Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
computer savvy may not even know what a tilde is will be able to navigate to
the address to see the Web portfolio. What a scary thought.
You can only spend money if you want to upgrade from an academic Web
portfolio situation. There are many Web sites that provide portfolios for pay.
These sites range from inexpensive to ridiculously expensive. Typical costs are
anywhere from $20 to $40 per month for 15 to 30 megabytes of space on the
most expensive Web portfolio sites. Yearly costs are in the hundreds. I have
found that most portfolios for pay Web sites that are expensive provide a wide
range of administrative, maintenance, and template tools. Basically, you are
paying for more than just Web space when you use Web portfolio sites such
as www.portfolio.com and www.bigblackbag.com. With these pay sites, you
are paying for value-added services that you may or may not need. One
potential disadvantage to these sites, besides the cost, is that some require you
to work within their shell when creating a Web portfolio. This may also be seen
as an advantage due to the fact that less development has to be done and
artifacts can be simply uploaded for presentation. I think these sites take some
of the learning value out of the Web portfolio process. Unfortunately, because
they are so proprietary, they do not emulate real-world Web development
environments that someone may use on a professional level in a work for hire
situation. By creating a Web portfolio from scratch, you learn how to develop
a Web site. The process of learning how to develop a Web site can be carried
over to any Web site project.
A lower-cost, flexible solution such as my brain child, www.portfoliovillage.com.
This site may suit you if you have a small, limited budget and you are willing to
create your Web portfolio without templates. Focusing on helping faculty and
students secure affordable Web portfolio space, this site provides 25 mega-
bytes of space for $12 per year. The site provides limited tools and a relatively
easy to remember subdirectory address standard (www.portfoliovillage/
johndimarco), or a subdomain (jdimarco.portfoliovillage.com) for an extra
charge.
When making a decision on Web portfolio; look at your personal budget and
assess how important having a professional address on your résumé. If you do
not feel that the address is important or the megabyte size provided by the host
is adequate, by all means try to secure free Web portfolio space. But beware;
free sites such as GeoCities had been known to have slow connections as well
as a large number of annoying pop-up windows and ads. Now let's look further
at the components you'll need to understand to begin to upload your Web
portfolio and get it on the Internet for all to see.
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