FROM THE EDITOR

Once upon a time my desk drawers overflowed with floppy disks.

Authors sent me one, sometimes two at a time in the mail along with printed copies of their articles. I'd copy files to a floppy for my office-mates, trot over to their desks, push in the floppy and save the file on their computers. Then I'd walk the five miles back to my office, uphill, in the snow.

That's the way we did it in the old days. Now, for me, it's all about e-mail, jpg and pdf files, and CD-Rs.

Earlier this year I called Kathleen Geatches, marketing and public relations manager for the Homewood Flossmoor Park District, because the district's Racquet and Fitness Club won three tennis awards and I thought the announcement in People and Places begged for a photo of the facility.

She said sweetly, "It's a nice day outside, I'll take a (digital) photo and e-mail it to you this afternoon."

Richard Goldberg, IT manager for the Skokie Park District, sent me an e-mail with a voice message attachment file that he recorded while driving in his car. (Very cool.) He used a technology called "Voice-over-IP" or Internet Protocol.

For this issue of Illinois Parks & Recreation, Jeff Murphy, a software developer for Lord & Murphy, Inc., surveyed a sampling of park districts to determine exactly how technology has changed the park and recreation workplace (see story on page 19).

Registration, marketing, publications, accounting, basic communications among staffs and boards—all have been affected. Agency Web sites allow residents to register for classes, change and drop classes, request refunds and even manage their own accounts.

Author Chip Collis, commissioner for the Elmhurst Park District and software developer for BankOne, calls these Web features "e-gizmos" and shares the basics of a park district Web presence on page 15.

For more on e-government, check out Government Technology magazine at www.govtech.net.

ANN M. LONDRIGAN
Editor

4 ¦ Illinois Parks and Recreation