ESSAY: What can you expect from a WebStart?

Summary

A WebStart will make a difference in ways you can anticipate and also in ways you may not anticipate.

1. You will have the knowledge to make good decisions about your next step
2. You will have a live website, if you want one
3. You may have an increased interest in whatever you are putting on your website
4. You may see the possibility of new directions

Knowledge to make good decisions about your next step

After the first WebStart session,you will be able to make good decisions about going ahead with your website or deciding that it is not yet time for you to have one.

After each additional session, you will always be able to make good decisions about your next step. Alice's WebStart is flexible and enables you to be creative, change your mind, and respond to other business and personal needs while still moving toward the goal of a published website.

A live website, if you want one

The outcome of a WebStart is usually that your first website is published on the World Wide Web, and visible to anyone in the world who has a web browser (like Internet Explorer, Netscape, or a service like America Online). Because Alice's WebStart is an independent business, you will not be pressured into using a particular Internet service, mall, or software. You will become aware of the benefits and costs of the alternatives and together we can pick one that works for you. We will help you through the hype.

Alternatively, you might want to have a "private" website -- that is, you might want to restrict access to your site to people who have the correct password or you can hide the location of the website from the outside world. You may choose to use the website as a way to organize materials and not wish to "go public". That too is possible. A website will often fit on a diskette or two and you might want to send your site to friends to run on their computers, but you might wish to keep the information off the Internet.

An increased interest in the contents of your website

One usual effect of working on a website is that you get to talk and think about the contents of the website in a way that you may never have done before. Get ready for a fascinating experience. You might find that some questions are not easy to answer. You might find that you start to think about things differently. If you are building a website for a group, you might find that new interpersonal relationships arise. Because of the intensely personal nature of the web (just look at people looking at the computer screen), your traditional words, tone, and concepts might not represent your content well.

We can help you with wording and tone so that you feel the website represents the content appropriately. We help you look at the website from the point of view of a visitor to the website - similar to the reader of a book. We will look for ambiguities that sometimes represent areas you will need to think about. The wonder of the web is that you can easily correct anything that doesn't work and can enhance the web as needed.

Possibility of new directions

Of course, many websites are simply an online brochure (for a business), or a simple set of pictures and descriptions (for a family). That might be all that you want for your website. However, you might find that the building of a website brings up possibilities that you hadn't dreamed of, or that you had forgotten you once dreamed of. This is true for individuals, families, groups, organizations, and businesses. In fact, this is the essence of life in cyberspace -- new possibilities.