Personal Webpage Workshop

Please review the notes below before the workshop, and think about Use cases and Content.

I will demonstrate using Google Sites; if you don't have a Google account, you might want to create one.

Use cases

Before you start designing, you might want to think about who will use your page and why.

Here are some obvious use cases, but you might have more:

1. Researchers looking for one of your publications.

2. Current students looking for opportunities to work with you.

3. Prospective students getting an idea of what the faculty are like.

4. Faculty candidates finding out about their potential colleagues.

What impression do you want to convey about your work and yourself?

What do you want the user experience to feel like?

Content

Based on your use cases, start collecting content. Some obvious things:

1. Basic information: name, title, institution, contact information, etc.

2. A photo. Maybe a head shot and an action shot. Mike Maloney can help.

3. Publications (either on your page or a link to a published version).

4. Class web pages (might be under your personal site or you might point to it.

5. Projects.

6. Personal information: hobbies, etc. Different people have different ideas.

Hosting options

1. Simplest choice: something like Google Sites, which provides both hosting and a web interface for content management.

2. Simple?: DreamWeaver with an Olin server. Instructions here.

3. Almost as simple: something like Dreamhost that provides hosting, and you can install a content manager.

4. Less simple: buy hosting, develop your content offsite and sync.

5. Less simple: run your own server.

Get your own domain?

Getting started

1. Choose a service.

2. Choose a theme.

3. Start now, start simple.

4. Design the hierarchy of pages. You can move things later, but it will break external links.

Maintenance

1. Explore your content manager from time to time to see if there are features you want.

2. Get in the habit of posting everything you do.

3. When you do your annual report, also update your page.

4. Need/want any widgets? User comments? Ads? Recurring content on every page?

Web presence

1. Google yourself periodically. If your first-last name combination is not sufficiently unique, start using a middle initial or middle name.

2. Sign up for Google alerts.

3. Recruit traffic: for example, if you write something with general interest, post it on an appropriate subreddit.

4. Think about starting a blog. But that's a topic for another time.