June 1997 • Volume 24 • Number 3

Create Your Own Web Site

By ManMohan S. Sodhi

Oh, what a Web we weave!

The Web has grown in importance in just the past few months. Starting from Web pages, attention has now turned to Web-based virtual electronic communities — the focus of my February and April 1997 articles. In February, I outlined how individual consultants or consulting companies, software vendors, academic leaders, practitioners dispersed within a large firm or INFORMS subdivisions could create virtual communities of members, fellow researchers or customers. Before creating such virtual communities, you have to create a Web site, and that is the focus of this article.

Commercial Benefits of the Web
A growing number of companies have already realized the many potential benefits of having a Web site. The benefits include:

Electronic commerce. Amazon Books (http://www.amazon.com) and Dell Computers ( http://www.dell.com) are two notable success stories; the latter reportedly makes $1 million a day in computer sales from its Web site.
Customer service. FedEx claims that calls made by customers for tracking have been reduced by 40 percent since the company began providing tracking information over the Web (http://www.fedex.com).
Advertising and market information. Mac Connection (http://www.macconnection.com) and other hardware/software mail order companies provide their catalog through the Web. Besides giving their customers up-to-date pricing information and friendly search capabilities, these companies can determine customer interest by tracking Web page "hits" and searches by potential customers.

Creating a Web Site
Typically, a company creates a Web site by hooking its computer up to the Internet with specialized hardware. The connection alone could cost between a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per month. Besides purchasing hardware and software, you also have to protect the computer from hackers and viruses. But there is a better way if you do not have deep pockets.

At a relatively low cost, you can "outsource" your Web site through an arrangement called Web hosting. For as little as $25 per month paid to an Internet provider, you can have a Web site with your own Internet address, e.g., www.yourcompany.com. You manage the content and let the provider manage the hardware and the headaches. The provider gives you hard disk space on a computer that is already on the Internet to which you transfer your information using "FTP."

Flexibility with Web Hosting
Web hosting is quite flexible. If you decide to put up more content, you can purchase more hard disk space. You can start out by providing basic information with your site, and add fancier features like search capability and electronic commerce later. If you want your Web site to have a faster connection to the Internet or a faster computer serving your Web site, you can move to another Internet provider without having to change your Internet or Web address. For all these reasons, the cost of entry is quite small.

Costs
As an individual consultant, if you simply want to make information about yourself available over the Web, you may not incur any cost at all if you already have an Internet access account with a provider like Netcom or GNN, or with an online service like America Online (AOL). For instance, Netcom gives you one megabyte of hard disk space, and AOL gives you two megabytes of hard disk space for your Web pages free with your Internet account. Typically, you do not get your own Internet address, although there are exceptions.

If you have a small business, your Web-hosting cost may range from $25-50 per month for basic service that includes 10 megabytes of disk space, your own Internet address and e-mail forwarding (e-mail to msodhi@yourcompany.com on the Web page would be forwarded to my real e-mail address, MohanSodhi@AOL.com). You'll pay extra if you need more disk space, access to "cgi" that lets you run special programs or secure commercial transactions. You also have to pay $50 per year to InterNIC Society and a set-up fee to the provider.

To give you a sampling of actual costs, I asked a few companies about Web hosting for a small business. In the New England area, TIAC (http://www.tiac.com) offers a basic service package for $58 per month that also includes an unlimited access Internet account. Netcom (http://www.netcomi.com) offers basic service for $25 per month. Msen (http://www.msen.com) in Michigan offers a package that includes an Internet account and CGI access at $50 per month. At the higher end, PSIWeb (http://www.psinet.com) charges $99 per month for basic service, but they promise you better throughput. AT&T charges $295 per month, and IBM charges $495 per month for basic service although both provide more disk space.

Conclusion
To create Web content, you also need to get a Web editing tool (e.g., HoTMetaL, Adobe PageMill or Front Page). After creating Web pages on your computer, you upload these files to the Internet provider's site using FTP. Be sure to create your Web site incrementally, and selectively ask your friends and clients for feedback before announcing it to the world. Then you too can be Spiderman!

Dr. ManMohan S. Sodhi is senior consultant at Sabre Decision Technologies (SDT). He is the founder of the OR news group, sci.op-research, and helped design and create INFORMS Online. He can be reached at MohanSodhi@AOL.com.

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