Over the past several months, I have been developing a concept called Independent Informational Platforms, or IIS for short. The goal is simple at its core: create organized, accessible, independently hosted informational websites that help people discover and understand publicly available information in a cleaner and easier way.
One of the largest projects currently being developed under this idea is the northcarolina.best project. This platform is being designed as a broad informational ecosystem centered around North Carolina, its parks, agencies, public resources, and other areas of public interest.
The project originally started from a desire to better organize information related to North Carolina State Parks. While official websites provide excellent information, I wanted to experiment with creating an alternative informational experience that focused heavily on discoverability, organization, clean design, and interconnected navigation.
From there, the concept expanded. Instead of only focusing on parks, the platform began evolving into something much larger: a collection of independent informational pages and structured directories designed to help people explore North Carolina through maps, categories, indexes, articles, and interconnected systems.
One of the most interesting parts of this project is that it is heavily data-driven. Many pages are generated through structured JSON systems that make it easier to maintain consistency, expand categories, and organize large amounts of information over time.
The vision is not to replace official sources. Instead, the purpose is to complement public information by presenting it in a different format — one that emphasizes readability, discovery, structure, and independent presentation.
Another important part of the IIS initiative is transparency. Informational sites developed under this framework are designed to clearly identify themselves as independent informational projects. The platforms are intended for educational, reference, and public-interest purposes.
As the northcarolina.best project continues to grow, I plan to expand into additional categories such as:
- State parks and recreation areas
- Natural landmarks
- State agencies and departments
- Regional directories
- Historical and cultural resources
- Public informational tools
- Location and map systems
This blog will serve as a place to document that development process — including experiments, design ideas, infrastructure decisions, routing systems, data organization, and the overall philosophy behind the IIS initiative.
There is still a lot left to build, but that is part of what makes projects like this exciting. Watching an idea slowly evolve into a structured ecosystem is one of the most rewarding parts of development.
Thank you for reading and following along with the project. More updates, experiments, and platform expansions will be shared here over time.