a fail on our toronto.ca/open launch. Not that 2 votes are overwhelming evidence of anything but I'd love to hear more details if you share that reaction.

Any specifics will help on future launches.

#18/2009

Let the "open" unfold

2009-11-06T16:40:00.003-05:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

I get to be away from "the office" for a week (Nov 9 - Nov 13). Love to have you look around here while I'm gone and make some noise. I'd be glad to post any reactions to any of the blogs written so far. If I hear from you, I'll get on it. Otherwise, see you in a week as we get back to re:Brand thoughts and see how toronto.ca/open is moving along. I've posted a quick poll on getting a pass or fail from the launch (phase 1).

#17/2009

Too many cooks and not enough kitchens

2009-11-04T14:48:00.014-05:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

A fantastic exchange happened at yesterday's Toronto Innovation Showcase. This was during the Open Data Lab review. I want to post the moment in video and eagerly await the video archive form our webcaster. Meantime, let me describe what happened.

The exchange was between panelists Greg Wilson and Jay Goldman. I'm paraphrasing here but Jay essentially said the government makes wonky apps - not so good while the community can do better. Greg countered by saying having begun partnership exchanges with his U of T class and the City, he can see how much effort is being put into development work - all while staff continues to put out fires.

A later bit of conversation talked about trust issues - namely who would you trust more in giving your credit card information: "Greg's class or the City?"

What pulled my attention is how delicate perceptions are when it comes to (1) government and (2) application development.

There seemed to be a consensus that the City would be more trustworthy in getting credit card info. But it was not so clear on who should be developing the apps that may need the credit card information.

Trust
I find it interesting that you do tend to trust the government when it comes to personal data such as a credit card details. But we tend to balk - in the Social Media universe anyway - when the same government lays down all kinds of terms of use statements and privacy notes before you can get access to the content or the application.

We are going through a "collections" issue with this blog as a matter of fact.

I personally want you to identify yourself should you want to comment here. Our privacy folks, on the other hand, want you to be anonymous. For me it's very much a rock and a hard place kind of thing. I don't want credit card info from you, I just want a name and, maybe, if we get to hosting threaded community forums, some profile/registration info.

Whatever, it's the same laws that govern something as simple as giving me your name or giving me your credit card. The laws are much more ambiguous when it comes to non-government. I could set up my own blog (not a City of Toronto blog) talk about the exact same things and ask you for anything I want. If you give it to me, it's not my problem. Maybe I'd add a few collection statements to make you feel all warm and comfortable but, if I wanted to, I could do a lot with what info you choose to give me. That's a bit over simplified but more-or-less true.

So, in short, representing the government, I'm not free to compete with private enterprise on an equal basis. I believe that's true when it comes to a straight ahead app vs app or even blog vs. blog discussion.

Too many cooks
This may be where the clunkiness Jay is talking about comes from. Afterall, you go to an app created by the City and it may not scan easy or get you there (to the app) fast. In some cases, it doesn't scan that well simply because of the thickness of the "privacy" side of the content - what you "need" to know etc.

Again, all of this even before you get to the guts of the thing you want to use! At one point Jay said: "the City develops apps by committee." Dah, yeah we do and part of the "committee" includes people representing the other elements beyond the actual app.

Maybe there are ways around it, maybe not. My point is we haven't tumbled on them yet or been allowed to implement them yet. Consider us app developers with one hand tied behind our backs.

All that being said, there are cases where we can do better with the actual app and I think it's fair to say our own user experts are hammering home that message to us.

And I don't mean to slam Jay either. Most everyone acknowledges there are talents in government and talents outside government as Jay himself later said.

I think it's probably more accurate to say there is a risk in any process of too many cooks taking over in one kitchen. Anyone making something they hope will be used would do well to consider the end user over and above whatever bureaucracy there is. But we are not alone here. How many of you who work in private enterprise feel you've got a raging bureaucracy of your own to contend with?

More kitchens
As the panel discussion progressed, some of the needs for collaboration became more pronounced and I think the conversation became more grounded - it may not be the cooks that are the problem - it's not enough kitchens.

The plan is for City data releases to continue forever - or until something better comes along! And that means it's not going to matter who did "what" so much as "how" apps are being developed.

I like the "what" and "how" means to organize an issue or project. We often start talking about the "how" when we haven't figured out the "what". At least at this point we know "what" (data) and we can leave the "how" to anyone who can deal with it. For a long time we (the City) controlled the "what". Now we have a market place where anyone can make a kitchen and use the base ingeredients coming off our City data.

For anyone interested in the City of Toronto open data project (and have been living on another planet for the last three days) get 'ye to: http://www.datato.org/app/ and http://groups.google.com/group/datato?pli=1 and toronto.ca/open

Reminder, I'll present some video clips of the actual exchanges when I can.

I'll leave you with a great find from YouTube. It made my day and I hope it makes yours especially if you haven't seen it yet. Development by committee indeed.

#16/2009

Geeks!

2009-11-04T12:51:00.004-05:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

In my last post I used the terms: "Social Media gurus" and "open data freaks" for those attending the Open Data Lab at the Toronto Innovation Showcase.

I think, to be fair, I shouldn't go for that stereotype all the time. Mark Kuznicki, the individual who brought the Open Data Lab together, summarised attendees in his review of the day as follows:

City staff and management
Software developers & technologists
Web entrepreneurs
Social entrepreneurs
Designers
Social policy researchers
Data librarians
Media creators

Much better huh?

#15/2009

Innovation Showcase leads to more innovation?

2009-11-02T19:59:00.004-05:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

Interesting array of talent assembled at the Toronto Innovation Showcase on day 1.

City staff mingled with Social Media gurus, open data freaks and tech heads from both sides. With so much talent running around, you might well believe lots will get done with our (just coming on the market) data sets!

So, it begins
More data releases will follow and we'll hear the outcomes of the Open Data Lab tomorrow. While reading the tweets on the #opendataTO feed, this year's follow up to last year's Web 2.0 Summit, clearly has some resonance.

We knew it would - especially since the Mayor announced in April the intention to get data out the door by the fall ... and here we are!

I really believe this is a milestone moment for the City and for our developer community. It kind of overshadows everything else from today but I must say - I was impressed with our very own Innovation Award winners - folks who worked on the inside to develop innovation solutions that saved money and maximized resources.

Sometimes it's good to acknowledge that and I hope some of their families saw the webcast (it will be on archive post event).

When you witness skill sets coming together from inside and outside like this, it's pretty clear the future really does look bright.

Other blogs on this:

http://webrebrand.blogspot.com/2009/11/geeks.html

http://webrebrand.blogspot.com/2009/11/too-many-cooks-and-not-enough-kitchens.html

http://webrebrand.blogspot.com/2009/11/let-open-unfold.html

#14/2009

Toronto Innovation Showcase November 2 & 3, 2009

2009-10-26T11:12:00.008-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

The showcase event is but a week away.

The event combines a follow up to last year's Web 2.0 Summit with City of Toronto staff professional development and innovation awards. On day 1 there is an Open Data Lab - a key event for the Toronto Open Community. Check out the facilitator blog of Mark Kuznicki to register for the Open Data Lab.

We'll be webcasting all the activities taking place inside the Council Chambers - doesn't include the break out sessions in other areas.

Everyone is welcome to come to this event or view from the webcast.

Take note of these twitter hash tags: #TOshowcase and #opendataTO

Other blogs on this:

http://webrebrand.blogspot.com/2009/11/geeks.html

http://webrebrand.blogspot.com/2009/11/too-many-cooks-and-not-enough-kitchens.html

http://webrebrand.blogspot.com/2009/11/let-open-unfold.html

#13/2009

tree-1-1 part 2

2009-10-23T15:04:00.045-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

So I mentioned quickly in the last post about attending a Social Web Workshop hosted by Chris Messina (open web advocate). I could get into details about what open web is all about but suffice it to say it comes down to open and non-proprietary web for us users. That's a good thing if you like access and being able to function well in more than one place.

You can get more on open web here and about Chris here
View the video segment at end of this blog

By extension he also talked about identities - yours, mine and friends and how important they are as capital. We should be able to bring our identities with us in webworld. Think using a Google password to get into facebook or viceversa.

Anyway, lots and lots of information to process. Chris presented so much I'm still processing. Just a few of the quotables worth noting:

large and small are all using the same resources e.g. twitter
need to get the technology out of our technology
data is capital - our identity is capital
broadband as a legal right (reference to Finland law)
people are snacking on content (information snacking)
don't market - engage
introduce something new everyday
"I" become the platform (or "you" are the web platform)
turn your content into social objects
social media as playlists

web re:Brand
Bringing this into context to our toronto.ca, I think I can say it's about the fidelity of our information and the fidelity of the user experience. It means providing enough slam to make grabbing our content worthwhile (even if it's just chunks of our content). This includes adopting social media where it fits.

And that brings us back to the "tree-1-1" idea.

From tree to web
Given that our Parks and Forestry folks are in process of tagging City of Toronto trees, we thought how much value we could get by extending that to tag/grab some data. If we can get the tree data to the web it really becomes a starting place for endless possibilities and some of it social. Think here about accessing environment data, or location data, or insect data or other community data. Going way out there, you could "friend" a tree and maybe be friended back and invited to a local street BBQ!

Sound crazy? I hope not.

Opendata just a beginning
As we look at the current and static toronto.ca, and imagine how we can transcend into the future, I don't think anything is off the table or impossible.

The opendata initiative (begun in earnest after Mayor Miller announced in April that the City of Toronto is prepared to open our information layers), is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. Who would have imagined a year ago that we would be even talking about opening data let alone actually opening the data? Aren't governments closed? If even half of what Chris Messina, and those who think and advocate like him, comes to fruition it's gonna' be a wild ride. Join us and get talking about what you'd like to experience within Toronto and how toronto.ca can help.

To explore more fully what's going on with open data go to toronto.ca/open and you are invited to attend our Toronto Innovation Showcase, November 2 and 3. The showcase will be webcast live.

Call to action: join the Toronto open data community
Participate in the Open Data Lab at the showcase
facilitated by Mark Kuznicki

Just a few examples of where we can think and get things moving forward together.

This is a clip of the report back at the presentation and gives some more insight into what we were thinking:

BlackBerry video clip of Mark Kuznicki "reporting back"
at Chris Messina presentation October 21, 2009

#12/2009

tree-1-1 part 1

2009-10-22T12:25:00.005-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

This isn't going to make much sense until I can write more but ...

Attended a workshop yesterday hosted by Mr. Chris Messina (open web advocate). A wonderful day of discovery. One of the best outcomes for me was the discussion our COT group had around trees. We came up with a very plausible concept where City trees become a part of our soical media efforts. Yes, you read that right "trees". A bit inside but for anyone following the launch of Toronto's 311 we thought we could call it "tree-1-1"!

I'll blog more on the enitre day when I can fully get my thoughts around it all. Meantime, you can follow Chirs @chrismessina and more.

#11/2009

1 week x 1 staff = 200 mails

2009-10-20T08:24:00.006-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

The "hyper-engaged social media intelligentsia" (read: social media geeks) are saying e-mail is dying. That may be true for some people but I suspect it's not true in the workplace yet. I'm just back after a week off over Thanksgiving. I had just under 200 e-mails waiting for me on my return and I figure that's lower than some people get.

Trend?
It's pretty clear some people are using Twitter and texting in place of mail. It's one way to crash through the e-mail clutter. (I did respond to tweets over the week away as a matter of fact). But, the funny thing is, every time a new type of communication vehicle is introduced you have some who are slow to adopt/adapt and others who are on it right away.

The conflict arises when one meets the other. I know people who've registered on Twitter but never tweet or even go back to look. There is no point in sending them anything since they won't be checking in to see if they have any action going on. Here's another example: we've added chat to our repertoire here but not all of our team members are signing in.

Right now toronto.ca users are still using e-mail to get our attention. We are just starting to use Twitter and other means of communicating with you such as the blog. But the uptake is slow.

What if the phone came now?
I once heard someone joke about what would have happened if the phone came after e-mail. The conversation and wow factor would be just as hot and heavy as with Twitter: "Did you know you can actually talk to someone live and hear their voice? Wow!"

I guess what ends up being the most practical becomes the most used. The time lag between transitions is interesting and, as a government, we can't just abandon one over the other for the sake of a trend or even ease. But it is in our best interest to adopt/adapt to what ever forms of communication citizens are using.

#10/2009

the Write stuff

2009-10-08T14:21:00.002-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

I'm conducting a web writing course today - blogging as the class writes.

I'm curious if you find our writing at toronto.ca too complicated? In the course, we talk about the basics - short, good headlines, context clues for the reader to find more, etc. but is the writing getting better or worse?

Keeping short in mind, I'll end here. But, please, let me know here what you find good and bad about our writing at toronto.ca.

Thanks,

#9/2009

Vote early ... vote often

2009-10-06T12:15:00.011-04:00

NOTE: This is content from the web re:Brand posts going back to November 2010. We have kept the re:Brand posts as a legacy archive but, on a go forward basis as of October, 2011, the new DATA eh? content takes over this space.

This isn't about the election next fall but rather I want to take a tongue in cheek quick track of something.

We had an anonymous comment on hating the colour blue on our website.

"I HATE that blue! it is very corporate and boring looking and looks like every website prototype in the universe. I don't see Toronto as blue, anyway."

Love to know what colour you see Toronto and toronto.ca? How significant is the colour to you? Is colour a deal breaker for you?

Not promising anything here but, really, what's the import of colour on your impressions landing on toronto.ca?

You can comment here ~~or vote at the quick poll on the right side nav: "Colour Concerns".~~ (poll now closed summation in the comments)

#8/2009

DATA eh? (formerly web re:Brand)

Stuff We Know Of Page ... Coming From Our Open Data

Data on page views

Dx3 augment

Open For Business ... Dx3 session with Dave Wallace

Are you Open?

Digital City ... Thinking Like The Web

49Pixels Live

New Year Reset

Data and The Holidays

Wasting Time Or Just Being Cool Or A Bit Of Both

Happy birthday or is it anniversary?

Winning With Water

Telling stories with DATA

DATA eh? interviews Trish Garner, Manager, Web Strategy, Information & Technology City of Toronto

Welcome to the DATA eh? Blog*

Last Post and Testament

The Beatles, iTunes and toronto.ca

Web Wars, Max Headroom and toronto.ca

The City of Leon and something about something about something and something else

What The Wall and toronto.ca have in common

The new fall TV season and toronto.ca

We want it!

ottawa.ca is to Ottawa as __________ is to __________

Nice, New Nelson

Everything old is new again ... not quite!

Strikethrough the re:Brand

OK what does branding mean?

GovCamp Toronto speaks to converted but that's the point for now

My table presentation was so dull even I had to leave ...

A rant by any other name is still a rant ... no?

Nice site y'all!

Pretty well exhausted but always room for more ...

How LOST and toronto.ca are similar

Hello Fijnaart, Gijón, Bandung and Urbandale ...

More doing business on web suggestions

While away I found some things "refurbished"

User Engagement

Accessibility / Customization / Personalization

Services

Content

Navigation

Search

Look and Feel

7 .... lucky 7

That "toddlin' town" website a model for toronto.ca?

Join the dialogue

Climbing up the Comments Wall

Going for Gold at the web Olympics

You're only as good as your last bit of customer service - extrapolating from the Randy Bachman

Extrapolating from the Neil Young (early adopters)

Better Search (part 2)

Tells us what's right or wrong with toronto.ca

Friend toronto.ca?

Give the gift of a suggestion ...

Bye 2009 ... hello 2010!

US government blogging same questions as us ...

Doing Business

SixthSense world ... buckle up!

No comments on Search?

Better search!!!

Time lines?

Open not closed

Let the "open" unfold

Too many cooks and not enough kitchens

Geeks!

Innovation Showcase leads to more innovation?

Toronto Innovation Showcase November 2 & 3, 2009

tree-1-1 part 2

tree-1-1 part 1

1 week x 1 staff = 200 mails

the Write stuff

Vote early ... vote often

ottawa.ca is to Ottawa as is to