Explore Google Sites

After messing around with google sites for a while I am still working on how to work it well. I am not to good with computers and creating webpages. My concerns with this site is that its capabilities are very simplistic and may not be able to accomidate all the ideas for the updating of the site we want to do. From just a quick view of it i am still trying to figuire out how to actually post things live and how it will actually look when the page is created. now it really just looks like a word document and im wokring on trying to figure out how the layout will look when it is done.

Article organizational examples

The site that I found to be a good example of everything the aricle was talking about is: http://www.uri.edu/hss/education/ . Not only is it very informative but it is also very well organized. There are smooth tranistions between pages and the tab bar on the side make the site easy to navigate from one topic area to the next.
The site that I found to be lacking is Rhodeislandrowing.com, first off the site is very minimal. It is simple and still seem to be under construction, yet there is no information about that. The organization is somewhat exhistant but some of the links are dead, while others bring you to a page with extremely low information. The site seems to be lacking the cohesivness of a well crafted site, it seems throwed together just to put a site out there and little thought into how user friendly it will be.

website design article

I found this article to be very interesting and informative to read. My technology skill are pretty limited for my genereation, I have enough trouble keeping my computer working much less designing a website. Considering what the article said about all the aspects of designing a webpage I really have never thought of it that way before. I of course have been using computers and webpages for a long time now, but I really never put much thought into the actualy work and thought process in the design of the site. There are alot of small details that you use everyday when using the internet but never really put much thought into them. I never knew any of the offical names for tools on websites, I would be like "oh that was cool how that pics enlarged when the mouse went over it" but never really understood why or how that would happen.
The section I like the best was about the site organizational structures, once agian I havn't put the thought into the organizational structure of the sites. I have seem site that I notice how hard they are to use, or how confusing and boring some cam be. while other are easy and attract viewers to their page. The different ways of formating a site really seems to have an impact in the overall success of the site.

wikitravel topics

So once i was able to figuire out the whole wikimarkup mess i had to start writing. Once again not as easy as i thought. I know i have only really lived in this town for less than a year but i have been there many times before. I ended up having to talk to a family member to refresh my memory about what there was actually to do in this town. once i got one or two ideas everything came back to me and the typing just starting. this project was a pretty interesting one because i was able to see how lacking my town really was and how truly it was too.
Another aspect of this project i have to talk about was the peer review, i was very disapointed about the lack of effort from my group. i only got 1 review, i changed my plans on friday in order to make sure i gave all my group memebers a good review and expected the same in return. FAIL on thier part.

Wiki travel-causes trouble

So when I started working on my Wiketravel page for Northfield Il, I thought it would be an easy project oh was I wrong. I have had trouble from the start I thought it would no problem to create a webpage from nothing, again wrong. I think I am pretty tech savey but it took me a while to figuire out how to get the whole writting in code or wiki-markup down. I first started with actually typing out all the symbols and everything and it took forever. It was so boring and hard to concentrate on writing all those symbols I couldn't get any work done. So I finally messed around on the site a little and came to the conclusion that when you log onto yo profile and go to edit a page you can choose an option to add a listing instead of having to eidt and type in all the mark-up. SO MUCH EASIER! Life again went along alot smoother.

Ideas for wikitravel posts

Get in: Many ways in, IS a suburb of the city of Chicago. Two airports to get into the city of Chicago. There is public transportation, can take a train The "el" to get to another suburb, then must take the "metra", public bus service. Could always take a taxi from the airport, EXPENSIVE. Another way to get there is via personal vechicle, watch out major traffic in the city and in Northfield during the rush hours, highways get to busy people take side streets through the town.

DO: On weekends from late May through early September there is a famers market where local farmers sell their goods. These include all sorts of frst fruits and vegetables. Also fresh breads and pastrys from local bakeries. Fresh flowers and more.

See: Local forrest preserves. Lots of local protected forrests with miles of bike trails going through them. Also the Skokie lagoon ( part in northfield even though called skokie) where fishing, kayaking, and canoeing in popular.

Tips from wikitavel manual

The reading of the wikitravel style manual was interesting. Everytime I read about wikitravel there seems to be more "rules". There are all these guidlines that they recomend that you follow and say if you do it will make you page more successful. The more I read into this site the more confusing and complicated I feel creating a page seems to get.
A tip I learned is that if you have trouble following the extact style and format wikitravel is looking for you should just post the way you want and another person will come along and make you post more wiki-readable. Another tip was that when posting wiki wants you to just talk and give info about a place, dont push it positive or negative, stay general and neutral. Lastly, when using currency or phone numbers it is important to use their standard layout so that it makes sense to everyone, its a general format that people from all around the world can understand.

Wiktravel ideas

1) Northfield IL,
2) Wilmetter IL,
3) Sitka, Alaska
4) interarie- raodtrip from IL to RI
My first two places are where I have lived a good portion of my life and wikitravel page doesn't exist for them. For that reason I feel it would add a significant amount of value to the sight, to see another city added by someone that lived there. The third choice is a place a spent a few weeks camping. While a site already has been started I was thinking about adding more to it about the angle in which I experienced the place.

Wikitravel

I like the idea behind this site. The old fashion way of travel books is well, old fashion. We are living in the age of technology so why cant our travel info be too? It seem pretty easy and layed out exactly what the site is trying to accomplish. One thing that was intersting to me was the amount of "rules" they had for the site. The creators want this to be a different form of travel guide. While many guides just offer the "good" about a place wikitravels gives travelers teh opportunity to wrtite about the not so glorious aspects of their travel. A view in which I think is lacking. It should be fun to look more into this site and see what it really has to offer.