Economic development agencies are publishing an enormous amount of data about their areas in order to attract business. Background information like tax rates, transportation and energy costs, industrial site information and educational assets are common. Innovations in this area include providing building code and business permit assistance online. The Internet has created an exciting medium through which governments can make their services both interesting and accessible. This proactive outreach by governments stands to make certain aspects of the business location or relocation and development process far easier.
Legislative information is both common and very useful on many state government sites.
It is arguably the area of government Web publication that has evolved the most quickly. Legislative sites that began with simple postings of committee hearing schedules have rapidly become resources that compete with for-fee services. The ease with which these sites can be updated allows them to be extremely current, often to that day's session. Cities across the country have begun to use their Web sites to publish interesting and useful information. Cambridge, Mass., has developed a database application that allows citizens to query the city assessor's database to find specific parcel information including current values of land and property and their respective tax rates.