Introduction |
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| For a lot of small
organizations and groups the idea of developing a website probably
holds a lot of appeal, potentially providing a way to publicize
their cause on a local, regional and even national basis. |
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| However, it may
be one thing to see such a potential but how do you go about
turning such potential into reality? |
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| A good place to
start might be to assess whether you have anyone already in
the group or associated with the organization that would be
willing to undertake the work for you? Be wary though - you
are going to need to understand a little of what is involved
before you hand over the project lock, stock and barrel to anyone!
After all, would you willingly hand over any of your other work
to someone unless you were convinced they had the skills to
see it through? |
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| Some people may
be initially disappointed then that this toolkit is not a step
by step technical guide to building a site - but you can go
into any bookshop and buy a software guide or a tutorial guide
for about £20.00. The advice we are offering here is far
more difficult to come across and has been hard won through
our own experiences of the pitfalls of developing for the web! |
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| This toolkit therefore
is a result of our own experiences of the process of planning
and building a website. We will examine that process in detail
and explain how we came to make certain decisions along the
way. The answers are not going to be the same for everyone -
your experience will be unique to your own circumstances! |
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If you are all
complete novices to web development (as we were!) the learning
curve you will experience is likely to be pretty steep - but
we are hoping we can cut out a lot of the research effort
and can help to explain some of the concepts that are involved.
You will often find technical guides are brilliant at telling
you what to do - but less so on explaining why you are doing
it! This guide then is to help you figure out that all important
'why!' |
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| Some of the kinds
of issues we will examine will be around are you going to need
specialized training? Also what costs are likely to involved
and would it be 'cheaper' and more cost effective if you went
out and commissioned a third party to develop and build the
site for you? |
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| So don't fret if
you are not technically minded - we will explain as much as
we can in plain simple english - and yes, we were baffled and
bewildered by the jargon and technical stuff at the start of
our developmental cycle too! |
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