HISC Website 10 years on . . .
2008 marks the tenth year of the HISC website. In 1998 the then Club manager, Adrian Ryan, asked me to set-up a website under the hisc.co.uk domain name for the club. This was a simple website providing basic club details and in the style of the web at that time, comprised of very basic html layout - See 1998 image below. If you drill down through some of the old race results you will still find pages laid out with the early configuration.
In the past nine years the website has grown, not only in content and frequency of update, but in the number of people using the website. Just as the Internet has taken over much of the burden as the major information source for our day-to-day lives, the HISC website has obviously become an important source of information for members and visitors.
In 2002, when statistics for the website were first recorded, visitors for the year were 95,068 an average of 7,900 per month and they looked at 200,581 pages of information.
In the year just ended, the website recorded 491,436 visits, an average of 40,953 per month and they looked at 1,026,555 pages of information.
The numbers fluctuate with the sailing season and the many Open events the Club runs provide big peaks in visitor numbers. The international events attract hits from all over the world - the small world map in the right-hand bottom corner of the News page provides a simple graphic of world-wide hits to the page.
With any news website, HISC would not be so successful without a constant stream of updated news and results. I have been fortunate in having considerable assistance with providing that information from the staff in the HISC Office and from individual members who have taken the time to send me news and images.
The website is playing an increasing part in the running of Club and Open events at HISC, with high levels of pre and post-event presentation the expected norm now. The Boats for Sale database has always been a very popular feature, the Crew List rather less so. The Accommodation Enquiry form is another popular item.
Recently an on-line database was added to make it easier for members to choose race duties, reducing the lottery basis of the old system. In the coming season most Open events will be pay-online entry and this will also allow the results programme to be populated earlier and more accurately as well as improving the handling of payments, especially from overseas entrants.
The improvement of information presentation for the media in relation to sailing events held at HISC is an area that has still to be tackled – most dinghy classes are woeful at handling the media for even quite important championships. The boom in sponsorship in the big boat world has driven a media feast, which has mostly passed the dinghy sector by – with the notable exception of the Olympic classes - an important area for a club that runs so many high profile events.
Keeping up with developments in technology is a daunting process, with the internet becoming available on a multitude of mobile devices, although the hype often runs well ahead of the reality. For HISC the aim has been to provide a reliable news and information website that also presents a picture of the club and the facilities available, both to members and visiting competitors. I like to think that we are on the right track.
The Internet is still a young technology and another ten years will see a very different HISC website, perhaps not in the content, but with more interactivity, easier updating and access via a wider range of devices.
Gerald New, HISCweb
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