Pokhara Online | Online | wavemag.com.np

While Kathmandu was already surfing the World Wide Web in 1994, it wasn't until 1997 that Internet services started in Pokhara. The last eight years have seen a drastic growth and change in the way the Internet is used here, one of the most significant developments being in Pokhara's web presence.

When the service first started here, a subscriber in

Pokhara had to connect to an ISP in Kathmandu. The cost then was around Rs.7/ minute. Today the Internet can be accessed at rates of Rs. 20-25 per hour through local ISPs and severs. Cable and wireless Internet has been initiated. This increased Internet accessibility has not only resulted in the city becoming cyber savvy, but also resulted in the growth of Pokhara's virtual presence.

The young web developers turned entrepreneurs Rajob, Anoop, Ravi, Sushil and Arun initially started by hosting their sites on free web servers. Even now there are only a few organisations that work for web development or understand the meaning of E-commerce as most of us still use the Internet for emails, chatting and surfing. Currently there are around 10 organisations that work on web development in Pokhara but registering their domain names is still a problem.

A couple of years later Rajob, Narendra, Ravi, Ram, Amit and Sundip came up with the idea of having an online site for Pokhara and initiated the project pokharacity.com. Launched in 2001, this website remains one of the most popular in Pokhara's virtual world. Their Photo Gallery offers permanent web storage for free which allows the user to create their own account. Pokharacity.com has also developed several other sites such as musicpokhara.com.np, where they have included information on artists and singers of Pokhara, and eventpokhara.com.np that gives information on events in Pokhara. Pokharachamber.org.np, the official site for Pokhara Chamber of Commerce & Industry (PCCI), is designed and hosted by pokharacity.com.

Another organisation that has been making its web presence felt online is Info Max who, in Pokhara, have changed the idea of Internet marketing with projects like a website for a Cinema hall in Pokhara. One of the web developers with Info Max is Indira Sharma who won the Best Website- Content category at the 3rd Annual WAVE Web Winner 2004 organised by WAVE, for her effort in nepalinari.com. Info Max is becoming increasingly popular in Pokhara. They are soon launching clickpokhara.com, a search engine based on Pokhara. Clients and visitors will be able to independently submit event listings and information on the site. Their next project edu4nepal.com, is being designed to be an educational portal which will include career and academic counselling for students. www.omfinance.com, the first finance company to build website in Pokhara, paramparafilms.com, the portal for Pokhara Parampara Films and shangrilavillage.com, The official site for Shangri-La Village Resort are some of the other websites they have built. Paramparafilms.com is also one of the more innovative ones to come out of here.

The web designing turn in Pokhara is rapidly filling up with several other groups now that are hopping aboard the bandwagon. Lovelypokhara.com was developed by Om Lama and Ganesh Khadka. Along with being a regular portal with contents of fashion, e-cards, national news etc., it also hosts a comprehensive educational directory of school and college in and around Pokhara. Ekta Computers, owned by Dhurba Shrestha, is also working

towards web development in Pokhara. His recent web page for the organisation Pokhreli Yuwa Sanskriti Pariwar, poyusap.org, whose main objectives are to organise resources at the local level for preservation, promotion and creation of the Nepalese literature, music and culture, and to encourage local talents to devote themselves in these fields. The pro-active youth group Yuwa Forum also went onlineearlier this year with their website yuwaforum.org.np.

Buddha-Net.com, started by Tej Nath, is one of the leading web hosting and consultation firms in Pokhara. Their primary services are domain registration, web hosting, and web designing and E- marketing.

Originality in design and content, however, still lacks in most of the popular web portals that have sprung up in Pokhara. And it is important the web designers here understand this to further strengthen their virtual domains. But for now, it can be safely said that though the net culture in Pokhara started late, it hasn't taken time for it to catch up with Kathmandu, and in fact leads the race of web presence amongst some of Nepal's other cities.