Last updated: 9/1/03
Link back to course Welcome

Agenda for Class 1
9/2/03

1. Sorting out the two courses
   1. Preliminaries -- parking, pictures, food and beverages, etc.
   2. Computers, the Internet, and Society & eCommerce
      1. Can be registered for one, for the other, or for both
      2. Each has eight meetings, including tonight, and involves extensive outside work (compensates for the seven missing meetings).
      3. Course discussion between meetings takes place using the course conference. Use is required. (Both courses share the same conference)
      4. Both share the same web site that you are expected to check regularly, and require weekly online reports of your status and progress in the course
         1. http://www.cll.wayne.edu/isp/drbowen/inetf03
         2. If you miss a class, you are expected to
            1. go to the course web site and review the agenda
            2. go to the computer conference and catch up with the online discussion
            3. then contact the Instructor for any unanswered questions
      5. If you do not want to use the lab time at the end of each class and on alternate weeks, here are the connections and software you will need access to:
         1. Computers, the Internet, and Society
            1. Internet connection
            2. Internet email (address of the form username@domain (username and domain may have dots inside them) with ability to send and receive attachments (files)
            3. World Wide Web Browser such as Netscape or Internet Explorer, version 3.x or higher
               • For any Windows program, to see the name and version number, with the program open, choose the menu item "Help" and then the "About..." topic.
            4. Office 2000 with the Word 2000, Excel 2000 and Access 2000 components
            5. Software for making HTML web files (*.htm or *.html) such as Notepad, MS Frontpage Editor, or Netscape Composer.
         2. eCommerce - all of the above, except for Excel 2000, and in addition
            1. Simple text editor such as Windows NotePad or WordPad
            2. You will find that it will be very helpful to have FTP (File Transport Protocol) software such as WS_FTP available free through the University
            3. Teams that meet in person are also more successful than those that only meet online.
         3. Be aware that as a WSU student you can get large discounts on software through the WSU Barnes and Noble campus bookstore. The only limitation is that you cannot use this software in for-profit activities.
   3. Topics for Computers, the Internet, and Society
      1. Selected computer applications (word processing, spreadsheets and databases) from relatively unstructured (restricted information manipulation) to highly structured (flexible information manipulation)
      2. What the Internet is, how it works; Internet applications
      3. How will we be affected, what influence will we have?
   4. Topics for eCommerce
      1. Making an eCommerce web site - selling over the World Wide Web, a part of the Internet. a little bit on why you might want to do this.
   5. Meeting Schedule
      1. Tonight counts as one of the eight meetings for each class. Computers, the Internet, and Society comes first.
      2. After tonight, pattern of meetings is alternate weeks:
         1. first week - eCommerce (must get a quick start)
         2. second week - Computers, the Internet, and Society
      3. To compensate for the missing class time, there is more reading and online discussion.
   6. For each course, you will need to work on a computer during the "other" weeks. This can be any computer - at home, on campus, at a CLL Center. Some of the work requires an Internet connection. The computer you use can also be in this classroom. You can use different computers at different times.
      1. When the other course is meeting, I call this a "restricted" lab. You can come and use the computers on a restricted basis.
         1. Leave the room to talk
         2. No interruptions under any circumstances
         3. Restricted labs will be ended if they disturb the course that is meeting
      2. My office hours will be in this room 5 - 6 PM on Tuesdays (before class). This time is also available as an open lab.
         1. The computer lab at the Macomb University Center is also open during all hours that the Center itself is open. Do not expect the lab technician to know about specifics for this course, such as assignments, but they should be able to give general help with Windows or MS Office.
         2. I may be late for my office hours on some Tuesdays when I teach all-day classes at Ford Motor Company in Dearborn. These classes normally end at 3:30 PM, so there should be no problem, but a late ending, extra questions, road construction or traffic can interfere. These days are marked on the course schedules. and listed below.
            1. September 9
            2. October 7
            3. December 2
      3. BOTH COURSES: You will need a minimum of one 3½" IBM-formatted floppy diskette with a label, capacity 1.44 MB, by next week (9/9). Normally has "HD" on case. Keep all of your course files on this diskette, because the lab computers will not let you save to the C: drive.
         1. Keep floppy diskette safe from heat, cold, "grunge" and bending. A case is a wise investment.
         2. Sliding aluminum door must be able to open freely -- do not place label over door
         3. Do not open door and if you do, do not touch surface of disk
         4. On the top left front corner of the case there is an arrow. Insert the diskette into the drive door with the arrow up and pointing into the drive door
         5. Check remaining space regularly and if it gets close to full, buy another one
         6. Personally, I only trust diskettes with a lifetime warrantee and a brand name
         7. You may want to buy a box of five or ten disks so that you will always have one.
      4. BOTH COURSES: You will need an Internet email account (email address of form xxx@yyy) by next week or the week after at the latest. If you do not have one,
         1. WSU provides free email to students (Internet access also). You need an AccessID (e.g. aa2012) and Password. If you have been a WSU student in a previous semester, you have already received this information. If you lost or forgot about it, fill out the form here tonight and I will turn it in for you. If you are a new WSU student this semester, information will be coming soon.
            • A recent big advantage for users of WSU Internet access is that Library journals are being put online, but only for those using WSU Internet serivce. Not just the card catalog, but the articles themselves. You can continue to use another Internet service for other purposes.
         2. Start your web browser and go to www.hotmail.com, webmail.netscape.com, or www.yahoo.com and sign up for their free Internet email.
      5. BOTH COURSES: Using the computers in the Room 128 computer lab
         1. Turning the computers on
            1. Turn the power on, using the button on the system unit.
            2. The User Name is "wsulan" (not including the quotes).
            3. The password is "wayne" (not including the quotes).
         2. Turning the computers off. If you do not do this, I will have to, and I will not appreciate it.
            1. Make sure that your files are saved and remove any floppy disk from the computer.
            2. Go to Start / Shut Down..., then choose "Shut Down".
            3. Wait while the computer updates the system files and then displays the screen saying that you can now shut the power off.
            4. The power should shut off automatically. If not, turn the power off using the switch on the system unit.
         3. After the semester is over, the hard drives will be cleaned off for the next semester. If you have been saving files to the C: drive (hard drive) by mistake, instead of the the A: drive (floppy drive) these files will be lost. It is worthwhile making a check on your last visit to the lab.
   7. Online courses are different than "grounded" courses, and these two courses are somewhere in between. Briefly, here are some guidelines about online courses.
      1. Technical problems are solvable, but ask for help earlier rather than later. Don't let frustration build up. Ask the Instructor.
      2. We all have a lot to do, and an online course seems a good candidate for doing later if tasks pile up. This is a very bad choice to make. Schedule study time, with alternatives, and keep to the schedule.
      3. Drop the online course if you see yourself falling behind early in the semester. This is especially true for the eCommerce course. BUT, before this happens, ask for help from the Instructor.
      4. You will be more in charge of your learning (pace, order, emphasis, topics) than in a grounded course. Choices AND responsibility are, relatively speaking, more in your hands.
      5. For people who enjoy online courses, the online discussion (computer conference) is usually the star of the course. If you are suspicious of online discussion and online community, suspend your disbelief and give it a chance. Jump in with both feet, at least for a while.
   8. Computer conference
      1. Scroll down and under "Online tools" find Link to computer conference, click on it
         This is a second way to go to a web site -- with this method you do not have to know the URL, the web page developer does.
      2. You will be asked for a User Name and a Password. These are for this conferencing system only
      3. You can bookmark this logon, too
      4. If you have used this conferencing system before, use your original conferencing User Name and Password -- these are permanent for as long as you are an ISP student. Faculty who use this are Bowen, Marsha Richmond, Jerome Reide, Lisa Maruca, Richard Raspa, Moti Nissani
      5. If not, assign yourself a User Name (e.g. first initial and last name, or any other "handle") and Password and type them in
      6. If you are new to this system, choose the new user link. On the page that opens up, supply the information needed. YOU MUST SUPPLY ALL RED-BUTTON ITEMS. If you do not know your email address at this time, use d.r.bowen@wayne.edu until you find out yours. You should change the listed email address at that time.
      7. Click OK when the information form is filled out the way you want it.
      8. To go further, I must add you to our conference. I will do this during the break, and then we will continue
      9. If you EVER see the new user window again, be VERY CAREFUL. You have mistyped your User Name and / or Password. If you continue, you will establish a new account. Since I have to add accounts (not people) to the conference, your new account will not have been added, and you will say that you can't see the conference any more. You will have to get in touch with me so that we can straighten this out. What I will do is find your old User Name / Password and send them to you, and delete the new account that you just created.
   9. Windows Explorer Vs Internet Explorer
2. Computers, the Internet, and Society course overview
   1. Review the syllabus and assignment list -- passed out in hard copy tonight.
   2. Review textbooks
   3. Starting programs in Windows - options, easiest first
      1. Double-click desktop icon. Not all programs have desktop icons -- desktop space is limited
      2. Click on Start button, point at Programs, find program, click or let up button
      3. Click on Start button, click on Run, type in name of program and click OK
         1. May need to type full path
         2. Recently-run programs will be on a pull-down menu.
      4. Start Windows Explorer, navigate to program exe file, double-click on it
      5. Start Windows Explorer or My Documents, navigate to application document, double-click on it.
   4. Review course web site - joint site for both courses - in "Location" box, type URL (web address)
      http://www.is.wayne.edu/drbowen/inetf03 then tap <Enter>
      must be exact
      This is the way you go to a web site if you know the URL
      1. Bookmark it afterwards - then you won't have to retype it
         1. Bookmarks > Add Bookmark in Netscape
         2. Favorites > Add to Favorites in Internet Explorer
      2. Sections are:
         1. Policies, assignments, and course meetings
         2. Online tools
            1. Information form. I strongly urge that you keep your telephone number current with me
            2. Weekly report -- a course requirement
            3. Online grade reports (if you choose to have this available)
            4. Class sign in -- for attendance credit
            5. Electronic homework submission
            6. Instructor's schedule
         3. Information about the class and participants
         4. Lectures and other course content
         5. General information
      3. Each item should have the last time I updated it
      4. Changes will also be announced on the computer conference
   5. Passwords -- keep them straight!
      1. Online grade report
      2. Computer conference
      3. Others
      4. If you use WSU email or Internet access, these are separate systems, separate passwords
   6. Other requirements (for both courses)
3. The Internet. Overview tonight.
   1. "Internet" can be used vaguely today. We will use the technical definition here. The Internet connects computers within local networks so that any connected computer can send computer information to any other.
      1. Each connected computer is given a numerical "IP address" with the form four bytes separated by three dots, e.g. 141.217.12.24 for the IP address of the IS web server
      2. IP addresses must be unique - no repeats
         1. Organizations can be given control over a "domain" and allocate IP addresses within that domain. For example, 141.217.xxx.yyy is Wayne State University, and is allocated or assigned by the University.
      3. Computers are very inflexible, and must have an explicit order of which computer starts communication and what it does, how the second responds, etc. These are "protocols". The Internet uses the TCP/IP protocol for communication. This is actually two main protocols -- TCP and IP, with a host of others that are lumped in.
         1. IP is the raw transport mechanism, just throwing information out as fast as it can, without asking if it arrives.
         2. TCP sites on top, and uses IP both ways to confirm accurate arrival, and resend if not
      4. "Applications" are programs that use this transmission mechanism
         1. Client-server is much more common
            1. A client requests information from a server, displays information when it is received
            2. Server sits and waits for information request, services request when request is received. Server seems to be simpler, but it must be able to service simultaneous requests, also expected to be very robust -- always available
            3. Clients and servers using the same application protocol are (supposed to be) interchangeable. E.g. any email client will work with any email server.
            4. Examples:
               • Email. Client A is first user, with an account on mail server #1, a second client, B, has an account on mail server #2. A addresses a message to B, sends it by transmitting it to mail server #1, mail server #1 sends it to mail server #2. Message waits until B logs on, picks up message. Uses simple text for messages, but can attach files to messages. There are two major protocols -- POP (Post Office Protocol) and IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol). POP is simpler and more popular, IMAP more comprehensive and is commonly supposed to be the future. Client and server must use the same protocol. Some email server computers run both servers, and some email clients can be configured either way.
               • World Wide Web (the web). Client uses web client (a.k.a. web browser, e.g. Netscape Communicator or Microsoft Internet Explorer. User can request a file by (a) typing in the file, (b) clicking on a link containing the file as hidden text, or (c) selecting a bookmark, which is the specification for a file previously viewed. Server gets file and returns it, client displays it. HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP) is the basic web protocol. (HyperText means linked text, but has provisions for graphics and many other extensions.)
         2. Peer applications have two computers acting as equals, but this is fairly rare, until fairly recently.
            1. Examples are Napster and Gnutella
      5. Domain Name Server system is another layer of protocol to make remembering addresses easier.
         1. Most users employ "dot-com" names, e.g. www.cll.wayne.edu.
         2. Client software goes to a local Domain Name Server (DNS) to get the IP (numerical) address
         3. This only happens the first time during a session. For the rest of that session, the client remembers the IP address
         4. This happens without action from the user
4. Using the computer conference
   1. Start a web browser, go to course web site, select link to computer conference
   2. List of New Messages. Note that this is not updated during your session, so you will not see your replies listed there. To force an update, click on the button MARK ALL READ, then "Show Unread Messages."
   3. Hierarchical (outline) structure of conference messages
   4. Posting, Replying, Reply/Quote - being kind to your readers
      1. Use the right method and the right topic
      2. Be brief - we all have a lot to read
      3. You do not have to reply to every post - that gets out of hand very quickly!
      4. When replying:
         1. Always use Reply / Quote to establish a context for your readers
         2. Edit down the original message to just the part you are replying to
   5. Editing your personal profile
5. eCommerce course overview
   1. Joint web site already reviewed, warning about keeping passwords straight and available
   2. Review syllabus and assignment schedule
   3. Review textbooks
6. eCommerce overview. This is very much a "how to" course.
   1. What is eCommerce?
      1. Business used computer networks and the Internet long before the web, but for business-to-business communications such as transferring money between banks, and manufacturers communicating with wholesalers. For a long time, this was eCommerce.
      2. This is still going on, but today we more often mean direct selling to consumers or other businesses. Taking orders using credit cards, although some customers will be. Provide an online catalog, let consumers choose products and place orders. That is the minium. But additional services such as order confirmation and tracking, and others that you can invent, are where the competitive edge comes -- the edge with respect to your online and "IRL" competition.
   2. Why be interested?
      1. A small business can be set up on the web and run from a personal computer very inexpensively in your spare time. In a few days it will start showing up on web searches. If you do it right, cusotmers will not know it's just you. If the business grows, it can be scaled up and you can quit your day job.
      2. eCommerce is growing rapidly, along with the web itself. The web went public in 1993. By October there were 500 web servers. In January 1996 there were 75,000 servers; by December 1996, 205,000. In 1993, there was no eCommerce, in 1996 the volume was estimated at $200,000. Today, despite the Internet "bubble", the Internet and the volume of eCommerce business are rising rapidly. Growth this rapid has rarely if ever been seen before.
      3. eCommerce is not local, but global. Put up your business and sell around the world. The U.S. is leading the market, but that just means the growth potential is higher abroad.
      4. An eCommerce business can be largely automated, but still provide superior customer service. If you do it right, you will make buying from you so easy that you will lock your customers in.
   3. So of course there are downsides.
      1. It is incredibly competitive. You are not just competing in your neighborhood, but the entire world is just "a mouse click away", a phrase you will no doubt read again and again in this course. Are you going to become filthy rich? Unlikely (but possible). Can you make a good living? Pay attention to what is going on around you, find and exploit a niche, and don't become complacent. In today's society, it's like that everywhere, so why not start your own business?
      2. Many potential customers are not connected yet
      3. Many who are connected have concerns about ordering over the Internet
         1. Is it too advanced or too technical for them
         2. Is their credit card information secure

         So, make this a business opportunity - make it easy, and take your customer's security seriously and ease their concerns. Put your catalog online, allow online ordering, but maybe list an 800 number also

   4. What is needed? The seven components of eCommerce. Each of these components can be obtained in many different ways, but in this course you will use one way -- not necessarily the best, but the one we have. "The best" depends upon your skills and interest and your precise business, in any case. Some major variations are: purchase (own), lease, or pay per transaction? The components we will use here are shown in parentheses at the end of each item.
      1. Web Server, or access to one. (The CLL web server)
      2. Programming capability. Some people regard producing static web HTML pages to be programming, but here there is something beyond that. To process user input from text boxes etc., you need an active system to store and act on the user's input, and to respond to that input. (For static HTML, MS FrontPage98 as a WYSIYG HTML editor and NotePad or WordPad for direct creation. For interactivity, the ASP, requiring NotePad or WordPad. No matter how easy ASP may be, or how I try to sugar-coat it, this is computer programming.)
      3. Email management (ability to send email, perhaps automatically, and receive it. (For sending automatic email, ASP)
      4. Access Restriction. If you are selling content, you need some way to restrict access by people who haven't paid yet. (Several possibilities here: "blind URLs" with no links to them, you email your paid-up customers the URL. Also, access can be allowed only with a User Name and Password.)
      5. Access Logs. All web servers keep logs of hits. This is vital marketing information showing what customers and potential customers are interested in, where they are coming from, how many there are and whether or not they can use your web site. These days, you have about thirty seconds to provide a new user with what they are looking for. Then it's click and goodbye! (You will have access to the server logs for your web site. You will be using Microsoft Access database to analyze them.)
      6. Secure transactions. You must be able to demonstrate that you take customers' security seriously. The attitude that, "I don't care if they are really secure just as long as they think they are" is a marketing disaster waiting to happen. In practice, today this means encrypted (encoded) transmissions for personal information such as addresses, telephone numbers and credit card numbers. (I am currently trying to get this set up on the CLL web server. There is a chance it may not happen this semester. If it does happen, its use will just be to provide links using https -- Secure HyperText Transport Protocol -- instead of http.)
      7. Credit Card Validation. Don't ship until you know the card is good! How do you get paid if the customer purchases by credit card? (I haven't really sorted this one out yet, and I may not. But there are services that will do this for you on a per-transaction basis, using email.)
      8. Ability to upload files to the web server. For this we will use FTP, or File Transport Protocol, within Internet Explorer. Outside of the Center, you may prefer WS_FTP, available free through WSU.
      9. Ability to create static web pages (HTML)
      10. Ability to create web graphics (GIF or JPEG/JPG file formats). Strictly speaking, this is not required, but cool graphics are a part of the web culture, and also of selling goods.

      These components will make the system function. Seybold has eight Critical Factors for Success, once the system is functioning at the basic level above.

7. HyperText Markup Language - HTML
   1. HTML is "the language of the web", the coding used to make web pages. Web pages have the extension html or htm (the latter on the IS web server that you will be using in this course). There is a special filename defined on each web server, the default file name. On most web servers the default file name is index.htm(l), but here the default file name is welcome.htm. If the user specifies a URL without a filename at the end (the giveaway on this is that there is no extension), then the server fetches the default filename. The ability to do this makes life a little easier for the user. So, the home page for each web site, including your eCommerce web site, should be default.htm(l) (here, welcome.htm).
   2. Web pages have at least two types of content (graphics, audio, video, scripts etc. are in addition)
      1. Plain text, which is what appears on the screen
      2. HTML Tags, which format the text and link to other content, such as another web page, a graphic, audio, a script (program), a comment, etc. HTML tags are enclosed in angle brackets <>. If you want to include angle brakcets in your HTML file as regular text, there are special codes.
      3. If you see a web page that you like, look at its HTML to see how it was done. Learn from everybody!
         1. In Netscape Navigator, pick the menu item View / Document Source (or for "Frames, where parts of the web page move independently, click in the area you want to examine and choose View / Frame Source)
         2. In MS Internet Explorer choose the menu item View / Source
         3. To analyze a script, you have to learn the scripting language, such as JavaScript, Jave, etc. That is beyond the scope of this course.
   3. There are several ways to generate web pages for your eCommerce web site:
      1. Use a simple text editor such as NotePad or WordPad in Windows (under Start / Programs / Accessories). Type in the text and the tags by hand. Example (note that HTML tags themselves are case-insensitive, but that the plain text is not.):
         <HTML>
         <HEAD>
         <TITLE>
         Test Web Page
         </TITLE>
         <BODY  BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">
         <H1>This is my test web page.</H1>
         </BODY>
         </HTML>
      2. Note in #1 above that many HTML tags come in pairs with TAG and then /TAG. The effect of the TAG applies until /TAG cancels it. These are sometimes called "containers". If you are applying several tags at the same time you must close the second tag before the first -- tags cannot be overlapping. Example: <BIG><EM>Some text.</EM></BIG>, NOT <BIG><EM>Some text.</BIG></EM>
      3. Use a tag editor such as HotMetalPro that still shows you the tags, but "knows" the tags so that you can click on them to inser them, and keeps track of things like having a /H1 to balance an H1.
      4. Use a WYSIWYG HTML editor such as MS FrontPage98 that makes HTML like word processing, but which sometimes needs tweaking. MS Word can also create and edit HTML.
      5. Hire someone to write your pages. (But on the other hand, you may want your eCommerce business to be the creation of web sites.)
      6. Here we will start with #3 and then move to #1 for iHTML.
   4. As a web designer, you have to accept a loss of control over the graphical appearance of your web pages, compared to the control you may be used to, for example, in a word processor.
      1. Users can change your fonts, font sizes and colors from within the browser (Edit / Preferences / General in Netscape Navigator, for example)
      2. Users control the pixel resolution of their monitors, for example from the Display section of Control Panels, reached by Start / Settings. Many Windows monitors are set for 640 (horizontal) by 480 (vertical) pixels, but values up to 1280 by 960 are also common. Web screen elements are written by the pixel, so a picture that files the screen at 640 by 480 occupies only one quarter of the screen at 1280 by 960. Similar things happen to text.
      3. Users can turn off graphics if they want to see the text even faster. Large graphics with many different colors mean large files and slow download times, so use them at your peril.
         1. Here is where a feature in your browser designed to speed up loading times, can work against you as a web designer. Your browser keeps copies of recent web pages you have viewed, both in RAM and on your hard drive. These copy spaces are called "cache". When you request a web page from a web server, your browser request first information about the page. If it is not newer than the copy in the cache, then the cache copy is used for faster response. As a user, great. As a designer, this can give you an overly optimistic view of how fast your web page will load. You can override the cache and get a true of idea of your user's experience by
            1. Netscape Navigator: hold down <Shift> and click on the Reload button. NOTE: Refresh just reloads from the cache.
            2. MS Internet Explorer: click on the Refresh button.
      4. You can specify an exact font to use, but if the user does not have a font by that name on his/her computer, the default font is used.
      5. Different browser versions support different versions of HTML. The last major revision was HTML 3.2, and that is now fully supported by the 3.0 versions and higher for Netscape Navigator and MS Internet Explorer. Most people seem to have upgraded to these versions by now. The current level of HTML is 4.0, which includes HTML 3.2 as a subset, but is as yet only partially supported by Navigator and Internet Explorer. A properly designed browser, as these are, will ignore tags that it cannot deal with. If you use HTML 4.0 features, which do give you more control over the screen, what your users see will be quite variable at this time. In this course, I will assume HTML 3.2. Castro notes that many of the HTML 3.2 tags are "deprecated" in HTML 4.0, but still supported. My belief is that there is so much HTML 3.2 out there that it will always be supported. Some advanced web surfers may want you to use all of the latest bells and whistles. At any rate, all of this is another source of loss of control.
   5. The basic tags
      1. <HTML> starts and HTML file and </HTML> ends it, appears nowhere else within the file
      2. <HEAD> starts the first or "head" section of an HTML document, which is not seen by the user, but which contains "meta information" -- information about the information in the file. </HEAD> ends the head. The head can be empty, but you should always put in a TITLE (see below)
         1. <TITLE> and </TITLE> contain the title of the HTML document. The title appears on the title bar of the browser window. Without a title, you are not sure what will go up there. Always include a title. In the example in C.1. above, the title is "Test Web Page", and would appear on the title bar.
      3. <BODY> starts the main, second, last, or "body" section of an HTML file, which contains all of the content that the user sees. This section is ended by </BODY>
         1. A plain body text results in a default background color, usually "browser grey". For a white background, use the attribute BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" for <BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">. The Fs come in three pairs. Each pair is 255 in the hexadecimal (base 16) number system and represents the intensity of color  for RGB. FFFFFF means the highest intensity in Red, Green and Blue, which results in white. You could also use the attribute BGCOLOR="white".
         2. To use an image for a background, use the attribute BACKGROUND="filename" where filename is the name of the image file (gif or jpeg/jpg), including any directory information if the image file is not in the same directory as the HTML file. The image will "tile" or fill up the background. Beware of large single images for backgrounds.
      4. Character formatting tags
         1. <H1> and </H1> through <H6> and </H6>. Heading tags from big to small. Also insert space above and below, for emphasis.
         2. <BIG> and </BIG> bump enclosed text up one size. Can be repeated for a double bump, etc.
         3. <SMALL> and </SMALL> bump text down one size. Can be repeated. Also cancels <BIG>.
         4. <EM> and </EM> makes enclosed text emphasized (in practice, italics).
         5. <U> and </U> makes enclosed text underlined.
         6. <B> and </B> makes enclosed text bold-faced
         7. <FONT COLOR="color"> and </FONT> makes enclosed text the specified color. Supported colors are listed on the back inside cover of  Castro. RED, BLUE, GREEN, and TEAL are dark colors that contrast well with most background colors.
      5. Paragraph formatting tags
         1. <P> and </P> enclose a paragraph, skipping a line before the next paragraph. Many web pages ignore the </P> and use only <P> to start a new paragraph with a line skip, but this is not recommended and may not work with future browser versions (but probably will because it is so common). Physical line breaks will be ignored by a browser, except in the presence of the <PRE> tag. For paragraph alignment (left, center and right) include the ALIGN="alignment", where alignment is the desired alignment (right, center or left). "Right" is the default and is never needed. There is no "justify" to align on both margins.
         2. <BR> starts a new line, without starting a new paragraph, so there is no skipped line. There is no </BR> tag.
         3. <UL> and </UL> enclose an unordered (bulleted) list, but require the use of the <LI> tag below. Use bulleted lists! If users get impatient, they will skip to the end of a paragraph, and so perhaps miss a critical feature of your product. But in a bulleted list they will usually read at least the beginning of each bulleted item.
            1. <LI> and </LI> (list item) enclose each item in a bulleted list. Most browsers will work without the </LI>.
            2. <BR> can be used to start a new line within a list item without getting a new bullet.
            3. A <UL> within a <UL> indents a second level and generally uses a different bullet style. Can be repeated for multiple levels.
         4. <OL> and </OL> enclose an ordered (numbered) list, but require the <LI> tag as well. Can be indented as in the bulleted list. The default is numbering each item (1, 2, 3, 4 etc.) successively. To produce an outline like this, include the following WITHIN the OL tag, but not the /OL tag
            1. TYPE="I" for capitalized roman numerals in the correct order
            2. TYPE="A" for capital letters in alphabetical order
            3. TYPE="a" for lower case letters in alphabetical order
            4. TYPE="i" for lower case roman numerals in the correct order
            5. For ordinary numbers, again, just use the <OL> tag by itself.
      6. Hypertext elements
         1. <IMG SRC="filename"> inserts the graphics image in filename into the web page at the location of the tag. E.g., <IMG SRC="david.jpg" inserts my picture file. There is no </IMG> tag.
         2. <A HREF="URL">Some text</A> makes Some text into a link (underlined and blue) which will lead to URL. If the URL is to another web page in the same folder (i.e. in the same web site), only the file name is required. If the file is in a subfolder, include the folder name and a forward slash (/) before the file name. If you have defined bookmarks in the file (see below), you can link to a bookmark by using #name in place of the URL, where name is the bookmark name. If you are linking to another web site, include the full URL including the http://
            1. Define named bookmarks within a file, that you can link to, by using <A NAME=#name">, where name is the name of the bookmark
8. Teams and Business Plans - review handout
9. Reviewing eCommerce web sites. When your Team has formed, look at some of these. NOTE: It is NOT a requirement or suggestion for this course that you actually purchase anything on line.
   1. www.amazon.com - online bookseller
   2. bn.com - Barnes and Noble bookstores online
   3. www.ebay.com - online auctions. Make bids on items put up for auction, put up an item for auction
   4. www.yahoo.com - auctions, Visa, web searching, shopping, mix your own music, free email
   5. www.hotmail.com - free email from Microsoft
   6. holidayfarms.com - online food gifts
   7. www.peapod.com - groceries and produce, delivered
   8. www.test.com - online practice tests for entrance and career exams
   9. shop.warner-lambert.com - warner-lambert health care products online
   10. www.gospelcom.net/ys/jobbank/ - jobs for Christian youth workers, also your organization can post an opening
   11. www.altosnet.com - online fee-based training in entrepreneurship
   12. www.autotoys.com - online retailer of auto accessories
   13. www.onlinesports.com - online sports equipment
   14. www.inetcity.net - web design
   15. www.gohome.com - small business advice and stories from AT&T (business@home)
   16. www.epinions.com - collects and distributes online reviews ("epinions") about almost everything