The Case of myhamilton.ca

On Sep 13, 2005, the community of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, launched an innovative new community portal www.myhamilton.ca. Key features and functions include integrated municipal and library services, personalization and single sign-on for secure transactions, comprehensive events listings and extensive search capabilities. Also included are collaboration spaces and tools including surveys, discussion forums and document sharing, as well as webcasting capabilities. Overall, managers of the project recognize 10 guiding principles as critical to the philosophy, direction and implementation of the myhamilton community portal. These are: 1. Incorporate collaborative tools. 2. Facilitate full integration of content. 3. Perform usability testing. 4. Encourage active engagement from multiple partners. 5. Deploy effective governance. 6. Learn from others. 7. Follow good project management techniques. 8. Formalize performance assessments. 9. Invest in marketing and communication. 10. Engage participants on a regular basis.