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What is the Web? ...and who uses it	Web Applications	Site and Resource Lists
You and the Web ...the benefits of your own site	Web Site Promotion	NZ Web Service Providers
Web Site Design ...doing it right	Security and Electronic Commerce	Here's the Pitch

What is the Web?

If you're already familiar with the Web, skip the introduction.

The World Wide Web is the most widely used service of the Internet, the global electronic communications network. Information is presented on electronic "pages" made accessible through programs called Web browsers.

The most common browsers are various versions of Netscape and Internet Explorer, but dozens of others are used (Opera is nice).

The contents of the pages represent the commercial, academic, recreational or personal interests of those who create them -- product details, on-line shops, pictures of friends and family, scholarly papers, information about clubs and societies, virtual art galleries, lists of other useful pages...

Web pages are usually designed so that the reader can effortlessly follow "links" to relevant subjects, information or files. The links could be pointing to somewhere else on the same page or half a world away.

Who is using the Web?

Exact statistics for the Web are impossible to determine, but some estimates include:

Number of pages: since 1993, the number of Web pages on-line has grown from just a few thousand to well over 100 million, hosted on 1.2 million servers

Number of users: over 30 million people used the Web in 1996, and that may have doubled by the end of 1997

Commercial activity: Web-generated business was approaching US$1 billion per month on 250,000 commercial sites in early 1997

Using the Web requires computer equipment and incurs moderate ongoing costs, so readers are still likely to be:

• white-collar workers using their employer<@146>s computer and Internet connection
• individuals in the middle- to upper-income bands who can afford the necessary hardware and connection costs
• academics and students
• businesses seeking information or trading opportunities relevant to their product or service

You and the Web

What can a Web site do for me?

Web sites are typically created to serve one or more of these purposes:

• one-way information: simply making information about some topic available to specific groups or to all comers
• two-way communication: making information available and collecting responses
• promotion: giving a good impression of the site's owner, and their activities and possibly extending into electronic commerce
• sales: actually engaging in commercial transactions

Electronic commerce is trade where payments are sent electronically (e.g. over the Web).

It's important that anyone establishing a site decide which of these purposes it is to serve.

The following table indicates some kinds of information, promotion, communication and commercial activities likely to be carried out by different site hosts:

What are the limitations?

An enormous range of services can be usefully provided on the Web but, as with any venue, there are both limitations and drawbacks, and these should be weighed when considering your own Web site:

• access
  There is not much point establishing a site if the people you want to reach do not have or do not plan to get Web access.
  On the other hand, you may be able to expand your reach to include new contacts, clients or members who find your offerings interesting.
• getting attention
  The Web is a very big place -- you have to do something really different if you want to make a widely noticeable impact.
  Then again, few people or businesses need to make an immediate Web-wide impact.
• bandwidth constraints
  "Bandwidth" refers to the amount of data which can be sent over communication links in a given time.
  A shortage of bandwidth means that data moves more slowly, and pages take longer to load. This affects some providers and sites more than others. Good providers will upgrade their bandwidth as needed, but there are always limits. This means pages must not be too large, as viewers won't wait forever for them to load.
• costs
  Although a Web site can be set up fairly economically by renting space from a service provider, you still have to bear its on-going costs. These include any administration associated with the site, maintaining and updating it, monthly rentals and any traffic charges. If you want a domain name of your own (e.g., www.yourname.co.nz), this must be paid for annually.
  Some ISPs allocate some space for Web pages as part of their basic user package, and this may well be all that a small site requires.
• security
  If you are merely providing information which is free to all, this will not be a problem, but if you are collecting or providing information which you want to protect or restrict in some way (such as personal information, financial details or copyrighted material), security issues must be considered.

Web Site Design

The Basics

Web pages are created using a simple language called "HTML", which describes the structure and contents of your offering; the browser should then present this in an appropriate fashion. HTML provides some degree of control over page layout and the ability to add images, tables, forms and even animations and sound (though not all browsers will be able to make use of all these features).

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) allows authors to structure information for presentation. It does not define precisely how pages will actually appear -- that is up to each browser and its user settings.

Having your own Web page can be as simple as finding a service provider to rent you the storage space and Web connection, then creating your page.

More complex sites, such as those with database or security capabilities or extensive sound and graphics, require careful programming and testing to deliver the desired results.

Most sites need ongoing maintenance. A page rapidly goes stale if it is not updated. Links on the page may no longer be valid, or the information itself may become out of date.

Web sites tend to grow over time as pages are added to cover new subjects or activities. If you're not careful, the whole structure can become unwieldy. Good site planning and design allows you to forestall this, so be sure to put the time in early on to decide how the growth will be managed.

Doing it Right

Putting up Web pages is just a new form of publishing, subject to many old conventions, plus a few new wrinkles. Good offerings have useful content, clear presentation, consistent style and browser independence. Bad ones may be browser-specific, have little or no content, or simply represent somebody going on-line to say "me too"

Naturally, the Web itself contains many guides on how to create Web pages. Some will tell you the latest tricks to make your favourite browser display pages to the best effect. Others will give you clear indications of what is and isn't good style and design

Remember, if you want your page to be read by others, bear in mind that they won't all be using the same browser, or even the same kind of computer. Tricks and illusions created to impress users of one browser may look sad -- or even ridiculous -- if read by another. If the purpose of your pages is to convey information, then base them around standard HTML. If the purpose is to dazzle, then be aware that not every visitor will be dazzled -- and some will be annoyed.

Validate, Validate, Validate!

Once a Web page has been created, it is important that it be checked out as correct HTML. It is all too easy to make a mistake in page creation which works on yourbrowser, but awful on others.

Fortunately, both software and Web sites exist which will perform this vital validation function for you. Use them!

Using Graphics

Many Web pages can be enhanced by judicious use of graphics -- the key word is judicious. When people are paying to look at your page (and many are), they don't want to receive a 100KB "supporting" graphic to embellish 100 words of text (there are exceptions, of course).

Many readers (often estimated at around one third) set their browsers to ignore all graphics, so it is important that you design your pages so that they are usable and reasonably attractive even if the graphics are not present or, worse, replaced by little "image here" boxes as some browsers do.

Good Web page designers use a number of techniques to reduce the file size, and thus increase the viewing speed, of the graphics they use, and to blend them into the overall design and layout of the page.

Frames

Another technique which can be either judicious or gratuitous is the use of frames -- dividing up the screen of a graphical browser into separate "panes" which can be altered independently.

This can be very convenient for ensuring things such as navigation panels remain visible at all times. Recent graphical browsers generally support frames, though other varieties may not, and some users dislike them for various reasons.

Style Sheets

As noted earlier, HTML describes the structure of a page for a browser to display. Style sheets are the preferred mechanism for pages to "recommend" to browsers the author's desired fonts, layout and so on. Although they've been around for a while, the major browsers are only now starting to support them.

Web Applications

Web pages are often used to present or collect information for databases. Sometimes this kind of application is solely for in-house ("intranet") use, with Web tools used but without the data being available on the World Wide Web itself.

Typical applications include:

• product catalogues
• publication indices
• search and retrieval of articles and documents
• policy documents
• technical information
• constantly changing information (e.g. exchange rates)
• accommodation listings
• directories of all kinds

Output example from an on-line database:

Typical Web data collection applications include:

• feedback and survey forms
• order placement and validation
• service requests
• application forms
• contact information
• promotional competitions and games

Data collection example:

In each case, some programming support is usually required to support the application. Although there are ways to collect data from Web page forms without programming, this rapidly becomes unwieldy as the amount of data increases.

Using a protocol known as CGI, Web applications are able to transfer data to and from Web pages and forms. This information is usually stored in databases on the server machine -- a well-designed Web application will not require a change in the format or the layout of existing databases you may already be using.

A server is the computer on which the Web site or application is stored.

The programming language used to develop a Web application will generally vary depending on the nature of the server machine (e.g. Unix-based, Windows-based), but will most commonly be Perl, C, Delphi, Visual Basic or a dedicated add-on to a database management system or web server.

Because of the programming requirements, developing Web applications generally requires a distinct set of skills from those which go into Web page design. It is important to remember this when deciding who will create your site.

The best Web site developers are those who are able to marry the divergent disciplines of professional publishing, graphic design and software engineering.

Web-Related Applications

As well as automated Web sites, Web-based software development makes possible a range of other innovative communication applications, such as:

• Automatic information feeds, where a user's PC is set to regularly contact a given site and pick up the latest information (often in compressed form) for subsequent review by the user. The user does not need to be connected while actually reading the information, which lowers costs and increases convenience.
• Offline Web browsers, which can be used to package and view HTML-based information delivered on floppy disk or CD-ROM or via email. These products may include extra features such as compression, searching or automated display of material.
• Email broadcast lists and list-servers, often used for communication or support purposes within a group, and sometimes for marketing purposes. The latter use must be judiciously balanced against the Privacy Act and the objections which most Internet users have to receiving unsolicited "spam" messages, however!
  A "list server" allows people to join and leave an email discussion group. People on a given list, will receive all email sent to the group by one of its members.
• Automatic Web site generation, where the data for a Web site is maintained in an off-line database. The Web pages are regularly generated from this information and automatically uploaded to the site whenever the administrator wishes. This can be significantly cheaper than developing a database of information which is maintained "live" on the site.
• Site monitors and other applications which "watch" Web sites of interest to the user. They detect changes to the site and automatically download the new material for the user to view next time they are at their computer.

Web Site Promotion

Creating a Web site is only half the story. If your site is to to serve any purpose, people must know that it is there. Two audiences are usually targeted:

• your natural audience (e.g. members, clients or subscribers) who may have Web access, or be getting it soon
• the wider Web community, who use search and indexing services on the Web to find pages with information of interest to them

The first group is usually easy to reach through existing lines of communication.

You will usually have to go to some trouble to explain the purpose and benefits of the Web-based service to those who are not yet "Web aware", in the hope that they will find your site one of many reasons to get a connection themselves.

Making a Splash on the Web

Reaching Web readers at large is more difficult, particularly when you're competing with literally millions of other sites. You should:

• list your site in the Web catalogues
  Don't try to get on them all -- pick the ones which most closely match your site. Logical places to start would be indices which focus on your location (Christchurch, New Zealand, Oceania, Asia) or the main contents of your site (science, software, publishing, humour, skeptics, mediæval recreation).

A page from the Alta Vista on-line search engine:

• distribute press releases
  Send out press releases not just to those publications in your field, but also to the computer pages of local papers and Net-oriented magazines, especially if your site has something different to offer. Follow these up with new releases whenever you make a significant addition or improvement.
• develop your site on an on-going basis
  Many pages are worth visiting once. Few are worth a second look unless the host makes an effort to keep them up-to-date and interesting. New links, ideas and points of interest are essential.
• add your web address to all stationery, printed and electronic
  Any place you list your contact information, make sure to add your Web address too. This means on your letterheads, business cards, publication mastheads, email sigs -- anywhere people would expect to see it.
  A sig (signature) is a tailpiece on email messages which usually contains your email address.
• links with compatible sites
  Mutual links between your site and others in a related area will help bring visitors interested in what you do, and your link will do the same for them.
• promote your site on relevant newsgroups
  It's important that you do this in accordance with netiquette, the informal social code of newsgroups. You need to be aware of which newsgroups welcome (or frown on) such postings.
  Netiquette has been evolving since the very beginnings of electronic newsgroups -- it's simply what counts as politeness in this culture.

Security and Electronic Commerce

Web Security

This is an area which is still developing rapidly. Security concerns are threefold:

• system security
  This is mainly a concern for service providers and organisations with their own servers. Because there are ways for Web applications to modify the data on the machines on which they are run, there is always the possibility that unauthorised access and modification can occur through program design flaws or deliberate intent.
• confidentiality
  Any Web usage that involves sensitive data (e.g. personal information, credit card details, technical data) needs to be protected against unauthorised access and eavesdropping. This is difficult when the information passed between the reader and the Web server can be routed through intermediate hosts on the Internet. Access restrictions using passwords and data encryption are two of the most common approaches to providing protection in this area.
• authentication
  In the Web world, there is no straightforward way of knowing who is reading a page or filling out a form. This can be a severe limitation, particularly in the commercial arena.

Example of a passworded gateway:

Electronic commerce

Because of the security concerns noted above, and the critical fact that money is involved, electronic commerce on the Web is a complex undertaking.

At present, many commercial transactions that arise from the Web are closed outside it, but this is slowly changing. Corporations such as Mastercard and Visa have agreed on strategies for adding the security and confidence necessary to make transactions over the Web an everyday occurrence, and major browsers now contain built-in features to enhance security.

Other systems aiming to provide electronic transactions are already operating, and experiments are under way on the next generation of electronic transactions, including <@147>cybercash<@148>.

Automated Web sites can validate credit card numbers and even authorise a card transaction on line before accepting an order.

There are also simpler solutions, of course -- such as providing an order form for your readers to print out and fax, or supporting telephone sales ("call the freephone number" or "email us your phone number and we'll call you", for instance).

Example Sites and Resources

A selection of NZ Web sites

An example of a directory service -- Telecom's white pages directory.

How to follow the news on line: New Zealand news wires are updated regularly over the course of the day.

A convenient list of New Zealand search engines appears on the "Site of the Day Award" pages -- check out their list of other winners too.

On the New Zealand Companies Office site, detailed information from databases is only available to subscribing customers, but anyone can do basic searches.

A good example of an educational/information site -- the place to go if you're interested in Antarctica.

Foreign currency dealing, with rates continuously updated and automated forms to simplify ordering. The order forms are password protected.

A keyword-searchable database of nearly all New Zealand's accommodation providers.

Victoria University -- good example of a site providing information to staff and "customers" past, present and future.

An example of a personal page -- this has the author's thesis outline and his CV.

All sorts of businesses have a Web page these days -- Sami's provides great middle-eastern takeaways in Christchurch.

On HortResearch's pages, password protection means only registered subscribers can access the HortNET information and communication service.

The Press, New Zealand's best on-line newspaper.

Internet retailers find malls just as convenient as more traditional businesses do.

The government on line: information on New Zealand, its government, laws, public-sector jobs, statistics, the Treaty...

Useful Resource and Information sites

Premiere site for good advice and information about HTML, CSS etc.

Web Developers' Database

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops protocols for the Web and provides a wide range of resources such as:

• Style Guide for on-line hypertext
• Security and the World Wide Web

HTML validation

First Virtual Internet Payment System -- an alternative approach to electronic commerce

Internet Access in New Zealand FAQ.

Selected Web Site Service Providers in New Zealand

Here's the Pitch

What can we do for you?

At South Pacific Information Services, our combination of software, design and publishing expertise allows us to offer a full range of Web site design and maintenance services:

• site planning and design
• text production, editing and adaptation
• graphics and page creation
• Web-based applications (databases, search engines, forms, interaction)
• electronic commerce
• maintenance and extensions
• automatic page generation
• site promotion
• training in page creation and site development
• design consultancy

Why use our services?

Establishing your own site on the World Wide Web represents both an opportunity and a challenge. By now, the opportunities should be pretty clear. The challenge is to design your presence and your presentations so that you appeal to your target audiences rather than offend them (or, worse, bore them!).

For most organisations, the Web offers the chance to launch a new and powerful complement to existing information, promotion and communication efforts. But, if you aren't careful, your new Web presence can drain important resources you need elsewhere, and a poorly conceived site can even alienate those whom you most want to reach.

Most importantly of all, the Web may offer you opportunities for productive and highly economic interaction with your target community in ways that aren't obvious to those who are not experienced in the nuances of the Net. That's where we come in...

Web Site Package Menu

If you would like more ideas and pricing information, see our list of Web site packages, including:

• Hello World
• Presence Package
• Communication Package
• Commerce Package
• Additional Services

We hope you enjoyed reading this primer as much as we did researching and creating it.

For more information contact: Vicki Hyde, Web Team Leader Tel: +64-3-384-5137
Fax: +64-3-384-5138
P.O. Box 19-760, Christchurch, NEW ZEALAND

Credits

Writing and Web page design: Peter Hyde and Phil Anderson
Research and Production: Phil Anderson

Th' th' th' that's all, folks!

What is the Web, you and the Web, site design			Web site applications, promotion, security and commerce
Mail us	Climbing Out on the Web	SPIS home page	NZ Science Monthly	All contents © Copyright SPIS Ltd 1996,97