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Peterborough Community Website -
www.peterborough.net - is celebrating ten years
online!
In June 1998 there was a tidal wave
in New Guinea, and in Jamaica the citizens were raising a stink
about a sewage problem. However, at the same time something very
good was happening in Peterborough. The team at InternetNow! were
busy developing and creating a new website to provide an online
presence for the City and surrounding area.
This new portal site went live in
June 1998. A site that previously existed, Citygate, had primarily
covered the City’s history, when it closed around the same time the
new InternetNow! site became the only online resource dedicated to
the Peterborough Community.
InternetNow! specifically aimed to
build an online community that was about what is happening today
rather than the past; content that was for the community, about the
community and, hopefully, part of the community. This is an aim that
has remained current throughout the decade and continues.
Content Editor Jenny Mogford said:
“It was an uphill task at the beginning sourcing content. It’s quite
amazing to think that when we started there were no local newspaper
sites; there wasn’t even a City Council site. There were fewer
internet users in general and many of our visitors accessed the web
from their workplace or from a library.
“I remember we all got very excited
when we hit 500 visitors per month and we were really thrilled to
see people posting on our message board, building the first threads
on what would eventually become our very busy Forum.”
The wide adoption of the
Peterborough Community Website Forum as a popular place for local
people to exchange sometimes controversial views and ideas may well
have contributed to the site’s early success.
Today Peterborough Community Website
attracts a regular audience in excess 55,000 visitors who view more
than half a million pages each month, which include discussions in
the forum area, magazine style articles, a comprehensive directory
of local websites, job vacancies, news, what’s on and more.
“We definitely believe we have a lot
to celebrate and we are going to make a year of it. We are putting
our heads together to come up with some very special offers and we
intend to run some memorable competitions throughout the period.
Obviously, we wanted to start off in style, so it had to be
Champagne!” Jenny concluded.
Why not join in and help
Peterborough Community Website celebrate by entering the 10th
Anniversary Champagne Draw?
END
jm/tenyears0608
10/06/2008 |
