The City of Prince George is spending $124,300 for an Ontario contractor to put together a new website for local government over the next 18 months.
What a waste of money.
The talent and experience to do it locally is right in the city's backyard.
The Prince George Public Library unveiled an updated version of its website earlier this month. Naturally, it was done quietly and without much fanfare.
The website is now mobile-optimized, meaning that it presents a stripped-down but still fully functional version of the site for easy viewing on smartphones and tablets. The update freshened up the 2011 full rebuild of its clunky old site.
The cost for both the 2011 new site and the 2015 update? Except for the licensing costs for the software running behind the scenes, absolutely nothing. The sites were manufactured in-house with existing staff time and expertise.
Funny how lack of money forces some public institutions to get creative in order to get important work done. So how did the library do on its own what the city, with so many more employees, has to contract out?
A committee of five employees, one of them part-time, was put together (full disclosure: as the library's communications co-ordinator at the time, I was a member of that committee) and given 12 months to launch, with no extra time set aside from their regular duties. The major tasks - design, functionality and architecture - were divided between the five committee members, keeping in mind that all three of those tasks are interconnected.
On the design front, public library websites across North America were examined for both best and worst practices on use of words, images and colour. Good design guides users through the site's features simply and intuitively.
As for functionality, library users need to securely access their account information with both their 14-digit library card number and a security password. Once in, they can not only see what they may owe in outstanding fines and what materials they have borrowed, they can place holds on other materials and request the library to bring in something not in the local collection from another library. The system also sends e-mails reminding users when materials are almost due to avoid late charges.
Website architecture means deciding what's on the main page and how information flows out from the main page through a series of hubs. It also means overseeing a software program that can manage account interaction from users as well as maintenance and updates from staff.
A beta version was in place within nine months, allowing library staff to test it and work out the kinks. When the site went live, it was a soft launch, meaning there were no press releases or fanfare, partly to manage public expectations but mostly to give regular users of the library's website the first crack at spotting errors and oversights, suggesting changes and providing overall feedback. The committee continued to meet regularly, examining all internal and external suggestions while also tinkering on their own to keep making the site a little better all the time.
There was no option to contract out part of the job. There was no option to extend the deadline. When committee members didn't know how to do something, they reached out to their counterparts at other public libraries for free help and advice. The outcome was what then chief librarian Allan Wilson called a "made in Prince George solution" that boosted staff pride and morale. One of the benefits of the committee, made up of staff from the various library departments, was better internal communications across the organization and a newfound respect for what others brought to the table.
The City of Prince George has the staff, the talent, the time and the energy to do this work itself. Sadly, the desire appears to be lacking.
The new City of Prince George website will not be any more complex or sophisticated or functional than the library's website, which has gone through four years of constant improvements and public interaction, all leading to its most recent technical upgrade. Even if city staff were unwilling to make their new website themselves, surely the library staff could have used their knowledge in website development to either advise the city or even do the project themselves.
By not looking at proven success and expertise developed right under its nose, the City of Prince George is not only spending money unnecessarily, it is blowing a golden opportunity to showcase what can be accomplished by talented and committed city employees.
