ABOUT US

Beginnings
The business that evolved into Community Internet Services was founded in September 1998 by Tim Backhouse and Chris Morley, after both had retired from lengthy careers in the public services. They have also both devoted much of their lives to their arts - painting, printing, graphic design and music.
 
Later
The business was formally registered as a limited company on 1st July 1999 since when it has been increasing turnover by about 50% each successive year. The main web site design work is still carried out by Tim whilst Chris concentrates on graphics and marketing. When necessary CIS can call upon the services of a wide range of other designers and programmers.
 
Motivation
The first stirrings of the company were born out of frustration at the lack of comprehensive local information on the internet. There were a few sites that focused on particular topics but none that attempted to cover it all. This led to the building of InSouthsea which has become a gateway (or portal) to an ever expanding pool of local information. The concept was later extended to Portsmouth as a whole with the launch of InPortsmouth. CIS hold the domain name registrations for similar local sites in all surrounding areas and are looking for potential partners to manage those sites.
 
Revenue
Of course the problem with this business plan was that in the early days there was insufficient income to drive expansion. So, Community Internet Services became a virtual Internet Service Provider, working in partnership with Skymarket, who house and manage our servers, and launched itself as a web site design and hosting company. We now host and manage around 70 web sites.
 
Policy
We approach our work with a number of commitments, namely:-

• to deliver information on all aspects of business and community life in Portsmouth and surrounding areas completely free of charge to the user,
• to deliver elegantly designed and economically priced web sites to community and business organisations,
• to provide web sites for charities and non-profit making organisations either free of charge or at cost price according to circumstances,
• to stay at the forefront of web site design technology and practice, with particular reference to providing access to disabled people,
• to co-operate with all local public and private bodies with an interest in the internet,
• to respect the privacy and individuality of all people.