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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006/02/09 - ADMIN - Minutes - Community Technology Advisory Commission - RegularUNOFFICIAL MINUTES ST. LOUIS PARK TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION MEETING OF February 9, 2006 ST. LOUIS PARK COUNCIL CHAMBERS MEMBERS PRESENT: Bruce Browning, Rick Dworsky, Dale Hartman, Ken Huiras, Bob Jacobson and Mary Jean Overend MEMBERS ABSENT: Rolf Peterson STAFF PRESENT: Clint Pires Director of Technology and Support Services; Reg Dunlap, Civic TV Coordinator; John McHugh, Community TV Coordinator; Jason Huber, Web Coordinator 1. Call to Order Chair Dworsky called the meeting to order at 7:02 PM. 2. Roll Call Present at roll call were Commissioners Browning, Dworsky, Hartman, Huiras, Jacobson, and Overend. 3. Approval of Minutes for January 19, 2006 It was moved by Commissioner Browning, seconded by Commissioner Overend, to approve the minutes of January 19, 2006, without changes. The motion passed 6-0. 4. Adoption of Agenda Commissioner Huiras requested item 8b, Time Warner Update be added. It was moved by Commissioner Huiras, seconded by Commissioner Jacobson, to approve the agenda as amended. The motion passed 6-0. 5. Public Comment – None 6. New Business A. City Web Site Redesign Mr. Pires indicated the new web site was launched on January 16th and they were looking for feedback. The drive behind the effort was by community input and suggestions from residents and businesses to enhance the functionality and the quality of the website to better serve citizens, businesses, visitors and people considering moving to St. Louis Park, as well as City staff. One of the organizing principles was to work with open standards so that people using any kind of browser have the ability to access the site. Jason Huber, Web Coordinator, presented highlights of the web site including: navigation and search engine (broken into five main search categories: About St. Louis Park, For Residents, For Businesses, Visit City Hall and Experience St. Louis Park); multiple ways to get to the same information; hours of operation, a phone number and an email contact listed on each page. The Home Page features include: “Spotlight On”, Quick Links (use website traffic reports or staff and citizen input), What’s New, Reminders, and Special Alerts; drop down menus to navigate to I Want To, Where Is, City Parks, City Departments; Park Finder, which allows searches to parks and park amenities; a new search engine; Community Calendar with City and School Board events, which can be exported to an Outlook calendar and provides details of each event; and printable versions (text only). Commissioner Jacobson asked if they purchased a software program for the new design? Mr. Huber replied he wrote this in PHP, and is designed for browser neutrality and to work with any other program. Commissioner Jacobson asked what system requirements are needed for it to work as fast as the demonstration? Mr. Huber replied it would depend more on the Internet connection to someone’s home than the computer. Commissioner Jacobson commented that the web site was well done. Commissioner Huiras agreed this was an outstanding job. Are there links to other sites such as the School District? Mr. Huber replied yes. Mr. Pires stated one of the requests that had come up was how do people experience St. Louis Park. Should the site be oriented toward people that live here or to people coming to visit St. Louis Park? Should there be access to information such as hotels and restaurants? Should they link to sources that have that without endorsing particular businesses? Those are the things Mr. Huber is finding with statistics on the web hits. They want the site to be helpful to visitors as well as residents. Commissioner Huiras suggested that the Channel 15 schedule be added. Mr. Huber replied they could add it with the Civic TV 17 schedule. Commissioner Browning asked if there would be the ability for Ecommerce and for residents to pay utility bills on-line? Mr. Pires replied they have E-Connect for Park and Recreation and E-Permits for permits that don’t require plan review. The next piece would be utility bills. The City is currently in the process of replacing the utility billing system, which they expect to be done the first part of 2007. Thereafter they would give people the ability to pay their utility bills on-line. They could imagine also being able to apply for business and dog licenses. Commissioner Huiras suggested links to the Sun Sailor and Lenox Senior Program. Mr. McHugh asked if the browser required certain plug-ins? Mr. Huber replied they would need Macro Media Flash for the Spotlight On, if they didn’t have it, it would display a photo. The printable view is Java Script. There are links for downloading the software (such as Adobe Reader). Commissioner Huiras asked about streaming Council meetings? Mr. Pires responded that they had recently signed a contract with Implex.net to provide those services. He said we expect to have three channels live streaming and video on demand available by the end of March. Also, in the next six to eight months they’ll be working on real time alerts for the web site home page, to give staff the ability to put alerts on the home page. He would like to allow the community to add information to the Community calendar, reorganize some of the content, add a section for frequently asked questions, and expand the use of photos and maps with the possibility of adding 360° tours. Tom Bullington of City Image, who works with the City on all communications, has helped with the web site, as has Wendy Skinner, who has a professional background in media. Commissioner Jacobson asked if it was almost mandatory for someone to have broadband to use these features and if wireless would be fast enough? Mr. Pires replied wireless speeds ARE broadband, and would be fast enough to access all features. The trend is moving toward needing broadband to fully enjoy all features on websites. Mr. Huber noted that video on demand (VOD) would be also be available as audio only for people with lower speed or dial up service. Mr. Pires indicated another trend is pod casting and there are services that will make it available. They were interested in hearing more from residents for additional content and feedback. Commissioner Huiras asked if people could reserve parks? Mr. Pires replied they could schedule classes, but not reserve facilities at this time. Commissioner Browning suggested reservations for community education. Commissioner Hartman asked what an Ecommerce rating was? Mr. Pires replied there is a State program that allows cities to apply for and be noted as electronic commerce cities. That has a lot to do with what sort of broadband access they have in the city. The more they have, the more likely they are to be able to get a posting like that. Commissioner Jacobson asked if someone would have trouble connecting to a web site based on type of connection (wireless or broadband)? Mr. Pires didn’t believe there should be any difficulty based on the type of connection. It would be a matter of the speed. Commissioner Jacobson stated he was impressed by the site and hadn’t seen any other sites that worked better. Wendy Skinner suggested they think about access to the web site by many different groups in the community such as people who don’t speak English. A good example is the Hennepin Country Library website. She suggested something as simple as having a button saying “Habla Espanol?”. Another idea would be to provide TTY information and something for the visually impaired. They should try to make the Home page unique and use landmarks from their community or include what they are proudest of in St. Louis Park. Chair Dworsky asked how the public should provide input? Mr. Pires replied they could contact Jason Huber by Email, jhuber@st.louispark.org, or phone, 952-924-2168. 7. Old Business A. Fiber Optic Ordinance Mr. Dunlap stated he was unable to line up developers or City Staff to attend this meeting. This will be put on the May 4th agenda. He received some good suggestions from Commissioner Jacobson with background information and he would create a chart comparing the speeds of fiber optic versus copper and co-ax cable and also a comparison of the costs. Commissioner Jacobson requested the information include what it would cost a homeowner to put this into an existing home and costs for various types of connections. Chair Dworsky requested it be broken out by materials versus labor. Commissioner Huiras asked if this would be discussed when they met with Council in March? Mr. Dunlap responded they could discuss it at that time. Mr. Pires stated it would be appropriate for the Commission to let Council know that they had been studying this. The Council had been approached by Mr. Erickson, who had been directed to this Commission. Chair Dworsky asked Mr. Dunlap to provide information to the Council that the Commission was studying this. Mr. Dunlap replied it was in the work plan and they would be meeting with the Council in March. B. St. Louis Park Wi-Fi Pilot Project Update Mr. Pires stated the pilot project was continuing to move forward. In November City Council approved the pilot project. They had issued requests for bids and proposals and received those. They now had signed contracts with First Mile Wireless for the equipment and Unplugged Cities for the help desk. Equipment had been ordered for both the wireless access points in the pilot neighborhoods as well as the back office equipment that helps Unplugged Cities provide help desk support. The next step was to put together a marketing and subscription packages. They were looking in the range of $25/month as the mid-tier. In the long term they will probably consider more rates, a higher level for more features and a tier for less features. Commissioner Jacobson asked if those participating in the pilot project would be charged? Mr. Pires replied yes, at the $25/month rate. They were looking at providing an incentive for testing, such as some free service if the City Council goes citywide later in the year. Commissioner Jacobson asked if paying for the pilot might take away from the results? Mr. Pires responded he talked with many people and that was not a deterrent. Commissioner Huiras asked if there was an up front fee for hook up? Mr. Pires replied no, they would need a computer. The City would provide the wireless access equipment, either a card for a laptop or a wireless bridge for a desktop computer. Commissioner Browning asked how people would be notified about the pilot? Mr. Pires replied they would send a notice to those in the covered areas with specific information. They are trying to determine several things to evaluate the pilot such as how many people are interested, how many people are interested in it that have cable TV or cable modem service, DSL, dial up or no access at all. The Council is interested in who they would attract. Commissioner Huiras asked when the meetings would be to get this information out? Mr. Pires replied roll out would be done in phases in March, and completed by the end of March. They anticipate there will be a public meeting in early to mid-March. They could also have Q&A as part of a Telecommunication Commission meeting. Commissioner Jacobson asked if people could expand coverage? Mr. Pires replied they should have the representation of what the full service would be under a citywide implementation. Commissioner Jacobson asked if they could buy add-on equipment that would be compatible? Mr. Pires replied yes. Those details would be included in the information that is mailed. Commissioner Jacobson asked if they could get it from other sources besides the City? Mr. Pires replied they could for their indoor wireless access. Mr. Pires indicated he had received many calls and believed this service would be very popular among a variety of people in the City. Commissioner Huiras added people at Lenox were anxious for the pilot to start ASAP. Commissioner Browning asked if this were successful, what would the timeline be to go citywide? Mr. Pires replied the results go to City Council in June. If the Council gives the go ahead, the rest of the City could have wireless access either by December 2006 or January 2007. There could be delay for putting additional fiber in the ground for backbone. Commissioner Huiras asked if it were possible that areas of the city would be behind in getting it? Could they use fiber from the cable company? Mr. Pires replied the plan would be to complete building out the fiber and the wireless access points by the end of the year and then turn the system on in the rest of the city. They were not anticipating staging turning it on because they would have sufficient cable. What would be a logistical question they would need to answer, depending on demand, how much equipment can they get in, deploy, program and get out to people. Once the City is turned on, it would be turned on for everybody. Commissioner Huiras indicated they had been trying for years to get the counts from Time Warner as to how many people were on cable modems. Mr. Pires indicated in their random survey, some of the statistics could provide an indication of how many people were subscribing. Commissioner Jacobson asked if the City could make a request for that information? Mr. Dunlap said the information is on Time Warner’s monthly report, which shows the number of Road Runner customers as 6,632. 8. Reports A. Complaints Mr. Dunlap indicated Lance Leupold called to inform them there was no new news about the ISP and Internet access account changes. Time Warner had requested to work with Comcast. Time Warner will be closing the Belt Line service center on March 11th. They will continue to have a drop box for payments and returning equipment, but no customer service. They will work with the City to locate another drop box in the St. Louis Park. The preliminary discussions have been to have a drop box (returning equipment and payment) somewhere else in the City so those in the West side of town would have a shorter drive. The Minnetonka Service Center will expand their hours (9-7 weekdays and 9-5 Saturday). Time Warner will post information on their web site. St. Louis Park customers would still be able to pay for their service by mail, telephone and via the website. Time Warner wants to emphasize that service calls are free if someone has problems with their converter box and need it exchanged, so customers don’t have to go to a service center. Commissioner Huiras stated the problem was they were given a block of time. Mr. Dunlap stated typical service calls have a three-hour window, which had shortened in the last few years. Mr. Dunlap provided addresses of other service center locations. 9. Communication from the Chair - None 10. Communications from City Staff Commissioner Jacobson asked with the new web site, what provisions had been made for technical support? Mr. Huber replied there is contact information on the web site and he can handle the issues. Commissioner Jacobson asked if people could get telephone support? Mr. Huber replied yes. Commissioner Jacobson asked if they could add additional resources if necessary for technical support? Mr. Pires replied as they added features, they needed to be ready for that, and would need to bring it to City Council if they needed additional resources. Commissioner Overend commented that pertaining to Ms. Skinner’s comments on the City web site, that Hennepin County had done a good job with their web site. She has contacts for links on the web site and they could possibly go to other boards for more suggestions. 11. Adjournment Commissioner Jacobson made a motion, Commission Huiras seconded to adjourn at 8:02. The motion passed. Respectfully submitted by: Amy L. Stegora-Peterson Recording Secretary