kurs-inform.nnov.ru was the site of the Nizhny Novgorod firm "Kurs-INFORM", a business information support center that sold and implemented "1C" programs and trained users to work with them. Above the homepage menu stood the line "Nizhny Novgorod" and the phone number (831) 438-60-60[1]. In 2013–2014 the homepage heading read "1C Courses. Nizhny Novgorod. NOU UMTs 'Kurs-INFORM'"[2][4], while the bottom line read "© 2005-2011. Kurs-INFORM"[1]. The last homepage snapshot in the web archive is dated 2 August 2014[3].

What the site looked like

The header carried a list of the firm's "1C" partner statuses: "1C: Franchising", "1C: Center of Competence in Budget Accounting", "1C: Authorized Training Center", "1C: Authorized Certification Center"[1]. By April 2013 these were joined by "1C: Certified Training Center"[2], and in the 2014 snapshots the line "Authorized Training Center" had disappeared from the list[4].

The horizontal menu consisted of the sections "Home", "About the Firm", "News", "Products", "Services", "Implementations", "Training Center", "Seminars", "Vacancies", "Contacts" and "Accountant's Forum"[1]. The left-hand column listed "1C" training courses with schedule and prices, a description of "1C:Enterprise 8", solutions for budget-funded institutions, programs from the firm "KAMIN", "1C:Document Flow", books and instructional materials; by 2013 programs from the firm "INEK" had been added[1][2]. The same column listed services: installation and implementation of "1C:Enterprise", consulting on accounting and payroll calculation, a "hotline", regular maintenance, custom programming[1].

The nn.ru directory described the site as follows: "Accounting and operational management programs '1C', document-flow automation systems, management-decision software suites, licensed Microsoft software. Development of integrated automation projects"[5]. In the snapshot from 10 May 2012, three unrelated links having nothing to do with the firm appear before the homepage content: "tyuryaga online", "tyuryaga bonuses", "tyuryaga tricks"[1].

Seminars for regional budget-funded institutions

The homepage was almost entirely taken up by a news feed, and nearly every entry was a press release about a seminar. On 21 September 2010 the firm held a seminar for budget-funded organizations of Nizhny Novgorod and the region at the "Rekord" cinema center; on 26–28 October 2011 it gave three "1C:Consulting" seminar-trainings on accounting in "1C:Government Institution Accounting 8"; on 5 April 2012, an off-site seminar for state (municipal) institutions of the Tonkinsky district of the region[1]. On 16 November 2012 a seminar-training was addressed to medical institutions of the region, and on 29 November NVP "INEK" and its official partner in Nizhny Novgorod, "Kurs-INFORM", held a seminar at the "Kurs-INFORM" training center on assessing borrowers' creditworthiness using the "Banking Analyst" suite[2].

In 2014 the geography remained the same: on 29 May a seminar took place in Pavlovo jointly with the financial administration, and on 5 June an off-site seminar-training, at which, as the homepage reported, "representatives of 43 organizations" of the Tonkinsky district of the region were present[4]. At the same time a report appeared on the homepage about the results of the 11th partner seminar of the firm "KAMIN" on 13–14 June 2014: 3rd place in sales of the full KAMIN product range and 1st place in sales of budget-sector solutions, two diplomas; the cooperation with KAMIN was described on the page as "no less than 10 years"[4]. The feed was maintained continuously: the pagination under the news showed three pages in May 2012, ten in April 2013, and "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 … 14" in the 2014 snapshots[1][2][4].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

The firm was listed in the "Rubrikator", a directory of Nizhny Novgorod sites on nn.ru. In the directory snapshot from 25 April 2002, the entry "'Kurs-Inform' — business information support center" stands in the category "Firms (Enterprises): Software: Workstation software, accounting and warehouse software, analytics", next to which is listed "Rating: 60.1" with a link to the counter page Counter.nn.ru under number 1370[5]. This is the middle of the directory list: of the 1046 entries with a numeric rating in our sample, 439 rank higher (Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating). This rating did not last long: already in the snapshot of the same category from 25 July 2002 the entry has no number[8], and in the snapshot from 16 September 2003 its place shows "Rating: none"[6].

The firm also had a second address in the directory, kurs-inform.nn.ru: in the category "Projects: Computers and Software" (snapshot from 22 June 2002) it is listed as "OOO TsIPB Kurs-INFORM" with the description "BUSINESS INFORMATION SUPPORT CENTER 'KURS-INFORM' Official partner and authorized training center of the firm '1C', development and implementation of business and economic software"[7]. For a while both addresses coexisted in the Nizhny Novgorod Internet: in the snapshot of the "Workstation software, accounting and warehouse software, analytics" category from 25 July 2002 they stand together in the same list[8]. Snapshots of the address in the nn.ru zone in the web archive fall within the interval from 22 July 2001 to 22 December 2005[9], and in our census it is marked as a domain that no longer exists. In the results table of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote for 2004, neither of the two addresses appears[10].

How it closed

The last news item to reach the homepage is dated 1 July 2014; the snapshots from 2 July and 2 August 2014 are almost identical: what differs is the course-schedule line ("for the 1st half of 2014" changed to "for the 2nd half of 2014") and the date on the top news item — in the July snapshot it is marked "Yesterday, 11:02", in the August one "01-07-2014"[4][3]. In both 2014 snapshots a block titled "Other Sites" appeared, with a single link, "Dance and be healthy! grand-dance.ru", while the copyright line at the bottom still read the previous year's date, "© 2005-2013"[3]. No further homepage snapshots exist, and in our census of closed Nizhny Novgorod sites the address is listed as dead.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2012 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2013 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, last snapshot, 2 August 2014 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Home page, July 2014 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, category «Firms (Enterprises): Software: Workstation software, accounting and warehouse software, analytics», 25 April 2002 (archive)
  6. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, same category, snapshot from 16 September 2003 (archive)
  7. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, category «Projects: Computers and Software», 22 June 2002 (archive)
  8. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, same category, snapshot from 25 July 2002 (archive)
  9. web.archive.org — Snapshots of the site kurs-inform.nn.ru in the web archive (archive)
  10. web.archive.org — Results of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote, 2004 (archive)