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EDITORIAL COMMENTWelcome back folks ! Just when you thought it was safe to get back onto the net we're here to provide you with some more information overload !
The past month has been an extremely busy and exciting time for the IWA, with plenty of new developments and appointments. Thanks very much to all of you who wrote in with offers of help. This has been much appreciated, and as you can see this issue looks and reads a lot better. We would also like to thank David Schaafsma, the owner of Dave's Web Dynamics who took the time to clean up the graphics on the IWA's member logo. Don't forget to download the revised graphic and place it on your website.
ASSOCIATION NEWS
The IWA is pleased to welcome the following new committee members.
Ron B. Krisko - is the new Chairperson for the IWA's survey committee. The committee will serve the Association in performing ongoing studies of member needs and industry trends. Each survey's findings will be communicated back to the Board and Members with a view to assisting the provision of better member services and also will be used to assist members in providing their services to the business community.Frans Hoffman - Webmaster at Apple, Inc. and President of IWorks, Inc. (an Internet training company) is the new director of the IWA's Professional Development Committee. The committee will be responsible for designing the IWA's Senior Member designation (SIWA) programme and also for other specialist certification programmes. In addition the California State University system (CSU) has chosen the IWA as their advisory resource to design and implement a webmaster certification prgramme. Frans Hoffman, will oversee the CSU advisory committee which will consist of 15 members.
Richard L. Tuttle - Tuttle Translation & Consulting, has been appointed the IWA Language Centre Director. The Centre will be responsible for providing IWA members with resources and news on expanding technology in the areas of internationalisation and localisation. For more information please visit the Language Centre website at http://www.irwa.org/languagecentre
Jeff Richards - South West Internet Services, takes on the position of Chairperson of the International Chapter Development Committee (CDC). This committee will develop International Chapter Standards and oversee the Pasadena Chapter pilot programme. The goal of the programme will be to provide a "business plan" for all existing and future IWA chapters to establish chapter operation procedures and a programme for chapter members to develop local business contacts.
Join The IWA At The WWW6 Internet Conference - The IWA is pleased to announce that it will be participating in the 6th International WWW conference which is to be held April 7th - 11th at the Santa Clara Convention Centre in Santa Clara, California. The IWA will have an exhibit throughout the week to promote the goals of the Association. If you will be anywhere in the area, don't forget to pop in and say hello !
CHAPTER NEWS
Our Congratulations all new chapters that have started and in particular to James Gorley who has just started the Houston IWA Chapter. More details can be found at their website at http://www.hia.net/jgorley/iwa/houston.html. For a list of other new Chapters, point your browsers at http://www.irwa.org/news/chptrnews.html
Special Feature On Intranetting By James Gorley
Many people have heard the buzzword "intranet" as businesses begin using Internet technology and applications on internal, dedicated, or specialized computing networks. Few people have heard of or do "intranetting," using their intranet(s) to solve a particular business problem. Intranets are bringing changes in knowledge distribution to the business community much like the Internet did for other PC users. Companies have seen huge ROI's(return on investment) from publishing static content on their intranets. To see increases in productivity, webmasters must find a way to get users "intranetting" by training employees to use the tools (including intranets) that webmasters are building. When users start seeing intranets as a better way to get information, they take the first step to using the tools effectively. Beyond "Stage 1" static information intranets, the possibilities are endless. Simple site search tools and pre-packaged applications like e-mail of the "Stage 2" will add more fuctionality to an intranet, and encourage intranetting! "Stage 3" custom built applications may sound great, but many businesses testing the waters are finding that the tools are too new to create accounting systems, inventory tracking systems, etc. Companies that already have an application that solves the problem, don't need to spend money on new technology to solve the same problem a different way! The cutting edge and the future "Stage 4" intranets include "push" technology, and applications that "learn" and customize user preferences. Intranetting solves problems using intranets. It's an action, while intranets are the tools. The stages of development allow users to progress with the tools, and learn step-by-step how to intranet.
PRODUCT NEWS
Our Software Reviews this month have been kindly provided by Joe Korinek, who has reviewed two interesting products.
HomeSite.
As I began my journey across the Internet, I began searching for a web editor that would allow me to both learn HTML and create a slick site. Since I work with Windows 95, I wanted a 32-bit product that was both powerful and easy to use. I discovered HomeSite, which is a product of Nick Bradbury, and is shareware. Produced in Borland's Delphi, HomeSite is Not a WYSIWYG program like Micorsoft's Front Page. Homesite is a professionally done program, with an intuitive interface and many features that will ease the task of creating web pages. It supports both Netscape, Internet Explorer and HTML 3.0 extensions, and has wizards to ease the creation of frames and incorporation of graphics. The feature I like best is the Extended search and replace, which allows you to replace across multiple pages in your site. There is also a HTML validate routine and a Link Checker, although the link check does not work on ftp sites yet. There are too many features to mention here, but suffice it to say that you will be hard pressed to find a more versatile editor. Homesite is without a doubt the BEST web editor I have found. HomeSite has been nominated as "Best Web Design Tool" in C|Net's 1997 Awards for Internet Excellence. Homesite can be found at http://www.dexnet.com/homesite.html
Decode Shell Extension.
This freeware product from Funduc Software Inc. adds a Decode menu item to your Windows 95 or NT 4.0 Explorer context menu (right mouse button menu) and File menu. It is visible only when exactly one file (not folder) is selected. I found when working with customers that send mail via AOL that messages and attachments arrive in MIME encoded format and cannot be read. Some of my other clients complained that they could not read these formats. There are programs available that decode these formats, but these require you to load the program and then decode the file. Decode Shell Extension provides a convenient way to decode from explorer. Decode Shell is found at http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/funducCONTRIBUTORS
Joe Korinek, Software Reviews
James Gorley, Staff Writer
Taroon Hira, Editor
