Electronic Networks - Building Community, 2002

What's the right community information solution for local government?

Richard Holt, Port Phillip Library Service, Victoria

This presentation charts the problems associated with choosing between an 'off-the-shelf' community information solution and a dedicated solution in providing for the needs of a local community in a local government context. Issues to be discussed include the scope of existing databases (which tend to focus on traditional human services at the expense of other types of community information), and the capacity to link business and community information sources.

Some of the issues to be addressed include:

• How do we define community information and what's its relationship to community building?
• What role should local government play in developing and maintaining information and how can it capitalise on the skills it has in house including the indexing skills of its library staff and the community knowledge of its outreach personnel?
• What are the potential costs and values that need to be considered?
• To what extent is data ownership an issue?