American Community Network:

ACN was an online subscription service for economic development information introduced by Tower Publishing of Memphis, TN. The publisher's customers were chambers of commerce as well as economic development organizations. ACN later moved on to Vulcan Publications of Birmingham, AL, where it became ACNOdyssey. In the process of going out of business, Vulcan passed ACNOdyssey on to Field Media of Alpharetta, GA where a connection with a website called bizsitesDATA came into play. The trail of ACN came to an end shortly after that.

In its final phase of operating as a data broker, ACNOdyssey published a sample webpage showing its interpretation of ... data points typically used in the location identification process ... (source of quote). The webpage no longer exists but most of its content as related to items of location data was salvaged. Also, a quote from the introduction of the sample page, which identifies its resource as ACNDataPoints, is published along with the salvaged information.

biz Miner:

Among its other business research and information development offerings, Biz Miner includes limited community profiles, for example covering demographics and overviews of local enterprise vitality. Biz Miner sells research guides for small businesses. Services are marginal in terms of the definition of location data supplier in the .network glossary. Jon Bran dow of Camp Hill, PA owns the operation which was brought to our attention in the early days of The Network by Business Know-How ... small business website for home offices and small businesses. Owned by Attar Communications, Inc. (of Center each, NY). Enterprise developers will likely be more interested in the two websites mentioned here as opposed to site selectors looking for community profiles and local economic development data to support comparative analyses.

bizsitesData.com:

CLICK HERE to access news releases dated in 2003 regarding the acquisition of ACNOdyssey by Doug Field. Subsequently Field formed a working relationship Plants Sites & Parks magazine. The relationship brought www.bizsitesData.com resources together with those of ACNOdyssey for a short time. The magazine ceased publication in 2004.

According to a quote from a ACNDataPoints webpage, Field Media and PS&P attempted to go along with the creation of site selection standards by the Site Selection Task Force.

Examples of ACNDataPoints:

Various categories of location data more recently taken from publications and websites of area and local development contacts are listed in About Site Selection (page 2). Also, more information is available on the Site Selection Data Standards used as a reference to develop ACNDataPoints.

demographics

households

migration (in-migration / out-migration) migration defined

households

education

community colleges

four-year institutions

vocational/technical colleges

labor force

commute times

employment by industry

employment by occupation

labor participation

unemployment

workforce education

power cost

power cost

quality of life

air pollution (see ambient) air quality defined ambient air defined

health care defined air pollution defined

housing

salaries

clerical

information technology

professional

semi-skilled

skilled

technical

unskilled

taxes and incentives

corporate income tax

incentives

personal income tax

sales tax

unemployment insurance

worker's compensation

transportation

bonded warehouses

commercial airports

The following quote, originally a part of the information above, is no longer available online.

A committee composed of economic developer associations and site selection consultants developed the industry standard for economic development data. According to this task force, every community needs to have a certain set of data to help prospects in their decision making process. After three years of study, the task force finalized the Site Selection Data Standard template. ACNOdyssey. has expanded upon the Site Selection Data Standard template, providing data that is critical to site selectors and economic developers. ACNOdyssey. has licensed the required data from the industry's leading data providers and named this product ACNDataPoints. ACNDataPoints averages 2,500 data elements, per community, ranging from demographic data to union information.

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Conway Data, Inc of Norcross, GA is known for the association management services it provides for the Industrial Asset Management Council (IAMC) and provided to its predecessor organization the International Development Research Council (IDRC) as well as the World Development Federation (WDF). CDI is also the publisher of Site Selection magazine. In addition, it provides specialized media and other services which qualify it as a location information broker. The CDI website states that ... Conway Data launched SiteNet, the first electronic network for the economic development industry, in 1983 and continues to pioneer with the Site Selection Online Insider, Development Alliance, and other leading edge online media services.

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The Site Selection Network was administered by Location Management Services, Mission Viejo, CA for the National Association of Manufacturers at last check. The consultation firm apparently offers SSN services within the context of a location information broker of sorts. Also at last check associations such American Hotel and Lodging Association, American International Automobile Dealers and the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR) were invited into the program. The SSN focus is on real estate sites and available buildings with ancillary location data offered for a fee that is either a direct or portion of a dues payment as an association benefit. From the quote below it appears that the information available is limited to only those who pay to provide it, suggesting that an enterprise developer wanting a thorough, unbiased, site search would need to hire the consultant.

Site Selection Network members (economic developers, utilities, state departments, regional groups, rural electric coops, and real estate brokers) pay an annual membership fee for the opportunity to respond to SSN searches ... (source of the quote).

CLICK HERE for information about the Site Selection Directory. It is a service similar to what NAMSSN once offered, except clearly more cost effective for those who want to gather information about places of interest as site selectors. The Network/SSD had been around since the the mid-1990s using the Web. Services offered with the directory can protect confidential plans and activities as well as any. Forty years of experience in enterprise development and site selection services that lead to economic development are behind the SSD. Economic developers are in many cases the most qualified location data suppliers.

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