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Advertising Hits Arizona County Government Website

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the citizens-for-sale dept.

Combuchan writes "Just when you thought that pages on your local government's website were the last bastion of the advertisement-free WWW, that may soon change. Maricopa County (seen on slashdot before), home to 3.4 million people in the Phoenix metropolitan area, has seen their GIS website "become an every day tool for realtors, developers, mortgage and title companies, appraisers, inspectors, attorneys and many other professionals associated with the real estate industry." As a result, they are now accepting bids for Web advertisements. As the county is one of the best-run in the nation, this could set quite the precedent."

18 of 239 comments (clear)

  1. It's either ads or taxes. by Anonymous+Crowhead · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Someone's got to pay. I don't see the big deal.

  2. what is the point by phantasma6 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How much revenue would advertising bring to the site? Would it be worth the degraded image that advertising will bring? Do they really need that extra money?

    1. Re:what is the point by Combuchan · · Score: 3, Insightful

      As the site has a very clean and professional look, as oppose to very corporate sites...

      The last three pages of the linked PDF discussing where ads might end up may very well change your opinion. I thought this was merely the addition of three text ads on the actual GIS application, but they're really going all out.

      I don't blame the county for doing this, all in all. From an urban-planning geek's perspective, it's one of the coolest local sites I know of. But serving 300,000 a month with what I assume to be an intensive GIS application can't be cheap.

      The notion of having a user "pay" for government services rendered is of course nothing new (have you seen what some cities charge for copying fees?), and this really is an extension of that concept to the Internet.

      But where does it stop? Where, for example, is the line drawn between a local government's Tourism Bureau and an all-out travel information website with hotel reservations, tickets to local shows, maps, guides, and whathaveyou? If you run a site like that, do you want to be competing against your Government?

      --
      "[T]he single essential element on which all discoveries will be dependent is human freedom." -- Barry Goldwater
  3. This won't help lower taxes. by DAldredge · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This won't help lower taxes, it will raise them. You see someone (political connected) will 'have' to be hired to managed the ad program. And since the persons salery will come out of a different budget pool they will still make it look like the ad program is bringing in more than it is.

    Ain't goverment budgeting wonderful? It makes Enron's accounting look legal by comparison.

  4. Thank God for Adblock by Edgebound · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As long as my Adblock still works they can advertise all they want.

  5. Right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    This is a country by the corporations, for the corporations, and now paid for by the corporations! What a great country we live in.

    I'd much rather keep my money for myself to spend on the products the corporations make than contributing to the country I live in. What a horrible concept!

    Unfortunately, now I won't have anyone to complain to when things start going wrong, because I'm not paying them.

  6. Sheriff Joe Arpaio by l810c · · Score: 3, Interesting
    This is county with America's Toughest Sheriff

    I especially like this:

    The same is true for his chain gangs which work six days a week contributing thousands of dollars of free labor to the community.

  7. Ha ha hee hee ho that's a good one. by Jeffrey+Baker · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Maricopa County is only "well-run" if you think it's a good idea to build a city of millions in the middle of the desert, hundreds of miles from the nearest renewable source of water and sustainable agriculture. If you consider those minor matters of survival, it's a fucking disaster.

    Let Maricopa County have advertisers on their real estate website. That will distract people from the fact that they're buying land in the desert

    1. Re:Ha ha hee hee ho that's a good one. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The truth of the matter is that there is quite a bit of agriculture in the Phoenix area. Mostly citrus (it's on the state seal), but you can also see corn and various other things being grown if you drive to some of the outlying areas of the city. There are also a number of lakes within an hour's drive of the city. The Salt River used to run right through Tempe (until they dammed it up for some reason or another--a number of canals run through the city). You can, however, bring your own beer and tube down the river (lasting 4 to 6 hours) at a cost of less than $20 out in East Mesa. That money goes straight to the park and is used to maintain the area. Unfortunately, Phoenix residents still really need to be a little more conscious of the litter they leave along the river.

      Considering that Phoenix is one of the fastest growing areas in the country (and also one of the largest cities), they must be doing something right. But I suppose all of these little facts must have slipped your mind when you shot your mouth off. Or maybe you just didn't know. If that's the case, you really shouldn't talk like you know something about the place.

    2. Re:Ha ha hee hee ho that's a good one. by Triumph+The+Insult+C · · Score: 3, Informative

      you're thinking of las vegas

      there's plenty of well water here

      --
      vodka, straight up, thank you!
    3. Re:Ha ha hee hee ho that's a good one. by Jeffrey+Baker · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Yes, I am painfully aware of the agriculture practiced in Arizona. My tax dollars are subsidizing it to the tune of about $1000 per dollar of produced crop, mostly in the form of water projects.

      Here's some stats for you on Maricopa County's water supply. The basins and aquifers contain about 175 million acre-feet of water. This is the bit the county has rights to. The county's water use is over 2 million acre-feet per year. The groundwater recharge rate is a pathetic 150,000 acre-feet per year, on average. The aquifer will be depleted in 60 years, according to Maricopa County's own, very optimistic estimates.

      Now, riddle me this. Is it wise to invest in real estate in an area that will have pissed away its water supply in less than a century?

      Furthermore I'd like to point out that much of Maricopa's and Arizona's surface water supply, for the bastardization of agriculture they tend to practice in that region, is piped in from the Colorado River, which aquatic system had to be ruined to support ambitious Arizona land owners, at the expense of everyone else.

      Here's a nice book to read: Cadilalc Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water

  8. In typical Slashdot tradition... by cleverhandle · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...it seems that few people are actually following any links before posting corporate conspiracy theories.

    Now, I will admit that there's something slightly unsettling about a government giving official coverage to particular businesses. Though, as pointed out above, it may be better than taxes.

    But in any event, these ads are specifically for their GIS (Geographic Information Systems) portal. That's relatively specialized stuff - people visiting it (property owners and developers) have a pretty high probability of needing some kind of service the businesses advertise there. If they don't see the ad there, they'll go to the Yellow Pages - so who do you want the money to go to, the local gov or the telecoms?

    While this still strikes me as a little odd, it's not like Aunt Tilly is going to be checking a web site for the garbage pickup schedule and be confronted with flashing ambulance chaser ads or something.

    1. Re:In typical Slashdot tradition... by geek · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "Now, I will admit that there's something slightly unsettling about a government giving official coverage to particular businesses"

      Ever seen a bulletin board at a public library? Been to a city hall anywhere? They have tons of info on local business. Part of local governments job these days is promoting the local business community for sake of tourism and economic growth. It's nothing new or strange.

  9. All for it by mmmmmhotpants · · Score: 3, Funny

    If only this story hadn't leaked until they actually had advertisers. They'd probably make twice as much from the slashdot effect than from a years worth of normal use.

    --

    can't sleep. clowns will eat me.
  10. And why not? A voluntary corporate tax. by CFD339 · · Score: 3, Interesting


    My other job, my non-geek job, is that of firefighter. Its a volunteer "on call" community. I see the fights they have go through to replace a $50 coupling let alone a few thousand dollars of hose line.

    As far as I'm concerned, if NIKE wanted to put their logo on a few hundred feed of high quality inch and three quarter line, I know a whole lot of departments that would be very very happy about it.

    What to a small town fire department is a huge expense, is less than sending a sales guy to a meeting for corporate America. Think of the impact that could make.

    -- ME.

    --
    The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
  11. So what? by lunartik · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They put ads on city buses too.

  12. Not so: It's either ads or taxes. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ads are good for covering costs, however they are also completely inappropriate for any service rendered by state authority. I'm not into US or Arizona or this particular county legislature, but if somebody would be able to promote itself on government owned web site, while somebody else couldn't, the whole thing could be seen as a governement endorsment of certain business. This in my eyes would be alost like Bush renting the White House lawn for McDonalds arches. He might be a monkey, but certain things event this monkey can't afford to do.

    If the county wants to render public service, they can cover the costs with taxes or with fees. I don't expect it to be free beer, but I'm certainly disgusted by something that could be seen as a government endorsement of a particular business. If they want to put ads on it, they should spin off a privately owned company and be done with it.

    How could I know the burgers were a health hazard? I've seen their advertisement on the gov. site, so I thought you checked them out... With all the lawsuits galore, this is just behind the corner.

    Maybe it's just me, but government and advertising really don't mix together.

    Anonymous Cowards Unite

  13. Re:You don't know Phoenix... by Jeffrey+Baker · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The Hohokam had a peak population of less than 50,000 people, and their society collapsed. Some people think the Hohokam society collapsed because their irrigation technology overextended the population, which was then wiped out by drought and poor soil management. I see a parallel with Maricopa County. Yes, technology allows 4 million people to live in the desert. But in adverse conditions, the Maricopa County society is just as apt to evaporate as the Hohokam did 600 years ago.