Cascading Style Sheets are very useful to build a website, they allow you to make great presentations as shown on zengarden . But before you go into CSS, be sure you have it all clear with the code.
Because these style sheets are used inside the html code, they have their specific language. I discovered CSS only this year in my web-building class. And I have two website to build within a month for my master. " Easy!!" one would think. But not for me.
So like any student mastering in web content and project management I browsed the Network to find some tutorials . That's how I discovered this interesting website called Glish where they explain things from the beginning, and walk you step by step into building your own style sheets. Another one, in French this time looked easier. Then went on learning and trying to build my own CSS. Little by little , I began to understand and manage trough the whole thing.
But then again as I went on looking for new websites that talked about CSS, I understood I was way behind from what they now build CSS2 ! Now tell me how am I suppose to keep up with evolution? Well , went on looking for new tutorials...
Thanks to tutorials on the web I have come to learn , and still do, lot's of things and understand. Many points I was taught in my different classes seemed like secret codes more than anything clear. So I really want to thank all those people out there stretching their fingers day and night just to share their knowledge to beginners like me.
You find such well made tutorials about almost anything on the Internet, I sometimes ask myself why Mastering? Why not learn at home. I could learn more in less time...
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Saturday, December 11, 2004
Webmarketing : watch out for what's coming
Why marketing happens to operate on the web isn't a mystery for any clever mind. But the interactivity of this new media makes marketing more efficient than it has ever been : especially when you talk marketing...
What is webmarketing? Allow me to give you some clues : sponsored links; banners; special links on Google search pages; and all you see that resembles, far or near, an invitation to consume. That is what most people know about webmarketing. But webmarketing is also all the strategies that any kind of more or less visible websites use to get your e-mail; adress and sometimes phone number. How would I give those informations when I don't want to? Well it's simple. The actual answer is interactivity.
What interactivity brings is a question and answer scheme that works like the game where you have to answer anything except "no" or "yes". Except that in the first case you can answer anything you want, but if it's the true...well then we've caugth you!
Let me be more clear about that. First of all mind me precising that the webmarketing is not something "harmfull" to people's private life, and you only need to be a little bit less naive, just like with most advertisements.
To proceed :
You all heard about cookies. Well do not turn off your screen as your read this, but anytime you go on a website you're sure your computer will receive one. How does it work? simple : imagine you got on a website that had a banner, now that banner did not really caught your attention. Well the next time you will get on that website, mister cookie will alert the server you've already been there. And then? Well it will appear that the banner you had seen was replace by another one, probably more attractive; And this goes on generally until the third time you go on that same website. If you haven't clicked on the banner on that third time, generally the next time you'll be on that website you won't have any banner at all. Because it costs money to change a banner! Now what did you think?!
Now not all the banners have come to that level of technology. But they are already moving out of their usual place. Have you ever been on a news website where all of a sudden you saw a advertisement that hided the whole page? And all you could do was wait until it disapeared? Or sometimes you had the choice to close the sliding window.
But that is still friendly. The best way to have an impact on you is to know you better. Who would have said the contrary? Not the guy at the marketing office that's for sure! How do they do that? well they organize web competitions; free games; create free e-card you can send to your friends and then gently collect all the e-mails adress you've enterd and informations to participate to some games. The thing is , you never know wich company is behind that. So you naively send e-cards to your friends , subscribe to some free game you think you are going to win some big plasma screen...And so leave by informations that will allow the company owing the website, to send newsletters or special offers to all the e-mail adresses you've entered (in the case of a free e-card service).
Now you will tell me one thing for sure : "Well! no wonder those are free website!!!No one would pay to give their contacts!" and you are right. But you got caught too! And regarding the speed the improvement of technology has, one day we will come to know who ewactly is behind the screen and send ads that are more and more targeted. That's the goal I think. What a wonderful world for the marketing business!!Webmarketing is also all the advertisement done on the GPS systems (turn on your right...If you are hungry you can take a stop at B&B's to taste their new chicken recipe!...Take the next turn...); Blackberry and so on...
One could write lines about new coming strategies, for what is known, but it would not be of any fun. I would rather watch and let the people on the network experience all of the strategies without knowing what they are going into. Besides, lets leave the guy doing the marketing do his job right.
And when you don't know what's behind a contest or a free service on the web, well tell yourself there is something behind!
Bineta, Metz, Lorraine
How about becoming a self-made -person
At a time when unemployment reaches hight scores in France, most young people think about being employed. Why not try another way out? You should try and see their faces when they are told many young americans began their own business before theywere 25. As well as canadian students and young pepole in other country...
Well let's not blame people for what they are, because surely building one's own business isn't always an easy game. As for young French, a quick peeck at their background moslty explains a lot. When I asked one of my collegues why he didn't think about having he's own website builing business, he answered me that his parents had jobs and that it was also a kind of security to have a job, and that having a business also means running out of it one day or another. None of the young french i know have a parent that started it's own business.
The french culture isn't a pioneer one. So it doesn't come to evidence to young pepole that building their own business when they can't find a job could be a solution. But if one took a peek at the generations before them, one would notice that many of them have gone abroad and that many also, especially in african counrties, have started and succeeded their own business.
Well then maybe it's the french care policy that leads people to wanting to be employed. When you are employed in France you have many advantages:
-first of all you get free health care from most things except specialists like opticians...and so on.
-second of all you can stop working at any time and get paid for the time you are not at work (wich is the case in many other countries, and a good thing too). and when retirement comes, you get retirement aid.
-If you work for any of the governement administration, well then there will be no way you can ever be out of job. If you don't work well enough you will only be mooved to an other service.
-fourth thing is one must know that when you hire someone in France, it's very difficult to get him fired. That is most of the time impossible. The law is very protective with employees : they can sue their boss for abusive layoff.
Wich is why most companies are very carefull who they take on for a job and before that, they may think twice before taking someone on.Once they hire someone, it's like they are stuck with him.
Well that last point makes it also difficult for young people to find jobs, they are sometimes not taken seriously.But only sometimes.
Anyway, many more advantages makes employyee fell more secure. Only there has to be someone to pay for all that : social cares, retirement aid...Well it will be us futur employee!!! according to the governement to keep the balance between workers and retire people, so that everyone can continue to have social care and other helps... Well we will have to give part of our own salaries to the retired people but also to those who have began to work before we did.
Instead of all these salaries restrictions, I rather have my own business and work for myself in a small structure with one or two person.
The problem is being a boss is very expensive. You have to pay something like twice your employee's salary to the governement for him to let you employ that employee...you get the picture? now try and imagine what it means in a european country like France where life is not that cheap? How much must one pay it's employees so they can earn a normal living... a lot, not to forget one must pay a social care for each of the employees...
Well maybe that's why delocalisation has become a solution for many companies here. and a other big cause of the hight level of unemployment.
well then, one could do liek many French and go abroad, somewhere business is less expensive to run, or one could just work for itself.
Bineta TOURE, Metz, France
Well let's not blame people for what they are, because surely building one's own business isn't always an easy game. As for young French, a quick peeck at their background moslty explains a lot. When I asked one of my collegues why he didn't think about having he's own website builing business, he answered me that his parents had jobs and that it was also a kind of security to have a job, and that having a business also means running out of it one day or another. None of the young french i know have a parent that started it's own business.
The french culture isn't a pioneer one. So it doesn't come to evidence to young pepole that building their own business when they can't find a job could be a solution. But if one took a peek at the generations before them, one would notice that many of them have gone abroad and that many also, especially in african counrties, have started and succeeded their own business.
Well then maybe it's the french care policy that leads people to wanting to be employed. When you are employed in France you have many advantages:
-first of all you get free health care from most things except specialists like opticians...and so on.
-second of all you can stop working at any time and get paid for the time you are not at work (wich is the case in many other countries, and a good thing too). and when retirement comes, you get retirement aid.
-If you work for any of the governement administration, well then there will be no way you can ever be out of job. If you don't work well enough you will only be mooved to an other service.
-fourth thing is one must know that when you hire someone in France, it's very difficult to get him fired. That is most of the time impossible. The law is very protective with employees : they can sue their boss for abusive layoff.
Wich is why most companies are very carefull who they take on for a job and before that, they may think twice before taking someone on.Once they hire someone, it's like they are stuck with him.
Well that last point makes it also difficult for young people to find jobs, they are sometimes not taken seriously.But only sometimes.
Anyway, many more advantages makes employyee fell more secure. Only there has to be someone to pay for all that : social cares, retirement aid...Well it will be us futur employee!!! according to the governement to keep the balance between workers and retire people, so that everyone can continue to have social care and other helps... Well we will have to give part of our own salaries to the retired people but also to those who have began to work before we did.
Instead of all these salaries restrictions, I rather have my own business and work for myself in a small structure with one or two person.
The problem is being a boss is very expensive. You have to pay something like twice your employee's salary to the governement for him to let you employ that employee...you get the picture? now try and imagine what it means in a european country like France where life is not that cheap? How much must one pay it's employees so they can earn a normal living... a lot, not to forget one must pay a social care for each of the employees...
Well maybe that's why delocalisation has become a solution for many companies here. and a other big cause of the hight level of unemployment.
well then, one could do liek many French and go abroad, somewhere business is less expensive to run, or one could just work for itself.
Bineta TOURE, Metz, France
Keeping "updated" is the best way to stay aware of futur changements
How could a student (with a master in web engineering) face it's futur job in the web industry? Most of us know that working in any sectors like the Internet requires various capabilities as well as knowlegdes about the many professions one will have to interact with.
Ten years ago, no one would have thought that an occupation such as a webcontent-manager, would have had it's full place in the sector of the Internet. We didn't speak about webmasters; webdesigners; webeditors; traffic analysts; network architects; web administrators; website developers; web journalists; web editors; HTML integrators and so on...The list can never end.
So how can one keep up with all these new jobs?
Students have to choose their studies regarding the jobs that are being created and recruiters must be ripping their hairs off trying to choose the right man for the right job in all these new specializations. But more than that, how does one working in the web sector since then be aware of who these new collegues are/will be? How should he collaborate with them when their job didn't exist at the time? Has he or she any knowledge of their capabilities and will they speak the same language?... And what about if some jobs just happened to disapear.
I mean this sector is a real-live-mutan, pardon the new-made expression if it doesn't fit.How should a student know the Master diploma he or she is doing willlead to a job on the way out?
This fall i began a degree in web engineering. And well..It's not what you could think it is. I'm not learning how to program websites! There are two options actually in this diploma :
The first one prepares to a projet officer job. Of course one has to know enough about programming to assist to be selected in this option.
the first option prepares you to webcontent managing. Now what is that? of course the meaning can't be very clear, and that's a real problem. Well it is actually translated from the French word :"Gestion de contenus". "Gestion" wich means managing, and "contenus" that could best be translated by content. Well...I could say a content manager if you rather. Wich can recall the application CMS : Content Manager System. Well I won't give any example of those for my aim is not to advertise.
So let us get back to the issue of the option I chose in this Master wich purpose is to prepare futur content managers. It is said , but it is only said so let us be carefull here, that this job is in full expansion and that we won't have any problems doing a carreer in that. What we are taught is how to exploit any website, by it's content to it's fullest potentialities, in a way. And how to optimize it's presentation, design, number of visitors and so on. I also learn languages such as HTML; XML;PHP. More because I will have to interact with programmers and webmasters, wich means we will have to speak in the same terms to one another. I find myself really loving what I'm learning. But truth is I will end up with a degree and won't have any qualifications in building any applications other than a basic website .
But I will not blame our Director for that. The technologies are changing so fast and there are so many of them that it has become impossible for our teachers to select one or two of them as examples. I can only learn the how's by my myself. And it's all about keeping up to date with technologies used to build fourms, chats, robots and other small applications. And to make progress I try to learn what's new everyday.
I truly believe the bests are the ones that learn by their selves for they aren't limited by the academic programs. And keeping updated is more or less what is required in todays jobs as well, and it's even more true with the Internet sector. That goes for any jobs in relation with that sector. But it's easier to say than to do.
Bineta TOURE, Metz_France
Ten years ago, no one would have thought that an occupation such as a webcontent-manager, would have had it's full place in the sector of the Internet. We didn't speak about webmasters; webdesigners; webeditors; traffic analysts; network architects; web administrators; website developers; web journalists; web editors; HTML integrators and so on...The list can never end.
So how can one keep up with all these new jobs?
Students have to choose their studies regarding the jobs that are being created and recruiters must be ripping their hairs off trying to choose the right man for the right job in all these new specializations. But more than that, how does one working in the web sector since then be aware of who these new collegues are/will be? How should he collaborate with them when their job didn't exist at the time? Has he or she any knowledge of their capabilities and will they speak the same language?... And what about if some jobs just happened to disapear.
I mean this sector is a real-live-mutan, pardon the new-made expression if it doesn't fit.How should a student know the Master diploma he or she is doing willlead to a job on the way out?
This fall i began a degree in web engineering. And well..It's not what you could think it is. I'm not learning how to program websites! There are two options actually in this diploma :
The first one prepares to a projet officer job. Of course one has to know enough about programming to assist to be selected in this option.
the first option prepares you to webcontent managing. Now what is that? of course the meaning can't be very clear, and that's a real problem. Well it is actually translated from the French word :"Gestion de contenus". "Gestion" wich means managing, and "contenus" that could best be translated by content. Well...I could say a content manager if you rather. Wich can recall the application CMS : Content Manager System. Well I won't give any example of those for my aim is not to advertise.
So let us get back to the issue of the option I chose in this Master wich purpose is to prepare futur content managers. It is said , but it is only said so let us be carefull here, that this job is in full expansion and that we won't have any problems doing a carreer in that. What we are taught is how to exploit any website, by it's content to it's fullest potentialities, in a way. And how to optimize it's presentation, design, number of visitors and so on. I also learn languages such as HTML; XML;PHP. More because I will have to interact with programmers and webmasters, wich means we will have to speak in the same terms to one another. I find myself really loving what I'm learning. But truth is I will end up with a degree and won't have any qualifications in building any applications other than a basic website .
But I will not blame our Director for that. The technologies are changing so fast and there are so many of them that it has become impossible for our teachers to select one or two of them as examples. I can only learn the how's by my myself. And it's all about keeping up to date with technologies used to build fourms, chats, robots and other small applications. And to make progress I try to learn what's new everyday.
I truly believe the bests are the ones that learn by their selves for they aren't limited by the academic programs. And keeping updated is more or less what is required in todays jobs as well, and it's even more true with the Internet sector. That goes for any jobs in relation with that sector. But it's easier to say than to do.
Bineta TOURE, Metz_France
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