Oh Summer Is Almost Over, Fall Accents, Town’s Chaotic Communication

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 05:05:21 +0000

Climatologist say that we are for a nice warm fall, and I am glad. I picked up some little accents of fall the other day walking Nokiidaa Trail boardwalk, and here they are.

Chaotic communication – what is that? Something that I think is worth writing about. Read on.

Yellow Leaves, Nokiidaa Trail Link

Fine Grass, Nokiidaa Trail Link

Ripe Berries, Nokiidaa Trail Link

I am not sure if Chickadees are fall birds. I see them through the summer but I do see more of them in the fall. I thought may be because they are so small and do not stand out that much among other birds during summer. Chickadees do stay with us for the winter.

Chickadees, Nokiidaa Trail Link

Chaotic communication. Few months ago Town of Aurora introduced social networks such Blogger, Twitter, Flickr and Facebook to further communicate with the residents of Aurora. I cannot even be nice about this idea. It wasn’t the brightest idea on the world.

Let me do some dissection here.

Blogger. To maintain blog on the regular basis requires dedication, time and resources. To date blogging (last post on May 16th, 2011) and the Blogger logo from the town’s website were phased out. I must give a credit to the writer or whoever was maintaining the blog. It was well written and professional, however, some posts were just repeats of something we know and too long. But there was some good substance there.

Town of Aurora Twitter Account

Twitter. Ouch! I have no idea why Twitter is such a success, I just don’t understand it – may be because it is so simple. Now by looking at our town’s twitter account – I see chaos. If my tax money is paying people to tweet anything and everything – I say take it down, or put some order to it. I really don’t need to get a tweet about the Earthquake on top all other media telling us the same. No substance here.

Town of Aurora Facebook Account

Facebook. I don’t know, just seems overkill. Another place to visit to find out more about Aurora events, such as Nokiidaa Trail opening in Aurora Ontario (Sept. 7, 2011) which was only for the town officials. I guess they made it happen and got it to work, they deserve the ceremony. Just an idea though, wouldn’t be nice to involve Aurora residents. After all Aurora is one big team – what happened to celebrating together?

Going back to Facebook, I am trying to understand the purpose of the Facebook, and I cannot. The information again is random.

Flickr. Someone gave up on it on June 8th, 2011. No comment.

Not to forget there is also town’s Newsletter and the website.

More thoughts …

Four social networks (one out, the Blogger; one not active, the Flickr), a newsletter and town’s website – and all feeding just random information. Do I have that much time to visit all? No. Blog is capable to accommodate all, the news, the photos, the videos and anything else that can be categorized accordingly. But blogging is hard to do, so town of Aurora chooses an easy way out – tweeting, facebooking and flickring. The big question is who is maintaining all this nuisance? The current communication scheme has no added value for the residents of Aurora. Even with that many platforms, there is still lack of communication and professionalism.

So here, just little more thoughts …

The Aurora communication department can set up a single blog on their website. Assign simple categories such news, upcoming events, notices, and other useful categories. The process must be carefully planned out to ensure effective flow of information and proper categorization of information. The information must also be in line with the information posted in the Banner and the Newsletter. Residents will benefit by accessing one source. They can easily subscribe to blog Feeds.

Reporting on activities in our town should be left to the local media such as The Auroran or The Banner. Let them do the talking and keep them in business by attracting more readers. The social networking platforms are not for the Town of Aurora, and it does not add value to our taxed dollar.

The solo opening of the Nokiidaa Trail link by the town of Aurora officials sparked all above thoughts about the whole communication scheme in the town. I would like to thank Evelyn Buck for providing informative answer (It Was Not A Grand Opening) on the comment I made on her blog with regards to the openning on September 7th, 2011.

Communication must have purpose, and if there is none then there will be chaos.

Living in Aurora, Town of Aurora, Ontario » Blogger

Oh Summer Is Almost Over, Fall Accents, Town’s Chaotic Communication