The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy recommended that every local community have at least one high-quality online hub to help meet community information needs. While the Commission recognized that “it is not possible for any one Web site to aggregate all of the online information local residents want and need,” it believed that “communities should have at least one well-publicized portal that points to the full array of local information resources.” To date, no single portal has been developed for the community based in or around Marianna, Florida.
Since no one other agency stepped forward to provide this access portal, MariannaOnline.com has done so.
The MariannaOnline.com Community Portal provides residents of the community with a single hub on which they can locate information on relevant news, area attractions, local businesses and community events. By providing high-quality media convergence, this value-added model will not only serve residents through its ability to aggregate attention, highlight important civic information and activities and map public information resources, but also creates a new arena for local businesses to place targeted advertisements designed to directly reach their potential clients.