The Society's internet presence

2015 has seen a dramatic change in the way in which the Society presents itself to the public of Ipswich and a wider audience across Britain and, very possibly, across the world.

The Ipswich Society has had a very useful and handsome website for some years now. Most members, I'm sure, are familiar with it and the services it provides. It has proved to be extremely useful for general enquiries about the Society and as a resource for researching the content of some of the Newsletters published by the Society over previous years. The website contains a full and detailed account of such things as events which take place during the course of the year and matters concerning planning which is at the core of our aims. In the links section there is a very useful starting point for exploration of probably one of the most popular aspects of the Society's activities and that is our Flickr website.

This collection of digitised images has been in existence since 2012 and is maintained on a regular basis with additions made as they come to the Society; for example, the donated slide collections of a number of members such as Brian Jepson, Peter Underwood and Norman Collinson are available to be viewed and commented on.

The popularity and the utility of this image archive has led to the most promising electronic feature of the Society which was launched in January this year: our Facebook page. Maintained by committee member Tim Leggett, this webpage has proved to be a lively and informative organ for sharing both Society matters and features of interest about the town that appear in local newspapers and in the other media.

The ability of readers to engage with Society matters and with the well-being of the town makes it an extremely illuminating and stimulating read. You should look now.

There's never been a better time to use the internet to scrutinise the work of the Society and to celebrate the outcomes that we successfully manage. It is also fascinating to note that, even as we gain greater command over the internet, the applications we are using are themselves developing and changing. Since my winter lecture on the subject of the slide archive in January the Flickr website has changed immensely; it is now vastly more comprehensible and quite subtle in the way it can sort and find images. We must all keep up!

Just a final reminder: if you want to get onto Facebook or Flickr you only need to go to the Society website and use the link to take you onwards (all free, no log-in required).

Tony Marsden