Off The Written Path

I can no longer allow my eyes to glaze over when someone mentions HTML code. Uh, what? I know, but If you want to be in journalism, and I do, then according to Mark Briggs we need to get our heads in the game, or online.

For us novices Briggs explains a couple of basics in Chapter 1:

• What is the Internet? (No it is not the World Wide Web)
• What is a Web Server and how does it work?
• What is a Web Browser? (Hint: It has a cache and needs plug-ins)

If you are already lost here is a nifty site that might help.

If you are following then you can move on to the harder stuff like:

• RSS feeds (Briggs calls it an “efficient” way of consuming information)
• FTP (A way to transfer large amounts of information from one computer to another)

And finally Web Design:

• Eye-glazing HTML code
• CSS
• XML

I might make fun of HTML code, but it is only because I don’t understand it. But as Briggs says, as a journalist, you cannot afford to ignore some basics of online work. No one is going to hold our hands when it comes to the technical stuff, so we can either sink like the Titanic or start making friends with HTML.