AgendaTuesday, April 14, 1998
5:30 p.m.
Raspberry Room
5:30 pm Call to order
5:35 pm Web page demonstration, Harvala
6:15 pm Review of Board of Review procedures, Bob Wilson
6:30 pm County Road 73 and 5 task force, Stadler
7 pm Presentation, Hopkins Village Apartments, Skepper
7:10 pm Proposed Community Survey, Parsons
8 pm SuperValu project agreements review, Kerrigan
9:15 Other
9:30 pm Adjourn
Memorandum
To:
From:
CC:
Date:
Subject:
Mayor and Hopkins City Council Members
Eileen Harvala
City Manager Steve Mielke and Sgt. Gordon Wiborg Jr.
Monday, March 23, 1998
Web Site Council Presentation
Members of the Task Force include the
Activity Center
City Manager's Office
Community Services
Finance
Fire Department
Planning & Economic Development
Police Department
Public Works
Recreation Services
Community Relations
Purpose
The purpose of this memo and city of Hopkins web site development discussion is to
request direction from the Hopkins City Council on the following:
• Permission to move forward with the design and implementation of a web site
for the city of Hopkins
• Establishing a not —to— exceed cost parameter of $10,000
• Requiring that a refined proposal with definitive costs be approved by the
Hopkins City Council
Background Process
City staff members, under the direction of City Manager Steve Mielke, began the
process for the development of a web site in September 1997. The first step was
recruiting employees for a Web Site Development Task Force. Since the goal is to
develop one web site for the city of Hopkins, it was felt that the composition of the Task
Force membership needed to be as inclusive of the entire city as possible. The Task
Force members represent a cross section of the city's departments and divisions.
following:
Susan Newville
Steve Mielke & Eileen Harvala
Jim Genellie
Pat Weigel
George Magdal
Nancy Anderson and Jim Hartshorn
Shayne Curtis and Gordon Wiborg
Norb Kerber
Lorry Mendez —Burns
There is a wide range of computer knowledge and experience represented on the Task
Force, ranging from those with a great deal of computer and technical expertise to
those with limited computer expertise and exposure to the Internet. While the
experience level varies, all of the Task Force members expressed an interest in the
development of a web site for the city of Hopkins.
Task Force members initially brainstormed purposes for a city web site. They also
asked their department/division co- workers the following questions:
1. Who are the audiences or people your department/division wants to reach
through the web site?
2. What information does your department/division want to include on a web site
to reach those audiences?
3. What (ink e-mail capabilities or interactive capabilities should the web site
include to meet your department's goals and objectives for a web site?
Once this extensive research was compiled, Task Force members then crafted the
following statement of purpose for the web site that has and will continue to be used for
the development of the city's web site:
The city of Hopkins will provide accessible information services
to the public through a 24 -hour interactive World Wide Web site.
Task Force members also formed three subcommittees:
• One to focus on the actual development of the web site, including content,
function and appearance
• One to develop a computer, Internet and web site policy
• One to investigate the cost of developing and maintaining a web site
Task Force members felt the initial research and ground work for development of a web
site, while extensive, comprehensive and time consuming, was needed so they could
develop a vision for the city's web site.
Why develop a web site for the city of Hopkins?
1. Communications tool
• information resource for the city's customers— residents (new and
current), real estate agents, developers, other units of government,
businesses and service providers
•
Resource for highlighting and increasing awareness about the Hopkins
community and its events, activities, projects, programs and services
• Resource for advertising, marketing and promoting the community and
the city's programs and services
• Resource for education, the highlighting of current events, activities
and city news, and the announcement of public service information
such as crime alerts and snow emergencies
2. 24 -hour access
• Offers 24 -hour a day access to the city
• 24 -hour a day advertisement of the city to the local community and the
more global community
• May be the only direct contact people have with the Hopkins
community
• Way to streamline the flow of information to and from the city's
constituents
3. Service delivery tool
• Convenient way for the city's customers to conduct business or obtain
information
• Alternative way for the city's customers to make specific requests for
services, transact business or comment on city issues
• Method of facilitating, streamlining and automating the delivery of
public services
• Resource for encouraging customer interaction by offering
registrations, applications and feedback
City of Hopkins web site
It is proposed that the city's web site will be instant, in- depth, interesting and interactive.
Our vision is to develop a responsive, search and query-based web site. It is our
intention to use push button technology to enable the city's customers to find the
specific information they need in a fast, user friendly manner. We purpose that our site
will be customer service, content driven.
City investment implications
The development of a city web site will have a monetary and time impact. Until a
decision is made, however, to move forward with the development of a site, the actual
costs —time and labor — remain undefined. The monetary and time commitments can be
broken into three areas: web site design, web site maintenance, and web site server.
1. Web site design
Internal design of the web site is estimated to cost about $9,000, which
includes 6 months of employee time @ 20 hours per week.
A key question is whether the city has existing personnel to commit to this
time level?
External design of the city's web site is estimated to cost between $5,000 and
$10,000, which is based on a survey of cities with web sites.
It should be noted that the Web Site Development Task Force has already
done a lot of the comprehensive, preliminary work that is needed to
develop a web site.
The Task Force has done enough research and has enough contacts to
send out knowledgeable requests for proposals to potential vendors.
The Task Force also has developed a clear vision for the city's web site,
and that will help with the actual development of the site.
By using an external source for the web site development, the city could
potentially have a web site up and running in 3 to 6 months.
2. Web site maintenance
It is proposed that the ongoing maintenance of the web site would be
coordinated through the City Manager's Office— Community Relations
Coordinator.
Because we will be using an information database as the backdrop for the
web site, the ongoing updating of that information will be a shared
responsibility of all the city's departments and divisions.
It is estimated that this ongoing maintenance will involved 4 to 10 hours of
staff time per week at a cost, ranging from $76 to $180.
Staff time is an issue but not as much as the web site design; however, it
may require the shifting of some duties or responsibilities.
3. Web site server
Research indicates that contracting with an Internet service provider to
host the city's web site will cost between $100 and $400 per month, and
the average cost for most cities is less than $200 a month.
It also is possible for the city's to host its own server by purchasing its own
hardware. At a minimum, this would cost $10,000.
If the City Council grants permission to move forward with the actual development of a
web site for the city, all of these options will be researched in- depth, and an approach
recommended for the city of Hopkins.
Sources of funding
It appears that the Cable Fund has a healthy fund balance, and should remain in that
position for more than 10 years, contingent on capital expenditures. While this fund
needs to be monitored carefully, it is recommended that the initial $10,000 and ongoing
maintenance, estimated to cost about $2,400 per year, come from the Cable Fund.
Next steps
We are asking permission to move forward with the design and implementation of a
web site for the city of Hopkins, using a not—to--exceed cost parameter of $10,000. A
fleshed out proposal with recommendations, definitive costs and sources of funding will
be brought back to the Hopkins City Council for approval.
Attachments
Definitions
Survey of other cities
List of other Minnesota cities already on the Internet
spy What?
(Some Internet and World Wide Web terms)
Access
A means of getting into an online system. Examples of commercial online services include
America Online and CompuServe.
Address
Your online user name, your unique e-mail address. Think of it as your telephone number on
the Internet.
Baud
Bauds per second or bps —the rate of speed at which information travels from computer to
computer, related to the type and speed of the communication device you have.
Bulletin board
An Internet service that makes multiple discussion groups available.
Browser
A software program that retrieves and displays World Wide Web pages. Some browsers also
allow you to access other Internet services.
Client
On the Internet, a client is a program that requests files or services from a server.
Cyberspace
A term created by William Gibson in his fantasy novel Neuromancer, where Cyberspace
describes the virtual computer world and the society that gathers around it. Cyberspace is the
geographical name for the place where online conversations, e-mail exchanges, information
transfers and other activities occur.
Domain
Name usually used to describe the last part of an Internet address with its affiliation: .com—
commercial; .gov— government; .org— organization; .edu— education. Domain also is called the
network location, which is the unique name that identifies an Internet server. A network
location has two or more parts, also called the host name and Internet address, separated by
periods. Example: my.network.location
E -mail (electronic mail)
E -mail is a service for sending messages electronically over a computer.
A: \Say What.doc Page 1
File
A single archive of information or a named collection of information that is stored on a
computer disk. A file may be text, a graphic image, an executable computer program, or other
material.
File server, also called a server
A program running on a network that stores files and provides access to them.
Firewall
A method of protecting one network from another network. A firewall blocks unwanted access
to the protected network. For example, a firewall could give users access to the Internet while
protecting internal information.
Gopher
Gopher is a search engine that provides a way of finding information across the Internet.
Gopher also is the Internet protocol in which files are displayed in a hierarchical menu and are
retrieved based on user input.
Home Page
The starting point or first page on a Web server or Web site.
Host, also called the server
A server or host is a computer that offers services on the network. On the World Wide Web,
the server or host is the computer that runs the Web server program. Think of the host or
server as your on ramp to the Internet.
HTML (HyperText Markup Language)
The layout coding system for the World Wide Web, permitting translation to and from existing
pagination systems. Some software programs now allow you to build Web pages and Web
sites without having to know HTML.
HTTP (HyperText Transport Protocol)
The Internet protocol that allows World Wide Web browsers to retrieve information from
servers.
Hyperlink
Hyperlink is a jump from text or from an image map to a page or other file on the World Wide
Web. Hyperlinks are the primary way to navigate between pages and Web sites.
Hypertext
Any text information on a computer containing jumps to other information. Hypertext jumps
are called hyperlink —in HTML, a highlighted area of text or image that, when clicked on with
a mouse, will automatically generate a command to go to a new place within a document, or
to an entirely new document on the World Wide Web.
A: \Say What.doc Paget
Image
A graphic in GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) and JPEG (Joint Photographic Expert Group)
format that can be inserted in a World Wide Web page. It is likely that we will be using GIF for
illustrations and line art, and JPEG for photographic images.
Internet
The Internet is a vast collection of interconnected networks that share the same protocols,
allowing them to understand each other. The Internet is used to send e-mail, find information
and engage in person -to- person exchanges. Think of the Internet as a global computer
network that provides worldwide communications to homes, schools, businesses and
governments. The World Wide Web runs on the Internet.
IP (Internet Protocol)
IP Internet software divides data into packets for transmission over the Internet.
IP address (Internet Protocol address)
IP address is the standard way of identifying a computer that is connected to the Internet. It is
very similar to the way a telephone number identifies a telephone on a telephone network.
The IP address is four numbers separated by periods, and each number is Tess than 256.
Internet Service Provider (ISP)
An Internet Service Provider is an organization that provides access to the Internet, usually by
owning the hostor server.
Protocol
Protocol is a method of accessing a document or service over the Internet —File Transfer
Protocol (FTP) or HyperText Transfer Protocol /HTTP).
Search engine
A search engine is Internet search software. Some of the larger regional and national providers
are Gopher, Harvest, Lycos and Webcrawler.
SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocol)
PPP (Point to Point Connections)
SLIP and PPP carry a special software logic that allows Web browsers to function through a
modem.
TCP (Transmission Control Protocol)
TCP is a networking software that controls the transmission of packets of data over the
Internet. A lot of times you will see TCP/IP /Internet Protocol) because they are a must when it
comes to communicating with World Wide Web servers.
A: \Say What.doc Page3
UNIX
UNIX is an operating system that was developed by Bell Labs to allow computers of differing
platforms to communicate with each other. UNIX is the infrastructure of the Internet and some
World Wide Web servers run on UNIX systems.
URL (Universal Resource Locator)
URL is an address of a resource on the World Wide Web along with the protocol by which that
resource is accessed. The most common URL type is http, which gives the Internet address of a
World Wide Web page.
World Wide Web (WWW or W3)
The World Wide Web is the graphical, hypertext-based, distributed information system or
service that uses the http protocol to retrieve Web pages and other date from Web servers.
While the WWW allows people to access the information resources of the Internet, you can
access the Web without using the Internet.
Resources
Taxbytes, What was that Again? A glossary of Net and Web Terms, a flier prepared by
Computer Network, LTD based in Farmington, MO., and distributed in the winter of 1996
Introducing Microsoft() FrontPageT"'' 97 by Kerry Lehto and W. Brett Polonsky
Microsoft's Getting Started with Microsoft® FrontPageTM 97
A: \Say What.doc Page4
•
Monthly maintenance
Design & Implementation
Estimated cost:
•
How often is page updated?
•
■
Who maintains the web page?
Hrs/wk. spent maintaining?
i
Since inception
'
0
Anoroximate # of hits
I
1
Estimated size in MB
1
Ii
■
Wh re is the web page?
•
•
1
i
•
Who designed the web page
•
•
$100
$2,110
quarterly
various
50 pages
Shade's Landing,
Inc.
Shade's Landing,
Inc.
Appl Valle
Charles Grawe
953 -2508
avalley @pclink.co
m
•
$100 -$200
various
20
outside PC
existing staff
$500
I weekly
staff member
5
12 l
Logis
existin staff
Coon Rapids
Dave Sack
767 -6434
sack @ci.coon -
rapids.mn.us
1 $150
$1,000 - $1,500
every 2 wks.
Staff members
1
10
1SD.net
e xisting staff
Cotta • e Gr ve
Jenny Jennings
458 -2884
mis @cottage-
grove.org
1 $140 - server rental
$350
weekly
staff webmaster
4 to 6
300
200
1
I 5.5
LOGIS
existing staff
Edina
Ralph Campbell
826 -0407
ralphblane @ibm.n
et
N
C.71
O
as needed
staff members
12
•
3600
CO
O
O
CO
Logis
•
Marilee Ra
•
Minnetonka
Am Chene
939 -8259
acheney @ci.minne
tonka.mn.us
N
N
Monthly maintenance
Design & Implementation
Estimated cost:
How often is page updated?
Who maintains the web page?
Hrs/wk. spent maintaining?
Since inception
Month
Aparoximate # of hits
Estimated ated size in MB
Who desi • ned the web pa • e
Wh re is the web page?
r
E Mail
Phone
City
Contact
twice monthly
1
webmaster
1
10
_
existing staff
Freenet
moundsview @Free
net.msp.mn.us
_
717 -4022 J
Mounds View
Jim Ericson
$140 - server rental
$5,000
Calendar updated
weekly
staff member &
Risdell, etc. for big
things
1
Since 3/97- 32,000
2600
existing staff &
Risdall, Linnihan
Advertising
Risdall, Linnihan
Advertising
jgoepe @ci.new -
brighton.mn.us
638 -2045
New Brighton
July Goepel
$4,000
weekly
staff member
15 -20
Since 7/96- 22,700
10
existin staff
TIES
jlyons @ci.plymouth
.mn.us
509 -5081
Plymouth
Jean Lyons
every other month
staff members
1
staff & school
district
School district
cpires@ci.saint-
louis- park.mn.us
924 -2517
St. Louis Park
Clint Pires
i
I
1$360 for ISP
connection
21,000 - hardware
15,000 - design
twice monthly
staff members
5
■
1 16 1
Netlink
International
City PC
rcrumb@shoreview
.mn.com
490 -4628
Shoreview
Dick Crumb
N
00
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