Everything You Need to Know to Get Your Agency/Organization on the Internet...
or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Web
by Kirk Smith, Louisiana Department of Civil Service
Well, maybe this article won't tell you everything you need to know to get on the Internet (You didn't really think you'd get that from one measly little article, did you?), but perhaps we can tell you what you need to get started and help you avoid making some of the mistakes we made.
We're guessing that, chances are, you wouldn't have read this far unless you were keenly interested in getting your organization on the Net, so we don't really need to sell you on the advantages of getting out there. In case we do though, the Net offers tremendous bang for the buck, in terms of communication and service for you and your clients. Instead of paper publishing or whatever costly, unwieldy medium, you can publish something on the Net pretty much by pushing a few buttons, automatically disseminating it to potentially millions of people. And, the reverse is quite true, your clientele can communicate with you just as easily (we know, some of you may not necessarily want them to). Anyway, we certainly didn't have to sell our Director on getting our agency on the Net; in fact, he came to us with the idea.
We can't, in this article, talk about the costs of setting up a server, or any of the more technical aspects of setting up a site. Because we are currently "piggybacking" on another agency's server (the La. Dept. of Natural Resources, bless their generous souls), it is not cost us anything, apart from the man hours it has taken to develop the site. We have also had plenty of computer support to help us over some of the more difficult technical. We do think we've learned a few basic things that may help some of you out there get started, though.
So, what do you if you find yourself in the position we were: your Director/CEO wants your organization on the Internet, yesterday if possible, but if that's not possible, in the next two months? If you're like us, first you panic, but that will eventually subside. Next, you might want to:
Surf the Net - You've heard this phrase, it's impossible to pick up a magazine or newspaper without seeing it, but what does it mean? If you can, set aside some time to explore the Web, and familiarize yourself with the basic structure of the Net. This will give you a chance to check out some of the other personnel sites and maybe give you some ideas about what you would like to include in your own.
In addition to personnel-related sites, you will also find a wealth of information about how to develop a web site. You'll have to comb through it of course, because the Web follows that great law of the universe: 90% of what's on it is junk. But there are many useful articles on all kinds of useful topics: HTML (more on this subject below), graphics/, even downloadable software. A lot more of the questions you have about the Net will be answered by spending a little time online than by reading a dozen articles. It's really quite simple folks; brain surgery it ain't. Once you've surfed and wiped out a few times, perhaps you'll be ready for the next step:
Planning Content - Let's face it, this is the part that separates the men from the boys, or to be more politically correct, the serious humans of serious intent from the flashy, computer technogeeks with nothing to say. Take some time to plan and decide A) what you want to say, and B) how you want to say it.
Although it's called the Information Highway, there are some off-ramps you might not want to open up. Keep in mind that once it's out there, it's out there. It's no longer your property. Is the information you're planning to provide secure; do you want the public to have access to it? Also, how pertinent or relevant to your clientele is the information you're providing? What value will it have for your audience? If the casual surfer out there lights on your site and decides that it's full of useless trivia, he may not be quick to come back.
Also, when inviting comments and/or questions, remember that someone has to answer them. Simple principle, but easy to forget. We've had our own problems in this area: we originally had a "mailbox" on our site, inviting comments. Well, what we found ourselves getting were basically on the order of requests for phone numbers of state employees. As becoming the State Employee Directory was not one of our goals (there's already a document serving this function pretty well; it's called a phone book), we decided to remove the mailbox.
You might give some thought too, to how your site is organized and presented. What is the first thing the user sees when he accesses your site? Will it be readily apparent to users what you have available on your site, and will they be able to quickly understand how to navigate through your site to get to the information they want? Take some time to plot out what your home page, and each successive document, will look like.
Before we go on, it might be appropriate to have,
A Quick Word About graphics/: The quick word is sparingly, as in use them sparingly. You really have to walk a fine line: you need enough to make your site appealing, but not so many as to make your site take an eternity to access. All those fancy, pretty graphics/ take a lot longer for computers to load, and some of your users might have slower machines than others.
After you've done some research and given some serious thought to what you'd like to include on your site, you might be ready to tackle some of the more technical aspects, so next you should:
Acquire an HTML Editor: HTML, which you've probably heard of by now, stands for Hyper Text Mark-up Language, and is pretty much the universal language of the Web. It takes your text and graphics/ and puts them into a standard format that other people can view, regardless of what king of computer system they have. (To find out more than you'll ever want to know about HTML, simply search for it with Yahoo or one of the other search engines. You'll get references to more sites that you can shake a mouse at.)
Although HTML looks bewilderingly complex when you first encounter it, it really isn't. It's basically a series of simple commands that you incorporate into your text. These commands affect how you documents appear on the Web; they dictate spacing, paragraph breaks, font size, and so on.
The good news is that there are many HTML Editors out there on the market. These editors take your text in whatever form you have it, WordPerfect, Microsoft Word, etc., and automatically convert it to HTML. I would personally recommend the one we've used, Internet Publisher. It is a free add-on to WordPerfect 6.1 and works beautifully. You can either simply download the Publisher from the Web, or have the diskette mailed to you for the cost of postage and handling. The bad news is, you'll still, even with an HTML editor, probably have to learn a little HTML. Even thought HTML editors do a good job, you'll inevitably have to adjust your text and edit, and you'll need to know a little about the HTML commands to do so. Trust us through, the HTML editor will save you a lot of drudgery, by freeing you from the need to enter every single command.
So you've done a little homework, you've done some planning, what are you waiting for? Start creatin! And don't be surprised if, like us, among all of the satisfaction and gratification you get from having your agency on the Net, you experience another pleasant sensation: basic, everyday, good old-fashioned fun.
If you have questions, please feel free to call me at (504) 342-8546 or E-mail me at: allen22@ix.netcom.com And of course, please do check out our Web site. Its address is: http://www.dscs.state.la.us/
Kirk Smith is a Human Resource Program Consultant with the Lousisiana Department of Civil Service. He and Jean Tozer put together their home page in about a month. Neither had previous Internet experience.
© Copyright 1996 by the IPMA Assessment Council. All rights reserved.