WordPress.com and Automattic continue to push out their vertical marketing and engagement by introducing what they are dubbing “Cities” in an attempt to grab more customers as well as save those same customers tons of cash:
City administrators: Don’t spend thousands of dollars on a proprietary system for your city’s website. We’ve launched WordPress.com/cities as the go-to place to start a site for your city or other municipal body, and there’s no charge to get started. (“Free” is a price that will get every taxpayer on board, and since WordPress.com has been approved as a hosting site for federal government agencies, you can be sure we take security seriously.)
It makes me think of this insanity as well as how other cities like Colombia are using WordPress as a place to really introduce the world to what they are doing. They also note that they have been approved for federal agencies as a hosting provider. That’s a comfort and should help many administrators make their decision much easier.
What’s neat is the fact that they are including a lot of “starter content” for the admin that includes features, pages, and content that most cities would need, thus speeding up the startup and launch time:
When you sign up, we automatically create the pages most commonly needed on city websites, such as Parks & Recreation, City Hall, and Law Enforcement, and add them to your site’s main menu. You just have to fill in the blanks, and you’re ready to launch.
Man, could they make it any easier?
Here in Atlanta there’s been a revitalization and focus on the local startup community and I was on the board of Startup Atlanta, a local government backed organization that’s charter was to create opportunity for newer startups and make Atlanta a top choice to live and work.
Their website isn’t exactly the “best” but at least they are running on WordPress. This new initiative though is something I’m going to introduce at our next meeting. Way to go.
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