The site is called Web Review.  Web Review is dedicated to the practice of web design and web developments.  Web Review is a free site, which offers tutorials, practical reference guides, and weekly articles.  The site was created for web developers, designers and web professionals seeking to build innovative and effective web sites.  For the average web creator like me, it was a little too technical.

Every week the site changes its contents, however the main headings Authoring, Design, Development, Ecommerce, Multimedia, and Site Management remain the same.  Each heading contains 4 to 5 sub topics.  Authoring for instance contains the sub topics HTML, dynamic HTML, Java Script, and Style sheets. The HTML sub topic contained articles relating to tools, tips, and techniques for creating web pages with the hypertext markup language.  Some of the articles I am sure we are all familiar with like how to wrap text around images, resizing images, creating buttons, and creating tables.

Since most of the articles were very technical, I decided to choose articles that I could understand.  To be honest, most of the articles that I browsed were difficult to understand.  Web review is definitely a site for professional web creators because the site assumes that readers understand all the technical language like Java, Perl, XML.  I clicked on the Java sub topic, hoping to receive a basic description of what it is, but instead, the site jumps right into the articles.

Under the Security sub topic, I found an article titled The Simple Rules of Web Security.  The article recommends that all system administrators practice some simple rules:

-  Turn off unwanted host service and web server features.
-  Use a firewall to protect the internal network.
-  Isolate the server and limit access to the server.
-  Keep all server software up to date and apply security patches when they become available.
-  Be paranoid about anything that modifies server data.
-  Understand how everything works.

These rules were simple according to the author, however I found these rules a little difficult to understand.

The next article I chose was an article on Advertising found under the heading of Ecommerce.  As a business major I was fascinated to discover that advertising on the web is a growing business with projected ad revenues reaching near $2 billion by the year 2000.  The web offers something that no other medium can- A means of tracking and counting the number of times someone actually sees and responds to an ad.  The web offers the ability to track if someone clicks on an ad, goes to the site and makes a purchase in response to that initial click.  The article talks about some of the decisions that site builders should consider before they actually take the leap to accept advertising for their site, and discussed some of the thing that advertisers look in a site to spend their money on.

The last article I've chose to discuss, is titled Welcome to the Real World.  The article is on web usability and gave real world examples of what worked and what didn't from the usability standpoint.  Some of the advice included:

-  Don't create pages that are dense, cluttered or confusing.
-  Simplify your site as much as possible
-  Observe the need for speed

This is a quote taken from the article:
"Good usability design doesn't mean giving users all the possible choices all the time; it mean presenting all the right choices at the right time."

After browsing the site for a couple of hours, I found the site a little too technical.  Perhaps in the future, this site will be beneficial. Web Review requires that readers have a basic understanding of web terminology, and right now I'm at the point where I'm just beginning to understand the terminology.  It's a great site, if you know what you want.  For those of you who are interested in further developing your web creating skills, this site is for you: www.webreview.com. 

A:  A firewall is like a gateway computer.  It operates outside the network server computer.  If people outside the network want to get into the network, they need to go through the gateway computer or firewall before they are allowed to reach the server computer.  A lot of companies use more than one firewall for added security.

A:  To be honest, the answer to your question is no.  The articles were very technical and I had a difficult time understanding the information.

A:  In my opinion, my web pages meet the standards.  My web pages are organized and easy to follow.  Its not cluttered with too many graphics.  But there's always room for improvements.

A:  The site is geared toward professional web designers.  Unfortunately it's really not a site for novice web builders.  I tried looking for easy to understand articles, but found none.

A:  Yes, I definitely think that advertising on the Internet is effective.  Look at Amazon.com.  Most the company's advertising is on the web. The company is making millions and is now known as the world's biggest bookstore.  Do I think it's better than television?  In some ways it is and in some ways it's not.  It really depends on the product or service that you're trying to sell.

A:  Review on how to add to the page to make it for the average surfer?
Adding or creating a page for beginners would alter Web Review's targeted audience.  Instead I suggest that Web Review add links to informative web sites that target average and beginning web designers.

A:   Any business that is not connected to the web is at a major disadvantage.  The Internet allows businesses to advertise on the web, gain feed back through email, and even allows businesses from different parts of the world to exchange ideas instantaneously.  Using the Internet saves businesses money and time, resulting in added profits.

A: It depends on whether you consider yourself an expert or a novice designer.  Any beginner will have difficulty understanding the technical language used in the articles.  For those who are knowledgeable in the web designing field, I definitely recommend it.

A: Web Review allows readers to quickly search for topics by using a search engine function, located at the top of every page.

A:  No I don't. Technology is moving fast but not too fast.  What does society consider too fast anyway?  Imagine life without the Internet.  The technological discoveries this past decade has been AMAZING.  I can't wait to see what's next!

Web Review is a cool site for web creators who have a basic understanding of web terminology.  For an average web designer like myself, I found the articles difficult to understand.  However, I did enjoy researching the site.  While it may have been a bit too technical, I gained a deeper insight into the web designing field.  Perhaps in the future, this site will be beneficial.  As for now, I intend to work on my web designing skills so that one day I will be able to understand the articles found in Web Review.

The presentation portion of the report went smoothly.  It was a lot easier the second time.  I wasn't even nervous this time.  Okay... maybe a little nervous when Professor James asked me what a firewall was.  I answered the question as best I could.  He asked a couple of more questions, but those weren't too difficult to answer.  During my first oral presentation no questions were asked, so this time it was a little different.

Start early.  If you decide to procrastinate, don't.  Before starting, remember to carefully look at Professor James' Instructions for the Oral.html File.  If you're looking to get an A for this course, I suggest you adhere to his instructions.  If you have time, look at previous oral presentation web pages to get a better idea of how to structure your report.  And don't wait too long after the presentation to complete the written part.  Do it early when it's still fresh in your mind.  Once again, Good Luck!