The purpose of myThurmont.net is to provide Internet users an easily located one-stop spot to access anything and everything they would ever want to know about our charming town and Frederick County. myThurmont.net is not simply a list of links to other web site, but an association of community groups and business that have come together to create a truly unique ad free web presence.  A presence were visitors can get the very latest news, learn of upcoming events, and explore the rich history and culture of Thurmont and its surrounding country.

A web site, by its very nature, focuses on a specific topic, much as a business does. But to truly experience Thurmont and its local area, one does not simply go to one store or talk to one person, but visits many stories and talks to many people.

Unlike many portals, which are simply web pages with links to external sites, myThurmont.net, allows visitors to experience Thurmont as if they were being escorted by five knowledgeable town residents. Called Knowledge Pathways,  articles and web pages are heavily interlinked allowing users to follow any topic or path they choose. The path one takes to experience Thurmont on-line can be as individual and unique as one’s time and interests allow.

You hear it everywhere today. It’s the opening comment or the closing comment for every chance meeting: "Check out my web site at www." Well the truth is, yes, its fun to have your own site, but the down side is that you're out there all alone. As any firefighter will tell you, Strength is in numbers.  When you work as a team you win. Individuals might accomplish something, but not as much as a team will.

If you're a member of the Lions’ Club, you know what they are doing, but if you’re not, chances are you're knowledge of their activities is limited. The same is true with the Ambulance Company, the VFW, and the Moose Lodge, etc.

While each of these organizations has good intentions, lacking any central clearinghouse to coordinate their activities, their impact is not as great as it could be if they could join forces. As a member of a community information portal like myThurmont.net however, a visitor to one part of the site is exposed to the presence of the whole group. The greater the exposure, the greater the chance people will visit any particular site. This is known as ‘exposure multiplication.’

A perfect example of exposure multiplication is the "Upcoming Events" section. A visitor looking for activities in the area can log into it and discover what all of our organizations have to offer. If they had been required to find each site, who knows which site they may have missed. To make it even more user-friendly, instead of going to a new home page, viewers instead are taken to a page inside the organization’s site that contains all the details on the event. The more we can offer visitors, the more they will come back.

If visitors find it hard to quickly find what they want, they'll rarely come back. myThurmont.net is designed to allow visitors to explore all of Thurmont and the surrounding area and all it has to offer. But while we’ve made great strides in the past few months, we still have a long way to go. If we are to accomplish a truly integrated presence for Thurmont on the net, community groups and organizations will have to step back from identifying with only their site and, instead, embrace a more corporate or community vision of Thurmont.

What can you do? If  If your a community group or church, join us - its free. If you’ve never toured the full site, do so. Tell us what you think. If you like what you see, spread the word whenever and wherever you can. It’s your web site. Support it, and it will support you and your community.

The Internet is today's Wild West and the rules of the game are changing almost every day. Yesterday’s unknowns are today’s billionaires. Why shouldn't Thurmont be a leader in how a community presents itself on the Internet?