immediately thought of another
nonprofit organization that I had worked with in the
past; the Virginia Electronic Commerce Technology
Center (VECTEC) at Christopher Newport University. I
had worked with VECTEC in 1994 when the city of Williamsburg
wanted to build their first website and I knew that
there was no one better when it came to developing
websites for non-profit organizations. I contacted
their director, Bill Muir, and asked for both his
guidance and assistance on this project. Bill and his
staff were happy to help and we had overcome our first
major challenge; finding both a host and developer for
the new site.
The second challenge was very
fundamental; Don was going to be gathering and
coordinating much of the content for the site and he
did not have the tools he needed to make this happen. I
found myself providing “down in the
trenches” basics that gave me a sense of
involvement every step of the way. I was able to assist
Don in getting a used laptop computer, finding a
scanner and helping him setup what he needed to handle
all of the elements that he was managing.
The third challenge came when we
sat down and began looking at the existing historical
websites in Purcellville and how we could improve on what
was currently offered. It became very clear that we had
our work cut out for us!! We wanted to incorporate new
elements into the site including a photo gallery, video
clips, sound clips, interactive maps and historical
content updates, but none of those existed on the
current site. How would we go about gathering all of
the information? This became one of the most rewarding
parts of our journey. We began contacting various individuals
and groups to solicit their assistance with the site.
The amount of support that
