admcity.nnov.ru is the address of the official website of the Nizhny Novgorod city administration, known from web archive snapshots between 2000 and 2019. The first saved page is dated May 10, 2000, and was titled "Nizhny Novgorod. Official Information Server"[1]; the last snapshot was taken on January 18, 2019, and by then the same address opened a city portal named "НижнийНовгород.РФ"[2]. In the nn.ru directory the server is described in a single line: "Official server of the Administration of the city of Nizhny Novgorod."

From an "Information Server" to a City Portal

Little survives from the 2000 snapshot: the page introduced itself as "Nizhny Novgorod. Official Information Server," with no description of its sections[1]. Seven years later, in the snapshot of February 2, 2007, it is already a full-fledged municipal portal with a multilevel menu, a site map, a weather block, and an English-language version[3].

The left-hand column in 2007 was divided into about ten major blocks[3]. "Nizhny Novgorod" held the city charter, symbols, general information, history, views of the city, "For Guests of the City," a city map, and city services. "Administration" held the structure, leadership, administration reports, reception days, telephone numbers, departments, district administrations, and public reception offices. "News" held administration news, the operational meeting, the weekly plan, events, photo reports, competitions, "New on the Site," and a press review. "The City Today" gathered the city's districts, education, healthcare, culture, sports, employment, international relations, architecture, ecology, targeted programs, and an information center; "The City in Numbers" covered city finances, the economy, trade, municipal services, and statistics. A separate "Real Estate" block led to news from the KUGI (the city's land and property committee), reference information, and a "questions and answers" section. The menu was rounded out by "Legislation," a site search, a "Let's Talk…" section with frequently asked questions, forums, and online conferences, as well as links to internet resources[3].

Main page on February 2, 2007

The snapshot captured an ordinary working day of the city government. The news feed reports that "four more Nizhny Novgorod markets have submitted their reconstruction plans," that Mayor Vadim Bulavinov presented a housing viewing order to a family that had just had triplets (January 31), held a meeting on improvements to Fedorovsky Embankment (January 30), and decided to allocate about 22 million rubles from the city budget to support low-income families[3]. Alongside them are transport announcements: a change in the routes of bus lines T-118 and T-7, route changes in the V. Pechyory microdistrict, the opening of tram route No. 417, and the extension of service on 22 city electric transport routes until midnight[3].

A noticeable part of the main page was given over to municipal procurement notices — tenders and price quotation requests for security services for Children's City Clinical Hospital No. 1, decorative renovation of offices in the Prioksky District administration building, renovation of the fourth-floor corridor and installation of a cable telephone network in the Sovetsky District administration building, routine repairs at kindergartens No. 199, No. 115, and No. 114 in the Moskovsky District and at Children's City Hospital No. 42, as well as a competitive selection of developers for land plots in the Nizhegorodsky District, in the area of the Rowing Canal Embankment[3].

I visited the home page, and it had a local-history block, "Today, Many Years Ago": on February 2, 1908, K. E. Makovsky's painting "Minin's Appeal" was donated by its author to Nizhny Novgorod, and on February 2, 1932, the S. Ordzhonikidze Aircraft Plant ("Sokol") began operation[3]. The events listing included the international children's drawing competition "Young Artist," the campaign "Son. Father. Fatherland" in the Sormovo District from February 1 to 24, and a domino championship among veterans in the Sovetsky District on February 3 from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m.[3].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod Internet

The site is known from the nn.ru catalog; admcity.nnov.ru is not listed among those that received votes at Day of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet. This sets it apart from the commercial projects of the same period, for which a place in the counter's ranking was currency: the municipal server existed outside the competition for traffic and did not measure itself against the rest of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet. The address, however, proved long-lived: snapshots begin in May 2000[1], and its lifespan is given in the study's list as nineteen years, 2000–2019.

"НижнийНовгород.РФ" and the End of the Address

The last known snapshot is from January 18, 2019. The page at admcity.nnov.ru was by then titled "НижнийНовгород.РФ — the official website of the Nizhny Novgorod city administration" and presented itself as the "official city portal"[2]. The menu had grown to several dozen items and was divided into the blocks "City" (industry, housing and utilities, urban planning, landscaping, municipal cemeteries, transport, ecology, "150th Anniversary of Maxim Gorky"), "Municipality" (head of the city, city administration, district administrations, the City Duma, municipal services, anti-corruption efforts, open data), "Auctions," "News," "Reception Office," and "Municipal Service"[2]. A version for the visually impaired, registration and login, links to Gosuslugi (the government services portal), and an option to write a letter to the head of the city administration had appeared[2]. Prominently displayed were the priority project "Creating a Comfortable Urban Environment" and an announcement that Vladimir Panov would conduct weekly inspections of courtyards and public spaces being improved[2].

After January 2019, no snapshots of the home page at this address have survived; the address's years of life are 2000–2019. The title of the last snapshot itself shows where the site went: the city portal changed its name to "НижнийНовгород.РФ," and the old service address ceased to be its public face[2]. For more on the counter.nn.ru ranking, see the archival study of the ranking.

Home Page by Year

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2000 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2019 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2007 (archive)