Project 5 : Internet Mission/Service Web Page

Introduction

"For God and/or for good" - "to reach the world through the Internet"

View the class projects on Dr. DeRoos' Home page CSC 195 Mission Service Pages

In this assignment you are on a team of two or three students with the mission to make the world a better place to live. It maybe that you want to make your mission to be an effective Christian witness or it might to be to teach a skill or attitude that will add significance to life. All missions will flow from the mission statement of the College.

First select a theme, purpose, or mission to your web site. Your vehicle will be an Internet site with a group of associated pages that all contribute to the mission. You will need to think creatively so as to reach your world. The site should have special icons, pictures, buttons, and a service or information to give out.

You may chose a service project like setting up a web page for your church or some helpful agency. You may set up a page for a missionary with pictures, a description of their work, prayer requests, and up-dates. This web site could be a blessing to a missionary.

In summary, be creative; make a web site that is helpful and possibly has a country-wide or world-wide impact!

META TAGS:

Meta Tags help the search engines find and index your site!
First you will need to think of key words that describe your site and also will attract people to your site.
These key words are then written in META Tags.
An example of the meta tags from Bob Barrett's homepage.
- You can copy this text and paste it into your HTML document and then change the words that describe your page.
- Sometimes a special unusual word in your meta Tag will help you know if a search engine has indexed your site. "extreme faith" by Sam Dixon was a phrase that many search engines "latched on to".

<HTML>
<HEAD>
 <TITLE> Bob Barrett's Home Page</TITLE>
 <META name="description" content="The Physics Teachers' Index, Resonant Bridge Video, 
      Science and Faith Page, the Slinky Home Page [fun experiments], Home page helps,
      science and faith,  [dividers, instruction ...], ">
 <META name="keywords" contents="science, faith, science and faith, resonance, resonant,
      bridge, slinky, slinky home page, kayak pictures, physics index, bridge resonance,
      river levels>
 <META name="author" content="Bob Barrett">
 </HEAD>
<BODY> ....

These META tags go in the HEAD of the HTML file after the title. Of course, they do not appear on the pages and are only seen by search engines and those who look at the source code!

Notes on Creating Your Pages

Your pages will be inter connected so that one can "walk through" your site in a way that makes sense to your browsers. You need to give thought to the logo, icons, information, and general look of your site.

Think who your target audience will be:

children
college students
fearful people
those needing hope and assurance
those looking for a job
people who think they are terrific
people who lost loved ones, etc.

You should link your site to other sites that will provide help for your audience. You can have a helpful index of other information sites.

Be narrow, if possible, in your focus. Have a specific audience in mind, aim at teaching or introducing just a few concepts, have a group of closely related stories or things on your site. Go to the web for ideas. Get help and inspiration from other web sites. Note how many are dedicated to a specific topic, even a ridiculous one.

Refrence any material that you did not create

If you use any pictures or text from a web site be sure to reference it and if possible be able to visit the site if that would be helpful. Remember be aware of the Spider Woman problem, values promoted that do not agree with our stands at Messiah College. You can see from Bob Barrett's home page a company web site used to promote that company. Also, I have written a special book web site, the Bridge LRFD, and you can check how this site is organized.

Use the following Requirements to Design and Write the Code for Your Web Pages

Create at least 3 separate web pages that are linked forwards and back.
Since the site has a uniformity and purpose, your site should have at least 10 links to similar helpful sites.
Install a counter on your site.
Some web sites have web pages that list the URL of those who visited your site.
Since you will need to print out these "proofs" as part of the final report, print out these lists.
Since you are concerned with recording the people you visit your site, use the web counter you installed in your page to track how many visits your site receives.
Use a spread sheet to draw a hits vs. days graph. Put the days on the x axis and the hits on the y axis.

Here is a site of a free web counter :
http://www.sitemeter.com/meter/login.asp
When the site is complete, register your site with at least 3 Search Engine sites [Alta Vista, WebCrawler, Lycos or others ]
Here is an example of search engine results from Mr. Barrett's Home Page.
Next enter your key words into this search engine. A few days later check to see if they have listed your site. In your report hand in the spreadsheet and evidence that the search engine lists your site.

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Some Ideas Others have Used

"Eating Disorders"- general info; Special pages:- anorexia, - bulimia
"Helps for Alcohol & Drug Abusers"
"Good Christian Music"
"Outdoors Evangelism Theme"
"Christians are Normal"
"Messiah College Ministry Page"
"Hope Homepage" to make info available for need hope or ways to overcome life's trials.

The Report:

Title -

Purpose - Theme -WHY is this theme the one that you chose? - How can you reach your world - the world now that the world is coming to your web-site.

Explain:

Special colors - atmosphere - mood of the page

Special pages

Special features of your site that make it serve others well or is especially helpful

Be creative - you may come up with another challenge or idea.-

Be careful to not to have graphics that are big and slow to load on a regular computer. Have small pictures that can be clicked on to enlarge.

Evidence that you have been indexed by a search engine. If you use Sitemeter, and go to their home page and check recent visitors by detail, you can find out the domain of your recent hits. In the figure at the right aol.com was a frequent domain and I know that they index my site on their search engine.

A graph of hits on the Y axis and days on the X axis.

Mission Links

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