Building a better site for our city. You may have seen the new Birmingham City Council sites, judging by comments I'd say most of you don't think it lives up to its potential. But — could a group of volunteers do better?
What does a council site need, can it be scraped together and built in a better way for free in dezmembrari auto?
Discuss and edit together ideas here.
Contents of Solutions wall (1pm):
Solutions wall (how can we solve a problem for someone?):
Google alerts.
What to do if? box.
Make the whole thing post cody.
Make it easier to access planning applications. Scrape them?
Contents of Problems wall (1pm):
Problems wall (what is the problem you want to solve on your visit to the website?):
Birmingham City Council website is one of the worst I have ever used. Very rarely tells you what you need to know and when you try to report a fault, you get no acknowledgement. Also cluttered and ugly and counter-intuitive. oyunlar1
Accessing jobs.
Support networks (Arts Team Projects).
Problems with new planning website: 1. Very slow and clunky. 2. No longer supplies weekly lists of planning ap0plications by ward. ??? have complained and ar- these aren't available as far as I can see. 3.If you type in a PA number into main search you can't access it by hitting return - you have to scroll to bottom of page.
Democracy page. Council doc search. Old docs.
Business section. Where does my money go? Business contracts.
Contents of Features wall (1pm):
Features wall (suggest a neat idea):
Malicious edits
Actions
Disclaimer
Feature to find supermarket (planning apps
Tag cloud - pages - interest
Suggest tags for pages: ??open calais zemante??
Planning application scraper
Maps
Pull images from Flickr
Hit counter - so others can see if pages/message getting through
Monumental --> where next?
Interface:
Persistant
Post code entry - straight to content - am I in...
1. To the extent that the BCC DIY site is going to include BCC departmental access, certain BCC sites (library and council tax, for example) permit personal identification input (library card number, tax relief, etc) to be 'retained' so that it doesn't need to be inputted again - BCC DIY would need to incorporate this facility unless, of course, the DIY site does no more than link to the relevant BCC departmental site and asigurari auto.
Mobile/PDA friendly.
RDF.
Contents of scope wall (1pm):
Scope (not the council?):
Builders and plumbers
Electricians, teachers, etc
Free cycle
Child minders
Bus routes
Car boot
3. The council has a vested interest in not advertising actions being taken against it by a citizen/visitor/business for some failure or error. A 'register' of actions identifying the nature of the complaint? (e.g. I have successfully taken action (county court) against two departments of the council with respect to breaches (several for each department) of the Disability diSCRIMINATION aCTS. iN ADDITION TO THESE TWO - FOR WHICH THERE WAS A COURT ORDER AGAINST THE COUNCIL - i HAVE JUST COMMENTED YET ANOTHER SIMILAR ACTION, WITH ANOTHER ONE A DISTINCT POSSIBILITY. tHE diy SITE CAN HELP PEOPLE APPRECIATE THEY ARE 'not alone'.
A 'gripes and groans' noticeboard?
Contents of 'near me' wall:
A - Peoples concerns:
1. Email/Phone - Contacts
2. Where/what/how to recycle
2. Rubbish collection dates
2. Rubbish clearance
2. Rats and pests
2. Dead dogs, etc
3. Schools and Health
4. Post boxes and times
5. Crime
6. CSP Partnership (police)
B - Local democracy:
Neighbourhood forum
Ward committees (minutes)
Survey and census information
Councillors
Strategies --> feedback
Neighbourhood office - which one?
C - Create community:
Running groups
Parks, libraries and museums
Sport, swim, leisure
Youth
Calendar
Food and drink
Upcoming events
Allotments and recycling
Transport links
D - User generated content:
Welcome from local people
Podcasts
Travel tips - how (not) to get to places
PDFs, maps, etc
Cycle routes
E - Support businesses and customers:
Jobs in area
Town centre managers
Farmers market (event/local business)
Items marked in green are features that have been added to the work in progress site at http://electric-moon-93.heroku.com
Items marked in orange need to be done.
Democracy information & contacts — scraped from existing site?
Service info — scraped from existing site?
Contacting departments — info scraped, but needs new forms built?
Fixing stuff — use Fix My Steeet?
Planning apps — use planningonline to generate lists?
News/PR — pull from birminghamnewsroon.com?
Events — scrape from site, add to livebrum.co.uk & use livebrum as interface?
What else in piese auto?
Pay your council tax
Report a problem
Find a contact
What else?
Search?
By postcode — that pulls together all relevant data? SohbetOyun1
By category — what are they?
By department and related departments. (visually see how a department relies on another. Instead of being on the phone and being passed around from switchboard to switchboard).
People hunting for answers to specific problems.
Non techy people as much as web savvy people.
People with accessibility needs.
Frustrated people that are sick of waiting on the phone (I think this is perfectly relevant).
Businesses
People looking to relocate.
People looking for tourism info about Birmingham
People looking for jobs.