clickityworld

Having been frustrated so many times by the dearth of available online accessible, updated and reliable local information I have been pondering and discussing this with many colleagues and acquaintances for years. I guess I was looking for a 'one-stop-shop' for everything that mattered and happened at a local level. Whether it be news, what's on/entertainment, local planning issues (probably just me!) along with the whole business directory/ recreation along with local services and information that helps to be a valuable resource when living or visiting a specific area. Also the area should be a bit more specific than Birmingham or Leeds etc. That has always seemed too big an area to cover fully.

It seemed that there must be a straight-forward reason why this has not been possible. I guess what I was after was a 'destination site' in the same way that I go to Amazon for books/small purchases, ebay for hard-to-find items, BBC for news and Google for search etc.

Researching other 'local sites' seemed to show that there were five basic types:

• pure business listings sites
• review-based sites
• high-cost franchise advertisement-led sites
• locally run sites that often are linked or connected to a local printed freesheet.
• official council sites
  

The business listing sites seemed ok as far as they went but there is so much more happening in a locality than plumbers and florists.

Review-based sites were never well enough supported so the odd review was of no use and also easily corrupted by individuals

Franchised advertisement-heavy sites never had enough useful content, often were not kept regularly updated, covered too large an area to provide in-depth content and often just seemed a vehicle to push advertising.

Locally run sites often were the best option being maintained by local residents who know the area well. By their very nature each one is different. The layout, information, integrity and how often content is updated vary enormously and they do not exist in every area.

Council sites cover a lot of ground and have a lot of valuable information but are not very customer-focussed and have a limited remit.

Having recently moved location and not really knowing much about my new area I guess I was looking for exactly as described above along with a combination of the five types too. Not being able to find it and considering the usefulness one site could have for a local community I set about building one with the further possibility of rolling it out further afield if it proved worthwhile.

24 months later http://www.clickityworld.com/ went live. Though it has been a long time in the pipeline it is far from the finished product. There are changes planned to the look of the site, content will be liable to being tweaked, moved or enhanced depending on users habits and feedback. I would ideally like to include lots of user-generated content and ideas to really tighten up the original concept.

There is lots of room for improvement within the site but also great possibilities and scope for making a difference to local familes, communities, organisations, companies and individuals.

This blog will be used to create a record for my use, explain what's happening behind the scenes and also to expose my failings!!

Thanks for reading, Guy