The idea of Aboriginal Connections was first thought of during my time studying chemical engineering at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Prior to that I had been a student in the Native Access Program for Engineering (NAPE) also at Lakehead University. NAPE was wanting to have an online presence so I volunteered mainly because computers and the internet was at the time a hobby I enjoyed very much.

So it was through self-learning with the use of a few books and coding from other web sites that I was able to complete the NAPE web site. I would definitely say that I was just being resourceful at the time, because I really had no prior experience at all. I would also have to say that I was driven purely by my own personal interests in the areas of computing and in various programming languages.

In the first few months of having the NAPE web site online and through the reviewing of visitor statistics; I felt that it was necessary to have something in place that would help attract visitors. Since I was spending a lot of time viewing other Native web sites I simply decided to create a links page to these other Native sites. In early 1997 I began this links page and titled it NAPE Aboriginal Links which would then later become Aboriginal Connections. I guess I can also say that this was the beginning of the end of my studies in chemical engineering.

Initially, the site listed only Canadian Aboriginal web sites and would later include American Indian sites and then eventually all Indigenous groups worldwide. My single links page involved a manual compilation process and numerous requests to be listed made it increasingly difficult and time consuming to keep it updated. It was clear that an easier way of doing this had to be found.

In 1999, I found the perfect software solution designed for directory management. The software powering this site is LinkSQL (Gossamer Links) from Gossamer Threads. It is written in the Perl programming language, a subject I self-studied to a certain degree to be able to further modify LinkSQL and other Perl scripts to my liking. LinkSQL (Gossamer Links) provided numerous advantages and basically made my life easier. With ease of administration, automation, and a better process of compiling listings Aboriginal Connections quickly grew and grew and grew.

In September of 2000, the site took on a life of its' own, the entire Web Directory contents were relocated to another server and to its' own domain name. Which takes us to today, the site continues to grow and in time will see further growth through additional projects.

The year 2005 was when I was finally able to apply the much needed upgrades Aboriginal Connections required. Upgrading really became a necessity; aboriginalconnections.com quite simply grew beyond the capabilities of the software that was previously running the site. All aspects of this site now operate on powerful MySQL databases. MySQL greatly enhances Aboriginal Connections by making it a true database-driven web site and with this technology Aboriginal Connections is able to provide you with outstanding performance, reliability, availability, and scalability as well as a multitude of other exciting features.

The single most notable feature is the capacity Aboriginal Connections now has in providing you the user with more information which in its simplest terms means more listings to Indigenous sites worldwide.

I have looked forward to incorporating these updates for quite some time. Aboriginal Connections started out of pure enjoyment for myself and it still is and having seen it evolve into what it has become has truly been satisfying.

Tuesday January 25, 2005 - The necessary programs that allowed me to upgrade and expand aboriginalconnections.com were purchased.

February 09, 2005 - Upgrades, additions, and modifications for Aboriginal Connections began. A two month process that involved testing, testing, and more testing.

• All software was successfully installed and configured
• Designing and testing the web front end and back end began
• Importing of all listings successful
• Process of removing or modifying listings commenced (600+ sites removed or modified)
• Forums development began
• Advertising testing and development commenced (Yes advertising will soon be available)
• Aboriginal Connections logo development commenced and completed
• Final testing
• Site completion

Monday April 4, 2005 - Aboriginal Connections officially relaunches.

May to August, 2005 - Modifications and Testing

• Minor modification for cosmetic reasons
• Addition of Google Adsense for Content
• Addition of Google Adsense for Search

Sunday, October 16, 2005

• Made certain subcategories viewable on the homepage
• Made modifications to the display of search results for the Web Directory, search terms are now bolded and highlighted

Thursday October 27, 2005

• Added several subcategories under the Australia and New Zealand categories; moved all applicable listings into those new subcategories.
• Made modifications to the display of search results for the Forums, search terms are now bolded and highlighted

Thursday November 10, 2005

• The 2,000^th listing was added.
• Prior to the upgrade in 2005, there had been more than 2,300 listings but many were removed due to sites no longer in operation.

Saturday November 19, 2005 - Switched Web Hosting Provider!

• An upgrade to the mySQL server caused several major problems in the operation of this site. Several attempts were made to correct the source causing the errors. The decision was made to move the site to another web hosting provider. Aboriginal Connections was inoperative for approximately 21 hours. The upside to this is the new provider is with the same company (Gossamer Threads) who provides the scripts that run this site. Since I'm using their software I get the added benefit in terms of support for both web hosting and their applications.

Tuesday November 22, 2005

• Subcategories now appear when viewing the Canada and United States of America directories.

Wednesday December 14, 2005

• I've been experimenting with Google Adsense in the Web Directory. They are now located on the right side of most pages. Also I've added both Google Adsense for Content and Search to the search results pages. This provides you the user with quick access to Google results should information you are seeking not be located here in the Web Directory.

Thursday December 15, 2005

• Development of a new addition to the site commenced. The Aboriginal Connections - Business Directory is designed to provide detailed information pertaining to Indigenous owned businesses worldwide. Business listings will be categorized by industry and searchable by variety of metrics. A new feature will that will benefit users is the ability to save your most commonly contacted businesses and organizations through your My Business Contacts page.

Please Note: Details listed here apply to the Web Directory from 1997 to 2004 and some are no longer applicable or available.

Commenced - Summer 1997 - Initially titled NAPE Aboriginal Links, this site was created out of pure interest. It was also created to assist in attracting visitors to its main site the Native Access Program for Engineering (NAPE) and it did that quite well. NAPE Aboriginal Links consisted of a single html page which involved constant manual editing.

Tuesday January 19, 1999 - NAPE Aboriginal Links was upgraded from a single page of links into the directory you see now. This upgraded site came online on the 14th for testing and configuration. Also introduced web site statistical monitoring system.

Added - Friday February 19, 1999 - Linked sites now open in a new window and only one new window. This is just to keep Aboriginal Connections open while you are viewing other sites.

Added - Monday August 30, 1999 - A few adjustments made - URL's of linked sites were included. Translation of external pages were made available - these translated pages are provided by Altavista and open in a separate window.

Added - Wednesday October 13, 1999 - Meta Searching!
This allows you to query the 27 search engines, we utilize, with a single click searching the same term(s) you entered.
This is useful when results you obtain here are not exactly what you're looking for and/or for results that end in failure. So you will almost always find what you're searching for!
The term(s) you are searching for will also re-appear in the search text area, for your convenience.
I really like this addition because many of the major search engines also have these features. I am sure many of our users will find this new modification to our site very handy.

Added - Monday October 18, 1999 - A Blinking Cursor!
Used in the search text input area, for the convenience of making quicker search queries. A Java Script enabled browser is required for this to work.
This is a type of feature used at sites like Hotmail, Webmail and others, Enjoy!

Added - Monday January 24, 2000 - Top 100 sites are now listed in order of hits received.

Wednesday January 19, 2000 - First year of operation has passed - during this period Aboriginal Connections received 28094 visits. Honestly, I was hoping for at least 10000 people in its first year, this was well beyond what I had anticipated and it's nice to see that this site is so well received and used.

Thursday June 8, 2000 - Switched over to new web site monitoring system by WebTrends Live Personal Edition. I highly recommend using this free service! Well they're not free any more (so it was necessary to stop using their service); but if you're looking for a paid solution to have provides you with complete statistics then WebTrends would be one of those places.
My previous statistics counter is still running and is available at FXWeb.

Sunday September 10, 2000 - Renamed NAPE Aboriginal Links to Aboriginal Connections and transferred contents to own domain name at aboriginalconnections.com.

Tuesday October 10, 2000 - Aboriginal Connections surpasses the 100,000th visitor plateau. This statistic is provided by my previous web counter which commenced on January 19, 1999 (630 days).

Thursday April 12, 2001 - Aboriginal Connections surpasses the 200,000th visitor plateau (813th day).

Wednesday October 24, 2001 - Aboriginal Connections surpasses the 300,000th visitor plateau (1009 days).

Monday October 7, 2002 - Aboriginal Connections surpasses the 500,000th visitor plateau (1357 days).

Monday March 31, 2003 - Aboriginal Connections surpasses the 600,000th visitor plateau (1532 days).

Wednesday August 27, 2003 - My previous web site monitoring system no longer provides this site with statistical information. Aboriginal Connections has surpassed their limit of 500 daily visits. Also added an updated guestbook system, spam was becoming an issue.

Friday January 30, 2004 - On this date I received notification that my web hosting provider will no longer be providing the free hosting service I was using. It was also stated that I had until February 25, 2004 to either continue using them as my hosting provider or have my account deleted on this date. I've chosen to host aboriginalconnections.com elsewhere which will provide me with greater capabilities, namely upgrading the back end of this site to use MySQL databases.