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19 Oct 2000, Spain

Dear Dr. Ecommece:

I have an idea for an online service business. To increase the number of visitors to my site I would like to encourage an "online community" of users who can make comments to static articles on the site. These comments would be added automatically to the article, thus enriching its content. I believe this is possible via what is known as a relational database management system (RDBMS). Trouble is I have no programming skills and I don't want to invest in a customised solution from a consultant company until the business takes off. Do you know of anyone who provides an off-the-shelf solution which I could use to get started?

Regards,

Damian Martin

Dear Damian:

I asked database hotshot Geoff Thompson of ERIN to help out with your question. He replies:

Your question is typical of many small organisations today. They are starting to realise that there is no longer merit in migrating a
company's brochure to a WebSite and launching it into the vast electronic world of the Internet. More and more people are sitting up and taking notice of the evolution in technology which enables interactivity on web sites, and therefore a dialogue with visitors (who may or may not be potential clients).

In the case of this specific question, there are shareware "Bulleting
Board" software packages which could be acquired and integrated for the purposes outlined. The problem with most of these is that the look-and-feel of the WebSite can be lost as these bulleting boards are hosted mostly as a free service on other servers where one can set up, name and link to an appropriate list.

A second possibility would be to use a scripting language and create the facility yourself. This will take a bit of time at the start, as
learning how to program from scratch, as well as setting up a database can be a considerable challenge for someone with no experience at all. If you are not hosting the Web Site yourself, contact the organisation who does host it and find out two things: what scripting environment/tools are supported on the Web Server, and also what database is supported. A wide variety of
scripting tools exists, and the answer could include one of the following: CGI, PHP, Active Server Pages (ASP, from Microsoft), ColdFusion, etc.

Regarding databases, MS Access would probably be the best to start with. Now that you have identified what scripting tool and database environment to use, undertake some research on the WWW for programming tips and on-line tutorials which will get you started. Then you can set up a database on your local PC and start programming a few scripts. When you feel that you are getting there, then you can think about launching it on the Web Site
itself."

Good luck,

Dr. Ecommerce