ABSTRACT
As a great social leveller, information technology ranks second only to death. As local area networks are developed for federal, state, and local government agencies, connections to the Internet are being established and use of the Internet by public officials is becoming a reality. This chapter discusses how local governments can use the Internet as a tool for achieving policy goals. These goals could include but are not limited to: improving communications among government officials and citizens and within the government itself, to provide government information and services to citizens, to promote economic development, and to encourage citizen participation in public affairs. Experience in the US and Europe has shown that providing government information electronically is easier, less expensive, and less time-consuming to produce and keep up-to-date than paper files. Marketing the community via the Internet is an inexpensive way to rapidly disseminate interesting, information about economic, cultural and recreational opportunities.
