How to prepare to interview your Web design client

Web Client Interview Form

In the last 5-6 years many file access solutions have emerged, all requiring some sort of uploads and downloads. I have tried several and given up on them due to their cumbersome nature. Recently, I tried one of the new services recommended by several magazine articles and Web sites: Dropbox.com. I am writing this post to recommend this service to my colleagues and students. It is totally automated and works like magic.

You may have received an invitation from me to join Dropbox. But even without an invitation, point your browser to Dropbox to see how simple this can be.

1. Click on the big blue button that says “Download Dropbox”. It will initiate the download.
2. When it is complete, double click on the downloaded file to start the installation
3. Accept all the default settings it suggest, they can be changed later if you like
4. When the window comes asking whether you have a Dropbox account or not, choose the one that says you do not have an account
5. Enter your information
6. You may skip the brief explanation that requires going through several windows by clicking the appropriate button
7. You now have 2GB of storage totally free of charge on Dropbox

The installation creates a Dropbox folder on your desktop, which is the magic portal through which full synchronization happens.  You can create new folders there, load them up with files, they will magically appear on your Dropbox account which you can access wherever there is a Web browser. Now, you can go to the Dropbox Web site, login and you will see the contents of your local Dropbox folder. But, wait! There’s more!

On your second (or third, or fourth,… ) computer, say your office computer, and your laptop, go through the steps 1-3 above. When you come to step 4, choose the option that you have a Dropbox account and enter your e-mail and password. Dropbox will install on that computer, create the same Dropbox folder on the desktop (or wherever you decided to put it) and to your total amazement will make the files you put in your Dropbox at home appear in your Dropbox on your office computer. You can repeat this on other computers you use with the same automatic synchronization feature, in all directions. DO NOT INSTALL DROPBOX ON PUBLIC COMPUTERS WITH YOUR LOGIN CREDENTIALS. That will give access to  your files to anyone sitting at that computer. Instead, access your files using a Web browser on those public computers, in the lab, at a friends house, at a cafeteria, …

Now, are you satisfied? But, wait there’s more!

Say you are collaborating on a project, be it a group project in a class or collaboration on a paper with a colleague, or you simply want to show some photographs you have taken during the spring break with your family. (What? You do not want them to see those photos? Why? Oh, well, never mind.) Create a folder in your Dropbox for sharing with one or many people. Put some files there. Then share this folder on the Dropbox Web site. You will see the menu tab for this purpose which simply requires that you choose the folder to share and enter the e-mail addresses of the people who should see the contents of this folder. That simple. Your friends will receive your invitation to access the shared folder (you can have multiple shared folder for different group of individuals) and arrive at the Dropbox Web site. If they do not have a Dropbox account, they can create on on the spot, or use their login credentials to login to their Dropbox account and accept your invitation to view the folder contents you shared.

I suggest that you go in small steps and get comfortable with the software and the service. It works with remarkable ease and the storage space they give you free of charge is rather generous. You can almost use it for off site backup purposes.

Now, you can stop worrying that you left your USB drive at home. Your files are at your fingertips, wherever you are.

Note: I have found out after posting this message that anyone who registers at Dropbox from the links on this page will add more capacity to my account. Feel free to start your account and share your link with your group members so that you get more capacity if you need it.

Watch the following video about Qualtrics survey software, then follow the instructions in another post to get yourself an account at Qualtrics. Once your account is activated, you will find many more useful, helpful, informative tutorial video programs on different parts of the software. Although there will be a general introduction to using Qualtrics in class, you need to work with it, experience how it works, and become sufficiently comfortable with it before you need to use it for your projects. If you try to learn it when you need to use it, you will find that to be far less efficient and effective in carrying out your responsibilities.

CEO of Qualtrics speaks on the software

Edit Survey Tab

My Surveys Tab in Qualtrics

Are you looking for instructions on how to create your own account on Qualtrics? Here they are.

1. Point your browser to the Providence College master account on the Qualtrics site:
   http://www.qualtrics.com/providence
2. You will see a link to create your account (see below), click on that link and follow the instructions. It is important that you use your Providence College e-mail address to have an account with full access to all the features of Qualtrics
   
3. Once you log in with your account, visit “Help and Tutorials” menu option at the top of the page. You will find many useful tutorials. I suggest that you start with “Create a Survey and My Surveys” group to get familiar with the software.
4. Additionally, you will find other types of help, tutorials, helpful documents in the area they call “Qualtrics University”. Explore them all.
5. Go ahead and create a sample survey with a few questions, try different question types, use available scales, etc.

Remember, you are learning something new which may feel awkward at first, like when you learned how to ride a bike. As you use the software you will learn its working paradigm and become more comfortable with its myriad of features. The idea is not to use them all, but to be able to choose what tools to use. A huge tool box is useless if you are trying to drive a nail to the wall and you cannot find the hammer; worse yet, you do not recognize the hammer!

Have fun (indeed many students find the survey creation part of this course to be fun; believe it, or not!)

Turkish American Cultural Society of RI

Atlantic RI (GoFaucet.com) on its own domain

International Business Development Association (IMDA) (visible soon)

St. Pierre’s Shoes (visible soon)

One of these sites has already gone live under its own domain and the others will be ported to their respective domains soon. Congratulations to all for a job well done, I am proud of your work and so should you be.

I hope all is going well.  I was a student in your class back in 2004 (Marketing on the Internet).  I went through the motions of the course but didn’t really fully understand or apply the course to the real world.  I didn’t have ambition and lacked motivation.  This was a huge mistake on my part.  The major project of the course was to create a website for an established business.  Our group chose my father’s company – JJ’s Appliance Repair.  We constructed a very well made website but I never registered the website or secured an address for it and the computer I used in College is no longer.

I was wondering if you still had this site saved in the Providence College database, or have a draft of it saved in your files.  If you do not have this I plan to create a website from scratch for my father’s business.  I realize now that the Internet is an integral piece of marketing/advertising your business properly and am seeking to help my father achieve this goal for his business.  I need to make up for what I already had at my fingertips.

Please let me know if you can help.

Sincerely,

Joe Student

To which I replied:

I remember you and your father’s business being your project. Good to hear from you, I hope everything is going your way. It is also interesting to hear your hind-sight take on the course. If you do not mind, I would like to share your message with my students this semester, I will suppress your name.

I do not have a copy of your Web site. However, in those days you kept your projects on the StudentWeb server and with some amount of luck you may be able to find it. First, remember whether it was saved under your account or one of your team mates’ account. Then check the studentweb.providence.edu to see if it is still there. It may not be. Then, you may contact the administrator of StudentWeb and see if they have a backup copy that they can resurrect. If none of this works, then you are back on square one.

Starting this semester, I am teaching the course using a freely available blog/CMS (content management system) software called WordPress ( www.wordpress.org ). I suggest that you look into that. It will make your life significantly simpler. My academic and photography Web sites both run on WordPress platform. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of “themes” that allow you to give the look you want and the content is very easy to update. Take a look at my syllabus for MOTI and read the blog section for a couple of entries on WordPress that I posted for my students. There are a couple of recommended books which you may find helpful. If you decide to take on this and try WordPress and occasionally stumble, write to me and I will try to help you out; I still have a chance to make you learn the material, better late than never!

Take care and keep in touch.

Cemal Ekin

A little after sending the above message, I heard from “Joe” who enthusiastically told me to share this story and added:

You can definitely share my message with your students. Out of embarrassment for myself please do suppress my name. I was very naïve in college and definitely took some of my courses and studies for granted. I am doing very well …
…
<snip some text>
…
Here is another story if you would like to use it:

I distinctly remember arguing with you about my grade at the end of the year – I think I received a C or C– or something. I completed all of the coursework and our team received a really good grade on the website and presentation. If you took into account the projects and coursework that I completed and calculated it based strictly on my grades I probably should have ended up with a strong B if not an A-. I was pretty upset to see that I had been given such a low grade. Looking back now, I think the C was gratuitous because you probably should have failed me for being stupid enough not to take the final/easiest step of getting the website on the Internet and taking advantage of the online platform for my father’s business. Looking back on my College career, all I cared about was the grade and not so much learning and understanding the work behind the grade. I guess it’s never too late – I am sure you will be hearing from me about Wordpress. Thanks again.

Sincerely,

Joe

I am grateful that “Joe” wrote to me and gave me an opportunity to share his experiences during and after his college years.

Thank you Joe.

Here is the list:

• Firefox, the latest version, get it from its source
• Must-have Firefox add-ons
  • FireBug, excellent debugging tool for HTML and CSS
  • HTML Validator, it will show all the errors on any page you may be viewing, including yours of course
  • ColorZilla to pick colors from anywhere on the screen, it will provide the HEX code for the color
  • MeasureIt, helps determine the pixel sizes of screen elements and areas
• Useful Firefox add-ons
  • Screen Grab, it will capture the entire screen or the entire document, including the parts that are below the viewport, and save it as an image
  • IE Tab, will run Internet Explorer engine in a Firefox window or tab; useful for quickly looking at a page for IE rendering.
  • ZOTERO, it will make keeping a record of your bibliography notes very easy, along with auto insertion of citations in proper format and automatic creation of bibliographies; this is installed on college lab computers but you may enjoy it more on your own computer (Go to their site after installing it and follow the directions for MS Word Integration)
• Other software
  • Notepad++, a very good all purpose text editor with HTML and CSS savvy
  • FastStone Image Viewer, a very good image viewer and quick editor; it can resize and make simple adjustments
  • TopStyle Lite, an able CSS editor; look for it at the bottom of the page you will visit when you follow the link
  • FileZilla, an FTP client (download the “client” version not the “server”)
  • ZipGenius, needed to extract the contents of ZIP files
  • UltraExplorer, a Windows Explorer replacement for file management; a bit “geeky” but very capable software
  • Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2, 30-day trial version. A photo editing software from one of the veterans in the industry.

You may bring your laptop computer to class if you like, I will use most of these from my notebook computer and show you what they do. They will make your Web development efforts easier, smoother, and less painful (yes! it can be painful!)

1. Login to your domain control panel. You need to point your browser to:

   https://yourdomain.ext:8443

   Not the “s” at the end of http and the trailing :8443

2. You may receive a warning about the certificate not matching the site, ignore that and continue to the site
3. For login ID enter your full domain name, for password use the password I sent to you when I set up your hosting account. You will find yourself at the domain “desktop”
4. Click on “Home” on top of the left column, this will take you to the actual control panel. You should see the following (click to enlarge)
   
5. You need to create a MySQL database, so click on the “Databases” icon, then on the following screen “Add new database”
6. The system will suggest a DB name, enter your own, don’t make it too short; write down the name that you chose on a piece of paper, you will need that. Make sure that you select from the drop down menu MySQL for the type. Then click on OK to create the DB
7. Now you need to add a DB user for this database with a password. Click on “Add New Database User”. You will need to enter the DB user name and password. Make sure they are not easy to guess or too short, you will not need to remember them after the installation. Enter the values into the fields and write them down as you will need them
8. Now, go to http://www.wordpress.org and download the application, it most recent version is 2.7 and you will see a link to download it on the front page. Save the file to a known location on your local computer
9. Using a ZIP utility, like WinZIP or ZIP Genius, extract the contents of the ZIP file making sure that you create the embedded directory names and contents
10. Locate the wp-config.php file and edit it to reflect the DB name, DB user name, and DB password. There are a couple of other fields that ask you to enter an arbitrary phrase; don’t overlook them.
11. Using your FTP client, login to your hosting account, change to httpdocs directory, and create a new directory called blog which will be the location of your WordPress installation. Note that there are no uppercase letters in the directory name.
12. After creating the directory, double click on its name to open it; then upload the contents of the WordPress extracted files into it
13. You are almost done, now point your browser to:
    http://www.yourdomain.ext/blog/wp-admin/install.php  and you will see the following screen:
    
14. Enter a blog name, you can change it later, and enter a working email address. Click on Install WordPress.
15. WordPress will complete the installation and give you a very cryptic password. Select the password (double-click on it with your mouse) and copy it (Ctrl-C)
16. Click on “Login” and enter admin for user name, paste the password you copied and login. Do not put a check mark in “Remember …”
17. As soon as you login, click on the admin name on the top right corner to edit user information. Scroll down to the end of the page to see “New Password fields, you will need to enter it twice. Enter a password you will remember. Click on Update Profile button
18. Look for the Users on the tool bar on the left, click on it to expand its menu choices. Click on Add New and add a new user. Set this user’s role to “Administrator” as well. You may do the same for all the group members. Make sure you have a division of labor and do not perform the same maintenance functions at the same time.
19. Congratulations, you now have a working WordPress installation

We will then tweak it to do more than the basic installation provides.

Presentation made on April 22, 2003
Yeditepe University Graduate Colloquium
Istanbul, Turkey

A. Cemal Ekin

We are all social scientists studying social phenomena that affect the business world in one way or another. I would like to explore a few critical and related terms we use both in our scientific endeavors as well as in our daily lives. After the presentation, I do not expect you to know more than you already do but I do hope that you will have more nagging questions that seek answers in your mind. After all, science is all about finding answers to questions.

Science, in a very general sense, is the sum total of our efforts to understand the world around us. Since the humankind looked at the sky and saw things that inspired awe, our curiosity to know more about our world, our universe and our selves never stopped. As a result, we have accumulated an enormous amount of knowledge yet what we yearn to know is even greater than what we already know.

Science uses reasoning, both deductive and inductive. Deductive reasoning typically starts with a statement about the general nature of things and proceeds to arrive at a conclusion about something specific. Inductive reasoning, on the other hand, starts with many observations and attempts to arrive at a generalization. Deductive reasoning is a more robust method of reasoning but not always applicable to social sciences. In deductive reasoning, if the premise and the following statements are true, then the conclusion must be true. In social sciences, however, we typically do not know how things generally are and resort to using inductive reasoning. If I see many drivers on the streets of Istanbul who drive recklessly, then I may conclude that drivers in Istanbul do not obey the traffic rules. Clearly, this will not be true for all drivers who take to the streets in Istanbul. This approach to reasoning is inductive reasoning and is not as robust as the deductive method since our inductive conclusions are “probably true.”

As humankind showed interest in diverse things as the stars, numbers, making fire, eating herbs to get well, and so on, certain logical thinking patterns evolved into different branches of science that we take for granted today as astronomy, physics, and medicine. Together with these so called “hard sciences” we have also sought to know more about societies, about people, about how they create and acquire value, and these gave us sociology, psychology, and economics that we call “soft sciences.” Regardless of whether it is hard or soft, easy or difficult, all branches of science share some common traits mainly on their philosophy of studying what they study. They share a common methodological foundation called the “Scientific Method.”

Scientific Method

Scientific method is not a tool chest that contains a bunch of tools that we grab to do our work. Rather, it is a philosophy of studying things and its tenets are shared by all branches of science, it is a method of thinking. We use the term to distinguish what we do in scientific research from the coffeehouse discussions which are largely nonscientific. What makes an approach scientific is not the people who use it but whether the people adhere to some rigorous standards in their pursuit of knowledge and truth, concepts that we will shortly visit. We seek five fundamental principles in our research if we want them to be considered scientific:

• Objectivity (another term we will visit): Science seeks truth (another term that needs to be explored) rather than to prove a particular conclusion.
• Systematicity: Scientific studies approach their subjects systematically so that logical conclusions can be drawn and other phenomena, like relations, can be studied.
• Reliability: The methods used must yield similar results (not necessarily identical) under similar conditions when studies are repeated. Replicability is essential in scientific inquiries.
• Comprehensiveness: The necessary elements, variables must be included and unrelated ones must be excluded.
• Precision: The statements, hypothetical or otherwise, must be precise so that logic can be applied to them.

In other words,

• we see certain things happening,
• we ask why they may be happening,
• we offer answers,
• we ask if our answer is true what else must also be true,
• we conduct tests to prove or disprove our statements.

In all this, we must understand and accept the fact that we are merely proving that our statements “seem to be true” for truth is an elusive concept and what we prove to be “true” today may very well be absurd in the future. As we seek the truth we must accept this as a matter of fact since knowledge, based upon which we make our assertions, is not a static concept, and “truth” is not as well defined as we think. Trying to understand the meaning of “truth” and “reality,” which are two fundamental concepts in science, is like trying to grab a handful of Jell-O. The tighter we hold the more it oozes out.

Truth

In English the word “truth” can be spelled with a lower-case “t” or a capital-letter “T” with different meanings. The capital-letter spelling, “Truth,” refers to the supreme reality and the ultimate meaning of existence. In this form, the word and its meaning is based primarily on belief and often dogma, like the belief in a supreme creator, God. Some consider themselves to have found the “Truth” and others may argue that their “Truth” is a better one. It is not possible to reconcile this sort of differences using reasoning since their foundations are rooted outside logic and reason. Our concern is not with this supreme truth since with our meager minds we cannot pretend to understand such supreme things. Rather, we are concerned with the truth with a lower-case t that deals with something with which we can work.

The American Heritage Dictionary of English Language defines truth as: (Atomica, April 21, 2003)

truth (truth)
n., pl. truths (truTHz, truths).

1. Conformity to fact or actuality.
2. A statement proven to be or accepted as true.
3. Sincerity; integrity.
4. Fidelity to an original or standard.
5. 1. Reality; actuality.
   2. often Truth. That which is considered to be the supreme reality and to have the ultimate meaning and value of existence.

The definition is laden with other slippery words like “actuality,” “fact,” and “reality” which are accomplices in this conspiracy to hide the meaning of “truth.” For the sake of brevity, I will follow one of the definitions given above, “reality” which is implicit in the other definitions as well. But, what is “reality?”

Reality

Reality is a state of thing which we may or may not perceive correctly. The same dictionary defines the word as: (Atomica, April 21, 2003)

re·al·i·ty (re-al‘i-te)
n., pl. -ties.

1. The quality or state of being actual or true.
2. One, such as a person, an entity, or an event, that is actual: “the weight of history and political realities” (Benno C. Schmidt, Jr.).
3. The totality of all things possessing actuality, existence, or essence.
4. That which exists objectively and in fact: Your observations do not seem to be about reality.

Now, there is something troubling here. “Truth” refers to “reality” which refers back to “truth.” In the mean time, they also introduce other elusive concepts as “objective” and “existence.” In short, the recursive references to and from these words do not help us understand the actual meaning although we can think about statements that refer to reality. As we make statements about reality, some of these statements will conform to reality and we will call them true. Although the logic in the previous sentence is correct, it only refers to the relationship between “truth” and “reality” rather than what they really are. Another critical concept is objectivity which we use as a mantra in scientific studies.

Objectivity

As I presented as part of scientific method and implied and stated by the definitions of truth and reality, objectivity is also a difficult concept to deal with. If we think of “subjective” as “proceeding from or taking place in a person’s mind rather than the external world” then “objective” becomes that which is external to the mind. What makes this particularly disconcerting is that we rely on it as one of the cornerstones of our inquiry. If we look up the definition, we find:

ob·jec·tive (?b-jek‘tiv)
adj.

1. Of or having to do with a material object.
2. Having actual existence or reality.
3. 1. Uninfluenced by emotions or personal prejudices: an objective critic. See synonyms at fair¹.
   2. Based on observable phenomena; presented factually: an objective appraisal.

The circularity of the references shows its presence one more time to complicate the matters even more. If I am to talk about the external world, I must perceive it in my mind, which makes it internal to my mind and thus “subjective.” Now, this is not a mere play with words but the nature of science and how we accumulate knowledge. For example, Ptolemy looked at the stars and the planets and presented a view of the Solar system in which everything revolved around the Earth. We now know that that paradigm is utterly incorrect but also know that in his day it was considered to be an “objective” and “true” view of “reality.” Copernicus and Keppler changed that paradigm with one where the Sun is at the center of the Solar system and all the planets revolve around it which became the new objective truth about reality. Who knows what else we will learn in the future that will affect the way we view the same phenomena with a totally new paradigm.

So, what makes “objective” objective? If we all look at the real world around us to find the truth using the knowledge at our disposal with the current paradigms, and realize that as soon as the real world enters our minds it becomes subjective how can we ever objectively deal with anything? The answer is not as difficult as it appears as the scientists over the centuries have discovered. If we all see the same real world we are all in agreement in the way we see reality and truth even if it does not correspond with the way things really are. We call this objective, which is nothing more than collective subjectivity. Therefore, we find truth in our agreement which is how science works in general.

Personal values, biases and scientific open mindedness

I have attempted to create a scientific world where there is no room for prejudice, bias and personal values. This view is generally correct and desirable, but is it really possible? We try to maintain a scientific “open mindedness” in our inquiries to such extent that we may become rather close-minded without realizing. Take for instance “faith-healing.” Medical scientists may not “believe” in such hocus-pocus in making people feel better. However, refusing to study the phenomenon is a result of close-mindedness. I am not suggesting that we must pursue every idea and every whim, rather I propose that scientifically studying “faith healing” is possible whether we believe in it or not.

We must also recognize that we practice science as humans and thus, we are subject to all the human qualities that we bring with us. As long as we use the notion of collective subjectivity as the basis of objectivity, which we must, we will be influenced by our liberal or conservative, religious or secular, feminist or humanist, capitalist or communist beliefs, views and paradigms. As long as we are humans we will carry our own biases and values into our research. Knowing and accepting this is the best way to deal with our biases. Denying that we may have biases will likely prevent us from seeing the very biases we try to avoid where acceptance of the possibility of personal biases will make us more diligent in our research and in our thinking.

I would like us to remember that knowledge is dynamic and ever changing not only over time in societies but also in ourselves. Therefore, it should only be natural that we change as we learn. In fact, learning itself is defined in terms of overt or covert changes that occur in people as a result of acquiring new knowledge. That being the case, the only thing we may be certain of is the change itself and our never ending quest for more knowledge.

Descartes, who is considered to be the father of modern science, said Cogito ergo sum or “I think, therefore I am” as evidence of one’s own existence as a thinking thing. We can also seek comfort in the same thought that thinking is the only thing we can be sure of and practicing this trait is utterly important for us humans and a responsibility for scientists of all disciplines.

May most of your statements about reality conform to reality.

Thank you very much for listening.

This presentation has been inspired and influenced by a series of essays by Earl Babbie as he presented in his 1986 book “Observing Ourselves: Essays in Social Research.”

Definition of other words that participate in the circular relationships between the words mentioned in the presentation.

ac·tu·al (ak‘chu-?l)
adj.

1. Existing and not merely potential or possible. See synonyms at real¹.
2. Being, existing, or acting at the present moment; current.
3. Based on fact: an actual account of the accident.

fact (fakt)
n.

1. Knowledge or information based on real occurrences: an account based on fact; a blur of fact and fancy.
2. 1. Something demonstrated to exist or known to have existed: Genetic engineering is now a fact. That Chaucer was a real person is an undisputed fact.
   2. A real occurrence; an event: had to prove the facts of the case.
   3. Something believed to be true or real: a document laced with mistaken facts.
3. A thing that has been done, especially a crime: an accessory before the fact