Okay for the HOW; What's the WHAT?

So we looked at a lot of excellent features that a city web site could use.  But that’s just the  HOW.  Here’s the more important question: WHAT do they cover? Let’s look at some cities that seem to have it together.

We’ll start by navigating back to Chandler, Arizona. Here’s  a city of just under 250,000 people, with all the issues that any city has. They divide their city information among four major organizations: the City of Chandler, the City of Chandler Economic Development Division, Downtown Chandler and the Chandler Chamber of Commerce. There is also a county site, and a separate site for their famous event, the Ostrich Festival (I do not make these things up), which attracts up to 350,000 people annually.

The Downtown Chandler website tracks events and the downtown businesses (including a nifty gallery of photos of business owners in their shops). With nearly one event a week, this is a sizable job.

The Chamber offers a “Sleep ‘n’ Eat” guide of restaurants and hotels, but mainly sticks to promoting and educating businesses. They offer a comprehensive business relocation package for $10.

The City of Chandler is mostly government oriented, with sections on leisure and lifestyle and on “our community.”  It's a very user oriented site; for example, they offer online brochures to help groups plan and fund special events.

The Economic Development department has a comprehensive section on the web with every piece of information I’ve ever heard about in this area. Demographics, property, relocation, industrial and techology initiatives, everything. They also have a basic website called “Visit Chandler” which is a lightweight but useful version of a Visitor and Convention Bureau type site.

Next, let’s look at Columbus, Ohio with a population of just over 750,000. They divide the information four major ways. The City of Columbus has a site centered on the city’s government activities. It is nicely organized and easy to navigate.

The second site is the Downtown Columbus site, which concentrates on living, doing business and experiencing downtown. This site is a livelier than the city’s and very marketing oriented. The Business section includes some information on real estate developments, new stores and homes, and market studies for Downtown.

The third major organization site is that of the Chamber of Commerce of Columbus. They feature all types of business networking and professional development information. There is information on the numerous active commitees and on Economic Development in Columbus.  GIS map tools and Business Retention and Expansion Research is ongoing. The Chamber also has a second fact-laden site called Live Work Play Columbus.

The fourth big web site is that of the Visitor and Convention Bureau. They concentrate on visitors, events and sections for professional meeting and tour planners.

Both of these towns seem to be doing a good job of organizing information so the people who need it can find it. There is minimal, and usually, appropriate overlap, although there are points at which one site could link to information rather than recreate it. In Chandler, the City’s Economic Development Department seems to be the driving force behind business present and future. In Columbus, the Chamber seems to be driving the Economic Development train. But in both cases, the information is there. These guys seem to have their WHATS together.