Dot-com makes site customizable

CivicLife.com, a start-up that is building a World Wide Web portal to provide information and transactions for all civic institutions, has partnered with SilverStream Software Inc. to enable individual consumers to customize the site.

Following a trend in public and private portals to allow consumers to tailor sites to their needs, CivicLife.com's move is an attempt to make its site as user-friendly as possible, said Dave DeRosa, vice president of marketing.

"We're trying to make it as personal as possible and let civic organizations create a channel to their world which individuals could sign up for," he said.

CivicLife.com aims to help people access information and conduct transactions with all levels of government agencies, community organizations and businesses.

With SilverStream's ePortal product, CivicLife.com will enable users to choose from a variety of "channels," depending on what information they want to access regularly. Electronic government services — tied directly into the government's back-end computer systems — will also be available if governments work with the company.

The portal will be rolled out at the beginning of 2001, DeRosa said.

CivicLife.com is based in Redwood City, Calif., and Ottawa, Canada, and is working to build portals to serve both countries. SilverStream specializes in e-business applications and is based in Burlington, Mass.