The motive for creating a home page goes beyond the desire to launch a financially successful venture. (Be careful, though: Those phone lines, workstations, etc., can be quite an investment.) Rather, it goes to the very core of the human desire to make a mark of some kind on the universe. Whether it's launching a time capsule into outer space or painting buffaloes on walls of caves, people are always attempting to establish their special identity. We like to call out to others to speak with us and share t heir unique identities and stories. Even a personalized license plate is a simple way of saying, "Hey folks, look at me. I'm here."
A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words
Within a few years, it will be hardly necessary to know anything about HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) other than it's an extension to a filename. When you see a file named MYPHOTO.GIF, you needn't be concerned with the internal structure of how bytes re present pixels. You simply know that it's a GIF and that many programs can display it. HTML is a protocol that allows a document to contain text that can be highlighted and clicked on to jump to another text location, file, or site.
HTML also enables an image, movie, or sound to be embedded in a document in the form of what's called an inline image or object. If you browse the Web with a non-graphical interface using Lynx or a similar browser, it is possible to jump back and forth to hypertext links using cursor arrow keys. Images, however, are either invisible or are bracketed with a descriptive term such as 'Image.' It is usually possible to download these images.
If you think you are missing something when you are using a non-graphical interface, you are. To begin with, you're missing the special torture associated with getting your network software running. I have yet to meet someone who has simply loaded the sof tware and packet driver, filled in the setup data, and was off surfing the Net. Generally, to have full multimedia Internet access (including sound, graphics, and moving images), it is necessary to run software from your own computer which acts as a host via a connection to the Net called SLIP or PPP (see "Upping the Ante" on p. 58).
Most of us want to jump in and use the newly emerging PC- and Mac-based software (yes, Amiga too), and most of us are hardly experts in this field. But once you have your graphical interface going, a new world awaits you. Colorful mouse-clickable icons, f ormatted text, sound clips, and fill-in forms are a few of the regular features on the Web. Many services have begun to offer personal Web pages to their users, so it's time to start talking about effective online presentation.
Hello, My Name Is...
If the idea of having other Internet users clicking on your home page and learning about you, reading your latest recipe, seeing a picture of your home, or hearing a summary of your latest project interests you, then here are some basics.
Remember the earlier word processors where you created a bold effect, for example, by placing a special mark or symbol before and after the phrase you wished to highlight? That's almost all there is to HTML. By placing special marks around a particular ph rase, the phrase is highlighted and clickable. For example, when selected, the following marked or tagged phrase will open a Gopher session at the University of Minnesota:
The reader will simply see the highlighted on-screen phrase Click here, and clicking will initiate the Gopher session. With Lynx, you can view the raw marked text by hitting the forward slash (/) key. Browsers such as Mosaic and Netscape have a View Sourc e feature. A complete set of help files for HTML can be found at NCSA's Web information site (http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu) and at other locations.
Most users with Lynx can experiment with their own home pages, and this is a nice way to make your own interface to the Internet. The command Lynx myfile.html would run a file called myfile.html, and you are off and running. Just create the file from an A SCII word processor and try the entries listed in The Home Page Experiment (above) for starters.
Add your own URLs (Universal Resource Locators, the links to other sites, etc.), and this is your first beginner page. Keep in mind that it will only be readable to you or others on your system to whom permission is granted. A world-readable Web site, if available, is a separate service your access provider can supply.
Putting the Pieces Together
Okay, so now you're a pro. It's time to clean up your act with some helpful tips. Once you have digested the HTML manual, move on to a document at NCSA called "The HTML Style Guide." Here you will find specific protocol suggestions to make your document comparable to other documents on the Web.
A title is not mandatory, but it is nice. It helps visitors know immediately where they are, and it will help them find your page when document titles are searched. The use of heading levels showing different text in different fonts is also a good idea. < P> Be polite with your images and sound clips. The typical small GIF graphic is anywhere from 20K to 100K or more. A second tip along these lines is to note in the text the size or time estimate for transferring the inline image or object.
Try to be consistent in your structure and changes if you expect to have a following.
Test your URLs regularly. The sites you point to may change, and the URL may become obsolete. Information that was on a home page can change. Basically, you don't want to frustrate your possibly growing group of users. You are the ringmaster, and you have to keep the show going. Try to have alternatives so that if the really nifty site you point to is down, there are three others available.
Try to specialize. There are so many hotlists of cool places and best of the Web sites that all point to the same things.
Try focusing on a unique area that interests you and for which you can provide information or media not readily available elsewhere. My friend Jim (http://www.panix.com/jviii/jv3home.html), for examp le, has established a unique area devoted to his field of scenic production.
Hopefully, these starting pointers will whet your appetite and get you started. There are many more things to learn and many new enhancements being made to HTML. I am currently learning how to create images where a click on a specific area of the image ca n execute a link (these are called image maps). There's a weather map at http://rs560.cl.msu.edu/weather/interactive.html that uses this feature. You click on a locale to get the weather rep ort for that area. Interactive games also are possible using image maps, as are fill-in surveys, and (dare I say it) product-ordering capability.
I almost forgot to mention HTML editors. (Remember I said that we will hardly need to understand HTML soon?) They are designed to assist in writing and converting documents to hypertext language. I haven't seen one yet that entirely takes the burden away, but the ultimate aim is to produce a document with embedded objects that can be automatically converted to HTML. This capability will be here very soon. However, you still likely will need to get under the hood and know something about what you're doing . (It works for me and my '79 Dodge Aspen). Who knows? One day you may be on top of the hotlist of ubiquitous cool home pages.
Kenny Greenberg (kgreenb@panix.com and http://www.panix.com/kgreenb/kghome.html) is a neon artist and owner of Krypton Neon in Long Island City, N.Y.
The Home Page Experiment
NCSA Web Home Page
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Kenny's Home Page