Review of Web-Based Communications for Town Planning in Local Government

This paper looks at web-based communication for planning in local government. Despite communication with the community being an integral part of local government functions, the types of communication being used are rarely monitored or analyzed. This paper provides a comparative snapshot of the types of web-based communication being employed by local government in New South Wales, Australia, and investigates its correlation against a social index as well as planning staff and development activity statistics. The paper concludes with a discussion of how third-party hosting of websites and discussion forums are extending communication channels.