[Ham-Mac] How to publish on the Web

[Chuck Counselman]

1. In the sixth paragraph of this message, I ask how to publish ham-radio-related material by means of a Mac.  To answer this question, it may help you to know more about what I'm trying to accomplish, and why.  My second through fifth paragraphs provide such background information.  Thank you for 

2. During my career as a professor at a research university (MIT) I generated thousands of scientific/engineering/technical reports that were published by scientific/engineering professional societies in their journals, proceedings of symposia, etc., and as government contract reports.  This publishing was easy because I had only to compose and edit the subject material; the rest was done by clerical, technical, engineering, and/or scientific staff.

3. Now I'm retired; my research and development efforts are limited to ham radio; but I still generate material that needs to be published -- not to satisfy an employer, a contract sponsor, or my vanity, but because I cannot cope with all the requests for information that I receive by e-mail.  For _years_ after I contribute a little two-page article to a ham club newsletter (which is appears on the club's website), I receive daily requests for more information.  Mostly these are reasonable requests; so I try hard to answer; but composing an adequate reply to each request, including finding the relevant files [photographs, drawings, tables and graphs of data, formulas/functions, and text in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) documents and files having various other formats, including audio, video, .txt, .rtf, and .pdf], the URLs of external references/sources, ..., making the necessary updates, adding the necessary preface/caveats/summary/conclusions, and including everything in or attaching it to an e-mailed reply, takes too much time.  Often the quantity of data is more than my correspondent's incoming e-mail server will accept, so I must pack everything into a .zip file and upload that to a server from which he/she can download it.  Then, more often than not, my reply results in _further_ questions.  I am overwhelmed; I cannot answer all the questions I receive, not even the ones I _want_ to answer.

4. The obvious solution is to organize and upload my photographs, tables and graphs of data, descriptions, URLs of external sources, ..., to add the necessary prefaces, caveats, summaries, conclusions, FAQs, etc., and to update everything if/as necessary, to a website.  Then most of the questions I received could be answered adequately by referring people to the website.  When a new question and/or answer arose, instead of or in addition to replying only by e-mail, I would compose something and upload it the website as a new document, and/or by incorporating it in a FAQ or other existing preface/caveat/summary/conclusory document as a revision/update.

5. The Internet service companies that provide me with e-mail service also provide me with web space, and with their proprietary web-publishing tools.  However, all these tools are Windows-based.  I am reluctant to use these tools for at least three reasons: (1) because I prefer to use a Mac; (2) because I fear not being able to revise or maintain the resulting web pages if/when I switch to another web service provider, because the html generated by the former provider's proprietary software is incompatible with the new provider's software; and (3) because I fear that the resulting web pages won't work properly for other Mac users.  Too many web pages composed by colleagues using Windows-based tools do not work properly when I try to view them by means of Safari or Firefox running in my Mac.  


6. My QUESTION is:

    How can I publish my stuff (described above) on the Web, by means of Mac OS X software?

    I envision generating pages as html files and uploading these along with my numerous Microsoft Office, audio, video, .pdf, and other files to a Web server maintained by a company that also hosts my registered domain.  I want my web pages to be portable, if/when I change providers/hosting companies.  At present my provider/hosting company is Network Solutions.  However, Network Solutions' service has deteriorated -- just as the service provided by every one of my several previous providers deteriorated.  So, when my contract with Network Solutions nears expiration, I'll want to move to another provider -- just as I've moved before.

    I have searched both for Macintosh web-publishing app's and for service providers, several times; but I have yet to find a satisfactory solution, I think mostly because I am not a software guy.  I know next to nothing about web publishing, and I'm reluctant to try to learn much about it, because I have neither time nor interest in the topic.  I just wanna get my stuff on the web.  I don't care whether my web pages look beautiful or creative, as long as they're easily navigable, they _work_, and I can easily maintain them.

    I know that I could use a "blog," e.g., by means of Wordpress, but a blog seems like the wrong format.  I don't want a time-serial presentation.  I don't want a diary or a chronology.  I want a logical, hierarchical, organization.  I want to organize my web pages by topic, and I want to cross-link them.  I want my web pages to be easy to navigate.  I want them easily _searchable_; and I want the search engine to be smart.  

    I believe that I could do something with a ham website such as qth.com, but I fear that these free or cheap services are too limited in storage space and in speed.  I'm willing to pay for better service.

    Should I just hire someone to do my web-publishing, as I suspect most _businesses_ do?  I fear that hiring someone would cost too much, but I have never done it and I don't know.  If any of you has experience with a hired publisher, please describe your experience(s) and what it has cost or is costing you.  Remember that I am not looking for creativity or artwork.  My needs are pretty basic and utilitarian.  Also, I want to be able to revise and add to my pages without having to deal with another person every time I want to correct a typo or update a link.


7. Thank you.  Feel free to reply to me off-list, although I like it when subscribers reply to the list, because then everyone can learn from the information they post.


73 de Chuck, W1HIS