With the explosion of use in technology specifically internet and social media local governments have been slow to adapt to the constant 24/7 cycle of information our society today has come accustomed to.

Prior to this drastic increase in the use of these technologies if you wanted information from your local government you either sent a written request letter or stopped by the local municipality building and request the information.  Now society expects this information to be available to them with minimal interaction with local government staff or leaders.

This has all happened at a time where local governments do not have the funds available to invest in large complicated web applications that major cities have had the resources to invest in.

Transparency opens the door to government operations and provides a measure of how government is performing. By holding itself accountable to citizens, it reveals to them how and why decisions are made, offers a gauge of whether policies are successful, and shows areas where business and citizens can become involved to help government meet goals. Accountability builds confidence in government.

I believe transparency is a double edged sword financially. On one hand, I feel that there needs to be a set of defined documents that need to be available to the public (effectively on the borough website) at all times. On the other hand, at what point does staffs time and resources (tax dollars) outweigh the usefulness of the information that is posted?

With being involved with several web development projects, I have seen firsthand how a website that had been built with the intentions of being continually updated, never receiving updates for four main reasons:

1. Lack of time or resources to dedicate in developing content to be posted.
2. Lack of understanding on how to utilize the tools available to update the content.
3. Reluctance to learn and understand the tools to update the website.
4. A combination of 1, 2, and 3.

I have also seen this in regards to social media. Utilizing social media is a daunting task that is very time consuming. To have a useful and successful social media campaign means you have to be quick in responses to questions and concerns that are asked. It is all tied to the instant and always available society the internet has created.

I think we can develop a good medium where information is publicly available by developing tools and policies  that have the least financial impact on the borough. We do not have the resources to hire an employee to further public relations, but I would like to see a temporary committee formed that would be tasked with the development of a standard set of documentation to be made available to the public.

I feel I would be an asset to the borough of Steelton in regards to the various technologies available at little or no cost that we could utilize to streamline the process of getting the information available to the public.