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I recently set up the above internet site. There were three
steps to its birth. Firstly, during the past few months I taught myself a few
skills in website design, secondly I set up a site for the Millennium Way Relay
and thirdly I wanted to publish a Parish Walk database that I have been working
on for more than 10 years.
As soon as I registered the domain name (the bit that you
type into a computer after www to tell the computer where to look for the
computer files) I began to realise the massive scope for an information site
featuring Manx athletics. It will remain very much an amateur venture so,
although I will try and make the site look reasonably attractive, I will not be
competing with professional sites for design awards. The emphasis will be on
content rather than appearance. It will be privately funded.
Many of you already have computers at home (or have access
to the internet at work) and therefore need little explanation of the internet
itself. It is therefore easy to forget that the majority of households do not
have computers with internet access - yet. We have only seen the tip of the
iceberg. Within the next five years I am quite certain the internet will be
taken for granted in every household just as a TV and telephone are at present. Indeed the TV and telephone (including
mobile phones) will be two of the ways of accessing it.
The internet will not replace TV, radio, magazines and the
radio as a source of sporting information. The latter have many advantages.
Where the internet is superior is or will be superior, is access and storage.
If news of Manx athletics is available on the internet then it can be accessed
anywhere in the world. Within reason, reports and results can be stored on line
for ever, unlike a newspaper that must be thrown out or a TV report that can be
missed.
I am hoping that by visiting www.manxathletics.com you will
eventually be able to find all the information you require to take part in the
sport and to access important results. Although I have spent a lot of time
building databases of long establish events such as the Parish Walk and the End
to End Walk (and have several others planned), much of the information you will
be able to access will be held on other sites. For example, by double clicking
on a link you will be automatically directed to last year's Lancashire Cross
Country Results or the Athletics World Championship Results.
I would therefore be very interested to hear from anyone
who:
1.
Already has their own website - perhaps you have your
athletics CV or picture gallery on line. I can link it to manxathletics.com
2.
Can recommend other good athletics sites that can be linked.
3.
Can encourage your club to send results of their events to me
on the same day.
4.
Would like to research the history of a particular event.
Perhaps it could be a school project that I could put on line.
5.
Would be interested in publishing photographs of local events
and athletes.
6.
Would like to write a regular news column (racing plans,
injuries, informed speculation). This could be set up for you to publish
directly to the site.
There is a lot of work to be done to convert old race
results into a digital form. It would therefore be helpful if those people who
already use computers can make their submissions by way of computer files
(preferably HTML format but I can convert other formats). I will acknowledge
copyright of photographs, databases etc.
I hope you find the prospects as exciting as I do. If so, I
can be contacted by email ([email protected]),
by phone (01624 675536), by fax (01624 662185) or by conventional mail at
Milton House, Brunswick Road, Douglas, Isle of Man. IM2 3LFÂ…..and don't forget
to regularly check out the development of the site by logging onto www.manxathletics.com
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