These days, it is a given that municipalities should have a website with town government information. Even so, it is important to think about why a town wants or needs to have a website.

Going into our small town hall, I see various things posted on the walls. Hours for the assessor's office, the town clerk and town administrator. A paper calendar with meeting times, perhaps marked up in pencil.

Various stacks of paper - rec league signups, council on ageing notices, publications like our annual town meeting warrant. There are offices - the town collector's office, the clerk's office, various meeting rooms. Some things aren't noticable, but you could go to the window at the clerk's office and ask, and find out about a lot of things - where is the town transfer station, where is the department of public works, who do I call to ask about a water bill. If you ask the town administrator, they might tell you the web site is there to assist with things that would otherwise require your coming to town hall and speaking with someone.

From another perspective, there are various groups that have evaluated best practices for town government. For example, in Massachusetts, the organization Common Cause established benchmarks for municipal websites. Common Cause's objective, excerpted from their website is:

With the growth of the Internet, everyone should be able to obtain important information about their local government with the click of a mouse.

Their metrics are simple to execute and measure; to be a superstar, a town website must include:

I note that the Common Cause metrics move from the sphere of "why should our town have a website" to "how does our town website measure up on fulfilling the goals we established". This is a useful shift, but it is important to get back to the core question of why your town needsa websitefrom time to time. As well, it is good to be aware of the many different goals andmetrics that may be applied.

If you contact us about your town website, we would be glad to work with you in either of these spheres:

Why does your town want or need a municipal website?

How does your town's website, or plans for a website, measure up, either against metrics you have set, or against standards set by another organization?