A community page is the WWW face of a community presented to both local and global citizens. It can be a coldly calculated effort by local industry to increase both market recognition and share. A page can be put together by a private citizen for no other reason than a deep love of community. Libraries and universities do them as a natural extension of a need to share information.

From a technical or aesthetic standpoint, community pages run the gamut from slick, professional, high-tech tours de force, to grammatically impaired efforts by the artistically hobbled. In my cyber travels through the country, it is interesting to note how often the latter captures the essence of a community more effectively. Generally this is a result of a citizen of long-standing acting out of love. The results speak much louder than words and polished graphics.

Within a good community page there is inevitably a certain amount of history imparted. I consider this an essential ingredient as this is the stuff of local lore and legend and speaks loudly of the character of a community.

I like to see the local library at least featured if not indeed involved in the page. In almost every town in this land there is a library not too far away. This is where those dusty old local historical tomes are archived. This is getting close to the heart of the community.

Organizations? Sure, every single one should be mentioned in an ideal world. It is not unreasonable to think that at some time there will be one WWW-oriented citizen that would have the desire to put their organization on the WWW and link it to their community page.

Business? Again, they all should be there, not so much to sell goods but to reinforce their roots in the community and reach out to their peers everywhere on a non-competitive basis. Business within a community is marvelous, between communities is even better, and business on a regional or greater basis is better still.

Government is what keeps things running in the community, more or less. The WWW is a marvelous non-political platform for any community government to keep the citizens aware of what is going on and even ask for some help now and then. It is also a way that community government neighbors can keep tabs on one another and perhaps find synergistic areas.

As of now there is no standard template for the ideal community page and maybe this is as it should be. I do know that if any community wishes to create a page there are many marvelous examples to learn from, emulate to some degree, and modify to suit. Chances are if one were to ask someone in another community for advice and help, it would be given.

There are a number of common-sense considerations that can be a strong factor in any page, old or new. Not the least of which is that the page is not chiseled out of stone and can be easily modified as the need arises. Constant editing and additions gives a community page an air of vibrancy that viewers are appreciative of.