HOW to be your

OWN WEBMASTER

Why do I need a website?

• who is my audience?

• what is my purpose?

• what can a website do for me that other media cannot?

• Do I really have time for this?

What do I need from a hosting company?

• storage

• bandwidth

• performace

• price

• service

• specific technologies?– PHP, ASP, MySQL

• number of databases?

• one-click installs?

• media streaming

• shell/ VPS / WebDAV

TYPES of HOSTING PLANS

• Shared hosting

• VPS - virtual private server

• Managed services

– Dedicated server

– Co-location

• BEWARE the reseller!

More information

What Software do I need?

• FTP client• RAW Text editor

– Textmate, TextWrangler, Notepad

• Firefox with extensions– Developer toolbar– Firebug– Colorzilla– Measure it

• Apache distribution for your

testing environment– MAMP or XAMP

• Image Editor– Photoshop, Graphic Convertor

How Do I Register my Domain name?

1. Check to see if someone owns your domain. Maybe choose another?• Do a WHOIS Lookup:

• dnsstuff.com• Networksolutions.com

2. BUY IT: register your domain name with a registrar• .com = godaddy $6.99 USD• .ca = reg.ca $14.95

3. Point your registrars’ name servers to your hosts’ DNS server (with a CNAME record)• WAIT: Once you've told one particular DNS

server about your new domain, it will have to transfer that information to all the other servers on the internet, which could take a couple of days. So be aware that your new domain won't necessarily be working instantly.

Security Certificates

You need a certificate if you want to:

• Host an anonymous FTP site

• Conduct e-commerce

• Encrypt email from your domain

• Secure the submission of users’ personal information

– names, dates of birth, drivers license #, addresses, etc.

In order to conduct secure transactions, you will need to purchase a security certificate. This is

basically an algorithm that authenticates and encrypts data between a user's browser and your

server. The algorithm is encoded and decoded with a key. Users are increasingly demanding

security from recognized certificate brands. Current industry leaders are Thawte, Geotrust, and

Verisign.

Why open source software packages

• Open source is great and FREE

• Instead of coding, you’ll be configuring

• Help is always close at hand online in forums and documention

• opensourcecms.com – test all packages before you install !!!

Joomla! CMS and community web platform

FEATURES• WYSIWYG web-based editor• Templates and extensions

(not all are free)• Polls• Blog

TYPICAL USES• Small business websites• Non-profit and

organizational websites• Corporate intranets and

extranets

example sites: SamuelLJackson.com, girlscantwhat.com, imperium.ph

joomla.org

Drupal CMS and community web platform

FEATURES• Advanced user managent and

permission based feature access• Node based flat architecture• News (RSS) Aggregator• Polls• Multi-lingual• Collaborative book• Searching• Extensive online help• Web-based administration• Themes and templates• 100s of modules

TYPICAL USES• Content Management• Blog• Discussion-based community• Collaborative environments

example sites: The onion, Terminus1525, Spread Firefox, Project Opus, BBC The World, 43folders, more…

Is Drupal right for you? More about drupal

drupal.org

phpBB bulletin board/forum

FEATURES• Private messages with

attachments• Advanced moderation• Private forums or topics• Search• Advanced user management• Registration options• Custom profiles• themes

TYPICAL USES• Interest-based communities• Support forums• Development

example sites: mozillazine.com,area51

phpBB.com

More about phpBB

Wordpress blogging software

FEATURES• Multi-paged posts• File/picture support• Auto-saved drafts• User management• Configurable sidebar• Lots of great themes• Many extensions

– Easily set up a podcast

• Dynamic page generation• Web-based admin

– Edit themes in browser

TYPICAL USES• Blogs• Podcast sites• Personal homepages

example sites: icanhascheezburger, lifehack, CNN Political Ticker, andrewmallis.com

More features More about Wordpress

wordpress.org

Gallery photosharing web application

FEATURES• Supports unlimited galleries and

albums• Slideshows, printing, • Rating & comments• E-commerce• Many themes (not many beautiful)

• Manipulate, rotate, resize images online

• Set size and quality defaults• Auto-watermarking• IPTC aware• Multilingual (over 30 language translations)

• Multiple upload methods– iPhoto plugin– Stand-alone Gallery Remote application

• Easily embedded into other CMS like Drupal, Wordpress, phpBB, Joomla

• Supports movies too!

TYPICAL USES• Portfolio site• Personal photo gallery

example sites: andrewmallis.com

More features

gallery2.org

Ruby on Rails web application framework

FEATURES• Rapid prototyping• Simple programming language• Easy AJAX• Customizable applications• NOT for the beginner

TYPICAL USES• Web applications• Collaborative environments• E-commerce

example sites: basecamp, shopify

Video demos tutorials

rubyonrails.org

QUESTIONS?QUESTIONS?

THANK THANK YOU!YOU!