Internet Edition Enters Its 4th Year

This week the internet edition of The Island Sun enters its fourth year of life and as most of us know, in cyberspace, four years is a long time.

Since 1997 we have done our best to improve our website by adding more features, links and attractions. The number of readers of the internet edition is stable and shows an upward tendency.

We receive e-mail messages concerning our website on a daily basis and it’s not always possible to be of assistance as often as people expect. In fact, e-mails range from requests of further information on a news item, to relaying messages of internet readers to family or friends living here. The task of answering all of this electronic mail is almost a full time job in itself; many people think of The Island Sun website as a friendly Information Bureau where one can request favours, such as suggestions about which hotel to stay or which church is nearest during someone's vacation on Tortola or Virgin Gorda. Once you answer such e-mails they generate more queries and there you find yourself having to supply tourist information. There is also a flood of messages from people asking for job openings in the BVI, and it's amazing to see how many thousands of people would love to get a job in our beautiful islands. The playback we get from readers is mostly positive, and although there are always a few people who demand more, it is widely understood that BVI news now travel faster than ever because of the very fact that there is an internet edition of The Island Sun. People at the four corners of the earth can now read about us even before our hard copy edition is in print.

We will continue to improve our internet edition and we hope to get more support from the business community. This will undoubtedly help us to reinvest in a better internet edition, which in turn will be beneficial to the British Virgin Islands -- reciprocity at its best.