Foreign Students' Association (FSA), a non-profit organisation based at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Budapest, Hungary.

1. Ideas for long-term continuity of our site
FSA Website Options
2012 and beyond...
1

2. The story so far...
2002 - a page on the univet website (still active although slightly
out of date)
2

3. 3

4. The story so far...
2002 - a page on the univet website (still active although slightly
out of date)
2008 - 2010 new website (fsaunivet.com)
4

5. 5

6. 6

7. The story so far...
2002 - a page on the univet website (still active although slightly
out of date)
2008 - 2010 new website (fsaunivet.com)
2011 - new website (current) (pirosvilla.info/fsa), new print
services (professional graphics posters etc).
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8. 8

9. 9

10. Site Requirements
Easy to publish - technology is only useful if the
learning curve is gentle (anyone know HTML?!)
Host photos, videos of events on one site
Simple, beautiful design
Cost effective
Ease of navigation, logical header menu,
mirroring in DE/HU
10

11. Website functions
Disseminate information cost-effectively, efficiently
Resource - links, academic articles, info on events
FSA identity, presence, good impression, continued uni support
Archive for events, news and also for our own reference (minutes)
Interface for answering questions from students, contact
information
Facilitate community-based information sharing through forums
11

12. Website potential
Create revenue - inform about mobile phone offers, books etc.
Book sale catalogue search service
Short video intro from each of the team: ‘about us’ - more personal
Video message from the president on the main page - encourage
participation
12

13. Site requirements 2
Sustainable in the long-term - not excessively dependant on one
ecosystem - platform independence?
Good redundancy - inherent + manual backups are a must
Good quality content is essential, more important that quantity/
frequency of update
13

14. Extras - would be nice!
Advertisement-free (current)
Publish from any computer with an internet connection
publish semester financial report
Link up with other student-based university groups in the region
Individual FSA contributors, bloggers, journalists, editorial?
14

15. Advantages of our own website
Control of information
Updating independent of any other IT support, server downtime
Control of layout
Add HTML snippits (google map, sharing social network buttons,
usage trackers)
Long term security - Facebook frequently changes terms
15

16. Current status quo (Sept 11)
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17. Current web set up
Hardware: Macintosh, 2 backup Hard drives, internet connection
Software: OS X Lion, iWeb, iPhoto.
Infrastructure:
Web domain (pirosvilla: GoDaddy, ~$15/annum)
Hosting servers: Apple MobileMe (€99/annum)
Independent free Forums shoe-horned into our site
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18. Setbacks!
"build a Web site" search term in Google: 4.7 million results.
Website creation has become too complex to easily say which way
is the ‘best’.
Some basic technical skills are still needed, however there are more
non-HTML programs now available
After surmounting the technical hurdles, the biggest challenge is
supplying the website with fresh, quality content.
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19. Web Creation - Methods compared
Desktop online - blog
Customisation
Set up
Cost
Requirements
platform agnostic
Write entries offline
Easy upload of photos, videos
Spellcheck
Tables, charts, graphs (rich editing)
Integration with youtube, flickr
Creation/work
Excellent (site navigation/structuring
etc)
Variable
some preparation, FTP server straightforward
(computer, internet, software ) backup
HDD.
Web domain, Storage servers with FTP
Low - free
PC/Mac, internet, software program
internet, login, sometimes own server
space
no yes
yes no
yes (inside desktop client,
drag&drop)
no (java, upload selection)
yes If browser supported
yes no
yes no/limited
changes happen immediately numerous waits for previews of code
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20. Desktop web editing in 2012 (Mac)
Program Advantage Disadvatage OS Cost
iWeb *
RapidWeaver *
Sandvox *
Adobe Dreamweaver
MarsEdit 3
ShutterBug
Kompozer
Coda *
Freeway Express
Drag & Drop, no HTML knowledge, fast,
extra themes can be bought, live preview,
everything automated
Proprietary, EOL June 2012?, limited
templates, limited google indexing, images
can be large
Mac OS X iLife, hosting server, domain address
Excellent customisation, templates, good
outlook, excellent forum help, well-
integrated on the Mac, longer dev. history
than Sandvox, Theme Control Tab.
higher learning curve than iWeb Mac OS X $60, hosting server, domain address
Built in social network buttons,
customisation, good uploading, good
development, attractive, good mac
integration
earlier development history Mac OS X $77, hosting server, domain address
customisation
steep learning curve, hardware demands,
expensive
Windows, Mac $400, hosting server, domain address
no HTML Knowledge, wordpress, blogger
support, iPhoto integration
editor solely, not web creator. Mac OS X $40, hosting server, domain address
Intuitive, no HTML required, good themes,
good style editing
mainly for photos, photo options sometimes
limited, manual outdated
Mac OS X $40, hosting server, domain address
HTML HTML without preview window, Mac OS X, Windows, Linux Free, hosting server, domain address
Fluid UI, good web preview, Good CSS
editor, positive reviews.
lack of templates, ‘save to web’ could be
improved, FTP so-so, slow update cycle
Mac OS X $99, hosting server, domain address
features, power
not as easy as iWeb, learning curve, only one
undo
$69 or $229, hosting server, domain address
* recommended
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21. Desktop web editing in 2012 (PC)
Program Advantage Disadvatage OS Cost
SiteSpinner *
CSS Toolbox
Rapid CSS 2011
MS WebMatrix
Adobe Dreamweaver
NoteTab Pro
EvrSoft First Page 2006 *
Kompozer
Amaya
EZGenerator
Excellent support, fast, easy to use, good
WSIWIG, can make mobile version, good
multimedia support
cannot import existing HTML pages, blank
page start - no templates
Windows $50, hosting server, domain address
powerful, can be upgraded
not exactly HTML editor but CSS
supplement software,
Windows Free, hosting server, domain address
Advanced, fully customisable text editor
HTML and XHTML editing features
Syntax Highlighting for CSS and HTML
documents, HTML5 and CSS3 support
good HTML knowledge required Windows €20, hosting server, domain address
Free, WordPress, Joomla!, DotNetNuke and
Orchard-ready. FTP, publish all file types
HTML knowledge mandatory Windows free, hosting server, domain address
customisation, looks, possibilities
steep learning curve, hardware demands,
expensive, HTML knowledge required
Windows, Mac $400, hosting server, domain address
good FTP
no WSIWIG view, insufficient interface,
HTML knowledge required
Windows $30, hosting server, domain address
Free, HTML templates, good tool setup
PHP Rendering not always good, lack of
auto-complete coding feature, and a
mediocre FTP client
Windows $60, hosting server, domain address
HTML, available in Hungarian
HTML, no split screen mode, minimal CSS
support, basic interface, updated last in
2010.
Windows , Mac, Linux Free, hosting server, domain address
Good W3C standards,
All functions except W3C are secondary in
importance, looks like Win 3.1, browser has
poor rendering, v. small HTML size,
Windows, Mac, Unix
Free, open source, hosting server, domain
address
3000 web templates, no HTML knowledge
required
focussed on music, Not easy enough to use;
inconsistent interface; help window don’t
stay on top
Read more: http://
Windows €99, hosting server, domain address
* recommended
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22. Online website providers in 2012
Blog Provider Advantage Disadvatage Notes Cost
Wordpress *
Tumblr
Posterus
Squarespace
Google blogger
Drupal *
Novice Project
Facebook
TypePad *
Joomla
free, popular, agnostic, easy setup (1 click), good dev
community, good themes, robust, good google listing
CSS knowledge required, web developer suggested for
anything more than basic work; posts, dates etc. are fixed
after publishing and hard to change
Among the hosting providers that provide one-click
installations of WordPress are Bluehost,
DreamHost,MediaTemple, and GoDaddy
free initially
fast setup, free, uncluttered
poor theme selection, simplistic, lack of site navigation
1 most templates lack basic services such as comments
or tag searching
2 can be a pain to extensively modify the templates
3 still too new for most people to grasp full potential
can create some social engagement by choosing other
tumblelogs to follow, or by liking/favouriting posts which
you can quote or reblog on your own site. bookmarklet and
email posting tools are pretty snazzy, and they make it easy .
free
blog by sending an email, free, decent themes, simple, social
network integration
not really appropriate for non-private use
has links to and from the social networking world, offers
great looking themes, supports your own private domain
names, and never seems to have any downtime
free
beauty costly shopping cart possible $144
Has been around for a while so there is a large collection of
templates available
Easy customisation, HTML needed though. Probably one of
the biggest blog platforms (good help)
Html code in the templates can be a little buggy and
outdated
not meant for anything other then basic blogging
free
content management system has built-in features like
forums, polls, galleries, and more.
may have to pay free to low bandwidth users
fast, free, target audience
group page only, poor uptake, login, poor customisation
Free
fast, free, target audience
group page,very poor control, login required, changes
frequently
Free (information gathered)
nice themes, video, picture support, server hosting
included, no ads
costly $9-15/month
portal/community type site instead of blog, inherently
customisable
complex (very steep learning curve), style sheets have to be
purchased
Mac, Windows (with MS WebMatrix), open source free
* recommended
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23. Desktop
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24. Online
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25. Media Suggestions
FSA newsletter in PDF only format (cost efficient) - quarterly?
Website survey function?
Professional events section to mirror FSA Vet Careers
Videos, podcasts - short thoughts shared with the world!
25

26. Short-term
plan
Split iWeb file and give copy to
András
Decide long-term sustainable
solution
Designate a new server - Dropbox
is free up to 2GB/Semmelweis
Get a new web domain - circa $10/
p.a.
26

27. Long-term plan
move to sustainable web
publishing system
contemporary up-to-date
web design
Add more quality
(multimedia) content
27

28. Comments?
28

29. Recommendations
From my reading of the current situation, there are many website publishers available. Online blog
services such as those from TypePad, Google and WordPress offer a fast way to get online, however they
lack customisation without HTML/CSS knowledge and it is difficult to add multimedia.
Platform agnostic, open source solutions (Amaya, Kompozer etc.) are a great idea in principle but tend to
be very esoteric complicated and sometimes outdated programs. HTML knowledge seems to be essential.
Proprietary solutions (only on one OS) offer the easiest solutions to get a website online in my opinion.
Many offer good-looking, easy-to-use templates and give better long-term control over content. On
Windows SiteSpinner and EvrSoft First Page look like strong contenders and should be trialled. However
both have fundamental flaws as SiteSpinner lacks templates and First Page has FTP issues, which should
be perfect as this is what is used to upload the website. Linux/Unix options remain esoteric. On the Mac,
iWeb is a strong contender as it’s build into every recent Mac and our current website is based on that.
The templates are good and it is fast to use, however it looks likely that Apple will cease development of
this software sooner rather than later. So it is only an issue of help/support but in the future lack of new
templates etc could be problematic. RapidWeaver, SandVox and Coda seem to be all excellent,
straightforward programs with active developers. Of those I think RapidWeaver could be the easiest
transition, although all have free trials.
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30. Links
Mac OS X
iWeb
RapidWeaver
Sandvox
Coda
Freeway Express
Adobe Dreamweaver
ShutterBug
MarsEdit 3
Kompozer
Amaya
Microsoft Windows
SiteSpinner
MS WebMatrix
MS Expression Web
Adobe Dreamweaver
CoffeeCup Visual Site Designer
CSS Toolbox
Rapid CSS 2011
NoteTab Pro
EvrSoft First Page 2006
Kompozer
Amaya
EzGenerator
Serif WebPlus
Intuit Websites
Avanquest WebEasy Professional
CoffeeCup Visual Site Designer
Online Services
Wordpress
Tumblr
Posterus
Squarespace
Google Blogger
Drupal
Novice Project
Facebook
TypePad
Joomla
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31. SiteSpinner
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32. First Page 2006
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33. iWeb
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34. RapidWeaver
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35. Coda
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36. SandVox
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