Whoiswho.nnov.ru — the website of the reference book "Who's Who in Nizhny Novgorod Region," the online counterpart of the print publication of the same name. The site described the directory as a publication about Nizhny Novgorod residents "whose work and activities are significant in the life of the region"[2]. The project was run by the charitable foundation "Dialogue of Cultures"[4][5]; by 2005, the imprint listed LLC "Dialogue of Cultures"[11] and "Publishing House 'Dialogue of Cultures'"[13]. The site was active from at least October 2001[1], with the last preserved snapshot taken on 6 February 2007[15]. It was one of the reference projects of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet in the 2000s.

The publication and editorial board

The foreword placed on the main page in 2001 referred to a "new third edition of the book" — meaning the site appeared when the print directory was already being published. The foreword was signed by Yuri Andrianov[2].

The project had ties to the regional authorities. According to the site's news feed, the editorial board's composition was approved in December 2001; on 7 March 2002 the "Project Charter" was approved; and on 2 April 2002 the Governor issued an order "On assistance in implementing the project 'Who's Who in Nizhny Novgorod Region'"[3]. The editorial board was chaired by Vladimir Petrovich Kirienko, First Deputy Governor and Head of the Governor's Administration; his deputy as board chair was Aleksey Prosheltsev, chairman of the Dialogue of Cultures foundation. The board included ministers of the regional government (Vadim Kaznin, Sergey Naumov, Vyacheslav Sobolev, Gennadiy Suvorov), the rectors of NNSU, NGLU, and the conservatory (Aleksandr Khoklov, Gennadiy Ryabov, Eduard Fertelmeister), Academician Andrey Viktorovich Gaponov-Grekhov, and local historian Igor Kiryanov[5]. The editorial office address in 2002 was Varvarskaya Street, with the email address culture@sandy.ru[4]; pages from the second version in December 2004 listed a mailing address at "Kremlin, Building 2"[10].

Site content

The structure was simple: an alphabetical index, a name search, and a "In the database" counter on every page[3]. Each person's entry followed a standard form: position, date and place of birth, education, previous employment, key career facts, awards and titles, and charitable activities[10]. The fifteen-point questionnaire was published directly on the site; in addition to biographical fields, it included areas of interest, organizational memberships, party affiliation, languages spoken, and hobbies. The editorial team invited people to submit completed forms for inclusion on the site and in the fourth edition of the encyclopedia[13]. A separate section, "Nizhny Novgorod Government," contained biographies of Governor Gennadiy Khodyrev and his deputies[6]. In a 2005 meta tag, the site described itself as an "illustrated internet encyclopedia of the scientific, sports, political, cultural, and business elite"[11].

The database grew unevenly. The counter showed 249 people in October 2001[1], 349 in December 2001[2], 613 in May 2002[3], 824 in October 2002[6], and 1,523 in February 2003[7]. After an engine change, the count reset to a lower number: 1,469 in December 2004[10], 1,474 in February 2005[11], and 1,633 in July 2006[14]. The news feed of the first version ends with an entry dated 5 September 2002: the snapshot from 7 February 2003 contains no more recent entries[7].

Three versions

The first version, active from 2001 to 2003, was credited to LightNet studio[2]. In March and June 2004, the domain served a standard "Test Page for Apache Installation" placeholder from Russian Apache[8][9]. By December 2004, a second version was running — with URLs of the form /person/?id=…[10] and the credit line "Created by ZhiraFF Media"[11].

The third version — with an expanded search, a topic-based catalog, news, feedback, and an English-language interface — was developed by Morizo studio[13]. It remained in the /test/ subdirectory: from at least 29 October 2005, the domain's main page redirected to it[12]. The English version of the site launched on 23 August 2005; by 1 November 2005, one hundred entries had been published in it. At the same time, a fourth edition of the print encyclopedia was in preparation, with publication planned for late 2006. The same publishing house also produced the magazine "Nizhny Novgorod Goods"[13].

Prominence and fate

In December 2004, the site took part in the voting at Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day in the "Most Useful Website" category: the published table credited it with 3 votes, while the category leaders — "Nizhny Novgorod Auto Forum" and "OPLATA.RU" — had 212 and 206 respectively[16]. Pages from 2002 displayed Rambler Top100, SpyLOG, and Counter.nn.ru counters[3].

The last preserved snapshot is dated 6 February 2007: the main page showed 1,585 people in the database and links to sister "Who's Who" projects in Crimea, Irkutsk, Orenburg, the Altai, the Volga Region, and the Southern Federal District[15]. No later snapshots have been preserved in the web archive. The domain whoiswho.nnov.ru does not respond and has no DNS record.

Main page by year

Encyclopedia research: Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Alphabetical index of whoiswho.nnov.ru, earliest preserved snapshot of content, web archive, 12 October 2001 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Main page with foreword by Yuri Andrianov, web archive snapshot 3 December 2001 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Main page with news feed, web archive snapshot 25 May 2002 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — "Contact information", web archive snapshot 10 June 2002 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — "Editorial board composition", web archive snapshot 10 June 2002 (archive)
  6. web.archive.org — "Nizhny Novgorod Government" section, web archive snapshot 12 October 2002 (archive)
  7. web.archive.org — Main page, web archive snapshot 7 February 2003 (archive)
  8. web.archive.org — "Test Page for Apache Installation" placeholder on the domain, web archive snapshot 31 March 2004 (archive)
  9. web.archive.org — "Test Page for Apache Installation" placeholder on the domain, web archive snapshot 4 June 2004 (archive)
  10. web.archive.org — Person entry from the second version of the site, web archive snapshot 9 December 2004 (archive)
  11. web.archive.org — Main page of the second version, web archive snapshot 3 February 2005 (archive)
  12. web.archive.org — Redirect from main page to /test/, web archive snapshot 29 October 2005 (archive)
  13. web.archive.org — "News" section of the third version of the site, web archive snapshot 12 April 2006 (archive)
  14. web.archive.org — Catalog, "Politics" section, web archive snapshot 26 July 2006 (archive)
  15. web.archive.org — Main page of the third version, last web archive snapshot 6 February 2007 (archive)
  16. web.archive.org — "Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day — 16 December", voting table, web archive snapshot 26 December 2004 (archive)