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About theplacetobe.net partnership

"theplacetobe.net seeks to improve the quality of online information available to people living and working in Brighton and Hove, by working in conjunction with local public, private and community organisations that provide information of use or relevance to the local community"

Taken from the objects of theplacetobe.net partnership, February 2003

The search engine is run by a unique not-for-profit business called theplacetobe.net, set up by eight local partners: The Argus, Brighton & Hove City Council, Brighton & Hove CIty Primary Care Trust [NHS], Sussex Community Internet Project [SCIP], University of Brighton, University of Sussex, University of Sussex, Virtual Brighton and Wired Sussex.

The vision for theplacetobe.net grew from the successful Place To Be city-status campaign, which secured city status for Brighton and Hove at the turn of the Millennium. A number of partners involved in that campaign agreed to work together to improve local online information. Central Government grant was awarded for three areas of work:

• a search engine that only searches information from Brighton & Hove;
• research into local information needs;
• creating Brighton & Hove community server to support local not for profit organisations.

Innovation in information services

The search engine has remained the centrepiece of the partnership's work. Experts from the partner organisations worked together to design a structure for the proposed search engine and produce a functional specification. This laid the foundations for the technical development of the project and underlined the collaborative spirit of the partnership.

In January 2005 the partnership bought a Google Search Appliance to power the search engine. This is a high quality search product typically used in large enterprises but ideally suited to the needs of the partners. It is used in two ways:

• to provide a central search engine site at p2b.net;
• to provide high quality search facilities on each of the partner sites.

The start of something new

The new search site at p2b.net was launched to partners in June 2005 and has now been added to seven of the eight partner sites. Click here to find out more about adding search to partner sites.

A full public launch is set for Npovember 10th 2005.Having tested the systems using the partner's websites the next step is to start adding as much useful local content as possible. It is estimated that there may be as many 500 local web sites and the aim is to continue to grow organically in a way which produces a high quality information resource as well as building the network of local information providers.

The partnership is currently developing a more strategic picture of how information and communications technology can meets the needs of the city. Similar work has already started in other cities - the most notable example being London Connects - and it is hoped that this strategy will bring benefits across the business, public and community sectors.

Mark Walker of SCIP [ Sussex Community Internet Project] has taken a leading role in developing the partnership the individual projects and continues to provide a central point of contact for future developments.