Tech expert Paul Harding teamed up with Swindon author and blogger Angela Atkinson to bring her book about the town's iconic buildings to life.

Ms Atkinson focused on 50 of Swindon's buildings to illustrate its rich history and hopes that the new website will help people share their stories about the town and promote events.

She said: "This project has perfect synergy with me. It’s all about showcasing community with tech, and will, over time, become an effective portal to what is going on in and around communities in Wiltshire and beyond.

“I joined forces with Paul because I truly believe Swindon is under-appreciated and it can be difficult to find out what’s going on at any one time.

"So this platform creates a mutual symbiosis. I want people to know about our town and this area and discover it online and offline.”

Mr Harding is from Lechlade and runs an app business from Swindon.

He is developing the new tech platform and interactive community portal Zapp Active with the aim of helping users share their news, share links to their own businesses, projects or charities and take event bookings through the site.

He said: “The potential for this is huge. It drives traffics and back-links online, it will allow for groups to take bookings through the site as well as search the site to find out what’s going on in their area.

“We can livestream events and get out instant news and views – with the ability to link straight back to for example, an organisation’s own website in real time.”

It will be free for any charity, organisation or business to sign up. Low cost charges will apply for add-ons such as events and charges for organisations which represent multiple businesses or organisations, like local authorities and business networking groups.

Paul Harding, who lives in Lechlade yet runs his apps business from Swindon, has already won a major award for his innovative app for childminders and parents Kids Covered. This app runs on the Zapp Active platform.

The platform is being built to cover an area between Cirencester and Swindon.

Sign up via www.zappactive.com or contact Paul on paul@zappactive.com