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Home My WebLink About0150.094February 7, ].994 THE HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL PALO ALTO" CALIFORNIA City ot Palo Alto Aee ••• to ~~terD.t Members 0 f the COUDC i 1 : Background This is an informational report and no Co~r.cil action is required~ In Auqust 1993, the City council authoriz~d an agreement between Diqltal Equipment Corporation and the City of Palo Alto to allow Diqital to lease city o\wned conduit to install a tibar-optic comMUnications system tor Diqltal"5 e~clusive use. In conjunction with that agreement, Digital agreed to xun a separate fiber cable tor future City use at minimal additional expense. Subsequent to that aqre~ent, discussions ensued between Diqital Equipment corporation and City staff reqarding whether Palo Alto bad any interest in connecting to the Internet. Other networking corpcrations l Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard Corporation., h~v. also expressed intarest in assisting the City in implementing the Internet. The uniqueness uf Digital's ofter included maximum systea security, the company"s convenient downtown location to City Ball, and its location in general as a major Internet hub for Digital Equipment Corporation world wide~ As· a resultll' the City statf developed a demonstration project with Diqi tal Equipment Corporation. The Internet connection was initiated and will be fully operational within two to three aonths. As a part of the demonstration project" Digital will provide the city with six months free use of the Internet, including access to the WorlQ Wide Web graphical user. Tba Internet is essentially a global electronic mail., or E-Mail, system, L~at allows interactive communication between all users. Internet presently provides information on 650C topics, and is graving dramatically. There are presently an estimated thirty million users throughout the world, with two million in the State ot California, and as many as 20.,000 estimated lr.'ho live and work in Palo Alto alone. An additional one million '.lsers per month are added to the Internet worldwide. The Internet provides access to such diverse topics as -Bay Area Politics,· -The vatican Art,· CMR:150:94 -"-'-----.-- \ ",." o o paqe. TWo medical bulletin boards, White ~ouse text speeche., and a myriad of scholarly research topics including advanced mathematics and the latest infectious disease research. The inforlllation ia both textual and graphical, and is rapidly becoming multi-media (ie. video and audio}. Potential use of the Internet is unlimited. proposed uses of the Internet for the city of Palo Alto are being studied and could include the publishing of City Council reports, meetings, aqendas, City codes and a~,ouncements; contact between elected officials and staff me~bers in other cities, legislative research, and enhanced cOIillllunity service provisions. It is conceivable tha.t eventually "Internet. .. ill allo .. for building permit. issu3.nce and inspection services scheduling l the conducting of citizen surveys 01'1 city related issues, provision of library sQrVices such as a card catalog, and in general enhanced citizen participation in the qove~nmental process. There are substantial issues being addressed and reviewed by staff includinq the implementation, staffin9r policy and security issues related to Inte~net becoming fully operational for the city of Palo Alto. Presently, the City'S"Inter~et System demonstration project can only be accessed via a stand alone PC, as yet unconnected to the City's HP net'Work. 1'he $yste~ is l'OCated in Oiqit.a.l's do ... nto-.m offices at 250 Universlty Avenue. Within the next two ~onths, the first on-line tests of individual PC' 6 at cit:y Hall wil.! be conducted, thereby allowing minimal operational status. We are not prepared to receive and answer public communications unt,i 1 internal staffing decisions are made and personnel tr-aining is accomplished. For sxample, if building inspection services are to be prcvided$ decisions need to be made as to what services will be available, who viII monitor, how communications will be replied to, etc. At present, there is some ~inimal information available an the city of Pa.lo Alto as part. of the Digital demonstration project on Internet. This information includes city council metnl.:;.ers' profiles and photographs; regional mappinq of the bay area; a scaled down version of the "Whom to Call-phone directory; and a guide to downtown restaurants by type of food and location. A select few businesses have also been provided in the aemonstration projece via the Chamber of Commerce to test the potential commercial Marketability of Internet use4 'l"hose local busir.esses pr-esently on Internet were primarily chosen by Digital staff members aSSisting the demonstration project by personal choice; hence. "'Future Fantasy,· a science fiction bookstore; and the Palo Alto Weekly are CMR:1SO:94 •• o 'i>age Three included. It may be possible that all businesses dasiring to be on the Int'!!:rnet 'Will have the opportunity to do so at some tuture data, at an as yet undete~ined cost. The Internet for the Chamber of commerce, the city of ralo Alto, non-profit organizations and businesses in qeneral yill reside on separate computers, just as Stanford University an~ the Vatican i~formation now on Internet reside elsewhere. None~~eless, the impli?atlons for local bu~inesses are astoundinq. As the first City 1n the nation to acquire full Internet capabili ties, we have enormous pater.tial for pro .... iding service to our business community and capturing additional retail sa.les throughout the world. Equally significant are the impllcatior.e of the Internet for the non-profit sector in the city of Palo Alto, which has a very high concentration of unique non-pr.ofit organizations. Ad ..... ertisement of the nature of their operations and service provisions via the Internet could eventually be provided. Non-profit services related to low and moderate income housing, grief counseling, dispute resolution or -Adopt-i;l.-pet-proqraIils could be accessed through Internet. In aQQition, City staff is working ~ith the Palo Alto Unified. School District to input District information on the Internet within the next two to three weeks. However, until the sta~fin9, t~chnical and i~plementation issues are resolved 8ny widespread use of the Internet is not possible, and we must be careful that the citize~ry's expectations do not exceelj our ability to respond at this ti)f,e.. staff 'Will be preparing regular updating reports on system implementation within the: next few months for Council review and policy direction~ A public demonstration of the projer:t 'Will be available in the lobby of city Hall as part of the Centennial celebration the week of April 111 1994. Respectfully sub~ittea, Qf?;~!f}~ Manaqer, Economic Resources Planning Q~LfIf ~~~o~e~~tion Resources J~ Fleming U C ty Manager CMR:150:94 - •