Who Is Scottie?
A Brief Biography
From the beginning, the editor of this Rampant Scotland Web site has been known to users as "Scottie". Over the years, there have been number of requests for information on myself and indeed one Canadian reader even put together a draft biography, based on what she knew of me. So, with thanks to Claire, who wrote most of the "biography" below, here is some background to "Scottie" and the Rampant Scotland Directory.
In the Beginning...
Scottie is the on-line persona of Alan Scott, a Glasgow-area resident who has lived in Scotland all his life and delights in helping others explore "this special wee corner of the world." When he started Rampant Scotland (as a hobby) back in 1996, it began as a directory with 300 links to other Scottish websites. However, from the outset, this was more than just a list of links - each entry had a description and there was "deep linking" to a site's sub-pages, where appropriate. So users had a better idea of what they would find when they clicked on the URL. and the number of links grew over the years - currently over 13,000.Weekly Newsletter
The Scottish Snippets newsletter, "your weekly insight into what has been happening in Scotland," began in April 1997 as a Web page. Six months later, the text-only version of Scottish Snippets became a weekly letter to mailing list subscribers.For these "snippets," Scottie regularly scans fourteen daily news sites. Every issue is over 5,000 words, with items of news and Scottish culture. There have now been over 580 issues of this publication - and there is now a "Colour Supplement" with pictures taken to illustrate the current season. The newsletter is now published once a fortnight.
"We Mine the Web So You Don't Have To"
In 1998, the New York-based Mining Co (later to become About.com) invited Scottie to become their Guide to Scottish Culture. By September 2001, Scottie had provided more than 1,500 feature pages and 2,000 photos, and - with 400,000 page views a month - About.com's Scottish Culture site was in the top 20% of their Guide sites.However, About.com dropped this site (and 300 others) in October 2001 when they reorganized and refocused their business. So Scottie set about posting all that content onto his personal site, Rampant Scotland. Within a month, over 1,000 pages were set up with over 1,200 photos, complementing the original links directory.
"Retiral"
Scottie retired after 40 years in the banking industry in 1998. Much of his career was in Information Technology (beginning in the days of paper tape and punched cards) but ending as the Secretary of the trade association of the four largest banks in Scotland. When he retired, Scottie commented that the day-time job was interfering with his "future career" on the Web!Bigger and Bigger
New feature pages have been added to the site every week and there are now over 3,800 pages on Scottish-related subjects such as how to research your family tree, Scottish clans, photo libraries, places to stay, quizzes, a history time-line, traditional songs, recipes and places to visit. And there's humour and screen savers too and every year there is a Scottish pictorial calendar to print out with a choice of illustrations.As regular visitors to the site know, Scottie is an avid photographer. He illustrates Rampant Scotland's online newsletter, and most of his feature articles, with his own work. He also travels round Scotland with his camera, more frequently since 1998, but says "My list of places to visit doesn't get any shorter!"
While the Rampant Scotland site does carry banner adverts, it is far from being a commercial site. Indirectly it "sells" Scottish culture, products and services but Rampant Scotland continues with its original objective: providing information on Scotland and the Scots.
Where else would you like to go in Scotland?
