Looking Into the Web

What does anyone mean when he says something about “the Web?” Well, people use the term loosely to mean the Internet, the World-Wide Web, or a local intranet and the information that can be obtained from any of these. Although we use them interchangeably, these are not the same thing.

Wikipedia defines them as:

• Internet—The publicly accessible worldwide system of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using a standardized Internet Protocol (IP) and many other protocols.
• Intranet—A private network that uses internet protocols, network connectivity, and possibly the public telecommunication system to securely share part of an organization's information or operations with its employees.
• World-Wide Web—An information space in which the items of interest, referred to as resources, are identified by global identifiers called Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs). The term is often mistakenly used as a synonym for the Internet, but the Web is actually a service that operates over the Internet.

Information on a Web page must be structured properly before it can be found and used.

Web Infrastructure—Unmasked

Markup

All text on a Web page—whether that page is on the Internet, an intranet, or the World-Wide Web—has to be organized, or tagged, before it can be seen. You know about Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and you’ve heard of Extensible Markup Language (XML); you may know that these are subsets of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) that is a descendant of IBM’s original General Markup Language (GML).

The markup language uses special codes to tag bits or pieces of information so that the code at the recipient’s computer or system can categorize and display the tagged content. Looking at this from the perspective of a librarian, markup tags identify headings, or titles, quotes, lists, images, and so forth so that the language can store the content data for easier discovery and retrieval.

Some markup languages, such as XML, allow designers to more easily create their own tags, so long as those are defined in an underlying XML statement, or data type description. Thus, the content used in a brochure can be quickly and completely included in the content of a Web page, for instance, if it is tagged according to the data type description.

Helpers

You’ve heard about Java and Javascript, JavaBeans, Flash, PHP, CGI and a dozen other 3- and 4-letter abbreviations that make up the alphabet soup we use on Web pages. Our use of these elements does not describe content; these identify only the technical infrastructure, or framing, and controls used to display and manipulate content. Site developers or designers use them to implement pop-up windows, add so-called “rich media” (digital movies or animations) and other effects on a Web site or page.

Database

Another infrastructure category involves the database, if any, that supports a Web site by being the repository of all content that is, or could be, displayed by that site. All content management systems use such a database (invariably, a relational database); static Web siets often do not use a database; the developer hand-codes the content and ensures that each item is properly tagged to identify paragraphs, lists, headings, and so forth. The underlying Web databases are, today, usually those that use the Structured Query Language (SQL), adding to our alphabet soup. (MySQL and Oracle are most often used by developers.) While the content is stored in tables within the database structure, code is required to interact between the site visitor and the database. PHP is a good example of the code used to “pull” the correct data and display it within the XHTML structure of the Web site so that visitors can see it.

A Web page involves a structured environment: whimsy doesn’t work very well. SGML, HTML, XHTML, and XML use tags so that you can find and read data. Without them, the information on a Web page is just lost in the telecommunications ether (or, the big bit-bucket in the sky). It’s there, but it can't be found and used—unless you know the URL or accidentally stumble upon the Web site.

So, you hire Web developers, or programmers, to construct the infrastructure to ensure that your Web site—internal or public—can be used with the functions you need it to offer.

Structured Content

Every piece of information published and transmitted, from speech to letters to e-mail to Web pages, is structured. If you don’t organize the information you transmit so that it conveys the message you intend, it won’t be understood. That data will be lost in the communications ether, tossed into the bit bucket that is miscommunication.

Sales are lost through miscommunication.

Web developers build the structure of your site. Professional technical communicators are skilled at organizing and writing your content to be used in the structure the programmers develop.