Webmaster's Page

Site owner
Finn Mauritzen
757 Macon Place
Uniondale, NY 11553
finn@11553.com
(516) 984-9209
Fax (775) 796-0505

Statistics

Purpose
This web site exists for two purposes:

1. To provide a single repository for information relevant to residents of Uniondale, New York.
2. To provide a project for me to enhance my skills as a web developer.

History
I started this site in July, 1999 as the culmination of my efforts to become a Microsoft Certified Web Designer using FrontPage 98.  The initial host, Arealcity, was chosen for no particular reason other than the fact that it is free.  Arealcity started tracking the number of visitors on September 16, 1999.  By January 16, 2000 we had reached 300 unique visitors who had downloaded 11MB.  While it is a goal to have every Uniondale household visit, it is equally important to provide the type of content that will compel them to return again and again.

Content
I chose the content based on what I thought might be of interest to Uniondale residents.  

Most other local area sites look like tourist brochures.  I don't believe we have any interest in attracting tourists to Uniondale.  Congestion is already a problem as it is.  In any event, as a  resident of Uniondale, you can seriously help shape this web site by making suggestions as to what kind of content you want.  Please encourage your church, civic association, sports club, etc. to submit their meeting schedules, results, etc.

I think Uniondale receives a large number of new residents each year.  It is important for us as well as our new neighbors that they quickly become active members of our community.  Therefore, I provide lists of:

1. Community Organizations
   A list of all organizations in Uniondale.  I know I missed some, so please help complete the list.  All organizations are encouraged to either provide content or information so I can link to their own existing site.
2. Elected Officials
   Our elected officials play a significant role in shaping the quality of life here in Uniondale.  It is our responsibility to make sure they know what we want.  I'll do my best to make sure that accurate and up-to-date contact information is available here.  Please help maintain the list. 
3. Houses of Worship
   Even here in Uniondale, a generally tranquil community, the ups and downs of life can take their tolls on us all.  Occasionally, we even get a whiff of the violence, bloodshed and other crimes of today's reality.  Keeping in mind that religion has been a factor in some of History's most ferocious wars, no matter what you believe in or not, the values taught by practically all religions work towards defeating those evils.  Take a moment and try it.  You will be surprised what it will do for you.  Even if you don't believe in a god, houses of worship are great places to pull over either for quiet reflection or community with others.  Again, please help keep the list complete by providing content or link information.

Future Content
I do have some ideas for future content, but I would really rather have suggestions from the community.

Design
While content is obviously more important than fancy design, I have tried to make it easy to find things on the site using FrontPage's navigation bars. 

1/22/00
I have found a host (5dollarhosting.com) which seems ideal for our purpose.  We can host a database which will enable us to become interactive.  We can have discussion groups, classified ads, etc.  Best of all, the cost is only $5 per month for the first 12 months with a $60 setup fee.  At that price we will be limited to 5MB of space which should be plenty for a while and we can buy more as needed.

The owner of www.uniondale.com is willing to sell it but at $7,500 we will have to look for alternatives.  Www.uniondaleny.com is now owned by the Uniondale School District.  I finally came up with www.11553.com as a reasonable solution.  It is short, easy to remember and relevant to the community.

3/14/00
We have been on the new host now for a couple of months and have only good experiences.  An initial problem with searching was resolved courteously and efficiently.

I have spent the past six months going to as many community meetings as I could and sending letters to community organizations to encourage them to make use of this new medium.  It has become easier to attract new users with the new shorter name and with the new classified ad page, we should see more return visitors.

7/1/00
We have transferred from a Windows NT host to a UNIX host and thanks to 5Dollarhosting, the transition went very smoothly.  One of the new features is that statistics are much better.  We just have to learn how to interpret them.  One thing we can see is that the number of visits has increased dramatically.  In the month of June, we had over 1500 hits.  A lot of those were obviously me making updates, but that couldn't possibly account for everything.  We have conducted some experiments to allow some organizations to do their own updates and we are in a testing phase at this point.

3/10/01
We have reached a milestone in the history of the Uniondale Web site. For the first time, we have accepted commercial advertising. The advertising is a graphic and a text link on the Uniondale Community Council page. The company being advertised here is BestBuy.

BestBuy has given a $2,200 grant to the Uniondale Community Council Youth Project. The grant is going to be used by the children in the Youth Project's TASKS (Teens After School Knowledge and Skills) program. The children will be building solar powered light boxes which will display the text www.11553.com. Six such boxes will be placed throughout Uniondale.

I am very pleased with this arrangement because it benefits a tremendous amount of people. First, BestBuy gets a little advertising for its money. Second, a number of children will learn about technology and energy conservation. Third, the entire community of Uniondale from getting more involved residents with pride in their community.

From the beginning, the purpose of www.11553.com was to have a central location to go for information about Uniondale. However, I didn't fully comprehend the significance of this until Jeannine Maynard, Program Director for the TASKS program, drew it to my attention. The turnover in the Uniondale School District is very high; about 25%. It is probably safe to say that the residents in general turn over at a similar rate. Anyone with a little bit of common sense can tell that this is not good because there will be very little sense of belonging here. People who aren't going to live here for very long aren't likely to become involved in local affairs. That is why having this Web site is so important. We are trying to make it as easy as possible for our many new neighbors to become active members of our community.

I expect that we will accept even more advertising in the future. In order to make it attractive for advertisers we do what we can to improve our visitor statistics and the children's light boxes will be a great help in this regard. I expect that some of the advertising revenue will be used to help our many community organizations make Uniondale the best place on Earth to live and that they will learn to help themselves by promoting www.11553.com.

This page was last updated on 02/11/08

Webmaster:  finn@11553.com