Community Resources Information, Inc. (CRI) is interested in licensing the www.MassResources.org web site as a template to not-for-profit organizations in other states. Such an arrangement would enable organizations in other communities to rather quickly replicate the MassResources.org web site for their state at a small fraction of the development cost of the original site. The design and format of the Massachusetts web site, information on federally funded programs (e.g., food stamps, tax credits, WIC, TANF, Section 8 subsidized housing, etc.), and its technological features can be kept intact with very few modifications needed for a different state. As the needs of low-income individuals and families and the programs that assist them are quite similar across America, organizations in other states could greatly reduce the time, effort, and money necessary to develop a web site for their state by using MassResources.org as a template. Once a copy of the Massachusetts web site has been made, tailoring a web site for a new area entails changing information on state specific and local programs as well as names and addresses of local government agencies and service provider organizations. This involves a modest amount of effort, but far less than starting from scratch. It is also necessary to create a new identity for the web site, which is a fairly simple task.

CRI, Inc. will license the web site template for a reasonable fee (depending upon the size of the state) to one organization (or a partnership of organizations) per state. This organization would have exclusive rights to be the steward of the web site for their state provided it has a feasible plan for developing and maintaining the web site and adheres to standards concerning the accuracy and suitability of content that is provided on the web site. CRI, Inc. intends to oversee the hosting of each web site, but leave it to the licensee to develop and operate the new web site on an ongoing basis. This approach was followed in New Mexico, leading to the www.NewMexicoResources.org web site.

CRI, Inc. can offer technical assistance in helping organizations tailor the MassResources.org web site for its particular locale. When given administrative access to a new copy of the template website, the text of the new web site can be easily edited from most any computer terminal which has Internet access, making it quite easy to create a comparable web site for a different state. While much of the work necessary to change content for a new state can be accomplished without the assistance of CRI, Inc. or highly skilled local web site programmers, we can assist in this tailoring process, should that be desired. Also, because we have operated our own community and statewide web sites since 2001, we are able to share our experience in promoting use and acceptance of such web sites.

Finally, an additional benefit of licensing from CRI, Inc. is that continued efforts will be made to improve the technological features of the web site and develop additional content, thereby enabling organizations in other states to benefit from upgraded web site features and new content as they become available.