Web Mining Public Debt
- By Bryant Jordan, Heather B. Hayes, Heather Harreld
- Apr 24, 2000
For the National Park Service, interactive doesn't necessarily mean
talking to a park ranger, but the service oversees a pair of Web sites that
offers up-to-date information on the nation's public parks.
At Recreation.Gov, users find a screen with some two dozen menu
items, from camping and water sports to horseback riding and climbing, as
well as resources for groceries, lodging and pet accommodations.
The site is a venture sponsored by the National Park Foundation and
Hewlett-Packard Co., which donated the server to set up the site.
The Park Service maintains the infrastructure of the site, said Park
Service Webmaster Steve Pittleman.
Last week, the service launched a new site, called Visit Your Parks,
which enables users to search for park facilities by theme as well as location.
For example, you can check off a box for presidents, click on search, and
browse a list of national parks dedicated to U.S. presidents, or you can
develop a list of Civil War-related parks. Each item on a list links to
the Web site generated by that park and includes visitor information.
"It improves our service to the public by making information dissemination
easier and much more immediate," he said. "It's amazing the numbers of people
coming in every day — globally — and we get information to them immediately
that normally they would have to request in writing."