Setting Up Organizational Websites

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I originally wrote this piece in early 1995. In the years since, most companies have set-up Web sites. This was still a new idea in the mid-'90s!

There are a variety of approaches to setting up Web sites. I strongly recommend the following approach: Keep It Simple!

• Have one person---from anywhere in the organization---be the Webmaster for the overall structure and design of the site. Be sure that person has a few clues about basic design, clear writing, and about how the WWW works. (Coming from a tech writing background, my bias is that this person should come from a writing or customer support background rather than a marketing or MIS background. The qualifications for the Webmaster might be better determined by the type of organization involved. If the company markets chocolate, putting the chocolate chef or chief marketing whiz in charge of the Web site would work. A computer-related company probably would base its site more around getting the latest technical info out to people, so putting a tech writer/tech support person in charge might be preferable. Remember that anyone on the Web can access a public page, so it's up to the site manager to focus the site on the sort of pages that would be most useful to the customers/potential customers out there.)
• Ideally, the department that owns that data should create/maintain the data, with input from the webmaster. The trick is getting the departments involved to buy into this. The Webmaster's job should be more coordinating/organizing the data. The Webmaster should also be able to help each department put their own pages together.
• Companies should permit individuals to have their own home pages. Many people enjoy doing this and go off and learn HTML on their own to do so. The Webmaster then knows there are other Web/HTML resources being developed in the company.
• Any department can "own" the server---it probably makes the most sense for it to be "centralized." Once the Web site is set up, it requires very little technical maintenance (At my last job, a co-worker set up a Web server on my DEC station in about five minutes, and it ran without any further interference from either of us until I left the job months later.).
• Adding information should be simple. If each department is responsible for updating their own pages, maintaining the data should be pretty straightforward. You want to make it easy to update information on the server so that it's always kept up-to-date.
• Limit the size of graphics on your pages. Many people enter the Web from modems rather than direct connections. The bigger the graphics, the longer it takes the page to load. Some users won't wait very long.
• When links are added to the page, be sure the links go somewhere. If a Web site manager wants to make links for "structural reasons," they should note that it's a "link to nowhere," rather than make the user select the link, only to find out that the link has no data attached. And be sure each link does have accurate data attached.
• Before "reinventing the wheel" and adding the exact same data that's been added in six other places on the Web, do some Web searches to see if the data is already available, and if it's in a format you can use.
• Just do it. In general, smaller companies are building better Web sites than larger companies (some exceptions to this include Apple and Novell, both of which have had excellent sites for a long time). I've seen some sites be pitifully "under construction" for months because some organizations can't get their acts together. Building a Web site isn't brain surgery. If you make a mistake today, you can fix it tomorrow! ;-> And, remember, there are a few hundred professional Web site developers out there that you can hire to help get you started.

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