Virtual Village Square. What does it take to transform a lackluster municipal Web site into a vibrant community meeting place?

What if a city put up a Web site and nobody came?

In early 2003, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, faced precisely that problem. From 2001 to 2004, the city operated a Web site that drew only 600 visitors a month — a paltry showing in a city of 50,000.

"We just had basic departmental information [on the Web site]," said John Konich, manager of the city’s Information Systems Department, in identifying a large reason people stayed away in droves. "We had a presence, but not a lot of content."

This year, as Cuyahoga Falls prepared to launch a series of e-government services, the city’s Web site became a much hotter destination.

"From January 2004 through March 2005 we had 240,000 visitors. We were averaging 16,000 a month," Konich said.

Traffic on the city’s Web site soared, because in 2003, city officials, led by Mayor Don Robart, made it their business to enrich the site with compelling information and services.

"We wanted people to start coming to our Web site more because we had plans to have an e-government portal," Konich said. "It would be hard to put something like that up and get any kind of activity on it if people didn’t even know we had a Web site."

Something slightly different happened on the way: Cuyahoga Falls officials say its Web site has evolved into a virtual community gathering spot.

By Merrill Douglas

Full Story: http://www.govtech.net/magazine/story.php?id=96818&issue=10:2005

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Kansas Launches New State Portal

Kansas’ official Web site – http://www.Kansas.gov – has been renamed, redesigned, and reorganized to improve citizen and business access to government information. Access is available to more than 250 online services and 780,000 thousand pages of content.

"Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for people to get information about the services our state offers," sad Governor Kathleen Sebelius. "It’s important we continue working to make it simpler for Kansans and potential business partners or future Kansans to get the information they need. Kansas.gov is a great step in that direction."

While the name and look have changed, the services, support and the people behind them have remained the same. Kansas.gov is a name and URL that will be easier for users to remember and more clearly identifies the state of Kansas Web site.

"Kansas.gov provides a user-friendly gateway for citizens to efficiently interact with government," said Tracy Smith, general manager of Kansas.gov. "The site’s fresh new look also demonstrates the beauty and progressiveness of Kansas."

Full Story: http://www.govtech.net/news/news.php?id=97704