It's the question of the hour. Putting up a site on the Internet’s World Wide Web is a multi-layered process. There are many issues to organizations must address -- from the technical: "What kind of hardware and software should we use?" -- to content: "What are we going to put on our web pages?"

As the web continues to expand as the hot medium for publishing, communications, and information delivery, and commerce, organizations are realizing that it’s not always enough to dump the text from their brochures online.

Offering useful information online that’s useful, well organized, visually pleasing, and quick to download, is a top priority. Successful web sites are strategically registered so that they’ll draw the maximum number of "eyeballs," and their presence is promoted both in traditional print and on-line.

MJ Internet Consulting is biased toward the "simple, but visually pleasing" school of web design. While tools such as "Java" and "Shockwave" offer cutting edge features, I believe that the average person using the web still does not have the software/hardware necessary to take full advantage of these features. And many users don't have the patience to download "plug-ins" to be able to view fancy effects.

There are many ways to create attractive, functional web sites without employing plug-ins or programming that slows download to a crawl. Therefore, my sites employ "special effects" sparingly, if at all.

You'll never see a logo on one of my sites that reads "Site best view with…" My sites are best viewed with any browser.

Not everyone understands how to take advantage of the unique environment of the web, which changes almost daily as new tools arrive on the scene and user demographics change.

As an editor for the Boston Globe for 13 years, I understand content. I know how to wade through large amounts of information and pare it down to what’s important. I know how to package copy, photos and other graphical elements in an engaging way. And, I know how to do all that in HTML, the language of web sites.

I’ve been on-line since I bought my first home computer and 300 baud modem in 1983. That means I’ve been in a unique position to watch the evolution of the Internet from a text-only medium to today’s fancy graphics, sound, and video on the World Wide Web. I understand the net, and I understand how to package content on-line. I take great pleasure in making my knowledge available to my clients.