|
Videos
September 8, 2011 By Chad Vander Veen
Should government websites feature ads? Is advertising on government websites even legal? City of Reno web manager Kristy Fifelski - a.k.a. GovGirl - tackles this issue in one of her latest videos.
You may use or reference this story with attribution and a link to
http://www.govtech.com/e-government/Should-Government-Websites-Have-Advertisements.html
.jpg)
What is Big Data? What can it do for you? 
Discover the BI capabilities you already own.
Morning An item to consider is the equity issue -- which ad are you, as a govenment agency, going to deny
@Joseph Definitely another angle that opens up a can of worms! Here in Reno, Nevada, we have several 'adult oriented' businesses that are fully licensed, pay their taxes - even have billboards. What if they wanted to pay for an ad on our government website? What do we do?
It is my observation that the code used in ads tends to push the envelope on computer browser software, etc. This can have an adverse impact on usability of the web site as a whole. (Nearly all of the web sites that I have usability issues with are unusable due to hostile code in the ads.) If the site is mission critical for governmental activities (such as used in tax collection) then the site (including any posted ads) needs to be thouroughly verified for ALL common browsers (IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera, and if accessability is important Lynx). Failure to do this and to provide a properly verified and accessable web site needs to be grounds for exemption from the web site's mission (such as tax payment).