Building your own Department Website
What are the Internet and the World Wide Web? Simply put, the Internet consists of several thousand servers that are all connected together and are always on. These computers are not connected one to another in a series but rather each one is connected to several others, in parallel. This is what makes the Internet, as a whole, reliable. Now, the World Wide Web or web as it’s becoming known, is simply a section of the Internet as a whole. The web is where websites exists and is the most popular part of the Internet.
These servers that I mentioned are tasked with keeping websites available for people to see. This process is called hosting. While some people purchase mature video their own server and high-speed Internet connection to handle their hosting needs, most people will just hire a hosting company. Hosting companies charge anywhere from $10 a month to several thousand dollars a month depending on your needs.
What is a Domain Name? Now we know the basics of what the Internet is and that the web is a subsection of it. We know that we need a hosting company to host a website so that people can see it online. Now we need to see how people will get to that website. Every website on the Internet has an IP address associate with it. IP addresses usually look something like this mature video. There are many places to purchase domain names and the prices vary widely from about $8 to $35 per year and can be bought for terms ranging from 1 year to 10 years. Something to remember is that even though people speak of buying and owning domain names, you’re really just leasing them with the option to renew at the end of the term.
Planning out your site Okay, we’ve laid the foundation and it’s time to start looking at what we want to accomplish. Without a good plan to guide you, there’s no telling what your website will look like. Without preordained goals, how will you know if your website is successful? Ask yourself these questions: § What is our objective? Is it to educate the public? Is it to provide a central location for your officers to keep up with interoffice communication? Is the sole objective ‘because town A next to us has one?’ Whatever the case, know going in what your objectives are. This will make the building phase go much smoother. § What features will it include? Start writing ideas down now as to what you want on there. Maybe you saw another site that listed the most common charges and their fines and you liked the idea. Or, maybe you want to have an officer gallery where the general public can see photos and read bio’s on your officers? Perhaps you’ve got a desire to include a kid’s section so that the children can learn about the law. Some even have their press releases online so they don’t have to deal directly with the newspapers and television stations. Any and all of these ideas are fine, but it makes it much easier if you have it all on paper from the beginning. § Reference other sites. Maybe you saw a special effect or a nice color scheme that you liked somewhere. Write down the address of that site for future reference.
Web Designer/Developer We’re almost finished now. You now know the basic terms and concepts you’ll be dealing with. You’ve got your site all planned out (you didn’t skip that step did you?). Now you’re ready to hire someone or, if you have someone on staff, assign someone to take your ideas and turn them into a fully functioning website.
There are currently several different scripting languages that can be used to construct a website. A good web designer will familiar with several of them and know the strengths and weaknesses of each language and be able to choose the right one for the job. Because this is a decision best left up to the person doing the work, don’t feel that you have to understand what HTML, Java, JavaScript, PHP, Perl, ASP, .Net, or any other language is.
Finding and choosing someone to build the site The best way to find a web designer or web developer is word of mouth. Just ask around town. Once you get a few names, contact the people and ask for some examples of their work. They should be able to furnish you with at least 3 or 4 web addresses (or URLs) of websites they’ve built. Take the time to look at these sites and see if you feel that the style of design would fit what you’ve envisioned in your mind. And while price always matters in the current environment of budget cuts, remember that you get what you pay for. Your site could be seen by hundreds or thousands (or even hundreds of thousands) of people. This means that a mistake here could lead to a public relations nightmare. Caveat Emptor (let the buyer beware).
