just watched abit of Council meeting today and are they kidding me 10 minutes discussing updating the city’s website and how much it will cost to do it so ppl with iphones can view it. guess they don’t need the extra money to fix the potholes in town. Here is a thought if your iphone doesn’t work with the city’s website buy an android, blackberry or a windows phone, cheaper and guess what they work with all websites in the world
iPhone >>>>> all others, wouldn’t down grade just to go on the city of Prince Rupert web site
but I don’t see why we’d spend money so a handful of people can go on the city web site, seems silly.
Hi Jabber,
Just to clarify, while it is true we did not spend a lot of time discussing the various options, the reason was that we are going to be discussing them later, during budget deliberations, which will all be taking place in public. We passed option 4 which was to defer the decision about what to do regarding the website so that we could look at the cost of doing so, alongside all of the other costs that we have, and look at what our priorities are. So in effect, we havent decided to spend any money on our website as of yet. That decision, as well as other money decisions, will be taking place, and being discussed during budget deliberations.
I hope that clears things up.
Anna
Don’t spend money on the website. Especially not in the 25-50 thousand range. No need. You have talented people who work for the City (or live in Prince Rupert) that can fix this for a lot cheaper.
However, there are serious issues with the website.
1 - is it meant to be a tourism website, aimed at those visiting (or thinking of visiting) Prince Rupert? Or is it meant to be a place for municipal information for Prince Rupert citizens?
Those are two different audiences, and have different needs. Don’t mix them up.
Take a look at terrace.ca/ for an example of a website that clearly separates these purposes.
2 - the iPhone issue isn’t about iPhones.
Yes, even Adobe has dropped mobile Flash. So you won’t see Flash on Windows phones, or Windows 8, or even future versions of Internet Explorer. When even the creator of Flash sees it as a dead end, then it’s a dead end.
zdnet.com/blog/networking/fl … html5/1633
bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14949869
If it’s meant to be a tourism site, then guess what tourists are carrying? Mobile devices. Most of the won’t be able to view the site. Great message to send to them.
The bigger issue is accessibility. If you can’t view it on an iPhone, you sure as heck can’t view it on screenreader, so you can’t use the site if you are visually impaired.
But even the accessibility issue aside, search engines can’t read Flash. Google (and Bing, if you like to use that as a verb) can’t read and index information stored in Flash. So that makes the Prince Rupert city website not searchable. Hard to do a keyword search if you can’t even index it.
[quote=“brah”]iPhone >>>>> all others, wouldn’t down grade just to go on the city of Prince Rupert web site
[/quote]
No.
[quote=“AnnaA”]
Hi Jabber,
Just to clarify, while it is true we did not spend a lot of time discussing the various options, the reason was that we are going to be discussing them later, during budget deliberations, which will all be taking place in public. We passed option 4 which was to defer the decision about what to do regarding the website so that we could look at the cost of doing so, alongside all of the other costs that we have, and look at what our priorities are. So in effect, we havent decided to spend any money on our website as of yet. That decision, as well as other money decisions, will be taking place, and being discussed during budget deliberations.
I hope that clears things up.
Anna[/quote]
A broke city should not be spending money on frivolous things like websites. Why are you not looking at the option of having some young enterprising web developer do it as part of their profile or maybe for a small prize? Thousands of dollars is ridiculous… but as Mig said NO flash or at least make sure the website can be used without it.
I am not sure if it is ironic or what, maybe this is finally the last hurdle for City West in getting itself ready for the much anticipated Iphone!!! I dunno anymore…I switched service providers after waiting for more than two years for new phones there.
This is the most ridiculous issue for council to be discussing. I can’t even believe we are paying these people to even TALK about this.
There are FAR FAR bigger problems then converting the city’s webpage to I-Phone compatibile…totally ridiculous!
And AnnaA you can take that message straight to the next council meeting where more time is wasted talking about this.
Seriously 25,000 or 50,000 to fix a problem that is not even a problem…I forgot…the city has TONS of money at their disposal.
[quote=“bthedog”]This is the most ridiculous issue for council to be discussing. I can’t even believe we are paying these people to even TALK about this.
There are FAR FAR bigger problems then converting the city’s webpage to I-Phone compatibile…totally ridiculous!
And AnnaA you can take that message straight to the next council meeting where more time is wasted talking about this.
Seriously 25,000 or 50,000 to fix a problem that is not even a problem…I forgot…the city has TONS of money at their disposal.[/quote]
Like I said… if the website needs to be done (and it should be done but its not a bloody priority) make it a contest… Free Iphone/Android to the winner as payment and your name/business name on the website as the designer… maybe a tax receipt too for the ‘donation’…
Let the citizens vote for the winner and for the top two runners up 2 months free internet from the telecom of the peoples republic of Prince rupert. Net cost less than 1000.00 and goodwill from the community members… or hire some outsider or ‘friend’ and pay 25-50k and piss off every resident of prince rupert. I mean shit the next election isnt for 3 years.
edit:
Also don’t be dicks. Make it an unlocked phone.
What’s all this talk about “spending money to update website”? I thought City Hall used their in-house technicians to update / manage the website. Last time I checked Ando? was more than capable of managing the website.
As a matter of fact, he has a strong attachment to it - does he not?
No.[/quote]
I disagree.
No.
I disagree.[/quote]
Wonderful for you.
My Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, being shittier in comparison to the iPhone 4S and the Samsung Galaxy SII, handles the bloated flash website of the City of Prince Rupert like a boss.
Just to prove my phone is more useful than the iPhone when it comes to shitty encounters, such as the official City of Prince Rupert website.
Managing the city requires balance and this is one of those things that needs to be done. There are things that need to be managed other than just roads and sewer. I’m an iPhone user who has become frustrated at not being able to access anything on the city website. Swim schedules, contact numbers, whatever. It’s 2012 and the city needs to keep up with the times, especially with this current gadget revolution that’s taken us by storm.
[quote=“PLA”]My Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, being shittier in comparison to the iPhone 4S and the Samsung Galaxy SII, handles the bloated flash website of the City of Prince Rupert like a boss.
Just to prove my phone is more useful than the iPhone when it comes to shitty encounters, such as the official City of Prince Rupert website.[/quote]
I disabled flash on my phone… but I like being able to use it if necessary… and sometimes it is necessary.