APWA Infolink Pilot Sets Sights on Becoming Nation Wide Information Hub
Enter the Internet. With widespread acceptance and progression of Internet technology, APWA InfoLink was designed and created to take advantage of this huge information gateway.
The intemet application, which can be accessed at www.mjharden.corrdapwa-infolink, is now a national pilot project being funded by Bell Atlantic and Ameritech Corporation through Bellcore (Bell Communications Research). Support and cooperation is provided by the Mid-American Regional Council, Kansas City Area Development Council, Kansas City Chapter of American Institute of Architects and Builders Association. Application development, design and Web hosting is provided by M.J. Harden Associates, Inc. The project, which will run through the 1999 calendar year, includes the seven-county metropolitan Kansas City area including Johnson, Leavenworth and Wyandotte in Kansas; and Clay, Cass, Jackson and Platte in Missouri.
Creation of the Infolink Internet Application
During the creation of the application, the focus was on how to best create an Internet application that could be easily maintained by each participating 1P, provide users with complete and up-to-date information, provide low site maintenance by host provider and take advantage of the latest in technology. The focus areas pointed the development team in the direction and creation of a database-driven, template-focused, dynamic Internet web application. The application needed to allow the IPs to define and update the content - not the application administrators. Thus, putting the burden of providing the most current information concerning the planning, design and construction community in the right hands. The real focus and challenge was how to create a virtually hands-free site.
Database-Driven
In order to make this site as dynamic as possible, it was apparent that the site had to have a relational database as its primary foundation. The first step was to create a database model that would accommodate the initial needs of the pilot project. A design committee was formed early with representatives from private, city and county agencies. The design committee addressed everything from typical needs and requirements of each agency to potential future uses of the completed web application. Information gathered from numerous meetings was used to create the initial database model.
|
