Towns tout blogs, websites for outreach to residents

Mel Kleckner has been involved in town government for 25 years, but only in the last few months has the Winchester town manager learned the true power of his keyboard.

Last month, Kleckner started themanagersblog.blogspot.com, a Web diary of sorts, where Internet users can read what's on the mind of the manager. Kleckner, who admits to not being terribly tech-savvy, said the blog has become a necessary tool.

"It's all about convenience. People lead busy lives, and the town has to make itself available at the time that's best for our customers," said Kleckner.

"Town Hall may not be open at 3 a.m., but someone can sign onto the website and see what we are doing."

Since Kleckner was hired as town manager in December 2004, one of his main goals has been improving the town website. Allowing residents to pay bills, and review documents or his blog is just a beginning, he said.

"I went to a conference in September and this idea of blogging hit me as something that could help me bring a more personal face of government to the community," said Kleckner. "This is a trend. More towns are starting to realize that the Internet is a tool most people have access to and use on a regular basis. It allows for more public participation."

Kleckner is part of a growing trend of public administrators across the state and the country who have started to make online technology their own. Although he is not the first to try a municipal blog in the state -- a former Framingham town manager, George King, kept a blog for a short period of time, and the Wayland School Committee maintains a blog -- Kleckner is the first in this region to undertake such a project.

Outside Massachusetts, mayors in Washington, D.C., St. Louis, Portland, Ore.; and Albuquerque all have high-profile blogs. Although each of the 34 cities or towns in the Globe NorthWest coverage area has a website, not every community in the Commonwealth has taken the digital plunge. According to the Massachusetts Municipal Association, 301 communities had municipal websites, accounting for 86 percent of the 351 cities and towns in the state. Of those, 287 are "official" city or town sites managed by local governments. But what is contained on those pages varies greatly.

Design and content are as different as each municipality. A 2004 report issued by Northeastern Field Consulting Group for the state reviewed 13 communities -- including Arlington, Belmont, Cambridge, and Somerville. Not surprisingly, the study found that the larger a community is, the more affluent it is, and the more children under the age of 18 it has, the more comprehensive the website. But even in smaller communities with limited resources, public officials have started making strides to use alternatives online that enhance communication.

Arlington Superintendent Nate Levenson said he has gotten a tremendous response from his new e-mail service, "Ask Nate." The icon on the school website, arlington.k12.ma.us, allows parents and residents to send personal messages or questions to Levenson via e-mail. In the district of 4,500 students, the new feature on the Arlington schools' website allows him to answer questions in real time, Levenson said.

"It is impossible to reach me by phone during the day," said Levenson. "With this new service, I can check the e-mails at night or read them at work when I have a few minutes. I really want this to be a community resource, a way parents and staff can contact me directly."

Levenson said he has already seen the success of the new service. Recently, when he made a seemingly innocuous policy change at the schools, 10 to 12 e-mails from upset teachers made him reconsider and reverse his decision.

"I would have never known that it was a problem had they not e-mailed me," said Levenson. "This gives me a chance to answer questions before they snowball into rumors."

In Belmont, teachers have also gotten on board the technology bandwagon by incorporating websites into their daily lesson plans.

Some teachers, like Donna LaRoche, who has taught in Belmont for 26 years, started using Web pages to show student work and create a forum for musically inclined parents.

LaRoche, a first-grade teacher, who launched the page with the help of parent volunteer Marco Ambrosoli in 2000, said it enhanced her class. A tremendous amount of time -- approximately 200 hours in eight weeks -- went into designing and launching the page.

"The technology has endless potential," said LaRoche. "It was possible for a little one to share their work with a parent or grandparent 2,000 miles away." She said the combination of Ambrosoli's technical background and her classroom experiences "were able to produce a really great site."

Thanks to her positive experience, LaRoche said she has started taking classes in website design to learn how to maintain the site on her own and hopes to make it a part of the curriculum in upcoming years.

Two weeks ago Lee McCanne, director of technology, started implementing a new kind of district site that allows teachers to more easily create online forums, host chat sessions, and upload music files.

With an account and password, students can view assignments, get individualized messages from their teachers and access forums at teachernet.belmont.k12.ma.us.

"Now, we've learned that we can use the technology out there to our benefit," said McCanne. "Even though you, I, or the teachers may be overwhelmed, the students, clearly, are not."

In fact, McCanne said more and more young teachers graduating from college report to the district expecting that they will be asked to design and maintain an online component to their classroom. That can be sticky, given all of the other responsibilities teachers have, superintendent Peter Holland said.

"We want these tools to enhance, not replace instruction in the classroom," said Holland. "We want to try to provide as much support as possible."

But as in most cases, funding becomes a major issue. Belmont was only able to fund the initial development of teacher websites through a grant given by Intel two years ago. Because of that money, between 30 and 40 percent of teachers were trained in Web design and maintenance. As grants are spent, some parents may get upset because of the lack of consistency with the technological advances year to year, administrators say.

"If a site doesn't get maintained, that becomes a problem," said McCanne. "There may also be some frustration if one teacher finds ways to make a site congruent with their teaching style and then the next year that is not the case."

Back in Winchester, Kleckner said he sees his own blog as a springboard. In the future, he hopes to have a section that will allow the public to respond to his posts, possibly have more pictures, and have department heads weigh in on important topics. But the challenge with making the blog more complex is finding the time to do it.

"Above all else, I want information to be current and accurate," said Kleckner. 'There's nothing worse than a stale blog."