WWW development services

The availability/accessibility of information – specifically, its meaning – is of primary importance; intent/content should remain accessible to as wide a range of software/devices/people as possible.

technique

simple & powerful
I apply much attention to make things which are at once simple and potent; to be sure that simplicity does not prohibit potential/possibility, and that possibility does not corrupt/obscure simplicity.
rich & rigorous
I employ tools/resources which enable the provision of rich features, yet when the necessary resources for such features are unavailable or otherwise broken, there is minimal impact on the user. This graceful degradation is due to the redundancy/failsafe/fallback technique intrinsic in my design.
management & editing interface
Most websites must of course change over time. However, it may be impractical/expensive/troublesome for such ongoing changes to be dependent upon the original developer. It is also impractical to expect everyone to learn to write/modify/understand the necessary code; therefore, I provide an interface which enables users to manage/edit content directly, from any web browser, using a simple/intuitive/natural format.
language
Integrated support for multiple languages.
optimisation
Increasingly, WWW content is dynamically generated. This means that the server must compute the pages before they are sent, and depending upon the complexity of those pages, this computation may cause problems (such as overloading the server, impeding page delivery, &c.). I employ many techniques for optimising dynamic processes, to minimise server load and to be sure page delivery/display remains as fast as possible.
search engine indexing
With knowledge, both of the indexing methods used by search engines, and of the duplicitous trickery used by those seeking to artificially improve search result ranking, I design pages which are efficiently indexed while remaining invulnerable to penalty for bad practice.
e-mail address protection
The increasing problem of spam is in part due to the ease with which e-mail addresses may be «harvested» from the WWW. Just like the programs (often called spiders/crawlers/bots) used by search engines to index the WWW, spammers use similar programs to collect e-mail addresses. I developed my own solution which is transparent to the user (you can still click on the address to open a new message, yet it remains invisible to the harvesters).
obsolete URL resolution
Bookmarks/URLs should remain associated with the resources which they address, but that association is broken when the resource location changes. If a resource/file has been moved, such that its URL has changed but the filename remains the same, it will be automatically found and displayed without error/interruption as if the old URL were correct. If multiple files exist, a list of links is displayed to choose from.
fluid layout
Many websites are of fixed width. This imposes unnecessary limits upon users, who may wish to vary the width of their viewport/window. I employ technique, when appropriate, which enables content to adjust dynamically to the width of the window (as can be seen on these pages).
custom error pages
Instead of the generic and unfriendly default error pages, errors are displayed in a styled page with more helpful language and other features, like this.
MS Internet Explorer
Although it remains the most ubiquitous browser, Internet Explorer has terrible problems: It is severely broken and it does not work well with existing standards. Great effort is required to support it while remaining standards-compliant (supporting other browsers/software); I have invested much time and effort in understanding its bugs and how to work around them.
standards-compliance
I work within existing standards, specified by the W3C, and others. The benefits of such compliance may not always be overtly obvious, yet it returns many useful advantages, especially for accessibility and in coping with the unknown and inevitable challenges of the future.
security
Although I believe security is related more to psychology – a state of mind/being – than to dogs and fences, I do understand the ramification of risk, and I do indeed practise prudent (perhaps even profuse) precaution.

examples

pending release

zotmog

Growing from my ongoing engagement in WWW development, I created and continue to evolve a system of modular components which may be modified/adapted to serve a diversity of applications. This system, which I call «zotmog», embodies the technique listed above, and specifically, includes a simple and powerful content management interface.

demonstration

You’re welcome to contact me for a guided tour of zotmog.

hosting & technical management

I also provide services related to WWW hosting and technical management (domains, mail servers, &c.). I can create/prepare/manage an account on your behalf as requested (you pay and communicate with the host directly, and pay me for consulting), or I can act as an intermediary (you pay and communicate with me, and I manage all the technical details).

communication

help!