A roadrunner on the information highway - recreation World Wide Web sites

Parks & Recreation, June, 1997 by Brent A. Wood

Park and recreation agencies and park districts across the country are developing Home Pages on the Internet as a fast, easily accessible way of sharing information with local users. As more and more Web pages pop up along the information highway, park and recreation enthusiasts--along with citizens who don't traditionally utilize public recreation services--can log on, and in a few clicks, access detailed information on special events, class schedules, league sign-up, facility times and offerings, trail maps, and the like.

Although it is becoming easier and less expensive to set up a Web page, the process is still time consuming and cumbersome. Metro Parks, which serves Summit County (OH), was recently afforded a unique opportunity to establish a Web site through a new high-speed, online service from Time Warner. Their site--which is larger and more graphic-intensive than anything that the agency would develop on its own--was developed at no cost to the agency under a program that emphasized local content.

Metro Parks was selected to participate in Time Warner Cable's first high speed, cable-based computer service. This service, named after the famous Warner Brothers cartoon character, Road Runner, provides residents of Summit County and surrounding areas with the ability to access the World Wide Web from their cable television hookup at speeds up to a hundred times faster than using conventional modems. Metro Parks' web site contains more than 100 pages of information and more than 300 high-quality graphic images and colorful photographic scenes of the parks. Because of Road Runner's speed, these pages can be accessed immediately in the home using the same cable hookup that provides cable television.

Metro Parks' new web site has opened this regional park agency to the world of electronic communication and promotion media. Users of the cable system and the customers of the Metro Parks are now just a mouse click away from receiving up-to-date information about their park system and are able to download park maps, monthly newsletters and calendars of events. Reservation forms, season swim pass applications and a variety of other program registration materials are planned for the future. Users will be able to explore their Metro Parks from the comfort of their own homes.

Through proper marketing, this new communication and promotion tool can encourage customers to collect information and learn more about their regional park system before they actually get out and visit the various parks, use its many services and participate in its diverse programs. Ultimately, as additional regional park systems are added to the Time Warner network or similar networks, visitors will be able to use this new capability to plan visits to parks throughout the country. Often, under utilization of park areas and programs can be attributed to a lack of information. The World Wide Web and the Internet offer another vehicle to communicate with the public. Time Warner's Road Runner service provides Metro Parks free and easy access to this exciting new world of information services.

In 1994, Metro Parks and Enterprise Information Services, Inc. (EIS) of Akron, Ohio teamed up to develop a new interactive computer exhibit for use in the park district's visitors center. EIS is a regional media integration company providing technical publishing, digital imaging and multimedia services.

The "Explore Your Metro Parks" interactive exhibit features a touch screen monitor that encourages the user to tour the Metro Parks, its facilities and services. This program includes photographic images and high-resolution graphics that profile each of the 13 parks and provide information concerning the many programs and visitor services . The user can choose, at the touch of the finger, a number of options related to each park location to learn more about specific hiking trails, summer and winter activities, facilities, and unique features. The exhibit is powered by an Apple MacIntosh and includes more than 125 pages of information combined with 330 colorful photographic scenes from the parks and many digitally enhanced color graphics. This same exhibit has since been duplicated for use in a new mobile information center that the Metro Parks takes on the road to community events and festivals around the county.

Time Warner and the World Wide Web

In 1995, Time Warner Cable Services decided to develop and launch a new service line for its cable subscribers. Its new on-line, high-speed computer service is offered through the company's already existing cable system. The Greater Akron and Canton area of Ohio was chosen as the locale to debut this new service providing local computer users with a full-service content network at speeds 100 times faster than today's standard telephone-computer modems. Instead of a computer modem hooked up to a local telephone line, Time Warner's customers would be provided with a high-speed cable/computer modem that links their personal computer to Time Warner's fiber optic/coaxial network.