North Dallas Neighborhood Alliance

version 00 North Dallas Neighborhood Alliance Annual Meeting – January 30, 2008

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North Dallas Neighborhood Alliance

The World Wide Web

Ross SimmonsOnre’ Productions, Inc.

[email protected]

972-985-8005


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Agenda

• The World Wide Web (www)

– What is it?

– Web Site Development• Tools• Publishing

– The North Dallas Neighborhood Alliance Web Site• What does it really look like?

– Questions?


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World Wide Web (www)What is it?

• World Wide Web began as a networked information project at CERN(European Organization for Nuclear Research)

• Further Development was funded by Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA)/ Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

• Communication– DoD Research Programs

• First used just text for communication• Ability to share images then added followed by video and animation

– For Example: GIF, JPEG, WMV, PDF, Flash, Silverlight• Rapidly exploded into use outside the research community

– The Web has a body of software, and a set of protocols and conventions. Through the use hypertext and multimedia techniques, the web is easy for anyone to roam, browse, and contribute to.

“…the universe of network-accessible information, the embodiment of human knowledge.”


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World Wide Web (www)What is it?

• Before the WWW, researchers had to have one of a number of different terminals connected to a number of different computers, and had to learn a number of different programs to access and share data.

• The WWW principle of universal readership is that once information is available, it should be accessible from any type of computer, in any country, and an (authorized) person should only have to use one simple program to access it.– This is now the case.

• In practice the web hangs on a number of essential concepts. Though not the most important, the most famous if that of hypertext


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Hypertext

• The WWW uses hypertext as the method of presentation• Hypertext is text with links

– Links can lead from all or part of a document to all or part of another document.

– Documents need not be text: they can be graphics, movies and sound

• To allow the web to scale, it was designed without any centralized facility.

• Anyone can publish information, and anyone can read it. – There is no central control.

• To make data available you run a server, and to read data you run a client. – All the clients and all the servers are connected to each other by

the Internet. • The WWW protocols and other standard protocols allow

all clients to communicate with all servers.


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WWW Protocols

• There are a number of common practices which allow all clients and servers to communicate.

• URLs (Uniform Resource Locators)– Behind every hypertext link there is the network-wide address of the

document or web site to which it refers. http://www.ndna-tx.org/

• HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol )– This protocol includes a number of facilities which were needed:

• it is fast, stateless and extensible. • It also allows the web to surmount the problems of different data types

• HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)– Although WWW uses many different formats, this is one basic format

which every W3 client understands.– It is a simple document type allowing structured text with links. – HTML describes the logical structure of the document instead of its

formatting. This allows it to be displayed on different platforms using different fonts and conventions.


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Web Site DevelopmentTools

• There are a number of “tools” published by a number of software companies that can be used to write the HTML needed to create a Web Site– The 1st being a simple editor such as “Notepad”

• Fortunately, as the WWW progressed it became easier and easier to write the necessary HTML through specialized software applications, or “tools”

• For today’s discussion we will focus on “Expression Web”and “Visual Studio” by Microsoft


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Expression Web

• Expression Web is the most recent web development tool by Microsoft

• A follow-on to Microsoft’s “FrontPage”


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Web Site Development

• Using Expression Web


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Visual Studio

• The Microsoft Visual Studio development system is a suite of development tools designed to aid software developers in creating innovative, dynamic, data-driven web sites


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Web Site Development

• Using Visual Studio and Visual Basic.NET Programming Language


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Web Site DevelopmentPublishing

• Using Expression Web


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The North Dallas Neighborhood Alliance Web Site

• What does it really look like?– Previous Web Site

• Based on early web technology• A Marketing Site that established an NDNA presence on the World

Wide Web with public web pages• No interactivity, very little dynamic content, limited functionality• Information available 24/7

– New NDNA Web Site• New web technology allows for the following dynamic functionality:

– Additional functionality on the public web pages– NDNA-tx.org Email– Members Only Web Site– Board of Directors Web Site– Web Site Statistics


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Members Only Web Site

• Membership Registration/Membership Drive • Association Information• Officers and HOA location via NDNA Member Map• Planning and Zoning (NDNA – Zoning)• Compliance Information (NDNA - Code Enforcement/Beautification)

– Dallas City Code– Deed Restrictions– Enforcement

• Crime Watch (NDNA – Safety/Traffic/Transportation)– A repository of data for all HOAs to use and also for an NDNA level email alerting system for

criminal activity in North Dallas. – a cheerleader for the Crime Watch activities by all of the associations.

• VIP (NDNA – Safety/Traffic/Transportation)– A repository of data for all HOAs to use – NDNA level email alerting system for VIP information to VIP Chairs– To Come - Separate registration and email distribution system for use by NDNA HOA VIP

members• Chat Area (NDNA – Public Relations)

– Questions & answers by any member on various content areas & an “Other Area”• An expanded section on the City of Dallas and links to the various services and any

helpful notes on getting things done• NDNA Member Referrals


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Registration Page

• What does it really look like?

HTML and .NET Code

Visual Basic.NET Code Behind the

page

Visual Studio

On the WWW

Internet Explorer


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Board of Directors Web Site

• Membership– Management, approval, and administration

• New “Contact Us” functionality– Contact Us Form that allows any one to contact any member of the

Board forwarded via email and stored in the database with cc copies as required

– Contact Us Comments database storage allows for comment retrieval and management

• Email alerting system for NDNA, Crime Watch, and VIP email alerts, – Email Alerts from Board Members

• Online storage of Meeting Minutes, Board Minutes, Charter, and other important documents

• Reports – Created from information gathered during registration or poll questions

• Web Site Statistics


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NDNA Web Site

• Demo– NDNA Map (if www

connection available)– Members Only Home


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Questions?


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NDNA Web Site

• If you have content applicable to other HOAs, please send to me at:

[email protected], or [email protected],

phone 972-985-8005