Jan. 28, 2019.
If you are reading this then it means we have successfully launched our new website! It has been in the works for the past couple months, but all those hours burning the midnight oil has finally paid off, and we are very pleased with the result and believe our partners will be too.
This newsletter is one part of the redesign, and is a way for us to keep you updated with all the exciting new developments at On This Spot. And there will be many–2019 is shaping up to be a very exciting year!
The most important change has been uploading all our historic walking tours onto the website, which were previously only available within the app.
There is enough historic material in these tours to fill a good-sized book and all the content is easily found by search engines, which has proven to be a great research tool for students, professors and the public alike. Additionally, it has resulted in a substantial increase in website traffic for our partners!
New Year’s Resolutions
So what’s next? For starters we have a raft of improvements to the app that Chris is working on that range from downloadable offline map packs to audio tours, a vastly improved camera and a friendlier user interface.
On the content side, we are expanding coverage across the country and will be in most major cities by Canada Day. This is in addition to the new partnerships we’ve developed with smaller communities (stay tuned for some exciting announcements!).
The On This Spot team has doubled in the past year and includes brilliant and hardworking people who are propelling us forward. It began with Sean Edmunds, our COO, whose efforts have ensured this project is on a sound financial footing and we are in a position to reach our goals. More recently our sales director Ross Hiebert has become a friendly, insightful, and irrepressible representative of the company. We’ve begun working closely with UVic’s History Department, and brought Alexa Dagan onto our writing team, and we will soon be bringing on more. We’ve also hired our first photographer, Alicia MacGregor.
Taking Stock Three Years In
Reflecting after three years working on On This Spot, it’s exhilarating to see just how far we’ve come. This began as a passionate hobby for Chris and I as we felt compelled to create a history app that anyone could enjoy. Since then we’ve partnered with many organizations and met many wonderful and passionate people along the way.
Our mission was to create a high-quality immersive history tool that is freely accessible to the public. Now we’re aiming to help develop the skills of Canada’s brightest young historians in the process.
We hope you’ve enjoyed our work so far, and we’d love to hear your thoughts on how the project has evolved, and what we can improve on.
Stay tuned by subscribing to our newsletter to keep updated on our developments!
Best regards,
Andrew Farris,
Founder & CEO