Technologies

Technology tends to attract an unfair share of attention throughout all phases of the web project life cycle. Technology should be carefully evaluated in terms of human information needs and not implemented ``because its there!'' Technologies of interest to our Roundtable discussion of library web projects may include:

web server software

apache and friends. SSL servers for extranet and commerce applications

modules & middleware

options for server-side scripting, SQL database integration, user authentication and tracking

SQL databases

pros and cons of database-enabled web sites. High-performance SQL on a budget

add--on services

Email lists, threaded discussions, dedicated web/Java applications, reporting and analysis of web site use

high availability

caching, load balancing, RAIDs, security, staying online in the face of natural and net disasters

hardware & platform decisions

criteria for machine, OS selection and support

network & hosting

do you park a web server in-house? rent shared space with an ISP? ``co-locate'' in a hosting facility?

version control

maintain and stage multiple variations of your site, roll back mistakes, automate content updates http://durak.org/cvswebsites/