Plug In, Sign On, Find Out : Santa Monica Enters New Era with City Hall’s Public Computer Network

Santa Monica’s electronics wizard, Ken Phillips, did not expect to be overwhelmed by potential users demanding access to a new computer network at City Hall. A couple of queries a day would probably trickle in, he thought.

It’s a good thing Phillips knows computers better than he predicts human curiosity. Within two days of the innovative network’s debut, more than 250 people were clamoring to sign on.

“I couldn’t believe the interest this generated all over the world,” said a somewhat flabbergasted Phillips, director of Santa Monica’s Department of Information Systems. “It was incredible. It was more than I ever expected. It drove me half crazy.”

The computer network, activated for public use Feb. 21, enables Santa Monica residents, at no charge, to sign on to their personal computers and talk to City Hall.

A wealth of information--ranging from where to get an AIDS test or a business license to what books are checked out at the library--is available to residents with access to a computer keyboard.

Logged-on residents can message complaints or questions into City Hall officials and expect answers right on their terminal screen. Users can even send messages to one another, carrying on essentially private conversations; public discussions of top issues of the day are also possible in the electronic equivalent of a Town Hall.

With the advent of the network, called Public Electronic Network, Santa Monica became a leading pioneer among a growing number of cities and counties throughout the nation that are offering some form of public access to government information via computers.

Stunned by Response

The initial response to the Public Electronic Network stunned city officials, who admitted that they were unprepared to handle the volume of applications. It may have been a case of what experts in the field call “technology push”--an eagerness to offer a sophisticated electronic system before the public is ready to use it or before officials are ready to handle the new demands it brings.

But the programmers and analysts at City Hall are scurrying to catch up.

Once the city receives an application or request, the procedure for registering the individual begins: Identification numbers and passwords are assigned, names are entered into the central software, and users are supplied with instruction manuals.

400 People Waiting

By the end of the first week, only five residents were able to sign on, two of whom were City Council members and a third who was married to one. About 400 other residents were stuck waiting for clearance.

Phillips and his staff worked through the last weekend, and by Thursday, 200 people could sign on, he said. Another 200 soon-to-be users should receive their ID numbers and passwords this weekend.

“I think we’re getting there,” Phillips said Thursday. “It’s starting to look like a real system.”

Despite the initial surge of interest, the real test of the network’s success will come in ensuing months, as the novelty wears off and a core of long-term users emerges.

If the system turns out to be too complicated, the functions too difficult to perform, then novice users will abandon the network quickly and only those people already well-versed in the use of computers will continue, predicted Judith Payne, a social scientist at the Rand Inc. in Santa Monica.

‘Only a Tool’

And if the information that is available turns out to be of little interest, then aficionados will similarly dwindle.

“A system is only a tool,” Payne said. “At first (users) will try it out because it’s fun, but no one is going to continue to use it if it’s complicated. . . . For it to be successful, you will want a core (of users) spread out across different types of (people).”

A public-access computer network set up by a state legislative committee in 1987, which used software similar to what is being used in Santa Monica, was canceled the following year because interest, after an initial flurry, dropped dramatically. While about 1,000 people logged on originally, only about 100 ever called back.

So far, several people using the Santa Monica system said the editing function when sending messages is a bit difficult, and the help screen is a little hard to follow.

Greater Use Expected

Only a few people have ventured to send messages. But, as more users are logging on, more and more messages will begin blipping onto the central computer in City Hall’s Information Systems Department, said Kate Spellman, an administrative analyst in the city manager’s office who is watching the traffic.

Among the messages relayed to City Hall so far was one by a man who asked for a traffic signal at a busy intersection on Lincoln Boulevard. Later, the same man asked if adults could go on a trip to Knotts Berry Farm that the Parks Department was planning, or “do you have (to) be a child?”

One woman, apparently distressed that Santa Monica Mayor Dennis Zane was not registered in the system yet, offered him use of the personal computer she has in her apartment.

‘Come on Line’

The husband of a City Council member, meanwhile, asked the Water Division to check when his most recent payment had been posted. The Water Division responded in less than 24 hours.

One man who said he came to this country nine years ago asked for someone to “come on line and discuss” hobbies such as bridge, humor and language.

“People are just getting their feet wet,” Phillips said.

At least one person chose a completely different way to express his or her sentiments, leaving a hand-written note on a terminal at a library, declaring the Public Electronic Network a “waste of taxpayers’ money.”

In addition to terminals placed in five library branches, the city plans to put machines in other public places, such as senior citizen and youth centers, so that people who do not own personal computers can also use the system.

System Was Donated

Hardware and software for the $350,000 network was donated to Santa Monica by Hewlett-Packard and Metasystems Inc.

One component of the system that has not been publicized is the capacity for residents to send messages to one another, as well as to City Hall.

That feature has raised questions about whether Santa Monica might be entering dangerous legal or regulatory territory because it is a public entity offering what could be construed to be a private communications service in direct competition with private carriers.

City Atty. Robert M. Myers said his office examined the question when the computer network was being designed. He was satisfied, however, that the city was on safe ground because it is using established telephone lines and not creating a separate communications system.

Service ‘Limited’

Also, he said, “the type of service (that Santa Monica is offering) is so limited that it is really not competition for private carriers.”

Joe Schmitz, a USC Ph.D. student, was one of the earliest users. He said he enjoys letting his 13-year-old son Karl sign on and browse through the system.

“It teaches kids (computer) skills . . . beyond video games,” Schmitz said, “and a civics lesson that is unparalleled.”

Santa Monica activist Michael Hill has championed the network since the start. City Manager John Jalili credited Hill with suggesting the idea to the City Council two years ago; Hill has become the most avid user to date, sending messages of welcome to new users as they sign on.

“This,” Hill said, “is an exciting step into the future.”