Oakland enhances services with ‘virtual city’
We’ve had virtual shopping malls and virtual cockpits for several years, and now residents of Oakland, Calif., are about to experience the virtual city – the Virtual Oakland web site (www.oaklandnet.com).
Oakland’s Community and Economic Development Agency (CEDA) is using the new Virtual City application developed in conjunction with Internet consultants from the Los Angeles-based Dames & Moore Group, to provide an interactive, on-line GIS for its residents. The application drives CEDA’s Dynamic Map Room, where residents may interact with full-color maps, obtain land parcel information and apply for permits.
System integrator Oakland Computer Co., using MapGuide software from AutoDesk, San Rafael, Calif., also helped develop the site, which enables anyone with a personal computer and Internet connection to access municipal data 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The site is a treasure trove of information about city parcels and neighborhoods, including streets, zoning, ownership, physical characteristics, historical significance, census and demographic data, crime reports and proximity to public transportation.
These applications represent only the first stage of a project that will ultimately deliver many additional municipal services to computer users.
“We are now giving Oakland’s clients first-rate access to our most recent maps and city information,” says Virtual Oakland Project Manager Frank Kliewer, who oversees the Dynamic Map Room. “This is where government services and the Internet are headed.”
The impetus for the site was a pair of natural disasters that devastated the city: the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and the 1990 Oakland Hills fire.
In the wake of these events, the city designed an on-line mapping system with funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help people rebuild their homes and businesses as quickly as possible.
The city glimpsed the potential of the Internet to provide access for developers, planners, architects and the general public.
The technology is a way to stimulate economic development by making it easier for people to do business with the city and eliminate the frustrations of waiting in line or dealing with busy signals on the phone.
The web site is data base-driven, which reduces system maintenance requirements, Kliewer says. The appropriate city officials or departments will be responsible for maintenance of connected databases.
Virtual Oakland promises a huge payoff in terms of reducing the time the staff spends responding to inquiries, promoting inter-departmental collaboration and better equipping employees to do their jobs, since they will have quicker access to the information they need.
