This document proposes a prototype online communication and collaboration platform to help transportation planners and public health agencies overcome barriers to working together effectively. It would provide tools for data storage, online communication through forums and chat, and collaboration through shared documents. Maintaining the platform would require decisions around hosting, backend development, user support, and management across participating agencies. The goal is to improve regional development planning by facilitating interaction and data sharing between these groups.

1. A Potential Design for a Prototype Online
Communication and Collaboration Platform
September 9, 2011
Sarah Jones
Digital Library Services

2. Background
The Problem
Transportation planners and public health agencies are not
working together effectively for regional development
planning.

3. Background
A Cause for the Problem
There are barriers that keep them from working together
effectively. One barrier relates to communication and
collaboration.
– Transportation/regional level - fed laws require public input
(environmental, minorities, community, etc.)
– Public health - input/planning has been lacking
Being overly dependent on automobiles →
consequences, e.g., obesity.

4. Background
Hypothesis
Providing online tools will help them overcome the
communication and collaboration barrier.
– provide an online destination for them to communicate, collaborate
and share data amongst themselves
– use outputs from that destination to communicate with and engage
the public

5. Background
This project
Provide a prototype online communication and collaboration
platform with a set of tools that will address the barrier to
transportation planners and public health agencies working
together effectively.

6. Components of the online destination 1
Data storage and access
• Hosting
– Self-hosting by the agencies
– Professional data center hosting - commercial vs. non-commercial
(e.g., the UTA Data Center in Fort Worth)
• Value-added services (e.g., data search / parsing /
analysis / visualization software)
• Security, privacy, protection of licensed content

7. Components of the online destination 2
Options for online communication:
• Forums
• Chat
• Email
• Meetings
• Organization blogs
• Individual blogs

8. Components of the online destination 3
Options for online collaboration:
• Shared documents (text, presentation, spreadsheet,
whiteboard, desktop sharing)
– e.g., Google docs, join.me, Dabbleboard
• Photo/image/video sharing
– e.g., flickr, YouTube

9. Components of the online destination 4
Future options for providing a public-facing product:
• Information sharing with the public
– e.g., news, agency blogs, individual staff blogs
• Gathering input from the public
– e.g., through polls, blog or news comments, surveys

10. Back-end development requirements
• Data storage and access solution(s)
– Whose servers? Who pays?
• Choice of web development platform
– Local or commercial hosting with regular HTML
– Use of a CMS, e.g., Drupal, Joomla, WordPress
• Integration of 3rd party web apps into the local user
interface (e.g., the forums, chat, shared documents, etc.)

11. Support and maintenance requirements 1
• Data storage and access solution(s)
– Who provides staffing? Who uploads new data? Who manages
the data selection and updating process?
• The web pages
– Who provides staffing? Who manages, creates, updates
content? Who ensures content integrity?

12. Support and maintenance requirements 2
• If there is a public-facing portion of the web site:
– Community manager (the public face/voice of the site/project
to the public)
– Content strategy
• Unified marketing/public relations presentation of the agencies
involved and of this particular project

13. User Interface Considerations
• Principles of User Interface Design (an entire field of study in
itself!)
• Some places to start:
– 10 Principles of Effective Web Design
– User Interface principles in web design
– A List Apart: Design
– Key principles of user centered design

14. Issues related to overall management
• Who is/are the champion(s) for this project?
– Enlisting support in the participating agencies
– Cheerleading to maintain interest and participation among
individuals in the agencies

15. Questions and Discussion
Contact me:
Sarah Jones
Librarian, Digital Library Services
University of Texas at Arlington Library
sjones@uta.edu