Consider Open Source CSS Templates for Rapid Web Development

Our department recently deployed a new web server. Our anticipated audience for this website is prospective students, current students, faculty, and potential employers. Being eager to adopt any new opportunity to use technology, I decided to immediately jump aboard by creating my own faculty website. Yes, admittedly I am a geek!

Although the official launch date for the server is well over a week away. I decided not to miss having "my" faculty website online at the same time. It seemed like a good idea, but my problem is that I am absolutely buried at this juncture of the semester. So at 10:15 pm on a Thursday night, I decided to look into the possibility of quickly creating a faculty website.

Web development is not something I do everyday. Although I do have some past experience as a webmaster and teaching HTML in the classroom I would not consider myself an expert in all the latest web technologies. So having presented perhaps way too much background material already, here is how I proceeded in constructing a clean looking, functional website with about an hour and half in labor.

My tools of choice were going to be a CSS template and Microsoft's free development tool Visual
Web Developer Express http://www.microsoft.com/express/vwd/. CSS allows a person to edit a pre-designed template and replace the content contained in the template with their own information while preserving the general design.

I've written in the past about Open Source Software. There are lots of other forms of media adopting the open source concept (good topic for another blog). A quick Google search using the keywords open source CSS garnered several successful hits. The first on the list was Open Source Web Design http://www.oswd.org. At the time, this site claimed to have 2080 different designs. After reviewing several designs, I decided to change strategy by leaving the site to compile a short outline of the materials and technologies I planned to host on this site. Once this list was complete, I went back and selected a design which would facilitate my definition for the site. I chose the design Andreas08 http://www.oswd.org/design/preview/id/2427.

The design download consisted of a CSS template and an example HTML file. After making a backup copy of the HTML file, I proceeded to create my first page. One should consider using the filename index.htm or default.htm for the first file in any website so the site can be identified by the URL and directory name only. It is always messy when someone attempts to give a website URL with a long address ending with a filename.htm or html.

I opened the file in Visual Web Developer Express (VWDE) and proceeded to enter my content. VWDE has both a WYSIWYG and HTML development environment. Although HTML was useful for a couple specialized tasks, most of what needed to done could be accomplished using the WYSIWYG environment.

By midnight, I had a functional website with a smooth appearance ready to upload. Thanks to the tools of Open Source Web Design CSS and the free Web Developer download from Microsoft, I was able to go from ground zero to a complete site in under two hours. Check it out at http://ace.cte.umt.edu/tom.gallagher

Open Source - Great Software

If you're not using open source software somewhere in your life, your missing out! No this blog is not devoted to saving the world through the utopian idealism of free software and yes I still do use Microsoft and Adobe products. There are great open source software products available. Some are even better than any commercial equivalent and best of all they are free. Here are some of the open source software products I use.

Perhaps the most well known open source product is the Linux operating system. A great piece of software, but the thought of installing an entire operating systems will seem overwhelming to many people. Firefox has made its mark on the Internet. It is now one of the most popular open source products ever.

Open Office is a productivity suite on equal footing with MS Office, MS Works, and Corel Word Perfect. It's complete suite contains a Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Presentation, and Database. It supports .doc, .xls, and .ppt formats commonly used by the other productivity suites. We use it on our laptop computer at home. My students use it in the operating systems classes I teach.

Others I use regularly: CutePDF allows me to print from any software package directly to a PDF file. CDEx (extractor) is a simple and easy to use extraction utility for creating MP3 files from CDs. Audacity allows me to record audio files with the LAME library directly to MP3 for audio podcasting. I use Camstudio to demonstrate "how to" tutorials for my students which are saved as AVI video files. These can be uploaded to YouTube as screen casts for online classes I teach.

I honestly use nearly everyone of these software packages on a weekly basis. They have enriched both my personal enjoyment and professional career. This is great software and you can't beat the price.

I'll try to discuss more open source products in a future blog along with portability for USB storage devices.

Jones Oil Company MVP - Scott

In 1977, the Jones Oil Company captured the 7th grade Junior Tackle Football City Championship in Coeur d'Alene Idaho. Old guys like to talk about their "glory days". I recently visited by phone with my old friend Rusty. We laughed, reminisced, and tried our best to share when the last time we saw any of our old teammates. Scott was a member of that Jones Oil Company team. He and I both played in the defensive line. At 110lbs and 79lbs respectively, we were an intimidating pair of defensive ends for this fearsome group. My family had just moved to the area. Scott and the other members of this team were quick to accept me and became my new best friends.

The exchange with Rusty coincided with another seemingly unrelated research project for an ethics course I teach involving the human rights movement in the Northwestern United States. The legacy of the white supremacy groups, in particular the actions of the Aryan Nations still haunts the predominately Caucasian communities of North Idaho. Communities organized and peacefully responded to the threats of hate. Twenty years later, I am happy to report that the epicenter of hate, the Aryan Nations compound, was donated to the public and is now a natural resource research center and a campus of North Idaho Community College. Of particular note is the philanthropic efforts of Prodigy Internet Services founder Greg Carr, who purchased the compound following the bankruptcy proceedings of the Aryans. Prior to donating the land to North Idaho CC, Carr volunteered use of the land to local emergency services for an one-time fire training drill in which all compound structures were burnt to the ground.

Many members of the Jones Oil Company, would go on to lead the Coeur d'Alene High School Vikings to its only undefeated season in winning the city's first State Championship in football. Unfortunately, Scott never had the opportunity to be a part of this group. Scott was mixed race. The Aryan group targeted Scott and his family. Years later as a College student, I received a copy of an article from People magazine detailing the story of Scott and his younger brother as victims fighting back against the horrors of harassment and hate created by the Aryans. They were among the first to seek civil restitution as a result of the malicious activities.

We lose touch with the majority of our childhood friends. I'll never see Scott again, but I will always admire his courage to overcome adversity. I'd like to take a moment to thank the patriotic efforts of Scott and others victims of hate. So thirty years later, here's to Scott, my friend and newly crowned MVP of the Jones Oil Company football team for his courageous efforts off the field!