Perhaps you are taking this tutorial because you want to learn how
to create more than just a web site. You want to build an online community
and put some interactivity into a site. You want to learn how to build
a portal or vortal. If this is true and you already know the basics
of creating a web page then keep reading because this online course
is for you.
But, if you don't know the basics of web development then
you should spend about eight hours at webmonkey.com,
bignosebird.com
or the sites on our
link page before doing this tutorial.
Cut and Paste Vortal
This tutorial is designed for normal non-technical people.
It is a cut and paste tutorial. In other words when you are finished
with this online course you should be able to build a portal or vortal
by simply cutting and pasting the pieces together.
Get ready to become like a 'building contractor'. The
contractor builds the building but he does not actually make the bricks.
In the same way, after this tutorial, you will be able to build a vortal.
You need not know any programming! We will simply take (mostly free)
component scripts and put them together to create a simple portal or
vortal. For example in this online course we will find a component script
for a discussion forum and learn how to add the discussion forum to
a website. This added feature will allow visitors to discuss issues
and ask questions.
We will look to the web as a resource to help us. There
are plenty of good web pages that can help us in our building project.
We will look at these sites as the source for our building blocks. They
will provide us not only instruction but also scripts that we will download
and use.
Most people could build their own portal by learning and
researching on the Internet. All the information you need is right here.
This tutorial will give you tips and steps that will accelerate you
portal development. We will pull together together many of our hard
earned experiences and save you a lot of time.
What is Your Vision?
But first we need to get an idea of what a good portal
should look like. Some of you may remember habit two of Stephen Covey's
book the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. This habit
is called Begin With the End in Mind.
Assignment
Get Ideas From Other Vortals
The first action step in our tutorial
will be to look at other portals to discover what makes a good portal
so that you can envision what your site might look like. Some of the
following examples we taken from an excellent book called Strike
it Rich.com by Jaclyn Easton. She is a columnist for the Los Angeles
Times and has written 23 case studies of successful websites. I highly
recommend that you buy and read this book.
This site focuses on the the three
C's content, community and commerce. The company sells outdoor sporting
products but have built a following of loyal customers partly because
of their good content including live coverage of a Mount Everest Climb.
This a Korean online community and
the worlds largest Asian online community. It is a great model of gathering
people with a common interest. It provides a high level of interactivity
and chat, news, commerce, messages boards, personal ads.
This site has built an interactive
community that focuses around a common passion for horses. This site
has a goal of providing useful information to its visitors whether it
means giving links to their competitors or not. Portions of this site
are built by the users. For example they offer free ads where the visitors
creates his/her own ad. These ads become content attracting other visitors.
This site is a prime example of
collaboration. Rather than individual investors seeking the biased advice
from a stockbroker they can collaborate with other investors who visit
this site and add their suggestions.
In the next lesson we will examine
some portal and vortal concepts and the parts of a portal or vortal.
In the mean time think about what you want to accomplish with you portal.
What is your goal and who is your target audience?
Also we will look at the following portal / vortal
concepts:
You
are about to begin a learning experience that is revolutionary -
learning online. This is a fantastic opportunity to learn
the most cutting edge information from a convenient location at
a convenient time. No need to buy outdated expensive textbooks and
drive to a class that meets at a specified time. You have it here
and it's free!
As
an added bonus you have a huge library at your fingertips-the Internet.
For example, you can almost instantly get more information about
online learning by going to the links on this site. Here you can
read current articles on the future of online learning. Incredible
huh?
And
one more bonus, it's "just in time learning". In other words,
you learn what you need to learn to get your job done right when
you need it. OK enough of that; let's get on with the tutorial.
Portal
/ Vortal Tutorial