About Everything Exmoor

Summary - The Everything Exmoor Community Project

www.everythingexmoor.org.uk

PROJECT OVERVIEW for Everything Exmoor

This web site is designed to be a' loose leaf encyclopedia' of any information connected with Exmoor. It covers every aspect of Exmoor. No charges are made to individuals or businesses to add any amount of information to any part of the web site. All the information is provided 'by the Community for the Community' so eventually it will become a repository of accumulated local knowledge that will build year-on-year to a huge data-bank about life on Exmoor.

Web Site Aims

It aim is to provide both social and economic benefits::

Social benefit

- a huge resource of information for people living on Exmoor

- the opportunity for people to add their own knowledge and experience

- the opportunity to capture social and cultural information that, in time, might otherwise be lost

- to provide a research tool about greater Exmoor

- a source of information for visitors to the area

- a signposting service to all the other web sites offering Exmoor information

- a way to further develop the entusiasm people have about living on Exmoor

- a searchable business directory to encourage people to buy goods and services from Exmoor related businesses

- if successful, a model which could be adopted by other similar communities



Economic benefits

- a source of information for visitors to the area

- a signposting service to all the other commercial and public web sites offering Exmoor information

- encouragement and support for economic activity on Exmoor

- a searchable business directory to encourage people to buy goods and services from Exmoor

- a comprehesive events calendar to encourage local people and touists to events

- if required pages specifically directed toward encouaging tourism



Charges

There are none at all. All this is offered as a FREE service to benefit Exmoor

The Structure

The web site comprises three main sections which are interlinked:

- Community pages witha wealth of information and photos sent in people

- Business Directory available to all businesses to provide all with a web presence

- Events diary to which anyone can add greater exmoor events



The Community Pages

The Community Pages section is infinitely expandable to accommodate information on any topic connected with Exmoor. People and businesses are invited through the Everything Exmoor web site to send in suggestions for new pages, followed by text and pictures. All the content for the web site will come from the public, businesses and public organisations.

Over time, the site will build into a huge repository of information about life on Exmoor. For example, there may be pages on subjects as diverse as:

• snail spotting in a pond at Withypool
• peoples' favourite walks at Wimbleball
• rural transport between villages
• holiday attractions in Dunster
• hand crafted paper making in Roadwater
• childhood reminiscences of growing up on Exmoor
• Exmoor folklore

Any topic, relevant to life on Exmoor, will be accepted. People's name and email address will be used as a credit to their article if they want the publicity.

Over time, this web site should build into a huge research resource for anyone living on Exmoor or visiting the area.

There is already a vast range of excellent public and commercial web sites covering countless areas of interest on Exmoor. The Everything Exmoor web site will not attempt to replace any of these resources but will signpost people to them and in the process, hopefully, direct more visitors to these sites. For example, Active Exmoor covers the area of sport and activity very effectively and so Everything Exmoor would just provide a basic description of each sport available and then refer people to the detailed information Active Exmoor offers. However, Everything Exmoor would be available if someone wanted information on the web that could not be placed into any other existing website.

The Business Directory

Business Directories are common-place on the web and already cover many sections of Exmoor business. There are:

• specialist directories e.g. tourist accommodation sites for Exmoor e.g. www.exmoor-accommodation.co.uk
• geographical directories covering parts of Exmoor e.g. www.wiveliscombe.com/business_directory/accommodation
• national business directories covering Exmoor e.g. www.yell.com

These are usually commercial ventures. Businesses have in some way to pay to get into the directory either for a basic listing or to get other than the bare minimum of information included. The aim of Everything Exmoor is to get every business based on Exmoor or offering local services to Exmoor to be listed. As it is totally free this is a realistic possibility.

Everything Exmoor offers a Business Directory that is specific to this area and covers all categories of business activity. It is both free of cost and very well specified. It plans to include every business from the part-time, one-person business to the largest of businesses. All get the same comprehensive, extremely well-specified listing. Larger busines are often comprehensively exposed on the web but there are still a lot of small businesses in the Exmoor area that have either no web presence or an ineffective site. Everything Exmoor gives a bigger voice to these small businesses at no cost to the business. If these small businesses start to get mosre custom through the Business Listing then it may encourage them to develop their own effective web marketing.

The Everything Exmoor site will not replace any existing Business Directories or web sites but will signpost people to all the other Directories covering Exmoor and so support them by guiding more people to them.

Businesses who have listed themselves on Everything Exmoor have' pass-word- protected' access to their Everything Exmoor Business Listing and can change the text, images and offeris as often as they wish.

Businesses can include in their details:

• listings in up to 10 categories e.g. an Exmoor farm may appear under the four categories of farm and self-catering holiday accommodation and camping and organic food shops
• approximately a 175 word description of their goods and services
• a live link to their own web site
• full contact details address, phone, fax, mobile, email etc
• up to 10 photos
• a logo or picture for their listing summary
• a Document Gallery where they can place Word and PDF documents stored on Everything Exmoor that their customers can download e.g.' full price lists' or' product documentation manuals' etc
• a find-us Google map to their premises
• a quick-contact-link so that customers can immediately contact the business
• a mail to a friend link to encourage people to let their friends know about  a particular business
• comprehensive protection of email addresses from being harvested by spam spiders
• useful facts for their customers such as opening hours, date the business was established, number of employees etc
• a buy and sell section - businesses can list their specific products and services for sale and show details connected with them. They can also list items they wish to purchase from others

customer feedback on businesses - customers can Rate a business with 1 to 5 stars and also Write a Review of the business ( this is checked by the editor before going live)

What further help is required?

1. Publicity

To be successful this project needs publicity. Since ALL the content is derived from the Community, Business and Public Sector then people need to know of the existence of the Everything Exmoor web site. Only then can they contribute the items that they feel will be of benefit to those living on Exmoor. Publicity is particularly vital to try and get the personal reminiscences and anecdotes that will build the site into a valuable on-line historical archive about Exmoor.

• Can you help by adding a link to Everything Exmoor from any web sites you run?
• Can you spread knowledge of Everything Exmoor to your friends and colleagues?
• Can you get the Everything Exmoor web address www.everythingexmoor.org.uk mentioned in printed magazines, newspapers, leaflets, posters etc?
• Can you get any press articles published about the Everything Exmoor project?

2. Web site Content

• Can you suggest or add information to the existing Everything Exmoor pages?
• Can you suggest new page topics on Everything Exmoor?

3. Involvement

• Would you like to be involved in the Everything Exmoor project?

Finance

This site has been developed on a voluntary basis and the development and running costs of this web site are being provided by myself. As a private individual, I only have the proverbial 'shoestring-budget' and, for example, there is no way that I would ever be able to finance publicity about the site.

I also have a day-job and so this site is run in my spare-time!

If you could be able to contribute to running costs then your assistance would be very much appreciated. We would be pleased to offer you a written credit on the site for any financial or technical assistance offered.

General Points

As Everything Exmoor is not a commercial venture and is designed to support all the existing web sites and businesses on Exmoor then it is hoped that it will be widely accepted and encouraged. Everything Exmoor is not linked to any commercial venture and is designed solely to help the Exmoor Community.

If the site proves to be very popular then the only limiting factor will be the time available for the volunteer editor to process the incoming information. Any offers of help to assist in editing the site as it grows in popularity would be greatly appreciated.

Background

Thank you for reading this summary, I hope you found it interesting.

I am very committed to this Everything Exmoor Project and see it potentially as a real social and economic asset for Exmoor.

If you would like any other information then please contact me.

Robert Edwards
Treborough

01984 641225

Contact Everything Exmoor