OIT Web Services makes available a number of web tools that can support you in developing and enhancing your web site. These range from the very basic support of providing disk space on the inforM system, to WebHosting, to a special quiz/survey program—a ready-built program that will allow you to easily develop your own web-based surveys. They also offer WebSpinner, a browser-based content management system tool, and "bulkmail" and "bulkfile" for capturing and receiving web form data. Hypernews for threaded discussions and Thumber, a multi-purpose digital imaging tool are also available.

WebHosting offers space and tools for your own web site with your own URL (e.g. www.YOUR-PROGRAM-NAME-HERE.umd.edu). University units are encouraged to take advantage of WebHosting (http://www.webhosting.umd.edu) at the low cost of $600 a year. If a unit or faculty member has no web site funding, space can be obtained on inforM, the university-wide information system (http://www.inform.umd.edu). Many student organizations have a home on inforM, as do many key university offices.

WebSpinner is a browser-based content management system tool that is provided to web site owners on the inforM system and on WebHosting. WebSpinner provides a means to upload, update, and manage web sites. It is not an HTML editor, but will convert straight text to an HTML format. WebSpinner is also available for implementation on other web servers.

Bulkmail and bulkfile are programs available only to members of the university community. This program will email the data submitted via a web form to a user or list of users. The owner can specify the order of the form data elements, can provide a URL to go to for submission confirmation, and can require that certain fields must be completed before a successful submission. Bulkfile will save the data submitted via a form to a file. The owner can specify the delimiter that is used as well as the order of the form data elements. Owners can also request that the data be emailed to them, in conjunction with the data being written out to a file. Bulkfile is only available to users whose pages reside on the inforM system. Please see http://www.inform.umd.edu/About/Services/cgi/bulkmail.html for more information on bulkmail and http://www.inform.umd.edu/About/Services/cgi/bulkfile.html for information on bulkfile.

Survey Administrator, located at http://cgi.umd.edu/survey/admin, is a web-based quiz/survey/questionnaire development tool available for use by faculty and staff at the university. Access is through the use of an individual's university ID number and PIN. Users create their own surveys or quizzes, adding items and selecting a format for each one. Formats available are Multiple Choice, Multiple Select, Likert-Style (agree/disagree), True/False, Yes/No, Short Answer, Essay, Comment, and Fill-in-the-Blank. As individuals take a given survey, the survey tool captures the results. The results can be saved to a file or emailed to a given email address.

HyperNews, http://www.forums.umd.edu, is a kind of hybrid cross between the Web and Usenet News. Readers can browse through messages written by other people and post replies. A forum (also called a base article) holds a tree of these messages, displayed as an indented outline showing how the messages are related (i.e., all replies to a message are listed under it and indented). Users can become members of HyperNews or subscribe to a specific forum in order to get email whenever a new message is posted so that they won't have to visit the site to see if anything new has been added. A subscribed recipient can also send a reply back to HyperNews via email, rather than having to login via a browser to write the reply, and HyperNews will place the message in the appropriate forum.

Thumber is a multi-purpose digital imaging tool—a "Swiss army knife" for digital camera owners and imaging enthusiasts. Thumber automates many of the routine tasks associated with digital images. Thumber can be used to create web pages, display image information, rename image files, add comments, view and edit images, and more. Thumber is available to faculty and staff for university owned or leased machines in either on-site or off-site locations. It is available from the Software Licensing office at the cost of the CD ($10), or it can be downloaded for free from Tawbaware. Please contact Software Licensing (http://www.oit.umd.edu/slic) for more information and the registration code.

ColdFusion is a tool for creating web access to databases. It is available to those using the WebHosting service for an additional charge. This tool does require special training. Both database design and ColdFusion interface creation are offered by Web Services if web site owners do not have the requisite skills or time to do the work themselves.

Streaming Media services for both video and audio are available at http://www.media.umd.edu. There is no charge for classroom use of this tool. Several offices in OIT can assist users in developing appropriate media files for streaming across the web.

For more information about web tools available to the university community, contact Web Services via inform-editor@umail.umd.edu or call Gina Jones at 301.405.3026.

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