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City unveils an expanded website
Site includes information on history, arts, business --plus the usual meeting agendas and minutes
By Erin Mayes
Campbell unveiled a new website Feb. 26 that city officials say is easier to use and offers more information to users, from city council agendas to where to find a good restaurant.
Community Development Director Sharon Fierro said the city wanted to create a more modern site that users would easily be able to understand.
"The technology's changed since we first put our website up," she said. After the changes, "it still maintained the quality small-town features and yet was contemporary."
The site is up and functional, with most of the links completed.
Areas of interest on the site are the "Doing Business" section, which gives information on how to start a business in Campbell.
The city services link includes information from the police department, the redevelopment agency and city council.
Campbell's history is detailed on the site, along with extra information about local schools, churches, restaurants, demographics, the museum and the Ainsley House.
The "Community and the Arts" section on the site is divided into categories, such as the recreation department, the Heritage Theater, the Adult Center, the library and parks.
Some of the links overlap in different sections to make them easier for users to find.
"We tried to make it something people would feel comfortable with and familiar with," Fierro said. "There are a variety of ways of finding out information."
The additional information is intended to be a time-saver for people, as well.
"There are links that people would have to come to city hall to find out," she said.
Information Technology Manager John Maddock headed up the creation of the new site. Maddock is part of a technology team that does some work for the city. The team is employed by Full Moon Interactive, a web development company located in downtown Campbell.
"The main purpose was to update the look and feel of the site," Maddock said. "The second thing that we wanted to accomplish with the site was to change the organization to make it a little bit easier to navigate."
He said Campbell is jumping on the e-government bandwagon and hopes to eventually be able to provide extra services on its website.
Over the next nine months, the IT team will work on making the permit system accessible on the site. This would allow users to check the status on their parcel information and pay fees for basic permits that aren't very complicated.
Maddock said the city also wants to provide access to the recreation department through the site. Users will eventually be able to see what classes are offered by the department, sign up for them and pay by credit card.
Many cities have gone the way of e-government, Maddock said.
"We've followed the example of San Carlos," he said. "They took the permitting system online. They've done a lot of the pioneering work on this so we've been able use them as a sample."
Maddock said the city hasn't officially "blown the trumpets" about its website. He estimated the site to be about 98 percent completed.
"Every website in the world is a work in progress," he said.
The site is up and running at www.ci.campbell.ca.us.
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Campbell, California
