Rankin Inlet (Feb 09/05) - The Pulaarvik Kablu Friendship Centre in Rankin Inlet will soon have its own Web site.

The site will feature a combination of modern and traditional content aimed at promoting the community, its people and friendship centre programming.

Peter Wollaston oversees program development for the centre.

Wollaston says the idea for the Web site was put in motion by executive director George Dunkerley.

He says funding for the project was obtained through Heritage Canada.

"The folks at Outcrop are handling the technical end of the site, while the rest of us are busy writing and taking photos to have everything ready when it's time to launch," says Wollaston.

"We're trying to make this a community-based project so we can show people everything Rankin has to offer.

"We want to show them every-day life in Rankin and what Inuit culture is like today.

"We'll have our share of traditional items on the site, but we want to be able to show the world how people actually live in the community today."

The Pulaarvik Kablu Friendship Centre's Web site is slated to launch by March 31.

Two residents will be travelling to Yellowknife for the training necessary to become webmasters.

"The training is an important step because it will enable us to do all our updating right from here.

"And it's an added bonus for one of the webmasters (Noah Tiktak) to be a staff member at the friendship centre."

Wollaston says the centre is working to have the site set up so that it can be accessed by people using the latest technology, as well as those using older modems or dial-up connections.

And, while Inuit culture and the Rankin community will be the main focus, centre programming will also be highlighted and kept up to date.

"Basically, we want the site to be as flexible as possible.

"Programs come and, unfortunately, programs sometimes go.

"We want people to be able to access our site and see every program we currently have to offer."