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The research, writing, and testing of this manual took place over an eighteen-month period, half as long as the Web has been in existence. We worked with many arts Websters as they built their first home pages. We listened as they shared their success stories and experiences. We watched as the arts Web landscape changed before our eyes at six-month intervals.
During the first six months, some arts Websters confessed that in the rush to "get on the Web" they did not go through a formal planning process. As one person remarked, "Plan? What's that?" It was 1995 and this arts Webster was no different from pioneers in other fields who came onto the Web amid the hype and hysteria and the seductive promise of reaching millions of people. These early pages were simple, menu-driven pages with gray backgrounds, a slow loading graphic file of the organization's logo, and a blinking hypertext header announcing "Welcome to Our Home Page."
Six months later, the hurried attitude of get on the Web before it is too late was obsolete. We recognized that haste can be harmful if it drives us to hoist a Web page that does not get the right content to the right audience. New versions of the hypertext markup language gave more options for the look and design of our pages, including background colors, animated graphics, and other techniques. During this period, we saw hundreds of arts Web sites make their electronic debut, including the National Endowment for the Arts. It became clear that the arts world understood that the Web is not just a passing fad, but here to stay.
Over the past six months, new arts Web sites continued to appear regularly. Museums are presenting virtual exhibits, while performing arts organizations are beginning to sell tickets online. Students are taking virtual field trips to arts destinations on the Web, artists continue to create work for the medium and gain wider recognition and arts managers looks at ways to integrate the technology in their organization. More and more arts organizations are working in tandem with social service organizations, libraries, and schools to offer a full range of online content to residents in their communities and around the world. The wide array of tricks and tools to make our pages interesting and useful keeps on improving. Many of the early arts Web pioneers are now looking at evaluation and make-over strategies for their pages to assure that their sites continue to evolve along with the Web.
In October 1994, Arts Wire selected subscribers to serve as the charter members of the AW-GOPHER-WWW POLICY Committee. This group helped us articulate a policy statement for AW's Web page and allowed us to think through what we wanted to have on our Web page: Version 1.0. Our discussions took place online and were quite extensive and exciting. We were discovering the wonders of this new medium. On January 1, 1995, we opened our page, one of the first arts-related Web sites. Many others were to follow.
March, 1995 opened our SpiderSchool conference which included documentation and discussion on arts weaving on the Web in response to intense subscriber interest. In April, 1995, we launched a public Web page for SpiderSchool (http://www.artswire.org/spiderschool/) as a public resource for arts Websters everywhere.
We have reached the point where we have some hindsight and experiences to both inform our thinking and share with others who are starting down this path or have traveled halfway. If you are hurrying because you feel you have missed out, relax. There is plenty of time for you or your organization o get its message online and enjoy the rewards of electronic publishing.
The medium and the technology are still so new and quickly evolving that we must learn from our mistakes, and keep on innovating. Take it from me, the best way to learn is alternating between learning and doing, learning and doing. As artists and arts administrators this is a quality that many of us already possess. Apply those skills to your electronic publishing efforts and you will certainly succeed.
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