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City Council Study Session - 08/21/06 Minutes - Page 4 Mr. Miller advised that the City's website was one form of technology used for information and e-commerce purposes; and recognized the limitations of the website developed in the mid- 1990's. Mr. Miller noted that since the original development, individual pages had been modified on a departmental needs basis, but site visitors encountered differing perspectives, looks and functions within the website. Mr. Miller advised that earlier in 2006, a website task force consisting of employee representatives from each department was created to evaluate the website, with their original work plan identified as follows: 1) Identify the purpose of the website; 2) Identify the types of content that should be on the website; 3) Assess the strengths and weaknesses of current website; 4) Identify the preferred attributes of a well-designed website; 5) Identify other websites that emulate the preferred attributes to be used as a model; 6) Establish an organizational structure and new design for the City's new website; 7) Determine whether to host the website in-house or outsource; 8) Determine whether to manage content in-house, or outsource; and 9) Make a recommendation to the City Council. Mr. Miller noted that there were no funds set aside in the 2006, or proposed 2007 budgets, but that staff was seeking direction from the City Council: 1) To make no further investment at this time; 2) Commit additional monies to hire a professional web design firm; 3) Commit additional monies to hire new City Staff to redesign and maintain the site; or 4) Consider using an off-site web site host. Joel Koepp, City of Roseville GIS Technician, provided the City's website history; amount and static nature of content; various design techniques; types of users and browsers; and provided several samples of websites from other communities