[RP TownTalk] Town documents in electronic format

[Alice Ewen Walker]

Hi all,

I wanted to share with members of the e-mail list a proposal I'm
working on regarding electronic documents.  Making town documents
available electronically will enable greater citizen participation as
well as make our council more effective.

Step one was a resolution to fix issues with the production of minutes
of our council meetings.  The council passed this last month -- I'm
attaching it for those who are interested in the details.

Step two is to formulate a policy on

   which documents the town should distribute in electronic form
   which documents the town should archive in electronic form
   which document formats to use

The rule of thumb I'm proposing is that documents that are intended
for an entire ward or any larger group should be made available in
electronic form.  Also, documents that are distributed at council
meetings should be available.

As far as document formats go, it is pretty clear that PDF/A should be
part of our solution, as it was designed for use by governments and
has been adopted by the National Archives.

I plan to introduce an electronic documents policy at the September
council meeting.

After that, there will be a few more steps to accomplish.  My ultimate
vision is to have minutes, agendas, resolutions, etc posted on
town-announce.

Does anyone want to weigh in on which documents they would like to be
able to access electronically?

Alice

-- 
Alice Ewen Walker
alice at ewenwalker.com
(301)379-5303
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