Nairnscotland.co.uk is the Nairn internet portal that time forgot, just look at these two screenshots in this post . According to this website John Matheson is still a councillor and Sandy is the Provost. Now we all know that Sandy has gone on to greater things and Liz is now our Provost and Graham Marsden is the new kid on the block. Might be a good idea to tell the world?
It all started so well too, just look at the claims made in a
Highland Council press release in 2004. Why, after so much time, trouble and investment has this site been allowed to fall into disuse, the painfully obvious danger of letting things fall away was well aware to those who contributed to the press release, one of them is quoted as saying:"The website creates a new shop window for Nairn to show what is (sic) has to offer to the world. It is essential that it is kept up-to-date and lively with the latest information. The local community can help by contributing news and ideas; it is their community website."
The reality? Well it seems nothing of interest has happened in Nairn since April 2007 (including the local government elections). Time to send for Mulder and Sculley to get to the bottom of this enigma?
The site has a page called ‘Nairn means business’, well lets hope nobody looking to do business here looks at the Diary of events which hasn’t got past April 2007. Something that should be a community resource is rapidly becoming a community embarrassment.
Time to update the site or pull the plug? Who is responsible for allowing Nairnscotland.co.uk to fall so far behind? Update: Bill has been researching:
'I see this website is registered in the name of an outfit called 'Digital Routes' operating out of a business park in Elgin; it is obviously a commercial outfit (not that there need be any problem with that of course) with no official status. The website itself contains no contact information that I can see, merely an 'online survey' which respondents are asked to complete and send to who knows where.'
Thanks Bill, that lack of contact information is worrying, however this site was set up with funding from Highland Council and Inverness and Nairn Enterprise and listings are free and presumably would still be so if anyone should ever bother to update information.
7 comments:
says it all?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A266870
Best go to visitnairn.com and ask them to list your event!
As a frequent visitor to Nairn I used to browse this site just to look at the snippets of news headlines that were included every week from The Nairnshire, to keep up with local events. When they stopped recently I gave up on the site. It's difficult to get local news outwith the comment on The Gurn, an opportunity there for someone maybe ?
He (or they) who pay the piper should be calling the tune.
If this site was set up with funds from Highland Council and Inverness and Nairn Enterprise (who they?), then presumably these distinguished organisations were shrewd enough, and sufficiently competent, to stipulate what the site-creators/managers had to deliver in return. It's called performance-monitoring.
So what are these bodies doing to check on what was or is being done with their money? Or are they content for some digital smooth operator to simply take their money and run?
Good evening Nairn Bairn. According to a source the problem seems to be with the Highland Council in that they have no one available to update the site.
From what I read the Inverness central coffers of local government money have been credit crunched when it comes to handing out donations to the likes of Nairn.
Funds for keeping a website up to date that would quite possibly attract more monies for the town through tourism and business are clearly not high on the budget.
Much better for Nairn to have a historical web presence?
Looks like it is over to you all at the Gurn to keep us up to date!
"According to a source the problem seems to be with the Highland Council in that they have no one available to update the site."
This simply sounds like a lack of organisation on the part of HC. Updating a website takes little effort - the main issue is more a Legal & Compliance issue (ie, editorial approval of content) but even that should not be a difficult process.
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