A New Type of Website


An electronic consultation system

Its visible component is the Web site, particularly the public portion. However, its strength is the invisible part that manages information provided, comments received and acts as another vehicle for building stakeholder relationships.

This electronic consultation system is a medium, not a fixed message. Using the Internet, this system has the capacity to reach unlimited numbers of people with immediate, up-to-date content, and instantly receive current views gathered by informal open-ended requests for comment through to structured on-line surveys.

We live in the 21st century. Most people in the region expect to receive information and provide input via the Net. E-mail, Web sites, cell phones (and text messaging), chat rooms, blogs, and are the norm for the under thirty-aged residents. While TV is the main way to get news, e-mail and Web sites are the preferred method for gathering information and communicating for the under 50-aged, office workers and professionals. To rely on print media is insufficient. Public meetings are powerful but they are limited in size, scope of information and frequency. The Internet and its tools (Web sites and e-mail) are the most powerful, cost-effective and desired way of engaging the public.

Virtually all groups with an interest in York Region projects are able to organize and communicate via e-mail. They plan, inform one another and organize via the Net. With these Web Sites, York Region will become part of that larger conversation and use that same electronic means to engage these groups on their own terms.

Key Features of these new Web Sites
1. Ability to alert stakeholders to notices - You've Got Mail!
2. Capability to describe, in plain language, the project using text and visually support this with diagrams, schematics and pictures.
3. Multiple invitation devices to encourage stakeholder interaction - to comment, make suggestions, ask questions, participate in surveys, etc.
4. Project-related LINKS to York Region's Official Web Site, other jurisdictions and infrastructure design and construction Web sites.
5. Educational primers/modules.
6. Ease of use, intuitive in understanding what information residents want.
7. Features a RESERVED section for residents and stakeholders of the project.
8. Fastest and most cost-effective way to provide the public and selected stakeholders with information. All the information (documents, images, maps, presentations, etc.) can be stored on the system for viewing or download by the public.
9. Ability of stakeholders to view comments made by other stakeholders (with or without names depending on permissions) and to remark on these comments.