This guide is for Princeton alumni classes, regional associations and affiliated groups who are interested in communicating through sites on the World Wide Web. Here you will find suggestions on how to set up a Web page for your group, as well as the guidelines and procedures you'll need to follow to link your site to The Alumni Council page.
Communicating with Princetonians on the Web makes it convenient for your group to share up-to-date information and keep in touch. It's an easy way to reach your particular group of alumni without the expense and organizational efforts of mailings and events. A Web site doesn't replace these activities, but supplements them by maintaining relationships with constituents. In addition, alumni who have not stayed in touch with your group may find your Web site through links from the Princeton University and The Alumni Council Web pages. Your Web page can become a virtual "home" for active members of your group, and an invitation to inactive members to participate.
contact: Domingo Monet '93, monet@princeton.edu
Before you begin to create your Web site...
Key issues and questions to consider
Suggested and required elements
University guidelines and U.S. law
A Web page can provide alumni groups with up-to-date information on their
activities, details on how to contact group leadership, a place to share news
and comments, and a way to develop and maintain relationships with Princetonians with mutual interests.
Some unique features of Web publications to remember:
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In developing the content and design of a Web page, alumni groups should first outline the information they wish to include and sketch out a Web page tree to determine how users will be led to information and what each link will achieve.
All pages you create should share the same visual framework and organization to create an identity for your site and make it easy to navigate.
All Web pages linked to The Alumni Council page must follow these basic guidelines:
If you want to include any content, including text, graphics and sound that you did not create, you have to determine if you have the right to use the material.
Under U.S. copyright law, most creative work cannot be used without express written permission. Easy-to-understand copyright law information can be found at The Copyright Website at www.benedict.com. More comprehensive copyright information is at http://www.openmarket.com/copyright/html/lawinfo.html.
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Alumni group publishers are solely responsible for the content of the pages they publish and are expected to abide by the highest standards of quality and responsibility. Publishers are also required to comply with all Princeton University rules and state and federal laws concerning the appropriate use of computers and the Internet.
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Princeton University now offers server space to host your alumni group's website on the Alumni server. The pagemaster will need to be able to telnet to the server to upload and maintain the files. There is a limit of aproximiately 5MB of server space that can be allocated to a group for its web site. The pagemaster should contact the TigerNet Coordinator to set up an account for your group. You can also find other sources to host your Groups' website.
As of this writing, there are four choices:
Alumni can search the TigerNet Directory to find members of their group who work at universities or large corporations which may offer them free server space.
Look for providers that give you a base fee per month without a per hour fee for surfing the Web. Your group must pay for connection costs to the Internet. and have a good computer with a high speed modem.
As of this writing, the large, commercial providers are beginning to offer server space for Web pages to their subscribers. Contact individual providers for information.
HTML is not a difficult programming language, but it does require some learning. There are many sites on the Web dedicated to tutorials and guides on how to write HTML documents. Here are a few suggestions:
If no member can be identified as a pagemaster, your group can consider appointing a current student who can help create and maintain your page. While the relationship with a current student is a plus, the downside is that it will be difficult to keep the page up-to-date during the summer months when the student is not in Princeton. This is only a temporary solution to finding server space because the space will no longer be available to you when the student graduates and his or her computer account is closed.
It is very important that the pagemaster has a general knowledge of computers and working in the Internet environment, a good computer with a high speed modem, and knowledge of how to write HTML files and upload them to the Internet server. Maintaining a page doesn't take much work, but you will need someone who can commit to constantly updating the material. A pagemaster who cannot consistently put forth the effort can jeopardize the quality of your page.
Last updated November 18, 1997
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