In 2000, the World Teleport Association named the city of LaGrange, Georgia, the Intelligent City of the Year for its Internet initiatives. LaGrange selected Resident Interactive to implement its Digital Village platform to 100s of interconnected communities, civic associations, schools, churches and government agencies.    LaGrange, Georgia, is located 50 minutes south of the Atlanta Airport. The city was named Intelligent City of the Year by the World Teleport Association for its Internet initiatives. LaGrange is also the first to offer internet access to its citizens via its LaGrange internet TV initiative. This initiative allows each resident who has cable TV to log into the internet.    Most homeowner's associations are essentially mini-governments that do not interface with each other or with the local government they reside in. Many residents who want to become involved in their homeowner's association and/or their local government find it difficult because of their busy schedules and the lack of effective communications tools designed for facilitating local groups.    The advent of the internet and the development of sophisticated packages from companies like Resident Interactive have allowed city governments like LaGrange to implement a network of secure intranets for the entire city and every organization within it's boundaries.    In March of 2001, LaGrange partnered with Resident Interactive to implement hundreds of interconnected intranets and websites for the city's 25,000 residents. Intranets were developed for every school, church, homeowner's association and government agency in the city. Since the first phase of the implementation, Resident Interactive has leveraged the technology used in the LaGrange project to create the first release of the Digital Village platform. The Digital Village provides a platform for interconnecting hundreds or even thousands of intranets. The interconnections include peer-to-peer relationships between nearby communities and a parent child relationship between the LaGrange Master intranet and hundreds of underlying intranets. Examples of these interconnections include the following: • Classified ads posted to a neighborhood intranet can also be posted to the city intranet • Opinion polls posted to the city intranet can be posted to hundreds of underlying intranets • Articles that relate to nearby neighborhoods can be posted to their peer groups    The benefits for LaGrange residents include the following: • The new system shortens the time it takes for local issues to become addressed by the citizens of LaGrange • The intranets allow neighborhoods to form coalitions so that they voice their opinions on various subjects that effect their property values • Residents can customize their personal calendars with feeds from communities of interest (e.g. Local Church, Schools and Neighborhood)    Future enhancements of the Digital Village platform include the following: • A Merchant Village for participating businesses