January 22, 2007
An Open Letter to the TTC
When Torontoist joined forces with blogTO, Reading Toronto, and Spacing and asked our readers for feedback on the TTC's website at the beginning of this month, we had absolutely no idea that we would get such an enormous response. We'd like to thank you all again for participating, and we've taken each and every one of the ideas that we received to heart. Now, it's time to move forward. The Editors and Publishers of all four participating sites have decided to submit to submit the following letter with our suggestions to Chairman Adam Giambrone:
Attn: Mr. Adam GiambroneChairman, Toronto Transit Commission
Dear Mr. Giambrone,
The city's four major Blog sites dealing with city issues - Blogto.com, Readingtoronto.com, Spacing.ca, and Torontoist.com - asked for their readers' ideas on how to improve the TTC's rider information website.
Thousands read about our call for suggestions. Hundreds responded. The city's major media outlets also covered our challenge.
Attached to the formal version of this letter are two documents. One includes the complete list of suggestions made by our readers. The other integrates those suggestions in an easy to use spreadsheet (RT-TTCmatrix220107.xls). That document lists the recommendations by reader popularity and refers to the blog and comment number where reader suggestions can be found.
For example, the most popular suggestion for the site is to improve the User Interface & Information Architecture. Forty-five readers made that suggestion. The second most popular recommendation is to add a "Point-to-Point" trip planner. Twenty-seven readers asked for that. In addition, many readers offered examples of transit websites they thought worked. Those are also listed in their own category.The blog Editors have three key recommendations:
1. Our readers - who are frequent users of the TTC - believe that their ideas, if implemented, can significantly improve the TTC website.
2. The budget for the website redesign should reflect its importance in terms of the numbers of people who refer to it (millions every month) and the potential for increasing TTC ridership. The site should be considered an essential operating budget line item rather than a marketing "frill." As many transit systems know, a good website adds to the bottom line.
3. While we applaud the TTC for issuing a RFP for a new site, the user input our challenge generated and the media firestorm that followed it suggest the RFP be reissued to reflect the now better understood needs of TTC users.
Yours truly,
Robert Ouellette, Readingtoronto.com
Tim Shore, BlogTO.com
Matt Blackett, Spacing.ca
David Topping, Torontoist.com
Marc Lostracco, Torontoist.com
We'd really like to thank the mainstream media for helping to spread the word (CBC Radio, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, Metro, and the National Post all covered the story and directed readers to our site), Giambrone for lending us his ears, Robert Ouellette of Reading Toronto for organizing the whole thing, and, of course, our readers for all the terrific suggestions.
This is only the beginning of this process, and we will keep our readers updated as it moves forward.
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Totally unrelated, couldn't help but notice the five of you are all men (or at least have the names of men).
Is the compiled list of suggestions going to be made publicly available?
Same question as James - there's no link on the reading toronto announcement either.
This was a smart move politically for Giambrone, in that it was a cheap and very effective way of symbolically differentiating himself from Moscoe – but I think that's all it was. It's somewhat analogous to the provincial Liberals' support for the York subway extension: good as politics but inadequate as transit planning.
Jonathan, your analogy has one gaping hole.
Where we know that the York subway line is a poor allocation of resources based on planning standards, Giambrone has been on the job all of 48 days and, as of yet, has not demonstrated contempt for public input. In fact, judging by the way he has treated the web site file thus far, one might make the arguement that he even welcomes and appreciates open and inclusive decision-making.
I can understand a certain level of cynicism based on past experiences with other pols but we, as Torontonians that seek inclusive decision-making, need to reinforce good behaviour. So give the guy a chance.
Critics have been calling Giambrone's willingness to listen to bloggers both ineffective and free consulting. But what's wrong with asking the people who use the site how it could be improved, as a starting point? If the TTC had just undertaken a re-design without asking anyone, people would be crying that the very people who use it weren't consulted.
You're right, Claire, that is totally unrelated to any of this.
To Mark and James, I'm going to ask Robert and see what he says. If he gives me the all-clear, I'll add it to the post.
And, I agree with Adam -- let's wait and give Giambrone a chance to prove that he can pull this off. It's not fair to discount someone based on a project that's just started. Optimism is fun!
"(or at least have the names of men)"
Why are there no transgendered bloggers in Toronto?
I've added a link to the spreadsheet in the article.
Man, if they do half of this stuff, it'll be a great leap forward.
Word to Mao.
Is it too late to suggest doing the whole thing in Flash, with a long intro you can't skip and annoying music?
eeks, mr. topping!
it's an open comment section, there's no reason one can't post on anything one's read in an article.
but i think you got irritated. why not just address the comment? "claire, it just so happens that all the editors of these blogs are men, though there is no anti-feminist conspiracy here. if you're interested in blogging and editing, etc, as a woman, i encourage you to get involved!" and that would be it.
A. -- I thought it was a non-issue, one that really has nothing to do with anything. It's completely irrelevant to the topic at hand (which is rebuilding the TTC's website -- who cares about whether the sites are run by men or women?). Not to mention that Torontoist has had two female co-editors, and our readership -- and staff -- is pretty much 50% women.
The comments that were presented in that letter -- which was the whole point of the exercise -- were submitted by our readers, and those comments are pretty evenly split between male and female. I also noted that nobody named Claire participated in that discussion.
Noting the "maleness" of positions of power and influence can make an important social statement under certain circumstances, but this is just a little letter to the transit head from four blogs. We're not exactly the He-Man Women-Hater's Club.
If you really are looking to make a point, Claire, you should have pointed-out the principles of the last listed TTC meeting instead: eighteen of them were male; three of them were female.
Claire indeed tries to post often enough to this site, and just as often as she tries the comment won't post. So maybe that's why Claire didn't post to the discussion mentioned by Marc where no one named Claire commented.
I am not suggesting that anyone is a women hater, but merely commenting on the fact that five men sent this letter and I thought the purpose of the comments section was to comment on whatever speaks to us about a particular story or situation. And that's what spoke to me. Eg earlier today i was reading the post about John Majhor who is reported to have been born in both South Dakota and California... had I commented on that would that have been out of line / out of context?
Thirty Helens agree that the sex of the people sending the letter is entirely irrelevant in this case.
I should mention, too, that we're well aware of the problems that people have been having with commenting lately, and that we and Gothamist are doing what we can to fix it. We know it's a pain in the ass. But let's drop this issue of gender now, please, because it has nothing to do with anything. Thanks.
Fine, i hear you re gender. Gender shmender. But I am still curious re upon what about a post readers can comment. Should I assume that discussion on this site is to relate to explicit content, and not to any intuitive thinking / broader interdisciplinary connection-making that might occur in the heads of your readers? I've read the policies of good posting, and "the content in the post" does not necessarily preclude what's not being said, what is being implied, what might be inferred etc.
Claire: You can post whatever comment you wish, even if it's totally irrelevant. If your post about the letter writers being men was a simple, innocent observation with no additional meaning, it would be as useful as if you proclaimed that you couldn't help notice that bubblegum is delicious.
But when you set down a landmine with what seems like a very clear point, you can expect a reaction. The point is not what you are or aren't entitled to say, but what you mean by saying it.
FYI, I have remixed the suggestion matrix into a HTML page which I think is a little easier to follow.