Report on the Second International World Wide Web Conference

October 17-20, 1994
Chicago, Illinois

Presented by: Karen Durfee (Network Administrator at CIT/IR)
Date: 11/15/94
For: IDEA (Cornell University's Developers' User Group, formerly known as NUG)

To reach me: kld3@cornell.edu

Disclaimers/Thank yous

2. My primary responsibility at Information Resources is that of a network administrator. My users work primarily on Macintosh workstations and my network experience, including WWW server setup, is primarily on Macs. While I will try to report on WWW technology from a platform-independant point of view, keep in mind that my experience and background is primarily Macintosh based.

3. There will be a question and answer period at the end of my presentation. However, if you have any questions along the way, feel free to ask.

4. I would like to thank Michele Reichert for her help in researching and setting up our WWW server. I would also like to thank her for her help in preparing this presentation.

I. What is WWW technology? What is it used for? etc.

The development of World-Wide Web (WWW) technology introduced "a major transformation in the way that knowledge is being expressed and communicated around the world." One of the exciting attributes of WWW technology is its lack of dependency on platform and application; WWW technology has the advantage of cross-platform, cross-application document portability. A Web client provides users access to sound, graphics and text.

WWW technology provides a hypertext GUI interface/point-and-click environment to access information. With WWW technology, it is no longer necessary to know the path of where a certain file is stored. It is also no longer necessary to know the name of such a file. This greatly increases ease of use. Web servers are an inexpensive way to make public data and documents easily available to anyone with network access.

The Second International World Wide Web Conference was held in Chicago, from Oct 17-20, 1994.

II. Terms

WWW

a hypertext-based system for finding and accessing Internet resources

HTTP

(HyperText Transfer Protocol) how clients and servers talk to each other

browsers

clients for WWW technology

Mosaic

a client (the original client) developed by NCSA

Hypertext

GUI interface/point-and-click environment to link to data

HTML

(HyperText Markup Language) language which provides codes used to format hypertext documents

Home Page

the welcome/introduction page of a particular server

the first page loaded when the browser is booted

URL

(Uniform Resource Locator) the address of (or link to) a document on the WWW

III. 2nd WWW Conference

Sponsors:

• CERN (Conseil European pour la Recherche Nucleaire), the Web's original designers

• NCSA (National Center for Supercomputer Applications in Champaign, IL) Software Development Group, developers of Mosaic
  URL=http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/NCSAIntro.html

• National Science Foundation

• OSF Research Institute, research providers for the next generation of open systems technology
  URL=http://riwww.osf.org:8001/

My Impression of the Conference

• Conference attendees represented a wide range of technical expertise - from novice client user to technical gurus.

• Conference attendees came from many fields and areas of business, not just those with computer science or research backgrounds.

• Covered all aspects of government, business and education, along with technical information about setting up and maintaining a WWW server.

• Conference presenters addressed present and future uses of WWW communication for education, government, medical, financial, and other economical and commercial uses.

• Conference presenters brought up sociological aspects and things to think about for the future, such as future value and "corporate" image via marketing.

IV. Highlights and Some Topics Addressed at the WWW2 Conference (+ my own 2 cents )

Managing Contents on WWW Servers

1. What to put on the web?
   • Public Information
   • Private Information
   • Surveys
   • Forms (Front End to a Database)
   
   
2. Map out your web space
   • Keep in mind the reader's preconceived structure.
     
   • Draw a big picture and paste it on the wall.
     
   • Use sub directories.
     
   • Keep filenames short and simple.
   
   
3. Style/Branding
   • Design a consistent interface
   
   
4. Image/Quality
   • The quality of a Web page reflects the owner's public image. Create the image that reflects the quality of your department.
   • Think about the image you want to project.
   • What do your web pages say about you and your department?
   
   
5. Test the design and concept with outsiders
   • Different department or group familiar with your server data
   • Novice, naive first-time users
   
   
6. Define a clear production process and schedule
   • Determine bottlenecks and approval points

Do's and Don'ts of Authoring an HTML Page (HTML Etiquette)

• Do keep your pages below 100K. Document page length should be between 1 1/2 to 4 screens. Exceptions are files or documentation, which people may want to print.
• Do provide links back to the main page and maybe a link to the home page.
• Don't crowd images.
• Use the ALT= option in an IMG to specify a string to display if the user is not getting graphics.
• Don't have a different-looking icon for every bullet.
• Don't have too much information on a single page. Remember to use white space.
• Don't forget a time stamp.
• Don't let your links drop. Check your hrefs. No dead-end links.
• Don't make something look like a button and not work like a button.
• Don't steal someone else's graphics.
• Don't repeat the same link with different names.
• Don't leave the important stuff for the bottom; some one may not make it that far.
• Don't forget other platforms and browsers. Keep your documents platform and browser independent.
• Don't force graphics on the user. Tell people how big file are BEFORE they download them. Put the size of a graphic next to the anchor.
• Do stick to one (or very few) graphics helper applications.
• Don't forget at web master reference.
• Don't do dangling links. Avoid the word, "here." Put the link on the item itself.
• Don't include links to generic web information. There are already enough sites that provide that.
• Don't let link names be too non-descript. If someone prints it out they won't have the link.
• Don't forget to make the title very descriptive, so that when it's saved to someone's hotlist they'll know what it is.
• Do check error logs to see what problems people are having.
• Do have someone else edit your text for content, grammar and spelling.
• Don't forget - document, document, document.
• Don't forget - testing, testing, testing.

Sociological Aspects of WWW

WWW implications are so enormous that many companies are pouring advertising dollars into promotion. Currently, there is high function/low value information on the Internet. We need to increase value.

"More and more organizations are discovering that a Web server can be an invaluable promotional tool . Many senior decision makers may conclude that setting up a WWW server may be much too strategically important to be left under the control of the technologists who have created them."

"Look to the nation's advertising and marketing firms to make their impact on the Internet through their expertise in creating personality through graphical presentations. Newspapers, television and other mass media are the WWW kin, though it may not be that obvious right now."

Currently, there are "virtual cities" which offer "a full-fledged commercial environment for virtual shoppers and merchants." One virtual city includes museums, sports, exhibits, library, and purchasing.

sources:
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/IT94/Proceedings/Overviews/duffy/main.html
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/IT94/Proceedings/Overviews/duffy/main.html
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/IT94/Proceedings/Overviews/fry/fry.html
http://awa.com/

On-line classes

A number of speakers presented information on distance education via WWW. One presenter showed how his Computer Science class was conducted on-line. On-line information included the syllabus, class schedule, class notes, assignments, announcements, office hours, and references to valuable sources, lab experiments, and a bulletin board for frequently asked questions. One professor even had his tests on-line. This raised several questions about issues of academic dishonesty. One concern still pending is whether to allow students access to tests on-line. However, this should not be a problem for those tests that the professor designates "open-book" or "take-home".

sources:
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/IT94/Proceedings/Educ.html

Security

WWW technology was not developed with security in mind. It was initially developed for researchers to easily share electronic information. Today, only a few years later, people want to use WWW technology to access all sorts of data, including data that should have limited access.

On the Macintosh platform, MacHTTP is the software used to set up and administer a WWW server. MacHTTP allows limiting access by ip address or domain name.

At the WWW2 Conference, two speakers presented products which will offer security administration on a WWW server. Their product proposals can be accessed via the Web at:

• OSF-DCE Web - URL=http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/IT94/Proceedings/Security/lewontin/Web_DCE_Conf_94.html

• Shen Security Enhancements to HTTP - URL=http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/IT94/Proceedings/Security/hallam-baker/Shen/Documentation/paper.html

I am very interested in "kerberizing" WWW access. It involves collaboration between client vendors and HTTP vendors. If anyone knows anything about this, or is interested, please let me know.

Software

• Browsers
  • graphics & text:
    • Mosaic
    • MacWeb
    • Netscape
  • text only:
    • Lynx
• HTML Editors Macintosh:
  • HTML Editor
  • Softquad HoTMetaL Pro (beta due out in November)
  • BBEdit Extensions and BBEdit Lite
  Windows:
  • html assistant
  • HTML Writer
  • HTMLed
  • Softquad HoTMetaL Pro
  • ANT
  
  Note: An informative list of browsers and editors is available at:
  http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Tools/Overview.html

• Link Checking
  • EIT's verify link
    URL=http://wsk.eit.com/wsk/dist/doc/admin/webtest/verify_links.html
• Services
  • NetSearch URL=http://www.ais.net/netsearch
  • NetMall - ($$)

V. How is WWW currently used at Cornell?

• Other Cornell WWW Servers
  URL=http://www.englib.cornell.edu/othercuw3.html

• CIT Help Desk
  URL=http://helpdesk-www.cit.cornell.edu/

• CUInfo
  URL=http://www.cornell.edu/

• Cornell Law School
  URL=http://www.law.cornell.edu/

• Olin/Uris Reference
  URL=http://urisref.library.cornell.edu/olinref.html

• Cornell Cooperative Extension
  URL=http://empire.cce.cornell.edu/

• Setting up a WWW Server @ Cornell
  URL=http://www.cit.cornell.edu/cit-pubs/cu-web.html

VI. Resources - "educational net surfing"

• DTF.WWW, Interactive Games
  URL=http://www.hh.se/home/stud/t/92/mn/c/html/spel.html

• GNN Home Page (GNN is Global Network Navigator, a free magazine on the Internet from O'Reilly & Associates)
  URL=http://nearnet.gnn.com/gnn/gnn.html

• long list from CERN of every known server
  URL=http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/DataSources/WWW/Server.html

• searching by topics: NetSearch
  URL=http://www.ais.net/netsearch

• WWW Current and Future Developments
  URL=http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Bugs.html

• Downtown Anywhere's Front Street
  URL=http://awa.com/

• Collected Information Concerning Mosaic and HTML
  URL=http://kawika.hcc.hawaii.edu/htmlstart.html

• Cornell University, CIT-Information Resources
  URL=http://ir-www.cit.cornell.edu/