The most common question that comes up with new or prospective clients is whether they would be able to update their site themselves.

When I first started Kurland Digital six years ago I resolved that I would do everything possible to empower my clients to be able to maintain their sites without becoming overly reliant upon us. I'd even gone so far as training clients' personnel on the fundamentals of web development, which involved acquainting them with FTP programs (to upload files to their site's web server), as well as basic HTML and even Photoshop and Dreamweaver.

And what I repeatedly found was that despite the best of intentions on my part and that of my clients, it was rare for them to end up choosing to do their own general site maintenance.

Why? Well, I think the greatest challenge is that working on the web is a multi-disciplinary task. It involves bits of knowledge about computer graphics file formats, the idiosyncrasies of different web browsers and computer platforms, JavaScript coding as well as HTML. And often there are server-side technologies like Java (completely different from JavaScript, despite the name), PERL, ASP, JSP and/or PHP... not to mention database interfaces like SQL. And that isn't even getting into the issues around aesthetics - like design skills, a good understanding of typography and color. And then there's writing effective copy...

Most web development shops split these tasks among several individuals. One person may be principly responsible for design, another for web production... another does scripting and database programming. Each of these subjects is sufficiently deep and complex to warrant that kind of specialization.

Needless to say, someone wanting to maintain their site can quickly get overwhelmed. Especially since they usually take this on as an adjunct to other (usually more pressing) duties which are central to their business. In the end, the learning curve can be daunting... and even the intrepid may find that newly learned concepts and skills may be easily lost when they aren't exercised on a frequent enough basis. On several occassions I've gotten panicky phone calls from clients who had unintentionlly "broken" their sites.

Having said all that, the good news is that there are several things that can be done to facilitate updating targeted content on your site without requiring you to become a web expert. Certain areas of a site which are likely to require frequent changes can be built to be automated. We can create a password-protected site administration area which allows you to update those things which change most frequently; like a parts inventory, or a calendar of events - even blocks of text on specifically targeted pages.

Similarly, a facility can be constructed which allows you to add press releases or other additional content that fits within an established template. Such tools have their limits... they don't allow general purpose web page creation, but they are simple to use and address the most common needs that my clients have for keeping their sites up-to-date.

Macromedia has recently introduced a product called "Contribute" which is geared towards non-technical "content providers", allowing them to make text edits - and even image edits - to a web site. It allows the web designer to "lock" areas of the web pages to keep users from inadvertently damaging them... while permitting different individuals access to specific areas of their site. This tool looks like a it may fill a need for content providers to update sites that aren't database-driven.

Either of these solutions work best in concert with careful attention to the design of your site. By analyzing the structure of your site's content (as well as your organization's human resources) we can suggest an approach that allows you to make appropriate choices to provide you the greatest leverage with the minimum investment in training.

Miles