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Local Government Webmasters Meeting Group Discussion - September 22, 2005
Maintaining Web sites in times of tight or decreasing budgets
Maintaining Web sites in times of tight or decreasing budgets
A number of suggestions came from the group during this session:
- Hire interns for specific projects
- Partner with community colleges
- Pros: builds goodwill and good for community public
relations; benefits students about to graduate;
- Cons: continuity problems with projects – governments
should require knowledge transfer before last paycheck is issued
- Note: have specific projects to work on and have interns set
goals with advisors; work with schools to allow internship to count
for credits towards graduation; have a formal process for selecting
interns; hire non-technical as well as technical interns
- Coordinate the work of volunteers
- Use volunteers for programs that would benefit
- Share information technology across departments
- If other departments have purchased licenses for specific
applications, see if the licenses permit citywide use;
specifically, consult fire and police departments about technology
they have purchased with grants
- Use web applications to enable citizen self-service, where
possible
- Job application and recruitment systems
- Permitting applications (MyBuildingPermit.com)
- One city was able to eliminate .5 FTE from the Parks & Recreation department due to time savings from self-registration via its online system; one such system is at MyParksandRecreation.com
- Directories of sex offenders
- Property tax-related parcel search systems
- Outsourcing
- While this doesn't always reduce costs, it can reduce
political wrangling by having a third-party trusted opinion
- Be as specific as possible about deliverables: one county received their Web design in Flash and than had to convert it to HTML; Snohomish County has extensive experience in hiring design firms: contact David Stroble
Notes provided by Quinn Robinson, Web Services Specialist, Municipal Research & Services Center of Washington; information and links are provided for convenience and not as an endorsement of specific products or services mentioned.
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