'Webbed cities': Local officials not utilizing Net's potential

By Ellen Mathia

Cities have Web sites on the Internet but few are using them to the fullest potential, according to Samuel Nunn and Joseph B. Rubleske of the Center for Urban Policy and the Environment at the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI.

Their online publication, Webbed Cities and Development of the National Information Highway: The Creation of World Wide Web Sites by City Governments, argues that even though many cities have used local revenues or federal grants to create and maintain a presence on the World Wide Web, few have incorporated the most advanced Internet functions in their home pages to provide citizens with such services as file transfer, online forms and electronic discussion venues. Some offer little more than "PR."

"Even for the cities with established sites, the absence of advanced Web-supported functions suggests that city governments overall are underutilizing the full capabilities and potential of virtual city halls," the authors report.

Their publication analyzes the home page content of sites for 40 cities groups in four population sizes.

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