PRESENTERS: BRUCE MORROW, Associate Director of Teachers & Writers Collaborative, and C.B. COOKE, Glyph Media Group, Inc. By: Cassie Rogers

Teachers & Writers Collaborative, founded in 1967, launched their Web site (http://www.twc.org) in 1995. Since then, the site has received thousands of visitors, emails from such far away places as Zimbabwe, and greatly increased memberships, sales of books, and even donations. Morrow presented an anecdotal overview of TWC’s experience with an interactive Web presence, and Cooke provided the details of – and essential steps to – the successful development of the TWC site, as well as the hardware and software required to create it.

TWC wanted to reach a whole new audience with its Web site, as well as introduce technology to the existing writing programs. Morrow surfed the Web to find potential funders, and instead found both the Glyph Media Group and the Institute for Learning Technology, both of whom were integral in the planning and execution of the TWC site. The first step was to gain support from everyone in the organization. Both Morrow and Cooke stressed the importance of “buy-in,” or getting the organization on board from the start. Next, Glyph interviewed the TWC staff to determine their desires and expectations for their site. Glyph helped TWC determine who their target audience was, and what browsers and platforms they likely used; he then organized the content information into a flow chart to show the structure and navigation of the site, gathered photos of the office space, and created the design elements. They tested the site by allowing TWC staffers to use it before actually publishing it on the Internet, and they viewed the site on all browsers and platforms. After addressing any problems that appeared during testing, the site was published and promoted.

Cooke also discussed some technical aspects of creating an interactive Web site. He explained the basics of HTML, and advised against the use of WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) Web editing software because of the proprietary (“junk”) code it creates in the document. He showed examples of the use of forms for registration, membership, merchandise sales, and dialogue. He advised the use of Macintosh computers for the hardware, BB Edit (Barebones Software) for marking up the document, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop for creating images, and Macromedia Director for animated/interactive elements. Cooke’s primary emphasis was to keep the content on the site updated and interesting to increase return visitors.

Several participants expressed concern with dealing with professional Web developers. Cooke said that most clients want full ownership and control of their site, and that the design of the site must take this into consideration. In other words, the design code must not be so complex that the client is unable to maintain the site. It is also difficult for professional designers to hand over the control of the site to the client because they cannot ensure the aesthetic integrity of the original design. Morrow suggested making one person in the organization responsible for all updates to the site.

Another issue brought up by attendees was how often it is necessary to update software versions. Cooke suggested testing the latest version before an upgrade, to see what new features that version offers. Finally there was a discussion of appropriate measures of “successful” Web sites. Cooke recommended invisible counter programs and log file parser software to see the logs of who visited your site. Some ISPs, he noted, won't allow access to their architecture to view log files, so inquiries about this should be made while researching hosts for a planned site. “Hits” (number of visitors to the site) are a subjective measure, however, and quality of visits is more important than quantity. TWC, Morrow pointed out, measures the success of its site by, for example, online poetry submissions from students it receives and the degree to which it serves the community it is intended to reach.