My name is Judy Rosella Edwards and I own this site.  The site was my idea.  The design was my idea.  I own the domain name.  Many people assume that this site belongs to Jeff Imig -- but, just for the record, it does not.  Jeff is a contributing editor, but I own the site.

Jeff has contributed to maybe 5% of the project.  The rest is all my creation.  Good or bad -- it's all mine.  Jeff has his own EditThisPage project and he uses Frontier at Illinois State University.  He has a plethora of other web projects. 
 

Jeff did tell me about the Manila project and EditThisPage.  By the time he decided to seriously encourage me to sign up for a free site, I was already knee deep into editing the template.  I love this Userland stuff, even though I don't concentrate on the gizmos and widgets as much as I do on content.

Talking about the computer itself is about as interesting as talking about a pen.  I like a good pen as well as the next person but I'm far more interested in the messages the pen can create.  Contrary to Marshall Macluhan's premise:  the medium is NOT the message. 

Heritage Lake News is a real site for real people.  From time to time, I talk about the pen but my main focus is information.  You never quite know where I'll take Heritage Lake News -- and Userland lets me do that.  The concept is a web interface that edits the web.  For anyone who doesn't know what that means, let me put it this way:  if you can read this page, you can edit it.  You don't need to take a six week course in html.  On the flip side, you can cram in all the java scripts and whirligigs you want and get the whole thing to turn cartwheels.  And the creator/CEO carries on a daily conversation with the users.  How rare is that?  I personally receive Scripting News via email, but you can read it online at their website.

But the really great thing is editing.  I can edit HLN from any computer that can read a web page.  I don't need to ask what kind of browser is on the computer, or if there is a plain text editor available.  I don't need to FTP my changes; changes take place ON the web.  Uploading photos is a cinch and once they're uploaded you can forget all about the JPG versus GIF extension nonsense.  A picture is a picture is a picture.

I use a combination of different services to create Heritage Lake News.  The site server is located in California at Userland.  I'd like to buy my own Userland (a/k/a Frontier) server software but without a 24/7 connection it would be a waste.  I'm hearing rumors that within a year I might be able to get a fractional T1 at Heritage Lake.  But I'm not going to hold my breath.

HeritageLakeNews.EditThisPage.com is not a fully-qualified and registered domain name.  HeritageLakeNews.com is registered in my name.  That domain name is stored on a server A+net in San Diego, CA, that is a jump site for those who can't remember the name HeritageLakeNews.EditThisPage.com. 

I rent additional storage space on a server at ICOM in Los Angeles.  I have another website hosted there, but I sometimes store items at ICOM and link to them from HeritageLakeNews.EditThisPage.com.

I have one very large PDF project stored at FreeDrive.com in Chicago that is linked to from HeritageLakeNews.EditThisPage.com.

The free calendar service I use is provided by Visto in Mountain View, CA. I use the Visto Calendar because I like the general interface, plus Visto can be downloaded into a Palm Pilot or a number of other desktop calendars.  It is a web-based calendar that allows me to share calendar items over the internet, if I choose.  Visto claims it may not work with a Macintosh but I've never found a computer yet that didn't work properly with it, regardless of platform.  They claim it works with wireless web but I haven't tried it. "Established in 1995, go2 has a strategic relationship with Sprint PCS (NYSE:PCS - news), Verizon Wireless, Nextel and Neomar. Customers are major United States franchises, including Howard Johnson, Ramada, Avis, Century 21, Coldwell Banker, Diedrich Coffee Inc. (Nasdaq:DDRX - news), Johnny Rockets and Jiffy Lube of Southern California."  http://corp.visto.com/corp/press_room/index.html

Userland does have a built-in search engine, but I started using NetMind with HeritageLakeNews.EditThisPage.com before Userland implemented their engine.  NetMind, hosted in Santa Cruz, is a thorough search engine, but the most interesting feature is one that will allow you to request email notification if a page you searched for (and found) changes in the future.  That feature alone is intriguing enough to keep me using NetMind.  The index refreshes almost instantaneously even though they claim " On average, Search-it will index your site in 15 minutes."  http://netmind.com/html/webmaster_program_help.html#s14 

I think you can do an instant submission if you run your own Userland server software, but with the type of EditThisPage site I have the Userland indexing occurs once a day.  NetMind is a faster way to get indexed. "Among NetMind's blue-chip customers are eBay, ZDNet, IBM, Hitachi, Boeing, BancBoston and many other high-profile Internet and Fortune 500 companies."  http://netmind.com/html/puma_close.html

Netmind was purchased by Puma Technology.  "Puma Technology is the leading provider of the essential software infrastructure for the ubiquitous mobile Internet. The Company owns market-leading technology in synchronization, personalization, notification and Web-rendering services ? all essential building blocks to making wireless devices useful tools in the world of e-business. "   http://netmind.com/html/puma_close.html

I use TheCounter.com to track the number of visitors to HeritageLakeNews.EditThisPage.com and to track the domain users originate from. Early on, I had serious problems finding a web counter that would function with EditThisPage.  TheCounter worked.  Fortunately, it is also attractive and generates really useful reports. TheCounter is hosted by Internet.com, who purchased it from the creators in Stockholm.  I believe it is now hosted in Darien, CT. I use the reports to track the last 30 hits and create my Domain Diary.

If you notice, the page title for Heritage Lake News says <strong>. . . HIT RELOAD!</strong>.  I added that in response to complaints that the site is so slow to load over a modem that it times out.  Reloading or refreshing sometimes helps.  But then I discovered the netsetter.com domain in my TheCounter.com log and went to investigate what it was.  Netsetter, located in Reston, VA, is sort of the Nielsen family of the internet:  they collect data on what you do online for marketing purposes.  Fine.  Unlike other programs that drag your computer down until it barely functions, Netsetter speeds it up!  And it really works. So I encourage EVERYONE to use Netsetter.com to speed up load times since the vast majority of my target audience is using modems to access my website.  I can't speed up users' modems or computers -- but Netsetter can speed up their load times.

I provide a Backflip site to my users that lets me share bookmarks with my readers.  Backflip.com is hosted in San Francisco.  I've only experiimented with it a little bit but it has a lot of potential.  Easier than creating web links all over the place.  Plus you can upload bookmarks from your desktop right into Backflip.  That means I can collect bookmarks during a long session, then upload them into Backflip at once when I'm ready.  It's quicker than uploading them individually.

When I make wholesale changes to HLN or if target audience readership appears to be low, based on TheCounter logs, I sent an Evite from the evite.com electronic invitation service in San Francisco.  Evite.com has an option that allows you to publish your invitation on their marquee for the world to see.  I always use that.  The invitation list is set up so that my invitees don't see who else is invited -- that prevents them from junk-mailing each other.  It also preserves the confidentiality of my email list which is about 5 times as large as my site membership list.  The invitation server lets me know who has read my invitation, and I keep my invitation list stored in a directory on that server so I can re-use it instantly.

I am the volunteer directory editor for Mackinaw, Illinois, on DMOZ.  I add local sites to the directory, then email webmasters a note saying I gave them a free listing and I invite them to my Heritage Lake News site.  Good PR and it's useful for newbies who don't know how to get into the search engines or how to use metatags effectively.

HLN is submitted about once a month to dozens of search engines and I pay a lot of attention to my metatags.  I review them before the monthly submission to make sure they are as precise and effective as possible.  I use a software submission software that tracks that info for me.
 
 
 
 

Okay, I'm bored with the pen.  Let's move on.   Here's how I do this thing . . . . . . . .