READ: Our first online essay in 1997

Seven years and four months after the release of the original web site, SeacoastNH.com has done it again. The first phase of a complete overhaul has begun. Version 2.0 was released in April 2004 to the cyber cheers and applause of thousands of daily visitors.

"It’s a great day for the Web," said "Admiral" JD Robinson as the streamlined regional resource slid gently onto the Internet. "It was a complex and time-consuming refit, but the new version is a hundred times more flexible, faster too."

"Captain" Louise Giordani notes that SeacoastNH 2.0 is much more navigable. Advertising can now be targeted to sections and content. Key menus appear on all pages and can be changed from a central database. Thousands of pages of history in the cargo hold can be retrieved quickly and intuitively. Ken Mitchell’s "Best Seacoast Forecast" is now just a click away from every content page.

Other new features include the use of reader photos in the MAIL section, feedback forms, "This Just In" updates on every page, a scaled array of advertising options, new weekly editorial and event sections, RSS information delivery ability, top level navigation, print-this-page ability, scalable style sheets, large "What’s New" items on the homepage, and much more.

"And this is just the beginning, Giordani says proudly. "We have dozens of new features and content sections in development already."

Chief Engineer Norman O’Neill notes that the new improved portal is built in an "open source" code, rather than the old-fashioned html system, or one of the new costly content management formats.

"This guppy will do Warp Speed when we get her into open ocean," O’Neill says. "The open source system brings along a whole crew of programmers constantly re-designing the engine and providing support. This is where the Web is headed!"

The new open source "shell" now manages the 7,000 pages of archived content, but that material will, over time, be migrated onto the databased site. Meanwhile, new features will begin appearing almost immediately. New contributors to the site will be able to enter content from their own computers and see the formatted pages instantly, removing the need for webmaster maintenance.

"It’s a brave new Web," Robinson says. "And pass the champagne."