Navigating convergence sometimes easier than navigating the CRTC website

OTTAWA--For many in the broadcasting and telecommunications industries, the CRTC website is something of a second home. But it’s also common to hear complaints that the site could be more welcoming and easier to navigate. The CRTC website went through a complete makeover in early 2009, but many who use it on a daily basis continue to say there is room for improvement. “After struggling to navigate convergence for the last 10 years, I find that a lot easier than trying to navigate that website,” Michael Hennessy, senior vice-president of regulatory affairs with Telus Corp., told The Wire Report. Hennessy, who often refers to the website for his regulatory duties, said, as often as possible, he asks other Telus staff to search out information on the website for him. “I can surf most of the Internet, but when it comes to the CRTC’s site, I don’t have the colon for that one,” he said. The new version of the CRTC’s website launched on Feb. 1, 2009. The redesign was intended to bring the site in line with the latest iteration of the federal government’s “common look and feel” guidelines. Those guidelines had set out accessibility standards and a common overall design structure for all federal government sites. Changes to the CRTC’s website last year included a new visual design and layout, a more robust search engine and new information architecture. Common uses for the website, such as registering for a public proceeding, were given precedence on the home page. The CRTC website includes a wealth of information on commission decisions and proceedings—including hearing transcripts, applications, public comments, replies to comments, regulatory frameworks, and hearing agendas—and is the main artery by which parties publicly correspond with the commission and get involved in its regulatory proceedings. John Lawford, counsel with the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), took part in an ad-hoc committee in early 2009, which was established to make recommendations toward a new and improved CRTC website. The committee included about 10 individuals who took an early test run with the website and made recommendations based on their experiences with the new design. Lawford told The Wire Report that the end result was not to his liking. “Unfortunately it came out kind of worse than it was to begin with,” Lawford said. “I can’t find stuff anymore.” He said one issue with the new site is that there is often only one avenue to arrive at specific information. “When we were going through the re-design, we were saying to them, ‘If you change it, just make sure that people can get to the stuff they need to get to as quickly as possible,’” he said. “If you’re on the opening screen, you have to hit ‘Telecommunications for certain things and ‘Telecom Proceedings’ for other things, which drives me mental,” Lawford added. Some organizations say CRTC business should be more transparent to the Canadian public, and that the website would be a good place to start. “They could publish a lot more data, and they could put their deliberation process on the website,” Steve Anderson, national coordinator with OpenMedia.ca, said in an interview. Anderson said the CRTC’s decision-making process on regulatory issues is something of a “black hole.” The commission process for organizations like his calls for it to make a case at a CRTC hearing then to wait for a decision based on the evidence presented. But he said there is no way for the public to know how commissioners arrive at decisions made behind the scenes. “Did they meet with telecom companies? How did they come to that decision?” Anderson said. He said the process could be more open by making deliberations accessible online. Anderson added that the submission process could be simplified with a more user-friendly website. “Right now, when we engage with them , we don’t send people to their website at all, because it’s not intuitive. What we do is use our own system, and because they don’t have an email address, we have to fax them every single comment people send through our system,” he said. Anderson said something as simple as an email address dedicated to receiving submissions for hearings would go a long way to simplifying the online process. But others say the website saw significant improvements with the recent redesign. Lawford said he likes having the navigation buttons at the top of the page so he can quickly jump from the home page to the “Today’s Releases” section of the site. “But I just don’t find it was any great jump ahead,” he said of the new site. Christian Tacit, a lawyer with Tacit Law in Ottawa who often represents telecommunications companies, said the website does a good job at presenting relevant information and that only minor changes are in order. “I think with tribunal websites, it’s difficult because it is specialized,” Tacit said in an interview. “I’ve been on the U.S. FCC website, and it takes me a while to get stuff there. I’ve been on other Canadian tribunal and departmental websites, and when you’re doing research, sometimes you have to slog through to find what you want.” But Tacit said the CRTC’s website could be improved by implementing a more advanced search engine to find documents. He added that the commission tends to lump things into broad, thematic categories, which could be narrowed to more specific regulatory sub-categories, such as usage-based billing, or network neutrality. On Dec. 8, 2009, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama issued an “open government” directive, intended to push government agencies to publish more information online, improve the quality of government information, and enable a culture and policy framework of open government. Anderson said Canada needs a similar level of leadership on the open government front. “Institutions like the CRTC can also take on leadership roles, and certainly the chair of the CRTC could make this one of his goals during his term,” he said. jmigneault@thewirereport.ca

Navigating convergence sometimes easier than navigating the CRTC website

Broadcast | July 30, 2010

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