WSG Newsletter: Oh CanadaIssue: June 20, 2001Oh Canada – where are your new web sites? To take a stab at identifying the new or revised sites I set up a search alert on Infomart’s Special Edition collection of Canadian newspapers, newswires and transcripts. During the four week period, May 19 to June 15, there were 23 articles that referred to a new web site – but oh what a mixed bag. The Study
This little study is not comprehensive and can’t be said to be representative. There might have been other announcements that didn’t use the phrase “new web site” and new sites that weren’t publicized. Also, SpecialEdition does not have newspapers in the provinces of Manitoba or New Brunswick. Still, it does give us a sense of the types of new web sites and the press coverage. A review of these sites may provide ideas for reaching constituents over the Web – how to do it and in some cases how not. FindingsCanadians are putting up web sites to serve their local communities mainly for social services and civic affairs. These range from using web space at MSN.ca to promote Internet safety to mounting a full-blown site about the work-life balance. Roughly 12 of the 25 sites were related to social services. Governments at all levels were involved in the creation of several of the sites – City of Pembroke, Ottawa, Alberta, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Canada. There is also some use of the Web for advocacy of causes. But there was very little for e-commerce – one site for artisans on Vancouver Island and one remake of Scotiabank. Was this just the sample, the period, lack of advertising, or slow Canadian acceptance of the Web as a marketplace? Promotion of the sites is usually low key. Best coverage comes when the local newspaper makes it a story. Strangely, launches of new national government sites such as the HRDC Work-Life Balance receive very limited coverage – just a single mention in a newswire or newspaper. Why is this? One can’t help but notice that some reporting is very poor – addresses are wrong, not given at all – as happened twice, or the site misrepresented. Social Services Most of the announcements were for sites that provided a social service. A news release to CCN Newswire on June 7 announced the launch of the new Work-Life Balance site from Human Resources Development Canada. (http://labour-travail.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/worklife). This site is “to increase awareness and understanding of workplace and community-based strategies and solutions” and is mainly aimed at helping employers, unions, managers, and human resources practitioners to learn more about programs for their companies. As a point of interest, the release noted that a 1999 study by the Conference Board of Canada found balancing work and personal life to cause moderate-to-high stress for 45 per cent of Canadians. HRDC also manages Disability Weblinks (http://www.disabilityweblinks.ca), a collaborative Federal/Provincial/Territorial project developed in consultation with the disability community. The Calgary Herald directed readers to the site for information on Alberta Government programs for “employment, education, tax programs and financial support”. The Ontario government helped fund a literacy site in Alexandria to be used as part of a larger literacy awareness programs in the counties of Stormont-Dundas-Glengarry & Prescott-Russell. (http://eotb-cfeo.on.ca/alpha) At Sault College in Sault Ste Marie a programming student created an information web site for Big Brothers. It got quite a splash in The Sault Star, but with the wrong web address (bigbrothers@pictographics.com). The correct address is http://www.bigbrothers.pictographics.com. Concerned about Internet safety for kids, the Victorian Order of Nurses in Sudbury set up a community through MSN.ca with information on privacy, cookies, viruses and spam. Residents of the Paris Street Housing Community were invited to join the community for discussion. (http://communities.msn.ca/sudburycybersavvy) May and June is the time of year most young people search for jobs. The Daily News in Truro Nova Scotia pointed young people to the Youth Secretariat, a guide to provincial programs (http://youth.ednet.ns.ca). The London Free Press ran a longer article about the HR Centre for Students in London and implied that students could apply for jobs at the Government of Canada’s Youth Employment Strategy site (http://www.youth.gc.ca/YES). The reporter should have checked the site first. YES might have ideas about strategies but it’s not very good for finding jobs. The link for a “student looking for summer or part-time employment” leads to a maze of promises but no listings, and the link for “Youth Resource Network of Canada – summer jobs” brings up a 404 File Not Found. Thin content, broken links – what is a student to think? In Niagara Falls the public library made four commercial online databases available to residents through its new web site. (http://www.nfpl.library.on.ca). The site was developed under the Community Access Program. Volunteer organizations in Orillia were disappointed that a new web site created by the Orillian and Surrounding Communities Volunteer @ctionetwork had not been making their phones ring. The report noted that the Ontario government had contributed $185,000 towards the site. The article did not give the site address! The address is http://oscor.on.ca but don’t go there unless you are using IE5, have the Flash4 plug-in and lots of patience. The city of Pembroke in Ontario is very proud of its web site, recently relaunched by its economic development department. In time it will become a “virtual city hall”. (http://www.pembrokeontario.com) E-democracy was practiced in Ottawa this past month in a summit on Smart Growth June 14 – 18 as part of the city’s planning process. Sessions were webcast and people posted comments to the discussion board. (http://ottawa2020.com) Environment
The forest industry has a new site too – ForestInformation.com – about forests and the logging industry. A click there also plants a tree. CTV News was at the launch on June 12 where Greenpeace and ForestInformation.com squared off. ForestInformation’s Patrick Moore maintains that “North America’s forests are abundant and growing”; Greenpeace says they are confusing trees for the forest. The Grand River Conservation Authority (near Brantford, Ontario) redesigned its site in time for summer visitors. Campers can book campsites online, get information on river flow, water quality, and fishing. There is also a paper on The Importance of Watershed Management in Protecting Ontario’s Drinking Water Supplies. (http://www.grandriver.ca) CommercialIt’s hard to believe that there was this little activity in the commercial sector. Perhaps companies aren’t using the media. A facelift to the ScotiaBank site was reported in Silicon Valley North newspaper. The re-make also integrated five previously distinct Scotia services into one. The designers adopted a “life event mode” to group financial information by events in one’s life – student life, family life, retirement planning, owning a home (http://www.scotiabank.com) People thinking about buying or building a new home will be interested in the Canadian Home Builders Association’s web site – New Homes Month. It is very “well built” with information on planning, looking, building, and financing. There must be new homes in Calgary – the Calgary Herald was the only paper to mention it. (http://www.newhomesmonth.com) The one e-commerce site was Vancouver Island Treasures where Vancouver and Gulf Island artisans can display their work for sale for only the cost of commission. (http://vancouverislandtreasures.com) A new tourism site for Cheticamp in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia has commercial purposes. No doubt the posting in the business section of the Cape Breton Post was to persuade the business community to get connected. (http://www.cheticampNS.com). CultureCultural interests seem mainly to be “down home”. Nova Scotia Cultural Network announced a new web site at its annual general meeting, June 10. The site is Java heavy and somewhat under construction. It does have a listing of articles concerning the World trade Organization and General Agreement on Trade in Services. (http://www.culture.ns.ca) CBC’S Weekend Arts Magazine radio program from St John’s has a new web site. This is billed as “the arts show that's in tune with creative Newfoundlanders and Labradorians” (http://www.stjohns.cbc.ca/wam) Web Site Design
Some of the better sites for presentation and function were
ConclusionStaying on top of new web sites in Canada is not easy. Yahoo Canada has a What’s-New for additions but does not segregate Canadian from the others. Information Highways’ Hot Bytes has news about the Canadian online information industry but only occasionally a new web site. Best sources for learning about good new Canadian sites come from the U.S. The Scout Report (http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/) will feature some high-content sites and Gary Price picks up some announcements for his Virtual Acquisition Shelf (http://resourceshelf.blogspot.com). Canada needs a service similar to the old Net Happenings project once sponsored as part of the Internet Scout Project to distribute announcements of new Web resources. If you know of such a service today, please email me. |
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| Newsletter by Gwen Harris
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Special Edition (
Tree lovers will like the Land Care
Niagara site. For every 20 clicks, sponsors will provide one tree to the
Niagara Natural Heritage Corridor program. Land Care Niagara is a non-profit
organization that promotes wise land management. The site has information about
several programs, ways people can help, and links to other sites.
These sites range from the absolutely
ghastly for colour, display, images, and use of java, to well laid out and
attractive. This isn’t always a function of money. The Niagara Public
Library’s site is likely on a low budget but is very readable and easy to
navigate. The Orillian organization had $185,000 and has been saddled with an
almost unusable site done in frames, flash, and javascript. 
Articles and Sources.