Some organizations find that after paying a professional to build their websites, the sites go stale for lack of competent editors and content providers. TeleDavis addresses this problem by conducting Web literacy workshops.  TeleDavis also helps organizations to set up websites that are inexpensive, technologically simple, and therefore, easy to maintain.

One very easy way to maintain a website is with Google Apps. 

Google will register your domain (the letters and suffix that come after the http://www, such as teledavis.com) for just $10 a year!  Most website hosts charge at least $5/month.  Google Apps gives you lots of other benefits, like email addresses for you and your staff, an online tool for doing word processing and spreadsheet work, and a program for designing and running slide presentations, plus server space for storing all these documents.  All this is free! Some of my clients need help getting their Google Apps sites up and running.  Then I teach them how to use the page templates, and they're able to manage the site from then on.   Career Insights for Teens, is an example of a TeleDavis site using Google Apps.

Another model for an easy-to-edit and inexpensive website incorporates two tools:  a what-you-see-is-what-you-get web page editor, and a wiki.  The website of New Castle Presbytery, a TeleDavis client, uses this approach.

Heres how it works:  An attractive welcoming page is constructed with a free, easy-to-use web page editor, NVU.  This program, which runs on Windows, Macintosh, and Linux operating systems, is an excellent tool for keeping that page up-to-date.  Most of the website, though, resides on a wiki, an easily edited website that fosters collaboration among users.  Particularly if you have a website with new data to post almost every day the wiki is a good choice, because the tedious job of posting can be spread among a team of people.  (You are visiting a wiki right now.)  You don't have to know web page coding to edit a wiki page.  Wiki editing tools resemble those in word processing programs, like Microsoft Word. 

Try editing a page on this wiki by clicking on the "Sandbox" link in the Sidebar of this wiki.  You will first need to request the password. When you see how easy it is to edit a wiki, you might want to open one for yourself or your organization at PbWiki.

TeleDavis promotes free, open source software in all of its design.  Recognizing that the cost of software often prohibits "the rest of us" from getting very involved in digital communication, TeleDavis educates users about applications and Web services that are in large part free. (See the articles in the Be Web wise section of this wiki and the new Teledavis media literacy blog, CyberKen).

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