About Municipal Economic Development Module
The Municipal Economic Development Module will develop an on-line system for archiving, management, analysis and dissemination of municipal economic development information. The system will be developed on an open platform and will provide both municipalities and external users with coherent and easily-accessible information sources for making informed decisions relating to economic development.
Economic development information will be stored in an on-line, searchable database and will consist of comparative municipal economic development information, community profile data management tools, and a common municipal interface with selectable links to other communities, regions and databases. External users and clients will be able to browse and order comparative economic development information through a World Wide Web interface. A small business interface for developing a business case for locating in a given community will also be developed.
The system will be based on a regional development model and will allow systems and databases of varying size and complexity to be integrated into an information network by providing interfaces to the system through the World Wide Web. There are several advantages to a regional development approach. Foremost of these are:
- The model provides for a distributed, open system to permit maximum interoperability within the economic development system as well as with other database or information sources. A distributed system will provide for dynamic information growth on a region-by-region basis and will allow individual communities or regions to expand at their own rate.
- It empowers communities and municipalities within the same region with control over their information in terms of content and presentation. Communities within a given region typically have similar circumstances and interests and are best suited to decide as to how they are presented.
- The system is scalable and may link databases relating to single communities, groups of communities or entire geographic regions. This scalability would then be reflected in the complexity, size and cost of the individual systems. Hence communities operating with relatively small budgets would not be prevented from participating and can bring their information on-line when it's appropriate for them. As more communities and areas are brought on-line, databases may then coalesce into larger systems providing a unified regional approach to economic development.
- Systems based on a regional model can be linked through the Internet, as well as other networks, to provide interregional access between municipalities and clients or users for the purposes of information sharing and comparison. In addition, the information becomes accessible to a maximum number of people who may be geographically remote.
- The model is entirely transportable and may be moved and applied to any region of a country, anywhere in the world.
The communities participating in the development of this module will provide the regional test-bed on which the system will initially be deployed. Each community will decide on the content and presentation of their economic development information and this information will then be assimilated into the appropriate database systems. Access to the information will be provided through a common user interface which will also serve to link the on-line information sources.
Performance Targets and Expected Results
The system will achieve two major functions. First, it will provide an integrated source of economic development information which is easily accessible to clients and interested parties. Second, the regionally distributed nature of the system will provide a seamless and efficient connection between rural communities and regions as well as connections between rural areas and urban centres. The result will be an efficient tool that can be integrated into an overall municipal economic development plan and provide benefits to clients, users, and municipalities.
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