The local neighborhood goes digital: CoreMedia expands Hamburg.de into an interactive city portal

Hamburg, July 31, 2008 – Hamburg.de, the City of Hamburg’s official web presence, has been re-launched as an entirely new site. In providing its CMS and Social Software Extension as the basis for the relaunch, CoreMedia, international provider of people-centric™ content management software, has ensured that this digital window onto the city offers its users more interaction than ever before.

While including the usual information for Hamburg tourists and citizens, Hamburg.de now lets its users contribute directly to the site: user profiles can be used to display video and image content, while comments and ratings can be given for specific articles. CoreMedia’s software makes it possible for users of Hamburg.de to not only pool their knowledge but also communicate it. This leads to the discovery of similarities between themselves and their fellow citizens, creating digital neighborhoods. Implementation partners for this project were tallence and w//center – both CoreMedia partners.

The new Hamburg.de site is also notable for its deep integration of e-government services with editorial content. When users show interest in a certain city borough, for example, a variety of services are offered – ranging from registration forms for moving house to neighborhood medical practices or recommendations for jogging routes.

“At the present date there is not a single city portal in Europe that offers user interaction,” comments Georg Konjovic, CEO of Hamburg.de. “However, on Hamburg.de, users can involve themselves in creating content as easily as they can read it. That is a landmark achievement.”

Sören Stamer, CEO and co-founder of CoreMedia, adds: “Hamburg.de is now one of the most cutting-edge city portals in the world. The website not only informs its users – it also portrays the collective knowledge of the people who live here. Hamburg.de is a true Web 2.0 portal.”

A video interview between Georg Konjovic (Hamburg.de) and Lars Seebach (Delivery Manager at CoreMedia) discussing the Hamburg.de relaunch is available for download at http://webtv.coremedia.com/site/index.html/2016/ssr8RlbiiezDIhT1.