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A few people in the software industry did a double-take when they saw the world logging in to a uniform graphical interface with standard languages like HTML and Java. "Isn't this what the business computer world had wanted for 20 years , a common interface with easy-to-use tools?" they asked. Well, the answer to their question was a resounding "Yes," and soon the concept of the intranet arose.

Intranets were companywide , instead of worldwide, with the same common HTTP protocol and tools. Companies now could write applications over their local networks that followed a universal protocol. The unthinkable happened : A common graphical language and network protocol had fallen into the lap of the corporate business worldall thanks to some Russian rocket that blasted off a long time ago.

As you read in Chapter 1, "Oracle Company Overview," companies such as Oracle are trying to expand upon the concept of an intranet and have come up with the idea of network computing and the NCA (network computing architecture), which is simply a type of intranet with a common interface for tools that are not normally used online by the Internet surfer crowd tools such as large databases, spreadsheets, and word processors. It has been realized that, given the architecture of this new common interface, PCs today are over-priced and inefficient at handling user requests because they are not designed for it. Internet domains within the corporation have become servers, which provide information and productivity tools to the users.

Yes, the computer world has moved to a new standard. Today, the computer world doesn't mean some guy with a butch haircut and horn-rimmed glasses in the basement carrying a stack of punch-cards. The computer world is the social worldmillions of people who want things and are ready to buyonline. How can a business afford not to be on the Web?

Why Put Information on the WebBenefits and
Pitfalls

If you are thinking about putting information on the Web or have never gave it consideration, you should consider the following benefits and pitfalls of publishing information on a Web page.

Benefits

The Web has already made a great deal of money for companies that know how to take advantage of its benefits. Let us consider them:

You suddenly have provided information that anyone in the world can access. This new "address," which is actually a URL becomes a symbol of your company or organization and can be put on business cards and stationery. It is now as acceptable as a phone number or address as a way of contacting companies or organizations.

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You can register with search services and suddenly have your product or service advertised to the world. The key to this advertisement is that someone is searching for what you have, and when he enters a specific number of keywords for a search, he is introduced to your Web page. What the World Wide Web has become is a giant classified -ads pool for the world.
Today many people judge companies and organizations by the quality of their Web site. What would you think of a movie company that had all boring Web pages? What would you think of a computer company that had a really simple Web site? What if a supplier of yours let you order over the Web and another didn't? Web pages have become like company calling cards that define a company in the same way commercials or advertisements have defined a corporate image in the past.
Publishing information on the Web is cheaper. The "electronic brochure" is more cost-effective than printing thousands of actual sheets of paper regarding your product or services and paying for this hard copy to be distributed to your clients .
Many times your company or organization is contacted about the same information over and over again. This wastes time. Having a live person available to answer basic questions about your company or service is important, but by using the Web you can free up some of this labor for more important tasks .
Many tedious and costly tasks of business can now be automated for very little money. For instance, if you run a bookstore and allow purchases on the Web, not only will you find new business, but you will free up salespeople on-site who used to sit around answering telephones and taking orders.
Employees or authorized users can use your computer system without the need for complex sets of modems and modem software. In years past, to access software remotely you needed to dial in through a modem to that company and emulate a terminal that the software expected. Now, with a Web link to a piece of software, you don't need a modem for every user logging in. Users will be logging in to their own Internet provider's site and accessing your URL through your network lines. You also can accept input from any portable machine in the world that runs HTTP-based software because you don't need to restrict access to only a certain type of machine configuration with that certain piece of software that will talk to your system.
If you have a unique product name or a unique service, you had better grab the best Web name fast. Just think how much money you could make if you owned the domain name for www. cars .com or www.computers.com! By registering your unique domain name, such as www.LAwidgets.com, you grab a prime piece of cyber real estate that your company or organization can use to do business. The Web is like an old-fashioned land-rush, so grab your wagon and claim your homestead before someone else does!

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Pitfalls

Just as companies have made money on the Web, companies have lost money because they have not considered some of the following pitfalls:

If you do not understand the basics of Web page design, developers of Web pages might charge you a great deal of money to do something that is inefficient or obsolete. If you do not have a plan in place and direct knowledge of your expected costs, you could run into sticker shock when you get the bill for your Web page.
You are opening up your organization's information to the world. When you are putting information on the Web, ask yourself this, "Would I mind if I saw this information on the cover of the New York Times tomorrow?" If your answer is yes, reconsider using the information. Remember, putting information on the Web is publishing, just like a book or movie. Everything you say on the Web is being addressed to a world audience.
In many cases, a company will pay an ISP (Internet service provider) to physically house your Web page on his machine. In this case, most of the security issues (not all) fall into your provider's lap. If you are using one of your organization's computers as the server for your domain name, however, suddenly you are giving the world the location of your computer and letting them use it. Be sure to have a security plan in place, a security audit, and any sensitive corporate data on a different physical machine than your Web server. Be sure to learn about and invest in firewalls if you want to link your Web server to any other computers that you own.
An inverse law to what I said in the previous section is that if your Web site is boring, slow, or doesn't work correctly, you will have negative advertising for your organization or business. What if you logged in to a Web site at www.fast-server.com to buy a fast Web server and it was a painfully slow site? You might reconsider your purchase. This isn't to say that a few modest HTML screens are not sufficient when you first register your URL, but take care in what you put up there; it is your corporate image.

HTML

Welcome to the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). HTML is a set of markers that you can put around text and graphics to create a Web page and link your humble page with any other URL in the world. Soon HTML editors will take the place of manual HTML, but the language is still important to know so one will not become dependent on these new editors.

The Basics

HTML's primary purpose is to create a common way of marking up documents so they can be accessed by anyone on the World Wide Web or anyone using a browser on an isolated