Local Community Engagement 2.0

Insights from Annandale on the Web

Marghanita da Cruz

Presented to:

Public Sphere #2
Open Government Policy and Practice

Parliament House, Canberra
22nd June 2009

Government and Annandale

• Annandale (NSW, Australia) is 5km west of the Sydney CBD.
• Geo Microformat:
  Annandale NSW Australia
  -33.8814; 151.1707
• Land given to Johnston, of Rum Rebellion, in 1793 for farming.
• Land was sold and Suburb developed in the 1870s
• Henry Parkes, NSW Premier & Father of Federation, lived & died in Annandale, 1890s
• Annandale Borough 1894-1940s. Leichhardt Municipal Council before and after. Harbour Foreshore Sydney City Council.
• Electricity, Water formerly managed by Councils – now State Government. Private Gas
• Transport - Private Trams 1861-1961, Buses and RTA (State Government), Council controlled roads. Cycleways on roads and through parks.
• Telecommunications free access through Council owned land

Organisations in Annandale

Community

• 3 Primary Schools
• After School Care, Childcare, Playgroups
• Aged care facilities
• Presbyterian, Catholic, Christians in the Media, Thai Buddhist, Yoga in Daily Life
• Community Centre (Yoga, Music, Folk Dance, Art Classes)

Businesses

• Commercial Art Gallery (was Masonic Temple)
• Cafes,Restaurants, Hairdressers
• Newsagents, Real Estate Agents
• Small “supermarkets”, corner stores and 4 pubs
• Post Office, Bank, Medical Practices and Chemists Furniture, Garden Shop, Book Shop, Hardware Shops, Kids Toys and Bridal

Annandale on the Web

• Established as a community portal, by me, in 1998
• History of Annandale sources:
• books, NLA online Newspapers/Photographs
• face to face conversations
• emails and telephone calls from visitors
• Local Environmental Information
• Information about Local Community
• Invitation to Subscribe to email alert
• Links to pages in Wikipedia and Flickr
• Inclusion of 3rd Party widgets (Advertising, US Swine Flu Widget, Site Search)
• Annandale Walks on Google Maps

How people get to Annandale on the Web

• Search Engine Referrals June
  • Google(Images)-49.2%
  • Google-42.5%
  • Yahoo!-4.3%
  • WindowsLive-2.6%)
• Hit Sources (referrals):
  • Bing-9.3%,
  • Bing(images)-1.2%
  • Picsearch 1.5%
  • WebWombat 27.4%
  • Nicoga and
  • Wikipedia (Annandale NSW and Beale Pianos)
  • Online Discussion Forums
• In Google Timeline & Wonder Wheel

Transport Challenge

• Webpage about Problems with Bus Stops - involve RTA, Sydney Buses, JC Decaux - advertising/street furniture contract with Council
• Cycleway Marking (park elsewhere please)
• Peak Hour Private Vehicle Traffic through Annandale
• Search Phrases
  • “bus stop booth street annandale”
  • “is booth street annandale a busy street”
  • “booth st bus stops”
  • “photos of pedestrian crossings with bus stops”
  • “how to get from Central to Annandale”

Engagement with Mayor and Councilors

• Construction of permanent home for Local Community Nursery (requires remediation of State Government Land and before handing over to local council for development)
• Maintenance and Management of Government/Public Land and Water – wetlands, bushcare – Adopt a Park and Tend your verge proposals
• Comments on Draft Council Management Plan
• Development Applications for recent commonwealth schools funding
• Escalation of reports of dripping taps
• Waste Management

Questions and Comments

Ask a Question

1. " Hi, I'm trying to find out how hard it is to set up a local community website. can you please give me some useful links that helped get you started. Is there an easy template to follow or did it require a lot of programming skills?"

   Answer: In the case of Annandale on the Web, I crafted the HTML webpages. The pages do include Metadata and all the images include alt text. However, it could work quite well as your own Wiki site or add content to the Wikipedia - but you do need at least one active editor and someone to take enquiries and chat to people as this is a rich source and path to enriching the content of the site. Editors also need to protect the privacy of contributors.

2. " hi i just want to know how to get to rozelle gardens "

   Guessing you mean Glover's Community Garden. Glover St Rozelle - see info on LMC Website (PDF)

3. Paraphrased Twitter Question: Who uses Webwombat?

   "The Web Wombat http://www.webwombat.com.au/ is a spider or web crawler, traversing the web to find and index every word it finds on pages (ie not just the existence of web sites but their content) Web Wombat is one of the leading locally-developed Australian search engines and directories. Information on its site indicates that it has the largest online database of searchable information on Australia, with references to more than 11.5 million documents. It also includes an Australian directory for Law Resources.
   Searches using the Web Wombat such as the "family law" search below do produce very relevant results - in that case, hundreds of relevant documents were found." - Austlii

   Alexa: 20,489 Traffic Rank (23 June 2009)

4. Email discussion
5. Proposed Works at the Annandale Shops (cnr Johnston & Booth St) - A Case Study in Local Community Engagement (18 August 2009)

For more on Public Sphere #2 Open Government Policy and Practice see:Photos on Flikr, Video on Vimeo, Briefing Paper Wiki, Blog, RSS Feed and Twitter

The public sphere is an area in social life where people can get together and freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action. -Public Sphere on Wikipedia

Marghanita da Cruz
Ramin Communications
Phone: (+61)0414-869 202
Post: PO Box 341 Annandale NSW 2038
E-mail: marghanita@ramin.com.au

www.ramin.com.au/marg/local-community-enagement-2-0-pubsphere-2.shtml Last amended 7 May 2015. © Ramin Communications.