The next part of the project was to research and gather content. Our primary source for information was the local library. Most libraries have a section for local history that can offer a great deal of help. It was also helpful for us to talk to and/or interview members of the local historical society. Often these people can offer interesting oral history that is not found in any book. When you are researching, be sure to keep track of what your sources are so you can document them correctly when you are doing a Works Cited page.
Once all of your information was together, it was time to break out our favorite HTML editor and start putting the layout together. For us, the site was best organized by using a frame layout. You might choose to do it differently, but what is important is that your site is easy to navigate. If the general public can't easily navigate through your pages, chances are they won't want to stay at your site very long. Once the framework was put together, it was time to start gathering things like visual resources to incorporate into the page. Our team went and gathered photographs from numerous resources, and using modern technology we were actually able to restore the photographs that had been damaged or discolored. This process of restoration adds a more realistic touch to the site. Depending on what technology your team has access to, you can also incorporate movies, QuickTime VR images, and even embed interviews. The final step was to take the resources and input them into the pages.
Once your information is incorporated and your framework is in good shape, you should have a fairly decent website set up. Any further processes such as grammar/spell checking are recommended at this time or any other time during the process of building the site. It is also a good idea to try your site out on a few new people and get their comments on what they liked or what did not work. At this point, you still have time to modify the way that it is presented. After we had the site set up, we began reaching out to the community and to the schools. We were able to get local schools to design student projects that could be displayed on our site that coincided with the main theme of our museum. Anything you can do to get the community involved with your site will help you to achieve your ultimate goal: teaching others how to learn in the Internet style.
Once all is set in motion, your site can become a valuable tool to your community. Students can access it for help with projects, homework, or just for their viewing enjoyment. Adults can access it to learn more about local history, and most importantly, the handicapped can access it to see parts of the museum that might have been previously inaccessible (such as a second floor in our case).
When all is said and done and your site is up and running, be sure to maintain it. Keep a routine update schedule. Proper maintenance of an online museum is just as important as the maintenance of a real museum. These are the basics we used to create our site. You might change things around, but what is important is the fact that you keep your mind on the ultimate goal. Sometimes your team might start to stray into getting too technical and overlook content. Simple mistakes like these can be avoided easily, just as long as you keep the team focused. Most importantly- have fun doing it. If you don't have fun, you're missing one of the best parts of creating the site. If you don't have fun setting it up, chances are, people won't have much fun viewing it!