Longmeadow on the Internet- 25 Years Later

Longmeadow News article announcing the
official launch of the town website
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On this day 25 years ago (December 8, 1997) Longmeadow became one of the first towns in Western Massachusetts to have a presence on the World Wide Web or Internet as it is called today. The town’s web address was www.Longmeadow.org that predates the launches of Facebook, Twitter and the many other social media platforms that are available today. MS Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers were not yet developed so early Internet users employed Netscape, Mosaic and Cello browsers which have since disappeared.

Earlier this year (2022) the Town of Longmeadow decided to move its Internet web address to one better reflecting its current purpose as a town government website ---> www.LongmeadowMA.gov. 

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Here is a little history about the development of the town's website….

In early 1997 Jim Moran, a town resident and member of the town’s Technology Planning Committee organized a group of volunteer town residents including Rick Beale, Jane Berg, Donna L.S. Fisher, Mark Gold and Farida Pomerantz to create the town’s first website. The primary purpose of this original website was to be a “community” website including content ranging from town government announcements, online access to Storrs Library, school lunch menus, links to diverse civic group websites, etc. After many months of effort this volunteer group was able to launch the new town website. Below is a screenshot for the homepage of the new website as it appeared in 1999….

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After the new website was launched in late 1997 and interest by the design team waned, self-appointed webmasters Mark Gold and Jim Moran continued to spend thousands of hours updating the website design and content over the next 13 years.  Because of this volunteer effort, cost to the town was estimated to be less than $100/ year for domain name registration and web hosting.  The Longmeadow website-  www.Longmeadow.org became a valuable information resource for the Longmeadow community.

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Below is a screenshot for the homepage of the website as it appeared in early 2010….

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During the early years there were a couple of serious conflicts with Select Board members created by disagreements about what should be considered allowable content on the “town” website. Moran and Gold both had a broad vision of the website as a community resource while some Select Board members wanted it to be much more restricted. At one point the webmasters proposed creating a non-profit organization funded by private donations and run by a board of directors (see newspaper article below).

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By 2010 certain members of the Select Board wanted to impose significant content moderation policies about issues involving the building of the new high school and to remove unapproved postings of other community information.   At this point the webmasters removed the “objectionable” content as well as their support for maintenance of the “town” website.   Over the next 5 years the website quality significantly deteriorated and became much less of an effective town communications resource due to the lack of active support.
 
Below is screen capture of www.Longmeadow.org home page as it appeared in late 2010.

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The new Longmeadow website launched earlier this summer at www.LongmeadowMA.gov is a vast improvement over earlier versions and hopefully it will become a valuable town government and community information resource. Below is screen capture of the new home page in 2022. 

~written by Jim Moran/ town resident and owner of LongmeadowBiz, LLC