Text books

This is a multidimensional course and you will need multiple resources. The books in the required section will be the core of our discussions and a good reference set for your learning. The recommended books are also excellent sources of information and you may consider purchasing them at least among the members of your group.

Recommended books

For the marketing dimension

• Seth Godin, The Big Red Fez: How To Make Any Web Site Better,Simon & Schuster.

For the HTML/Web dimension

• Elizabeth Castro, HTML, XHTML, and CSS, Sixth Edition (Visual Quickstart Guide)
• Elizabeth Castro, Creating a Web Page with HTML: Visual QuickProject Guide

The following readings

• A. Cemal Ekin, Information, knowledge and the Internet
• A. Cemal Ekin, Web site design
• A. Cemal Ekin, Do We Need a New Approach to Classifying Products?
• A. Cemal Ekin, A product is born (on the Net)
• A. Cemal Ekin, Content is king
• Daniel Horne, Innovators (not necessarily first movers) will win the Web!
• A. Cemal Ekin, What Price Privacy?

(Not directly used in class but you may find them useful depending on your interests. Do not rush out and buy the books below. Wait until the groups are formed where you may share resources and related costs.)

• Eric Myers. CSS Web Site Design Hands on Training (Hands-On Training)
• Eric Giguere. Make Easy Money with Google: Using the AdSense Advertising Program

Technology tools WWW Browser

We will use Firefox as our official browser. Of course, you may use other browsers on your own computer if you wish. You should keep in mind that even different versions of the same browser may render Web pages differently. There are important differences between Microsoft Internet Explorer which you should find and learn. Because of these differences, they may render your pages differently. When you use browsers and develop HTML documents for them, remember these differences and test your work on as many browsers as you can. In general, Microsoft Internet Explorer is more forgiving than Firefox in rendering faulty HTML. So, make sure to check it in Netscape which will alert you to the HTML problems more readily. Your documents must render in Firefox properly.

We will spend time learning to use Firefox browser. You will find that there is more to using a browser than "clicking" here and "clicking" there. I expect that we all become highly proficient in Firefox and its many options that users may configure to suit their needs. HTML and Web tools

HomeSite

You will learn how to use HomeSite, an HTML editor, and make extensive use of it. Although I will cover the basics of this editor, you will learn how to use it on your own. In addition to being an excellent HTML editor, HomeSite is also a good reference source with its extensive HTML help system. There are other HTML editors out there, some are low cost-no cost others come with a steep price tag. After we go through basic HTML and you have a grasp of the language, I will point some free editors that you may consider downloading and using on your computer.

DreamWeaver

After getting comfortable with HTML, you may consider using a graphical page layout tool. There are several good ones in the market. DreamWeaver is an excellent one and you can use DreamWeaver MX on campus computers. You are allowed to download a trial copy of DreamWeaver and use it for 30 days free. After that it will stop functioning.

Image Editors & Manipulators

The need for designing graphics will be modest and simple software will suffice. There are many image editing software available, from the mighty Photoshop to free Picassa and many in between. If you have a digital camera, you may already have some software for image editing. If you want to try others, here is a short list.

• Adobe Photoshop Elements 5 (30-day trial available)
• FastStone Image Viewer (Free)
• Picassa (Free)

There is a flatbed scanner in the Research Lab in Koffler to scan printed material. You can use that to bring images and other art work into your Web design. Additionally, depending on your project needs I have more sophisticated tools if you need them. In order to use my computing equipment you should set up an appointment at a mutually convenient time and be willing to drive down to my house. These times are not necessarily limited to my office hours.