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The Real World of Website Requirements

Do you want to talk to me about developing a website? Here's what I need in a nutshell.

A website is part of the Internet. The Internet is a tool for electronic communications. That's all it is. Really. Everything else is just about how it does that, which is also important.

So before we talk about anything else, the most important things are:

1. What is the content you are communicating? i.e. what are you saying?
2. Who are you communicating with? i.e. who is the intended audience and are there privacy issues with this content?
3. Who is the author, authority, source, etc. of the content? i.e. who's responsible for the content, who's going to write it, who's going to change it.

If you start the conversation about modules, how it looks, iframes, menus, or anything else, I will always get back to these questions, so do us both a favour and think about these first, write them down and email them to me.

If you're wondering about the title of this post, you'll want to see this:

http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/massey-archives/1989/11/07/1989-massey-lectures-the-real-world-of-technology/

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