dp.nn.ru is the site of the Nizhny Novgorod studio "Soft Line", through which the electronic reference system "Astrolabe — Business Volga Region" (Astrolyabiya — Delovoye Povolzhye) was sold and described: a database of enterprises and electronic maps of Nizhny Novgorod, Arzamas, Dzerzhinsk, and Nizhny Novgorod Oblast on compact disc[2]. The Nizhny Novgorod origin is visible both from the domain in the nn.ru zone and from the page itself: below the studio's name stood the line "Nizhny Novgorod"[2]. The first surviving snapshot of the home page is dated February 1, 2001[1], the last — August 27, 2013[4].

From the "Business Volga Region" frames to the studio's site

In 2001, the address opened onto a page titled "Business Volga Region" (Delovoye Povolzhye), built on frames: a visitor with an incompatible browser was told that the page used frames it did not support — nothing else survived in the archived snapshot[1]. By the end of its existence the site looked different: it was a showcase for "Soft Line Studio" with a horizontal menu of five items — "Home", "Programs", "Services", "Multimedia", "Site Map"[2]. Judging by the utility links at the top of the page ("Skip to content", "...to the first column", "...to the second column"), the home page was assembled by a content management system on a two-column template[2]. Neither a postal address nor a phone number appears on the surviving snapshots of the home page.

What was on offer: discs, directories, web design

The main product remained "Astrolabe — Business Volga Region" (ADP). As the home page stated, it was a "computer program on CD-ROM" including "electronic maps of the cities of Nizhny Novgorod, Arzamas, Dzerzhinsk and Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, and a database of the city's facilities and enterprises"[2]. Alongside it, "DePo 2006" was announced — "a new version... from the developers of the popular electronic directory 'Astrolabe. Business Volga Region'", also released on CD-ROM; the notice opened with the phrase "He who owns the information owns the world", attributed to Winston Churchill[2].

The site map listed the rest of the range: "Business Pack for ADP", "The Great Encyclopedia of the Nizhny Novgorod Land (BENK)", "Duplication of discs of all formats", "Calculating the cost of disc duplication runs", a "Multimedia" section[2]. Internet services formed a separate line of business: "We offer hosting, website creation, domain name registration, subscription service and technical support," the "Web design" block stated[2]. In this way the studio combined two crafts of the era: publishing reference databases on disc and servicing other people's presence on the web.

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

The site entered our Nizhny Novgorod Internet from the directory listing of the nn.ru catalog, where the entry described it as a phone directory and electronic maps of Nizhny Novgorod, Arzamas, Dzerzhinsk, and the surrounding oblast with an updatable database and customization of the program for the client. In the surviving sample of the Counter.nn.ru rating, the domain corresponds to a score of 133 — a modest figure against the leaders of the same sample, where the count runs into the thousands (more on the sample — Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating). In the published results table of the vote for Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day 2004, neither the domain dp.nn.ru, nor "Astrolabe", nor "Soft Line" appear[5].

How it ended

The site froze long before it disappeared. Three items on the home page — about ADP, "DePo 2006", and web design — are dated January 7, 9, and 16, 2009[2], and in the snapshots from November 2012[2], March 2013[3], and August 2013[4] the page is reproduced verbatim, without a single new item: for the last four and a half years the site showed the same thing. The last snapshot of the home page in the web archive is dated August 27, 2013[4]; there are no later saved versions of the home page in our sample. At the time this article was written, the domain dp.nn.ru is not registered.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2001 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2012 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2013 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Home page, 2013 (last snapshot) (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — Results of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote, 2004 (archive)