Philip Greenspun Knihy

This book catalogs the mistakes made while building over 100 websites in five years, aiming to help others avoid similar pitfalls. It offers managers a comprehensive view to make informed high-level decisions that impact a site's manageability, profitability, popularity, and reliability. While not requiring technical expertise, it equips readers with the knowledge to determine the necessity of a database, select the right database expert, and understand who should have access to it. For computer scientists, the book reveals the exciting possibilities in web service design, inspiring a belief in its potential as a dynamic field. It also provides web designers and programmers with a new vocabulary and mental framework, encouraging them to seek more than just executing clients' ideas through tools like Photoshop and Perl/CGI. Additionally, it outlines a comprehensive open-source approach to building online communities, promoting a collaborative, web-based solution to overcome reliance on desktop applications. The book includes 200 photographs from the author's successful photo.net website and presents a general theory of web publishing issues, making it a valuable resource for various audiences in the digital landscape.