There's more to us than curling . . . (News/Media Online - General)

Member Name: Aspen

Product:	News/Media Online - General
Date:	16/12/02 (130 review reads)
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I make no apology for endorsing my local community website.

From humble beginnings in 1999, with an ambition only to serve the local community, caithness.org has marched on to be a world player.

This is a site run entirely by volunteers, yet is currently attracting over five million hits per month. And perhaps more significantly, is attracting over 1.5 million page views per month.

Parochial it is not. Granted, the front page is full of local news, available much more quickly than the local press can achieve. And, granted, much of the content is locally-orientated, which is exactly what a community website should be about.

Bur through user-friendly indexing, and excellent links, caithness.org provides access to everything which is happening around the globe.

For me, this is what sets caithness.org apart from other community websites. It manages to combine local interest with world interest.

Perhaps this is why it was elected Site of the Year 2001 in the Yell.com awards.

I quote:

?SITE OF THE YEAR

Winner ? Caithness Community (www.caithness.org)
Caithness won top spot because of its ability to punch above its weight. Created in February 1999 bay a father and son team (the former coming out of early retirement), along with a few volunteers, the site manages to combine the freshness of grass-roots activism with a high degree of professionalism. Originally intended just for people in the UK?s most northerly mainland county, it quickly outgrew this role, with the web site's exhaustive content and commerce attracting a global audience.?


And it was also elected Site of the Month in the Mirror in Dec 2001, an achievement picked up on by Simon Mayo at BBC FiveLive. (www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/mayo/traffic_tv.shtml)

Nowadays, traffic to the site far exceeds that in the days of these awards. This is a site growing, and growing in confidence.

The growth is part
ly explained by the non-parochial enthusiasm of the team behind it, and the open-mindedness and ambition to be not just a local site, but a little bit more.

The use of photographs on the front page ? regularly updated, often twice a day ? is undoubtedly a major factor.

Archives on the site are a tourist?s dream and wish-list. A little bit of browsing will throw up photos and information on historical and recreational sites and activities in the North of Scotland which the Tourist Authorities have barely touched upon.

I could use up lots of words describing what you can find on this site, but I?d far rather you just went and had a look at www.caithness.org.


Bill and Niall Fernie deserve all the kudos which come their way. The fact that Bill Fernie was voted Caithness Citizen of the Year in 2001, is testament to the value if this community website locally. And recognition of the site?s achievements on the global internet.



(Forgive me if this is in an inappropriate category. I searched for "community websites", and failed. The fact that these days I find it increasingly difficult to find categories on DY, or indeed to find anything I want, is understandably connected to my advancing senility. And my irregular visits. I am in no way suggesting that the DY of today is virtually un-navigable. Or even -navigatable.)


(c) Mike Clark 2002

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