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Dynamic
Web Pages
Internet
GIS Site Selection
Web 2.0 Economic
Development Networks
Business
Directories
Online
Business Licensing
Employment
Listings
Online
Permitting
Video,
Streaming Video, and Interactive Pictures
Web
Page Essentials and Basics predominantly include
static information. Even though you can update the information, it is basically
like putting the text you would include in a brochure on the World Wide Web.
Even back on June 26, 200, Amara Agelica, Webmaster of Tech Week magazine commented,
"If you're a beginning Web site developer you're probably creating static
Web Pages - and they're probably out of date."
The
power of the Internet allows you to do much more than was ever before possible.
New Web technology allows information to be updated in real time and lets
site visitors interact with data. To this end, Web Pages can be interactive
tools for improved economic development. Advanced Web Page Technology covers
the breakthroughs that are helping economic development professionals leverage
the power of the Internet to provide enhanced business attraction services
and greatly expand the marketing of a community. Keep in mind that what is "advanced"
is quickly becoming "basic."
The
International Economic Development Council (IEDC) Awards recognize the best websites
in the industry at the IEDC Annual Conference. These are the 2009 award winners:
These are the 2008 award winners:
Top Special Purpose Website:
-
Population 200,000 or more:
Sierra Pacific Power Company, NV
-
Population 200,000 or more:
Great Oklahoma City Chamber
-
Population 50,000 to 200,000:
Upstate Colorado, CO
-
Population 50,000 to 200,000:
Ascension Econ Dev, LA
-
Population 50,000 or less:
City of Winter Garden, FL
These
are the 2007 award winners:
These
are the 2006 award winners:
Internet
GIS Site Selection
The
major Internet technology breakthrough for economic development is the use
of geographic information systems (GIS) for site-selection and market analysis.
Internet GIS provides the fundamental information businesses want when first
considering a commercial location:
1.
Is space available? (Vacant building or developable land)
2.
Can I succeed there? (Demographic Analysis)
3. Is this a location that will result in competition or synergy? (Business
analysis)
4. What are the geographic advantages to locating in this area? (Interactive
mapping)
Internet
GIS answers these and other questions, in minutes. By using an Internet GIS
application a user can interactively search for available property and produce
user-defined demographic reports and business analysis. These types of reports
answer questions like: "What types of potential employees live in the area?
What is the retail spending power of this trade area?" and "What businesses
are nearby? Will they compete with me or help my business?" This greatly speeds
up and simplifies the site-selection process and improves the marketing of
your commercial building and land opportunities.
To
see the use of Internet GIS in action, visit the following web sites:
States:
Counties & Regions:
Cities:
-
Arlington, TX
-
Chicago, IL
-
San Francisco, CA
-
Englewood, CO
-
Taylorsvillle, UT
-
Buckeye, AZ
-
Blue Ash, OH
-
Vallejo, CA
-
Rancho Cucamonga, CA
-
Tacoma, WA
-
Chula Vista, CA
-
Carson, CA
-
Escondido, CA
-
Culver City, CA
-
College Station, TX
A
searchable building and sites database is neither the same
nor as useful as a web-based GIS program. Searchable databases do not leverage the
true power of the Internet for economic development because they don't answer the
important issues and questions related to site selection such as site-specific demographic and
workforce analysis or the issue of business competition and synergy.
The
necessity of using web-based GIS continues to grow. The company that invented the
concept of integrating GIS with the Internet for site selection analysis is
GIS Planning Inc. Its
strategies have become the industry standard for online site selection analysis
with projects implemented across the United States and Canada. The International
Economic Development Council (IEDC), the largest association of economic developers,
has named GIS Planning services the exclusive and official online property listings,
demographics, and online mapping products and services for IEDC.
According to Craig Richard, Vice President of Economic Development for the
Arlington Chamber of Commerce, "Putting
buildings and sites on an economic development website is no longer enough.
Every location in the nation has property to promote, but expanding and
relocating businesses do not move somewhere just because there is available
property. They locate in places where there are unique opportunities and
advantages. Arlington iSites (a web-based GIS program) takes business
attraction to the next level by providing online GIS site-selection
analysis tools to promote Arlington."
Web 2.0 and Social Media Economic Development Networks
Web 2.0 and the power of online networks has impacted the economic development profession through websites that leverage networking results in websites like ZoomProspector.com. ZoomProspector.com is an industry-specific portal for economic development, corporate real estate, and site selection that enables businesses to find the best locations to start-up, expand or relocate. ZoomProspector.com is an important source of marketing and lead-generation for the economic development organizations participating in the network.
Now you can aggregate all of your social media marketing for economic development by signing up for a free Community Connection Page on the website. This includes your Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other Social Media services.
Economic development organizations are now also leveraging Social Media by using Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other Web 2.0 websites to expand their reach and marketing directly to individuals that are already using these services. Signing up for accounts on these websites is simple and creating profiles for your economic development organization only takes minutes.
Business Directories
Economic
development is not just about bringing in new businesses. It is also the process
of promoting the existing businesses in your area. If someone is trying to
find a dentist or restaurant in your community you can help them find what
they are looking for. Searchable business listings are another example of
letting the web visitor interact with your data.
The
user can search for a business by name or by category. Web users can also
search for businesses geographically if the application uses Internet GIS.
If you are looking for a dry cleaner, you probably want one that is close
to your home. With a business directory powered by Internet GIS you can specify
a search for a dry cleaner that is 1.5 miles from your home.
Below
are examples:
Online
Business Licensing
Why
should businesses have to take the time getting to city hall and wait in line
for a business license when this administrative task can be completed over
the Internet? Online business licenses are another way to make doing business
in your community easier.
Some
cities have the application available for download (often as an Adobe Acrobat
PDF file) and others have the ability to complete the whole transaction online.
To
see the use of Online business licenses in action, visit the following web
sites:
Employment Listings
If
you have an agency that provides employment listings it is a good idea to
make this information available to job seekers. If the agency has this information
in a database format but not on the web, you may want to encourage them to
take the next step to the Internet. If they are already posting job listings
on the Web you can simply provide a link to their site.
Here
are some examples of economic development organizations that are implementing
this tool:
Online Permitting
Although
permitting is not directly economic development, speeding up the process of
doing business is. Online permitting allows a business to process online permit
applications, electronic permit fee payment, and online inspection scheduling.
Your Planning Department would likely manage this process.
From
the examples below you will see that cities are at different levels of interactive
online permitting. Some have HTML or PDF web page forms that can be printed
while others made the upgrade to place the entire transaction process online.
To
see the use of Online permitting in action, visit the following web sites:
Video,
Streaming Video, and Interactive Pictures
New
visualization technology for the Web is allowing organizations to market their
community and available commercial sites using video, streaming video and
interactive images. Video (such as .mov and .mpg) or streaming video (such
as RealPlayer and Windows Media) allow you to show your community to an Internet
user through the Web. One of the drawbacks to this is that these often require
a plugin, which the person must download before the video can be viewed. For
the casual Internet user this may be more work that they can handle.
One
of the exciting new visualization tools that allows the user to interactively
view a location has been developed by IPIX. The image, which requires no plugin,
allows the viewer to interactively look in 360 degrees by 360 degrees.
To
view examples visit the following web sites:
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