City Launches Destination College Park Website
July 29th, 2008 | by Christopher Warren | Published in General College Park | 1 Comment
In June, the City of College Park officially launched an interactive website to increase the visibility of its local businesses. The new website, located at http://www.shopcollegepark.org, is a one- stop source of up- to- date information on city businesses, events, and attractions.
The website is the culmination of a six- month collaborative effort between the City and the Downtown College Park Management Authority (DCPMA), an organization of merchants in downtown College Park. The developers of the website are Geocentric, a start- up software and map services company, and King Cow, a web & print designers collective. The Anacostia Trails Heritage Area (ATHA), a grassroots organization dedicated to strengthening the image and economy of northern Prince George’s County, provided a matching grant to fund the site.
July 31st, 2008 at 1:43 pm (#)
Looks like a nice site, but seems to still need a lot of work. The MARC stations (Greenbelt and College Park) are not identified, nor is the 94th Aero Squadran near the airport or the Potbelly’s and other stores near IKEA (except for Moe’s Southwest grill, I think Verizon should be right next to it?), nor are any bus routes identified. All of the buildings on campus are there (but not named) except for the veterinary area which isn’t there (http://www.vetmed.umd.edu/), it also includes a physics research building, information technology research building, and one other. Finally, the observatory is in fact across the street, what was identified is the USM central admin building. It’s cool that the farmer’s market is identified, but it doesn’t tell us when it is, even though repeating events like the astronomy open house (on the 5th and 20th of every month) are identified.
Kind of fitting for CP that when you click on parking it tells you, “There are currently no items in this category”! The entire “Getting Around” section does not appear to have any information (WMATA has at least 7 buses through CP, UMD’s shuttle, PGC’s TheBus). So many capital letters, but not a big deal.
I hate to say it, but the mapping interface is pretty inferior to what could be quickly (and automatically) made using GoogleMaps and a nice database (FYI Rethinkcollegepark’s map is a great use of Google’s technology).
Most importantly I think this website ignores one of the largest strengths of College Park, it’s community. By including Hyattsville, Berwyn Heights, Beltsville, Adelphi, University Park, and others ATHA would have gotten a site that better represents all the stores and services in this part of PG county and would have provided a better service to residents and visitors. By subcontracting for a nice calendar rather than a gigantic list of events, the huge list that will result during the school year will be much more manageable. This also could have been a really nice opportunity to partner with the university to replace the decrepit http://www.parking.umd.edu/themap Oh well, I hope this site continues to develop and improve!
Like or Dislike:
0 
0