City pulls plug on mysudbury.ca website

As part of efforts to cut costs and streamline Internet services, mysudbury.ca is logging off.

Since Oct. 1, web surfers trying to access the site have been automatically redirected to the city’s main site, greatersudbury.ca.

When it began in 2005, mysudbury.ca was intended to be more than just a website. A staff report going before city councillors Nov. 13 said the goal was to build web applications such as emails, online collaborative web spaces, an online community directory and an online volunteer registry.

“The program was designed to realize municipal efficiencies by leveraging the technology infrastructure to quickly deploy web applications such as airport flight information displays, Healthy Community web presence, and the creation of www.sudburytourism.ca with the selling of vacation packages online,” the report reads.

The report says for every dollar invested in the program in 2008, it generated $3.50; the amount increased to $4.30 in 2009, $5.30 in 2010, and $5.30 in 2011. Since its launch in 2005, more than four million visitors checked out the site, looking at about 18 million pages.

However, as other web infrastructure developed in Greater Sudbury, the usefulness of mysudbury.ca began to wane.

“Many of the tools and much of the information that the community portal was designed to provide can now be accessed through other sites free of charge,” the report says. “At the same time, members of council questioned the need for the portal and expressed concerns regarding value for money.”

The review also found mysudbury.ca to be too old and costly to bring up to date. By shutting down the site now, the city will save about $126,000 in 2013.