Welcome to the web site for Producing for Web 2.0, A Student Guide. This site will include samples and code from the book, as well as information on new developments in web production and design. Here you will also find links to helpful resources and advice on creating and running your own web site.
In the last seven years, online production has changed dramatically. Blogs, while not entirely new in 2002, were much rarer, while many of the most popular sites on the web today, such as Wikipedia, Facebook and YouTube, did not exist or had only just been founded. Even Google, the most successful of the 'new' new media companies, was little more than a search engine.
The skills required for web production are wide-ranging, including: a solid understanding of coding basics for XHTML and CSS, as well as other programming and scripting languages and database design; familiarity with a number of multimedia editing tools and formats; and to be an expert writer. The list sounds formidable (and the ideal producer is a mythical renaissance man or woman), but in practice successful sites will divide up skills between different people. What is more, many of the platforms covered in Producing for Web 2.0, from blogs through to wikis and content management systems, make it easier than ever before to get material online.
