Thought the City of Pickering has not yet begun improving its digital footprint at Pickering.ca, it has taken the first steps to improve communication with its residents by publishing “Council Meeting highlights,” (Mar 27/23). A great start to the promise to improve the communication process with its citizens.
Lets talk Pickering – Digitalization
A discussion group examining Digitalization of City of Pickering information was held at the East Shore Comm Centre Monday, Mar 27th. led by two coordinators from Edmonton [Curious!] and Shauna Muir, Coordinator, Corporate Communication and Community Engagement.
The group of nearly a dozen interested residents participated in this discussion with the goal of expanding knowledge and improving the digital dissemination of information to Pickering residents.
The group narrowed their focus to three key points:
- simplification
- humanization and
- encouragement of greater connectivity.
Simplification is needed in all information processes used by the city. Make the information more concise and the sources should be easier to navigate. Simplify the text, reduce the material and make it easier to find information. The website at Pickering.ca was praised as being tremendously comprehensive but the same complaint was repeated: it is a challenge to navigate and find the information sought.
Humanization was repeatedly underscored. People want to talk to people, want to connect with people, not computers or computer robots. The telephone is the acknowledged work horse of information gathering but there is a need for more personnel to staff the other end of the calls. Hiring more staff to assist was a proposed idea with the suggestion of employing more young people to staff the phones. Given the current unemployment issues in the city, many unemployed people would be helped along the people searching for information.
Encourage greater connectivity seems to be a problem with all information publication in the city. As one attendee underlined, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” The point was that the city is working hard at publishing information, broadly and easily accessible, but unless residents make some effort themselves to access the information, the message falls on deaf ears. Use of the telephone is pervasive, not so with other electronic devices. However, there is a problem of motivation among the residents, the ongoing obstacle to any communication the city attempts in connecting with its citizens.
The meeting concluded with a clearer understanding of the problems with digitalization of information in Pickering. Now the city must bat that ball with constructive and practical swings. The city is in a pickle as the ball is its court.
