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Title:
The Accidental Webmaster
Review:
Someone once pointed out that you need to know 90% of an answer to ask
a sensible question. This seriously affects anyone starting out on any
new venture, since by definition we all start from a zero
knowledge-base, and slowly and painstakingly work up.
I've found a sort of confirmation of this principle in that my
judgement of a really good presentation is often based on how strongly
I feel 'yes but of course I knew that' after the event.
While I may know many of the highlights, the presentation of in-depth,
well-researched knowledge as part of a coherent overall picture -
including the extra 10% I didn't know - is what makes the experience
truly worthwhile.
The Accidental Webmaster by Julie M Still is definitely in the 'good
presentation' category:
Still is the author or editor of four books, and the experience shows;
she writes good, clear text and presents concepts in logical
progression. She is a librarian, and the chapter-by-chapter
'recommended reading' builds to a substantial bibliography of related
material, supported by a Web Resources section.
The Accidental Webmaster takes a situation that is becoming more
common - an individual being asked or led by circumstances to set up a
website - and then uses Ms Still's own experience to flesh out the
bare necessities of finding ISP space and generating content.
Some of the choices she made might have initially been more luck than
judgement, but she has taken the opportunity to look back at all the
options available and decide whether or not she took the right one.
Ms Still has read and interviewed widely on the subject and presents
background detail to support her own experience plus additional
comments in areas where she has not (yet) been active.
This book is not a technical treatise on how to create a home page
with HTML and Java, Flash and MP3s. The nuts and bolts of website
creation have already been covered comprehensively elsewhere, and are
mentioned here only in the context of how to manage their use.
The most important focus of the book is web content: what should be
included and what avoided. How to manage the task - and how to avoid
being buried in the consequent workflow.
Julie Still has created and managed websites very successfully and her
opinions deserve due weight. Additional research allows the book to
cover most types of potential site from boy scout to business, and
most considerations from copyright to chatrooms.
If you have to set up a website, or have been volunteered by the
family or your boss to manage the web content of a group activity,
read this book first.
If you don't already have the technical skills it's fairly easy to
acquire them. The book however will alert you to the wider
implications of what you are about to get involved with.
It may give you some useful ideas, and it will certainly supply a
strong basis for some very sensible questions.
Free Pint Reviewer:
Stuart Cliffe is CEO of the National Association of Bank + Insurance
Customers, a watchdog group protecting the interests of private and
business users of financial services in the UK. He is a consultant,
writer and presenter on insurance, financial and internet matters and
runs DoubleCheck Ltd, which finds errors in bank/mortgage statements
and traces dormant and unclaimed funds. He is also involved with
<http://www.365-alive.net> - a fixes and information-based technical
website, through which he can be contacted.
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