Tuesday, March 11, 2008

City of Carbondale - Organizational Chart

Look at it. The City paid $25,000 for its web site five or six years ago, and the organizational chart is barely legible -- not to mention other problems with the site. Time for a new improved version -- which happens to be one of the items on the City Council budget agenda.

. . . To speed the process, accounts have been created for selected City and University publicity people for the Shawnee Net site, so they can post their press releases to one convenient and permanent location, where all local organizations can be represented.

For it to work, follow-through is needed by people in these organizations. Carbondale has been soooo slow in getting itself wired, and by 'itself' I mean the business and professional community, and by 'wired' I mean interconnected via internet. Besides email, not much intra-city communication takes place. And that's because of lack of leadership. I try to lead from here, pecking and clicking, urging (just about) everyone to blog, but it usually takes personal contact with individuals to get it going.

Yesterday, through the power of a phone call, Monica Tichenor, Coordinator of Public Information for WSIU public broadcasting, activated an account. It may only be a temporary expedient -- eventually the station's Public Information will have its own home, like SIU News Service -- but it's a start.

I'm hoping others will follow Monica's lead, and City staffers who currently send out press releases by email will take a minute (literally) to cut and paste them into the Shawnee Net "City of Carbondale" blog. . . . Ditto the Chamber of Commerce, the Arbor District, the Boys & Girls Club, and the rest, who aren't active in the blogosphere.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was a good website when Angie Kaye still ran it, many years ago. Then the city got the bright idea to farm it out to an outside company, and it's blown since.

618football said...

where does it say that it is on the budget, that is, I couldn't find it on the website, what info does it have?

Does anyone like the neighboring websites for the city such as herrin or murphysboro?

Parentheticus said...

Ideas for Cities

Parentheticus said...

Don, I was repeating what I'd gleaned from a brief conversation with Mayor Cole. I did not mean "in the budget" but one of the items on the City Council budget agenda, i.e., on a list of discretionary items, including a public information officer, which will be discussed at City Council at a future meeting.

618football said...

Oh, I see.
I just thought I was missing something. It wouldn't make much sense to budget for it without even having a request for bids yet. Well, not officially budget for it.

As for other locals.

I like Herrin, Murphysboro, Marion Chamber site is good but a bit thin.

The ideas for cities doesn't look bad but I think that a local company could do it just fine.