Student Christy Henzler's uncomplicated personal Web page posted by CU People has lettering in different colors. Courtesy of Christine Henzler
Having your own World Wide Web page is, it seems, a bit like standing on a soapbox in the park. Some people are natural exhibitionists and start right out shouting; others are a little hesitant at first, but after a while they put more and more of themselves into it. Some people keep going even if no one is listening.
You'll find these and other attitudes on Cornell's expanding list of "personal Web pages," which you can access with two clicks off of CUinfo http://www.cornell.edu under "Computing at Cornell." The list has grown rapidly since the university's Academic Technology Services (ATS) began to offer free space on a university Web server for any student, faculty member or employee who wants it.
The Web page service, called "CU People," was launched in mid-January, and as of the beginning of February, more than a thousand people had signed up, according to Ann Stunden, director of ATS, a division of Cornell Information Technologies (CIT).
Most colleges and universities, as well as private Internet service providers, offer such a service, Stunden said, noting that when she came here from Northwestern she was surprised that Cornell didn't. "We thought it was a service that would be appreciated by students and would give our student population another opportunity to explore contemporary technology," she said.
That's certainly the way some students have looked at it.
"I didn't really expect anyone to visit it," said Aaron Arnold of his Web page, which consists mostly of links to Cornell athletics and online resources for trumpet players. "I did it for myself. I thought it was terrific because I didn't have any experience with programming or HTML. Now that I know how to do it, I feel I have the tools to create a Web page, so it's nice that Cornell provides that for free."
HTML is the "markup language" used in creating Web pages. A Web page is just a computer text file in which you have included instructions, enclosed in angle brackets, that tell the computer how to display your text and pictures. "<h1>," for example, tells the computer to display a large headline. Arnold said he learned HTML from the instructions provided online by ATS.
Like Arnold's, most of the pages put up so far are a sort of electronic version of what you'd see taped to dormitory doors: short biographies, a picture or two and links to other pages relating to the page owner's hobbies. In a way, each page is a brief personality profile.
Christy Henzler's short, colorful page consists of nothing but a picture of herself and a high-school friend, with a link to the friend's Web page at Penn State. The friend doesn't link back: "She doesn't know I've done it yet," Henzler admitted.
A few pages, on the other hand, are impressively elaborate, offering animation and other enhancements.
Mona Walls Bauman's page shows her experience as a Web page designer, displaying her sketches and computer-generated art. Bauman already has built a Web page for her father, who runs the Temple of Zeus coffeehouse, and she maintains pages for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Career Development Office, where she works.
Her confidence grew with experience. "In the beginning I wanted to keep myself out of it as much as possible, "she said, "but as it went on it became more fun. Now I even have a page for my cat, and I enjoy exchanges with people who are as interested in their cats as I am."
Perhaps the most elaborate site so far was created by Bryan Vandrovec, a graduate student in computer science, who offers a virtual reality tour through three-dimensional fractal images, which you need a special browser to see. It's really an online résumé, displaying the special kind of work he can do.
Not all the new pages have been created by students. Ron Furry, professor emeritus of agricultural and biological engineering, has produced a page adorned with animated smiling faces and a hopping bunny. "First of all, it's a lot of fun," Furry said. "I get sort of tired of looking at some of the official Web pages Cornell has. They're pretty dead." He has no idea where his page is going in the future, except that he knows it will keep changing. "It's a new art form," he said.
For Cornell Web page pioneers, what you present on your page is up to you. The only restriction is you may not violate state or federal laws, university policies on electronic communications or the university code of conduct, and you may not use the service to post material for someone else or promote an organization or a commercial enterprise.
You can put up as much text and as many pictures or other material as will fit into five megabytes of disk space. That's enough for two or three novels, or one novel and a fairly large photo album. For security reasons ATS is not allowing CGIs, which are small programs that enhance Web pages. Eventually, Stunden said, ATS will make available some generic CGIs for such common activities as posting fill-out forms.
You prepare your HTML files on your own computer, then upload them to your Web site using the FTP (File Transfer Protocol) feature of Bear Access. Photos must be scanned, something you can do at any campus computer lab. If you request it, the system will automatically create a rudimentary Web page for you when you sign up, consisting of just your name and e-mail address.
Stunden is proud of the fact that the service is completely automated. "It can be done completely online," she said. "You log on, read the policies and agree to them and a space is automatically created for you.
"I want to brag about the work [CIT technical consultants] Chris Manly and Ken Stuart did in creating this. It's a one-stop network shopping service, and we're really proud of that. So many other things require you to come over to the help desk."
Detailed information on CU People, instructions for creating your own pages, and the sign-up form are at http://www.people.cornell.edu/ .