Special Feature
 |
She Wrote the
Book on It: A Survival Guide
for Starters |
|
by Joannie Kervran |
It was an unseasonably warm day
in the Pacific Northwest when Mary Haggard stopped for lunch at her favorite-secret
barbecue joint to talk of her new book, Survival Guide to Web Site Development, published
by Microsoft Press, and based on Mary's For Starters column here in Site Builder Network
Magazine.
--------------------------------------------
Survival Guide to Web Site Development goes into far more detail than Mary Haggard's For
Starters column, including code samples and a demonstration Web site.
----------------------------------------------
What's New and What's More
A comprehensive overview for computer professionals new to the Internet, Survival Guide to
Web Site Development provides a continuity of experience, as each chapter builds on the
one before, and it goes into far more detail than the original For Starters column -- with
greater technical depth, code samples, and a Web site demonstrating those samples.
Why a book? The Web changes so quickly; how can a print medium help?
"I felt I had to put my money where my mouth was," Mary said, "and really
do the things I was telling people to do." If she were going to describe electronic
commerce, she needed something to sell. That's how Web Men Shopping, an e-commerce site
hawking souvenirs from SBN Magazine's Web Men Talking column, came onto the Internet.
Survival Guide to Web Site Development also benefits from additional input from numerous
Web-industry leaders, including site builders behind Lycos, Intuit, C-Systems, and closer
to home, Microsoft.com.
People should read the book while sitting in front of a live Internet connection, she
suggested, because it contains more than 300 URLs pointing to additional information both
inside and outside of Microsoft -- including such valuable resources as the World Wide Web
Consortium and InterNIC.
Survival Guide to Web Site Development is written for anyone in the computer industry
suddenly faced with building a corporate Web site. You know the drill: Your boss walks in
on Monday morning, before your second cup of coffee, and starts spouting off about how
seriously the company needs a Web site. Industry presence. Competition. The panic of not
wanting to get there last. Survival Guide provides information on the necessary steps and
available technologies -- what they do, and what you can do with them. It's the handbook
to get you through a project gracefully and efficiently, with a Web presence that will
please your employer to no end.
"It really is the first book I've seen that covers the whole process," Mary
explained.
For Starters: Fast Start
Mary was working with Microsoft's product-support group , educating information-technology
professionals about Windows 95 and Windows NT, when she got a yen for the Web. She was
asked onto a team to oversee "a small site for Web developers," at a time when
no one was too sure what a Web developer was. With Mary as the team's program manager,
that small site grew and grew, changing from the Internet Toolbox to the Internet
Workshop, to the Site Builder Network Web site, with more than 25 million unique users
each month and a membership program numbering more than 700,000 registrants worldwide.
As the Site Builder Network Web site began to take shape, Mary and her colleagues were
receiving e-mails asking for more information. We love the site you have now, users said,
but what is all this stuff? Print materials were too elementary, and content on the
Internet was too technical. The SBN team took into account all that feedback they'd
received in e-mail, at conferences, and in usability studies. People wanted a place to
start, and Mary agreed to write a 10-column series, exploring a different site-building
topic with each column.
The For Starters column proved instantly popular from its February 1997 debut. In fact,
the SBN Answer team continues to point users to it for answers to their questions.
Feedback on the columns was prolific -- and during For Starters' first year, those
original 10 topics changed considerably, in response to the e-mails that Mary and the team
received from SBN readers. Manager Andrew Himes and Senior Editor Tom O'Connor took a step
back. Why not compile all this information, expand it, and put it in a book? When Mary
contacted Microsoft Press, the response was immediate -- and the project began to take
shape.
One of the best parts about writing the Survival Guide, Mary said, was how so many people
came to help -- the people who reviewed it, wrote code for it, and let her know what they
wanted to find.
What's Next
While Mary's For Starters column continues in SBN Magazine -- with a new focus on
e-commerce -- Mary herself has moved to a new position, overseeing internationalization
issues for Microsoft's portal site to the Internet.
For those who have wondered about Mary's column bio, she really did work summers at the
Longview Fiber pulp mill in Longview, Washington, USA.
Joannie Kervran is Assistant Editor
at Site Builder Network Magazine and a poet.
----------------------------------------------
Weighing the Web: Think
Before You Leap
by Frank Klassen, Vice President of
Internet Services Syscom Services
So you've been thinking about hanging
a shingle in cyberspace?
You're in good company. Businesses
are flocking to the Internet to reap all the rewards the interactive medium has to offer.
But is it really for you? Before you
stake your claim on the Web, ask yourself two critical questions. First: could the Web
improve my business? And secondly: could I harness the technological and marketing
resources that it would take to make a success of my Web site? The order of the questions
is important. You might, for example, have the technology and marketing savvy to create
and deliver a very slick web site, but without a clear set of business goals, your site
will probably yield minimal returns.
So, what are the right reasons to get
on the Web? Let's consider the usual suspects:
Revenue Generation—While this
may be the most obvious lure, it's probably the hardest thing to achieve in the current
Web environment. Internet commerce in the years ahead will become the norm for most
businesses, but the current ratio of "wired" to "non-wired" consumers
is still quite small. Businesses that are quick to establish themselves on the web can
still benefit, but be realistic; Web development is a long-term business development move.
Don't expect a windfall overnight.
Expense Reduction—If your
product is "deliverable" via the web (for example, software, anything in print,
research services, etc.), then you have the opportunity to dramatically reduce the cost of
fulfillment, distribution, and even production. Another way to cut costs is by using a web
site to improve your internal business processes. Do you need to communicate with a
far-flung sales force? Are you looking for ways to improve document management and
workflow? What about project management and tracking? Solutions to all of these objectives
would fall under the category of "Intranet" applications.
Enhanced Customer Relations—The
most successful business web sites are ones that think of the customer first. By providing
detailed and up-to-date information on your products and services, you can help to create
"self-educated" buyers-after all, a self-educated buyer is a happier buyer. Your
online customer service can be as simple as providing a method for your current customers
to communicate with you more directly and efficiently.
If you're constantly answering the
same ten questions about your product, an online fact sheet with answers to those ten
questions can dramatically improve customer relations-while freeing up lots of your time
and resources. On the other end of the spectrum, customer service can be quite
sophisticated, including online customer account information and specialized services for
frequent visitors or members. Regardless of its complexity, good online customer service
is likely to drive new business your way.
Another side benefit of an
information-rich web site is that it improves your ability to target and
"qualify" prospects. The Web, after all, is the domain of self-directed
consumers. So it follows that contacts flowing to you from your web site-either through
e-mail or telephone queries-are golden. They are sales waiting to happen.
So where do I go from here?
If you've decided you want an address
in cyberspace, you're probably wondering where to start. Do you build the web site
yourself or hire someone to do it for you? The second article in this series will address
this question and explore in greater detail the four main elements implied in the term
"web development":
Content development—Your site's
offerings should be guided by the goals you establish for your Web site. Once you've set
those goals, you'll need to determine the site's features and functionality, and prepare
some clear, effective text.
Site design and
branding—Effective graphic design and marketing can create an attractive,
professional-looking site that communicates a clear message about your company's
offerings.
Programming—If you plan to
create a dynamic and data-driven web site (one that offers a searchable product catalog or
up-to-the minute pricing information, to name just a couple of possibilities), you'll need
some programming to make it happen.
Site hosting—When it comes to
getting your site up on the web, you have many options in connectivity to consider.
Since the skills needed to make a
success of these various elements are quite varied, it makes sense to weigh the question
of in-house vs. contracted development for each of these several components. For most
small businesses, neither a completely in-house operation nor a completely outsourced web
development project would be optimal. The former would be an enormous drain on your staff
resources, while the latter may carry a price tag that puts it beyond your reach.
In all likelihood, your web site will
be the fruit of your own labor and that of web professionals who you enlist for technical
and perhaps some design assistance. Your first task is to determine exactly how much web
development work to undertake on your own, given your resources, and how much to put into
the hands of a professional team.
Next month: selecting a web developer
that fits your needs.
-------------------------------------------
IF MICROSOFT BUILT CARS
At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the
computer industry with the auto industry and stated, "If GM had kept up with
technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five dollar cars
that get 1,000 miles per gallon."
Recently General Motors address this comment by releasing the statement:
"Yes, but would you want your car to crash twice a day?"
IF MICROSOFT BUILT CARS:
- Every time they repainted the lines on the road you would have to buy a
new car.
- Occasionally, your car would die on the freeway for no reason.
- Occasionally, executing a maneuver would cause your car to stop and fail
and you would have to re-install the engine. For some strange reason, you would accept
this too.
- You could only have one person in the car at a time, unless you bought
"Car95" or "CarNT". But, then you would have to buy more seats.
- Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable,
five times as fast, twice as easy to drive, but would only run on five percent of the
roads.
- The Macintosh car owners would get expensive Microsoft upgrades to their
cars, which would make their cars run much slower.
- The oil, gas and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single
"general car default" warning light.
- New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.
- The airbag system would say "are you sure?" before going off.
- If you were involved in a crash, you would have no idea what happened.
- At frequent and unexpected intervals, a warning light would light up
saying, "The engine has preformed an illegal operation and will be shut down."
Any further action by the driver would kill the engine.
--------------------------------------
(((((((( WEBREFERENCE UPDATE NEWSLETTER ))))))
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+----------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.webreference.com
<- link to us today
http://www.webreference.com/new/
New this week on WebReference.com and the Web:
1. HTML WITH STYLE: Gecko: A Smaller, Faster Lizard
2. DOC JAVASCRIPT: Scrolling HTML Basics, Part III:
The Cross-Browser Version
3. DYNAMIC HTML LAB: Hierarchical Menus, Versions
3.03-4
4. E-COMMERCE WATCH: eWallet: Don't Stay Home
Without It
5. NEW LINKS: Web Authoring Tutorials, Multimedia
Software, Internet/Web History
6. OTHER VOICES:
* Browser Wish List 1998
* Sun waits for New Year to 'open' Java licensing
model
* XML via the Document Object Model: A Preliminary
Course
* Dr. Website: Revenge of the Mouseover
* Nested Menus in HTML 4
* 1998: Year in Review
7. NET NEWS:
* Microsoft to Unveil IE 4.5 Mac
* Online Population to Quadruple
* New Virus Infects Microsoft Word Files
* internet.com LLC acquires 15seconds.com and
AdResource.com
Spread the word! Feel free to send a copy of this
newsletter to
your friends and colleagues, and while you're at it,
snap a link
to WebReference.com.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. HTML WITH STYLE: Gecko: A Smaller, Faster Lizard
On Dec. 11th Netscape released Gecko, a preview of
its speedy,
scaled-down layout engine. We take a closer look at
this impressive
open source effort from Mozilla.org. By Stephanos
Piperoglou.
http://www.webreference.com/html/gecko/
2. DOC JAVASCRIPT: Scrolling HTML Basics, Part III:
The Cross-Browser Version
It's alive! The Doc performs a code graft to create
a cross-browser
scroller that scrolls any external HTML file. By Dr.
Yehuda Shiran.
http://www.webreference.com/js/column32/
3. DYNAMIC HTML LAB: Hierarchical Menus, Versions
3.03-4
Two more fixes for our popular menu script. First,
the Navigator
4.5 eval() bug is fully explained and demonstrated
with a new,
more elegant, fix. Second, a possibly fatal
(crash-inducing) bug
in the Navigator code is squashed. Get your free
upgrade here
and add Mac-like cascading menus to your site. By
Peter Belesis.
http://www.webreference.com/dhtml/column21/addendum3/
http://www.webreference.com/dhtml/column21/addendum4/
4. E-COMMERCE WATCH: eWallet: Don't Stay Home
Without It
Santa couldn't have a better little helper, and
neither could you.
If you want to save your shoe leather, but have been
shy about
buying online, eWallet is the answer. Our e-commerce
expert, Mark
Merkow, tells you why.
http://www.webreference.com/ecommerce/mm/column16/
5. NEW LINKS: Web Authoring Tutorials, Multimedia
Software,
Internet/Web History
>Web Authoring Tutorials
Learn how to create great sites from the pros with
these Web
authoring tutorials.
http://www.webreference.com/authoring/tutorials.html
>Multimedia Software
Make your Web pages come alive with this collection
of multimedia
software resources.
http://www.webreference.com/multimedia/software.html
>Internet/Web History
If you want to know where the Web is going, it might
be simple as
taking a look at its past. See the progression of
the Internet as
we know it, from its early beginnings to becoming an
integral part
of our daily lives.
http://www.webreference.com/internet/history.html
Content Distribution, Dedicated Connectivity, Spike
Protection.
Get it all from one company -- Frontier
GlobalCenter.
We handle 1.5 billion hits per day, for some of the
busiest sites
on the web, like Yahoo!, The Motley Fool, Talk City,
USA TODAY.
Check out our banners on internet.com for special
offers, and
visit http://www.globalcenter.net
to learn how we improve content
and connectivity for businesses like yours.
6. OTHER VOICES: Browser Wish List 1998, Sun waits
for New Year
to 'open' Java licensing model, XML via the
Document Object Model: A Preliminary Course, Dr.
Website: Revenge of the Mouseover, Nested Menus
in HTML 4, 1998: Year in Review
>Browser Wish List 1998
Read what Jeffrey Veen wants in our browsers for
next year.
http://www.hotwired.com/webmonkey
Webmonkey.com, Dec. 21, 1998
>Sun waits for New Year to 'open' Java licensing
model
Lawyers are poring over the details and a Web site
is under
construction for Sun Microsystems' new
"community source" approach
to spreading the Java cause, pushing the arrival of
the free source
code into late January or February.
http://www.sun.com
InfoWorld Electric, Dec.17, 1998.
>XML via the Document Object Model: A Preliminary
Course
Learn how to process XML data with the Document
Object Model (DOM).
Using a DOM-supporting programming language like
JavaScript, one
can maneuver within the XML data to perform queries,
processing, or
modifications.
http://wdvl.com/Authoring/Languages/XML/DOM/Intro/
WDVL.com, Dec. 21, 1998
>Dr. Website: Revenge of the Mouseover
He's back! It's Dr. Website, with more mouseover
code, popup
windows, and hints on where to find CGI programs for
guestbooks.
http://www.webdeveloper.com/drweb/19981214-drweb.html
Congratulations to David Fiedler and Scott Clark of
WebDeveloper.com for winning PC Magazine's Top 100
Web Site
award.
http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/special/web100/94.html
>Nested Menus in HTML 4
HTML 4 allows one-level deep nested pull-down menus
with the new
option group (optgroup) tag. Unfortunately, current
browsers and
the current version of Gecko don't yet support this
new feature.
http://webreview.com/wr/pub/98/12/18/tag/index.html
Webreview.com, Dec. 18, 1998
>1998: Year in Review
Webreview.com and Inter@ctive Week review 1998.
http://webreview.com/wr/pub/98/12/18/feature/index.html
http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,2177010,00.html
7. NET NEWS: Microsoft to Unveil IE 4.5 Mac, Online
Population to
Quadruple, New Virus Infects Microsoft Word Files,
internet.com LLC acquires 15seconds.com and
AdResource.com
>Microsoft to Unveil IE 4.5 for Mac in January
Microsoft will unveil Explorer 4.5 Mac at the
MacWorld expo in
January. Version 4.5, to be released in mid 1999,
will include
Sherlock searching, printing enhancements, Page
Holder (which
allows multiple pages to be displayed), self repair,
and increased
speed and stability. Microsoft says the next version
after 4.5
will improve IE4 Mac's layout engine.
http://www.internetnews.com/prod-news/
1998/12/2101-microsoft.html
Internetnews.com, Dec. 21, 1998
>Online Population to Quadruple
A survey by Ovum forecasts 206 million dial-up
connections and
17.5 million permanent connections by the year 2005.
http://cyberatlas.internet.com/big_picture/demographics/ovum.html
Cyberatlas.com, Dec. 18, 1998
>New Virus Infects Microsoft Word Files
The New York Times reported today a new software
virus that's
spread via Word e-mail attachments. The virus
infects Microsoft
Word files and has caused several networks to crash.
The virus, officially named the "MS Word 97
Macro Class Virus,"
creates a pop-up box in Microsoft Word 97 files that
addresses the
recipient of the e-mail message by name and informs
the user that
he or she "is a big stupid jerk."
This virus is a type of Word macro virus, which is
the most
common form of virus today. It can potentially be
cross platform,
as Word 6+ is now a cross platform product. The
virus becomes
active on the 14th of each month.
To combat these types of viruses make sure
"Enable Macro Virus
Protection" is turned on in your preferences
(under General),
which prompts you if macros are present when opening
a Word file.
For additional information about virus protection
from Microsoft
visit the following Web site:
http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/
12/biztech/articles/21virus.html
INTERNATIONAL WEBMASTERS ASSOCIATION
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Also on Internet.com .... http://www.Internet.com
Guide to Internet Access and the WWW http://www.boardwatch.com
The best Web sites every moment http://www.coolcentral.com
The Reference Desk for Web Marketing http://www.cyberatlas.com
The latest Internet news http://www.internetNews.com
How to do e-commerce on the Internet http://e-comm.internet.com
The Leading Business Internet Magazine http://www.internetworld.com
Java applets: freeware and shareware
http://www.javaboutique.com
A free cut & paste JavaScript library http://javascriptsource.com
The definitive high-tech encyclopedia http://www.pcwebopaedia.com
Boost your site's search placement http://searchenginewatch.com
ServerWatch ratings and reviews http://www.serverwatch.com
Download Internet apps 4 WIN 3.x/95/NT http://www.stroud.com
THE list of ISPs with 3,000+ http://www.thelist.com
The Web Developer's Virtual Library http://www.wdvl.com
Web server software comparisons http://www.webcompare.com
WebDeveloper, resources and tips http://www.webdeveloper.com
The developer's guide to webmastery http://www.webreference.com |
