1. Day Ignite
October 2009
A New ‘Day’ for eChicago
Doug Hurdelbrink, Deputy CIO
Dept of Innovation & Technology
Copyright 2009 - City of Chicago Proprietary &
Confidential City of Chicago
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2. Overview
City of Chicago – Enterprise Context
Dept of Innovation & Technology
City Website – Issues & Opportunities
City Website – Design Solution
City Website – Day Technology
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3. Chicago – by the numbers
Third largest city in the United States
227 square miles; 31 miles of lakefront
2.8 million residents; 1.1 million households
1.4 million registered vehicles; 700,000 buildings
500,000 parkway trees
200,000 street lights; 67,000 alley lights
2,700 signalized traffic intersections
2,000 miles of paved alleys
52,000 licensed businesses
20 Fortune 500 HQs
Home of the 44th President
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4. Chicago – Municipal Government
53 Elected Officials; 50 Wards
Mayor, Clerk, Treasurer (Executive)
50 Aldermen and Alderwomen (Legislative)
“Sister” agencies include:
Public Schools
Park District
Housing Authority
Transit Authority
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5. Chicago - Executive Branch
42 Departments
Public-facing Depts
Public Safety - Police, Fire, OEMC
Community Services – 311, Health, Family Svcs, Library
Regulatory - Zoning, Business, Animal Care, Environment
Infrastructure – Streets & Sanitation, Transportation
Development - Community Development, Tourism
Public Services – Airports, Water Mgmt
Internal Service Depts
HR, Budget, Finance,
DoIT, Fleet, Law
33,000 Employees
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6. Dept of Innovation & Technology
Enterprise Programs (COTS products)
Commercial Off The Shelf software for HR, Finance, CRM, etc.
Software Development (custom products)
External and Internal web applications & tools
Innovation Center
Cross-Department & Non-traditional Initiatives
Technical Operations
Desktops, Network, Data Center
Enterprise Architecture
Finance and Administration
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7. eGovernment – Many Audiences
Residents Property Owners
Businesses Building Owners
Visitors Developers
News Media Non-profits
Vendors Foundations
Job Seekers
Community Orgs
City Council
Other Govt Entities
Policy Makers
Many sub-segments
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9. eChicago – Three Goals
Everything Online (Virtual City)
Streamline Operations
Innovate for Effectiveness
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10. eChicago – Web Presence
Government Portal - www.cityofchicago.org
Tourism Portal - www.explorechicago.org
Custom Applications - webapps.cityofchicago.org
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11. eChicago - Capabilities
City Services, Information & Programs
Events + Travel & Leisure Attractions
Searchable Online Databases
Local Maps, Zoning & Geographic information
Transactional Applications
Pay Water & Tax Bills
Purchase Licenses & Permits
File Legal Documents
Request Municipal Services
Etc.
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12. eChicago - Technology
THEN (2003):
Solaris OS BroadVision CMS
BroadVision App Server
Oracle DB Java
NOW (2009):
Linux OS Day CMS
WebLogic/JBOSS
Oracle DB Java JEE
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Copyright 2009 - City of Chicago Proprietary & Confidential

13. eChicago 2.0– Critical Success Factors
Success =
Research +
Design +
Technology +
Feedback/
“Feedforward”
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14. Research
Interviews and Focus
Groups with end
users and
stakeholders
What do people NEED?
What do people WANT?
What do people WISH FOR?
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15. Research – Issues
TECHNOLOGY: BroadVision 7.x, Solaris
STRUCTURE: Too Deep; many clicks to goodies
PERFORMANCE: Response time & Capacity issues
USABILITY: Content & Capabilities- vast but diffuse
METAPHORS: Ineffective (User Type, City Dept)
SEARCH: Search & Navigation often criticized
CONVENIENCE: URLs not shareable (SessionIDs)
VISUAL DESIGN: Concept & Design dates to 2002
COST: Expensive to host & support
EXTENSIBILITY: Difficult to extend or enhance
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16. Research – Goals
TECHNOLOGY: Simpler; Day + Linux
STRUCTURE: Shallow; “two click” goal
PERFORMANCE: One second response target
USABILITY: Multiple paths to goal; field testing
METAPHORS: Services, Audiences, Actions, Clusters
SEARCH: Optimized for Findability
CONVENIENCE: Simple site hierarchy
VISUAL DESIGN: Contemporary, energized
COST: Lower fixed & hosting costs
EXTENSIBILITY: Out of the box tools vs. custom code
PUBLISHING: Distributed authors; Editorial Board
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17. Research – Strategic Themes
City Services – Central Focus
‘Global City’
Tailored Information, Multiple Pathways
Facilitate Online Community
Exceptional User Experience
Fresh Content
Easy, Improved Publishing
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18. Design
It’s A Process
It’s A Verb
It’s A Noun
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19. “Design Is Invisible
….Until It Fails”
Bruce Mau
Massive Change
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20. Scope Design - Content Model
What “Things” is the Site All About?
Primary Entities/Data Objects
Relationships Between Objects
Attributes of Each Entity
Logical Record Layouts, Field Fmts
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21. Structural Design –
Information Architecture
IA – the organization,
structure and
arrangement of
site content that
best enables
users to satisfy
their goals.
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22. Skeleton Design –
Wireframes & Templates
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23. Surface Design –
Visual Presentation
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24. Design Process –
Elements of User Experience
Jesse James Garrett
http://www.jjg.net/elements/pdf/elements.pdf
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25. System Design – Authoring System
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26. System Design –
Dialogs for Consistency
Content is entered in
forms & dialogs to
ensure consistent and
valid content on the site.
A Rich Text Editor
(tinyMCE) allows
creative freedom within
a consistent page
layout.
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27. The Present…
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28. …And the Future
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29. Technology – History with Day CQ
Internal Technology Pilot (2006, 4.1)
External Usage - at Scale (2008, 4.2)
Full Commitment (2009, 5.x)
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30. Technology - Why Day?
CMS A Necessity
Widely Distributed, non-Technical Authors
“Brand” Consistency (Structure/Presentation)
Ease-of-Use, Learnability Critical
Intranet & Explore Chicago successes
Platform & Licensing Advantages
Product & Technology Roadmap
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31. Technology Choice – 5.x vs. 4.x
Standard Developer Platform
More Standards-compliance Overall
Improved Authoring Features
Cost of Future Upgrade
Day Professional Services Staffing
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32. Day 5.x – What We Liked
AUTHORING FEATURE & UI IMPROVEMENTS
Addressed Many User Issues/Requests from 4.x
Screens Better/Clearer In General
Easier to Upload Multiple Files
Admin Features More Intuitive
Etc.
DEV ENVIRONMENT (CQDE)
More useful and productive toolset
SLING API
Improves Code Organization, Reduces Dev Effort
DAYCARE SUPPORT
Timely, helpful attention to issues (~35 tickets from
May thru Oct)
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33. Day 5.x – What We Learned
AUTHOR ENV - FEATURE CHANGES FROM 4.x to 5.x
• RICH TEXT EDITOR - FCK Replaced; we used TinyMCE
• DELETE FUNCTION – now Tied to Edit; we customized
to prevent authors from deleting core Folders
• PAGE UNLOCK RIGHTS - Only Author can unlock; Admin
cannot
• MULTI-SELECT LISTS – We created a custom widget;
this was a feature in 4.x
• USER ACCESS MODEL – Could not use regular
expressions (wildcards) to assign user access. We had
to assign access for each user group to each folder.
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34. Day 5.x – What We Learned
BROWSER COMPATIBILITY
Problems w/ IE 6 and 7; Authors now use Firefox
FILE NAMING ISSUES
Issues with Spaces, Commas, Parens in filenames
PACKAGE SIZES
Cannot load a single package for the DAM; we
have chunked this in 500 MB elements
SUB-NODES WITHIN A NODE
Issues with many docs in one folder; Day
recommends no more than 500 Sub-Nodes
REVIEW/APPROVAL WORKFLOW
Still working out issues
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35. Day 5.x++ – Wish List
DAM TITLE FIELD (missing in 5.2)
To override Filename for DAM assets
PASSWORD CHANGE (Author level)
Only Admins can change passwords
ACTIVATE BUTTON
Inconsistent; sometimes available, sometimes not
REFERENCES FOR FILES IN DAM
Could see references in 4.x Media Library
SIMPLIFY REORDERING
Reuse Drag & Drop model from 4.x
ADD USERNAME TO “DATE PUBLISHED” INFO
Was a useful feature in 4.x for Admin/Webmaster
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36. eChicago - Future Directions
Location-aware Data & Visual Display
Participation & Collaboration (Web 2.0)
Mobile Devices
Language Translation
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37. Thank You
Enjoy your Stay in
Chicago!!
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