In this section, I'd like to outline a few goals I would keep in mind as maintainer of the WEBsmith web site--my own personal vision statement, if you will. They're presented in no particular order; I'd order them by importance, but I think they're all equally important.

The WEBsmith site is exactly the kind of resource I wish I had found a long time ago. But I only just found out about it recently--through word of mouth. This is despite the fact that I frequently resort to search engines.

Now, I'm sure WEBsmith is registered with search engines. But maybe not enough of them, or maybe not in the most effective ways.

I would work to be sure that links to our site are practically everywhere a user out to find site-design information would be looking. I would look for pages on web site design and ask them to make a link to our page--and then I would add a link to their page, both to return the favor and to make our site more comprehensive.

Although the World Wide Web has captured the attention of the public, many users on the Internet--including web page designers--still get most of their on-line information from Usenet. Groups like comp.infosystems.www.authoring.misc and comp.infosystems.www.authoring.html are thriving forums for the exchange of information.

It would only take a few minutes out of my day to briefly scan these groups, look for questions that could be easily answered by materials on our web page, and post a short answer and a pointer to the proper URL for more detailed information at our site -- simultaneously being helpful to the questioner and helpful to us, by exposing thousands of interested readers to our web address.

There are a lot of really good articles out there on the web already that deal with the kind of issues we want to address. It would be a simple matter to find some of the best of these and add a section to our page that would spotlight these articles; we could ask the authors for permission to add a link to their page to this section. As well as working to provide a lot of good, solid, original content of our own, I feel we should showcase the efforts that have already been made.

Additionally, I would be keeping an eye out not just for such pages themselves--but also, for their authors. Anyone who's providing good content about web design is a potential author of WEBsmith articles.

Aside from looking at pages to see if they have content we can use, I'd also like to turn an eye toward simply rewarding the efforts of those web designers whose efforts live up to our high standards. At the very least, I'd like to have a page that has pointers to well-designed pages, or pages that pull off interesting technical tricks; at best, I'd like to start an award to honor the site that, in our opinion, has the best overall design. Winners of the award could get a graphic to place on their page designating it as a "Best WEBsmithing" site. Perhaps, if it's feasible, an annual award could give away a subscription to WEBsmith magazine. There are similar "Cool Site" awards already in place around the Net, but I feel that a themed award with the backing of a major web-related publication could become quite sought after.

As things currently stand, WEBsmith, the print publication, has a certain look to it, and WEBsmith, the on-line resource, has a certain look to it . . . but they aren't the same look. I want people to feel that reading the magazine and browsing our pages is all part of the same experience--and to that end, I would work to make the look of the web page more similar to that of the magazine.

Maybe it's an unrealistic goal, but it's one to keep aiming toward. To this end, I would never revise the active, on-line copy of a web page--I would always make a copy of it first, and edit the copy instead. Then I would replace the original with the copy only after I had thoroughly checked and revised it completely.

To the outside observer, the effect is that the page seems to have completely changed instantly and seamlessly, without ever being shown a half-finished work.

Which reminds me--you would never see one of the seemingly omnipresent "Under Construction" graphics on a page I designed. If a page isn't ready for public consumption, it won't be put where they can see it; if it is up on display, I'll still feel free to make changes to it, without such a warning. People expect the web to be a changing, dynamic medium: they know that every page is always, essentially, under construction, and don't need to be told that.

Finally, you can be sure that I would apply the same proofreading and copy-editing skills I've learned for print publication. I feel it's just as important to be as careful and precise with a web document as with a "real" one; there's no excuse for being slipshod with a piece of text because it's "only going up on the web."

This may seem a minor and trivial point, but it's awfully important to me now, as someone currently working in Order Processing. There are occasions when I don't feel that information I've received that's been generated by a form on our web page is as complete as it should be; for example, although there's a line on our free issue offer for users to provide a fax number, the report generated by that form doesn't seem to include such information.

I would want to work closely with the Order Processing people to be certain that my efforts are providing them the information they need.

No two people think alike, and no two people are going to look at our web page in exactly the same way. Because of that, I would want to be usefully redundant, by providing more than one way to get to the same information. This would help avoid the "Buried Treasure" problem, by providing lots of treasure maps for the curious to follow. I don't want to force users to our pages to think the way I do--I want to anticipate how they might think, and plan accordingly.

By now, you should have a good idea of who I am, what I think, and what I intend to do for us. You should really have only one question left. Let me answer it for you.