TDC seeks community input to new website

February 17th, 2010
by David Armstrong

Tasman District Council is "bulldozing" its current outdated website and is seeking help to make the replacement more customer-friendly and useful.

The man in charge of developing of the new website, Mapua-based Tama Easton, met with Motueka Community Board members last week to outline plans and to hear comments from board members and residents at the meeting.

"Everyone acknowledges that the existing site is old, unfriendly to use, and not customer focused," he said. "It was decided the best thing to do was to bulldoze it and start again from the ground up." The old site is at www.tdc.govt.nz.

The new site will be ready by June. A sub-project within the development - a section for the Council's libraries - will go live in spring, and a GIS system (for geographic information, maps etc) will be added later still.

The new website aims to provide three main features: a transaction centre, a communications tool and an information gateway. The transaction facility will enable customers to carry out business transactions, such as paying rates and making job applications, online.

As a communications tool, "we will develop a framework for effective communication between the Council and its customers," Tama said. "This will include news releases and important communications from the Council, coupled with the ability for customers to contact us and offer structured feedback and submissions.

"We will also develop online services to deliver publically available Council information to our customers using open information standards in a usable and timely manner. This will include environmental information, rates and property information, cemetery information, and online mapping."

Content management software from a Wellington company, Silverstripe, will be used as the site's platform. Tama said Silverstripe has wide experience in providing similar software to thousands of clients around the world.

Questioned about the usability of the website in areas without broadband connections, common in the wider Motueka district, Tama said Council plans to offer a "lite" version of the site which will work quickly on dial-up connections and on mobile devices such as 3G phones.

As part of the consultation process, Council is also running an online survey, and Tama encouraged residents to use it to "let us know what is important for them". The survey is found at www.tasman.govt.nz/survey

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