1) Town of Jaffrey. Here's what it says about Jaffrey history: http://town.jaffrey.nh.us/community/history.htm and http://town.jaffrey.nh.us/historicsites/historicsites.htm

2) TEAM Jaffrey. http://www.teamjaffrey.org/main.html

3) Jaffrey Chamber of Commerce. http://www.jaffreychamber.com/visitors/

4) Village Improvement Society. http://www.jcvis.org/

5) Jaffrey's entry in Wikipedia. In case you haven't seen this yet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaffrey%2C_New_Hampshire. First time I've ever heard that George Jaffrey designed the Dartmouth seal!

"Windows on Hollis is a centralized collection of historical and cultural information gathered and sponsored by the Town of Hollis, NH; it is a link to all historical collections of the Town. Here are views of rural character for us and for our children through old and new maps, photos and stories and links for conservation and preservation."

9) Blogs. Another topic that came up on 6 February was communication. If those going to the website want to ask questions or pass on information, how should it be done? Who's going to respond to e-mails? Blogs were mentioned. Here's one I found that features the Jaffrey Meetinghouse. If you look at the bottom you'll see comments posted by others. Is there a way we can connect our site to one of the many free blog sites to accomplish this? http://hoardedordinaries.wordpress.com/2004/07/26/the-catbird-seat/.

10) Chesterfield History Pages. A site now being developed by David Allen in Chesterfield, NH. http://www.vhist.com/chesterfield.

Some Websites that we've been told about:
The following request for suggestions was posted by Linda Wilson to one or more listservs:

Jaffrey (NH) Developing Interactive Historical Database Website

The Jaffrey (New Hampshire) Historic District Commission is in the beginning stages of developing a website that will focus on the town’s historical and cultural resources. Supported by a Certified Local Government grant, the project will bring together a broad array of local people and organizations, not only to help plan the content and appearance but to assist in collecting and preparing data: the Jaffrey Historical Society, Village Improvement Society, Chamber of Commerce, Conservation Commission, Cemetery Committee, etc. A consultant will be retained to assist in the design but all the data collection and preparation will be by local volunteers.
The outcome, due in September, will be a fully-functional website but one that will be designed to be expanded greatly in the years ahead as information becomes available and volunteers express interest in participating. Essentially it will be a template that includes manageable amounts of data in a variety of fields—buildings, roads and railroads, topographic features, cemeteries, archaeological sites, genealogy—which will serve as a demonstration of what’s possible and useful. It is expected to be highly visual and to have a strong mapping component.
A project website is already functional at http://home.comcast.net/~rs41/jh.htm.
This gives information on the project, progress, upcoming meetings, etc. There is also a section of descriptive links to other websites that offer inspiration for this effort or display certain characteristics or approaches that are worthy of emulation. Once a consultant is on board the actual website with its own domain name will be launched and all can check on progress as content is added and the design refined.
The Commission would very much appreciate any comments or suggestions, particularly from or about communities that have undertaken similar efforts. Please point us to other websites we should know about.
For more information or to pass on your observations, contact the project manager, Robert Stephenson, PO Box 435, Jaffrey, NH 03452. Tel: 603-532-6066. E-mail: rs41@comcast.net.

Here's a summary of some of the responses for which we are grateful.

From the Goffstown (NH) Historic District Commission: "Your project sounds much more ambitious than our effort. We update our site only twice a year and we have not formed the cooperative arrangements with other organizations that you are planning. Nor did we use a consultant to create our site."
http://www.town.goffstown.nh.us/boards/historic/hdc_welcome.htm

From the Marlborough (MA) Historic Commission: "Use a Wiki approach. (Here’s one of many places online where you can learn about Wikis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki .)
Here’s the reasoning:
- The software and hosting is straightforward and inexpensive.
- The focus is on the content (not the graphics and navigation).
- Easy to manage who contributes, who can edit, and the like.
- It has the potential to make it easy to scale up and people, potentially from anywhere on the planet, can contribute.
- Most importantly, the creation of the site is a vehicle for increasing interest in and understanding of historic assets and historic preservation. Taking a wiki approach increases the likelihood that this larger objective will be achieved without getting bogged down in the minutia of creating a site."

and in a second e-mail:

"This reaction [not included here] seems to me to be based on a mistaken notion that the goal of the effort is to create, in that case, a survey of historic properties. Instead, the survey is a tool, a means to an end. The goal should be to increase the likelihood that the historically and architecturally interesting and valuable things that many of us appreciate and value gain a wider audience. Ultimately, through more broad-based support, more of these are preserved through the actions of private individuals as well as individuals working together in private and public organizations.
Opening up the process and enabling widespread contributions gives people more of a stake in this, and should make it more likely that the ultimately goal is achieved. It also greatly increases the likelihood that you create something really valuable.
While we’ve not taken a Wiki approach to our historical society’s site here in Marlborough, we have seen something very interesting: Much wider use of our site from far beyond Marlborough.
We use an ASP solution called sitestats.com to do visitor tracking. (It’s free.)
Using this tool, here’s what we found awhile back, as I wrote to my fellow board members:

Most people find our site by doing searches. Those that have searched for our site during the last 2 1/2 days have come from all over the country, including . . .
Salt Lake City, UT
Portland, OR
Joplin, MO
Boston, MA
Cambridge, MA
Randolph, MA
Plano, TX
Mission Viejo, CA
Ann Arbor, MI

Here are the search terms that these people used to get to our site:

3 17.65% marlborough lumber
2 11.76% marlborough historical society
1 5.88% marlboro massachusetts history
1 5.88% marlboro massachusetts historic photos
1 5.88% 1900 lincoln street mill building in marlborough, ma
1 5.88% george brigham architecture
1 5.88% 1890's-1910's automobiles
1 5.88% marlborough ma walker history
1 5.88% thomas rice sudbury
1 5.88% italianate hoods
1 5.88% 1920 trade vocational school architecture
1 5.88% whipsuppenicke
1 5.88% marlboro historical society massachusetts
1 5.88% marlborough, massachusetts historic 1660

We basically have two kinds of visitors: People who are looking for something specific about Marlborough and perhaps the Society, and people who are looking to answer a question (in the above, “1920 trade vocational school” or “whipsuppenicke “ or “italianate hoods” or “1890's-1910's automobiles”). For the many of these, the terms for which they searched were on this page:

http://www.historicmarlborough.org/Architecture.html

(This page is one of the ones I need to change. It’s too long and is poorly structured.)
After people found us online, we’ve had donations of items tied to Marlborough come from as far away as California.
My guess is that you’ll have a similar experience.
One last note: I don’t know that many communities have taken a Wiki approach. If you decide to go that direction, I think you may well find that you’re seen as an innovative leader, especially in New England, and I’d imagine that your project would be easy to pitch to the press, both the tech press as well as popular media. And of course it should be easy to get coverage in the national publications that cover history, local government, historic preservation, and the like."

From Richmond, VA: "May I suggest that Geographic Information System (GIS) software be used in creating the database. GIS software is remarkably flexible and has excellent applications for organizing data regarding historic properties, as well as transportation routes, topographic features, geological formations, population centers, even what census tract a historic cemetery is located in. By using an industry-standard software package (such as ArcGIS), the historic district commission also would be able to work effectively with urban and regional planners and transportation planners in identifying historically significant resources and taking them into account when planning future development projects."

From Watertown, MA: "An ambitious example of what you might do is explained at: https://www.dot7.state.pa.us/ce/default.asp "

From Epsom (NH) Historical Association: "Maybe this may have some suggestions for you as to content etc. http://www.epsomhistory.com/
Most of the historical data via the research tab. Also have a museum web site in the works which will have actual scanned images.