vagp.nn.ru was the website of the Verkhnevolzhskoye Aerogeodesic Enterprise (Верхневолжское аэрогеодезическое предприятие), a Nizhny Novgorod organization engaged in geodesy, cartography, aerial photography, and map production. The domain lived in the Nizhny Novgorod zone nn.ru; the enterprise's structure, as listed on the home page, included the Nizhny Novgorod Expedition and the "Atlasy Karty" (Atlases Maps) trading house in Nizhny Novgorod, and a separate navigation item was a map of N. Novgorod[1]. The first snapshot of the home page in the web archive is dated May 24, 2002[2], the last — June 28, 2022[3].

Whose site this was

The header of the home page named the owner as the open joint-stock company "Verkhnevolzhskoye Aerogeodesic Enterprise"; the same wording appeared in the copyright at the bottom of the page, dated 2012[1]. In the nn.ru directory listing through which the site made it into the sample for our Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating, the same organization is named a federal state unitary enterprise: the entries were compiled at different times and record different organizational forms.

The scope of work extended well beyond the region. The list of divisions included the Volga Geodesic Center in Kostroma, the Dzerzhinsk Aerogeodesic Center in Dzerzhinsk, the Kirov Geodesic Center in Kirov, the Mordovian Republican Geodesic Center in Saransk, Expedition No. 133 in Ivanovo, as well as the Nizhny Novgorod-based Nizhny Novgorod Expedition and the "Atlasy Karty" trading house[1]. The menu also had separate sections "Zone of Responsibility" and "Cooperation in the Volga Federal District"[1].

What the site looked like

The layout was departmentally thorough: the home page was occupied by a long, multi-level list of sections. The "About the Enterprise" section led to pages "Management," "Structure and Divisions," "Vacancies," "Legal Basis," "History," "Exhibitions," "Licenses," and "Museum of the Development of Geodesy and Cartography Technology"[1].

The areas of activity were listed in a separate block of twelve items: geodesy, engineering survey work, cartography, aerial photography and topography, cadastre, printing, GIS, navigation systems, certification, metrology, copyright, procurement[1]. The product catalog was divided into maps, plans and diagrams, atlases, educational products, electronic products, globes, and other products[1]. In other words, the enterprise sold not only commissioned work but also ready-made paper and electronic publications.

In terms of content, pride of place on the home page went to the press service — that word was also the title of the document itself[1]. The news archives were arranged by year — 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2010, with 2006 and 2008 missing[1]. The top news item on the 2013 snapshot was dated May 20, 2011, and reported on the conclusion of the 13th International Scientific and Industrial Forum "Velikiye Reki" ("Great Rivers"): at the session "Geoinformation Support of Great River Basins and Space Technologies," as the home page reported, papers were presented on technical regulation in geodesy and cartography and on 3D models for reservoir design[1]. Further on, the account drifted far from geodesy: among the session's stated tasks were overcoming the climate crisis, medical and biological programs, developments in humanity's extraterrestrial life, and building an observatory for studying the Universe on the Moon[1].

Judging by the snapshot, updates had already stopped by that time: the page, captured in March 2013, showed a news item nearly two years old and a 2012 copyright notice[1]. Contacts were given a separate menu item, but the saved text of the home page includes neither an address nor a phone number[1].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

This was an industry site for the organization, not a venue for a mass audience, and it did not take part in the competitive side of the Nizhny Novgorod web. In the results table of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day voting for 2004, the domain vagp.nn.ru does not appear[4]. It is likewise absent from the surviving samples of the Counter.nn.ru counter, so we have no data on its traffic within the Nizhny Novgorod Internet.

How it closed

Our materials contain no separate account of the site's fate. The last snapshot of the site in the web archive is dated June 28, 2022[3]; no trace of a move to another domain is recorded in the available data. Thus the domain lasted about twenty years — from May 2002[2] to the summer of 2022, although the only saved text of the home page we have shows that, from at least 2011 on, its news feed was no longer being updated[1].

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2013 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2002 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2022 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Voting results, Day of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet, 2004 (archive)