City Hall Sets Up Shop On the World Wide Web

Chicagoans with a home computer can now surf through citydepartments, e-mail Mayor Daley, and check out community policing onthe Internet.

The Chicago Mosaic software, available free from the NationalCenter for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois(NCSA), will put Chicago's festivals, tours, and a roundup of cityservices at the fingertips of just about anyone who can drive theinformation superhighway.

And for those who may not yet be equipped to get on board,terminals are available at seven locations, including the HaroldWashington, Sulzer and Woodson libraries.

Launched Monday by Mayor Daley at the Harold Washington Library,the $100,000 project is a collaboration between NCSA and the City ofChicago. The system has already fielded more than 10,000 calls sinceSaturday night.

"It is a technological advancement that will go down in historyas one of the primary inventions in the U.S.," said Larry Smarr,director of NCSA.

Chicago Mosaic has a welcome message from Mayor Daley, and themayor can receive e-mail at the city's World Wide Web site:http://www.ci.chi.il.us

Right now, the mayor is the only one who can receive e-mail, butfurther e-mail messaging to city departments is hoped for in thefuture.

People with accounts on commercial or other on-line serviceswill be able to access this electronic city information if theirservices are connected to World Wide Web.

Out-of-towners can get an electronic tour guide of the city.

Eventually the community policing program will allow citizens toget crime stats for specific neighborhoods within a police beat.

Daley said the goal is to make the system fully interactive sothat Chicagoans can register service requests by computer.