As the official webmaster for the University of Michigan, you would think that I would have an opinion about the web. I don't. There are a lot of things that I do to keep things humming along nicely here, but for the most part, I don't have a general opinion about the web. When done well, the web can be an extremely rewarding medium to both work with, and to use. Done badly, it can be almost painful. Like many other media, the web can be wonderful, it can be painful, it can be disgusting, and it can be uplifting. Creation of quality pages on the web can be a time-consuming and difficult job. Not because it's hard to put a web page up, but because it's hard to do it well. I make no pretense of being able to do it all well, as I know many people who handle the design, layout, and graphical aspects of the web far better than I do, but I do have a good handle on many of the technical aspects, and generate a few hits myself.

At any rate, the web isn't about links nearly as much as it is about content. But, the foundations have to be laid before you can generate quality content that people will want to see. There are a few places out there to use to get a good foundation in what's going on. For example, The University of Michigan Web FAQ List is a good place to start if you're from around here. If you're not, it is still a reasonable place to begin, though a little less applicable. Other places that excel at giving a background in web design are ZDnet's Power Web Page Building starter kit, and Design-O-Rama from GlassDog. Lynda Weinman has a good site about making portable websites, so much so that I've mirrored her browser colors section because her connection has often been slow. I've also set up my own HTML entities page, because I've never seen one that is any good.

The best way to get an idea of how to put content across, however, is to look at pages that are done well. Erin Darling has a very nice web page, which is modelled (to some extent) after Magdalena Donea's. Some of the best examples of bad design are at Vincent Flander's Web Pages That Suck.

Like many other people, I too have a collection of links that I use regularly, and you're welcome to browse them. I also have a large collection of backgrounds and icons that you're welcome to use in your own pages. I believe all of them to be freeware, but as many of the backgrounds and icons are gleaned from various places, please don't assume that they are free. I will remove any images if I am told they violate a copyright. For some reason I have a pictures page that is oddly popular. Considering that it doesn't have any nudity at all, I don't know why that is, but I don't explain the web, it just pays my salary.