by Moe Zilla

Created on: February 09, 2008

It's easy to create a web site, but the term "webmaster" means much more. A company hires a "webmaster" to maintain all their web pages, updating the HTML code and ensuring the site remains secure and effective - and that it stays online!

Web pages have become more complicated over the last ten years, requiring web developers to learn how to use Shockwave and JavaScript, and have some basic understanding about offering "secure" transmissions for financial transactions. (At minimum a webmaster should know HTML - the basic language of all web pages.) Fortunately, most companies now employ teams of web developers, so it's possible to become one of a company's webmasters by specializing in a couple useful skills. And there are also software programs which can speed up the creation of HTML and add sophisticated effects - which can be useful in a fast-paced web development job.

The concept of the "webmaster" has been changing over the last ten years, and the word "webmaster" has an interesting heritage. In the early 90s, complaints about email were sent to the "postmaster" email address at an internet service provider. The invention of the world wide web required the creation of a separate title for the person handling complaints about web pages - and that person was identified as "the webmaster." To become an ISP's webmaster requires a familiarity with the servers that display web pages to visitors, and for two-thirds of the web sites on the internet, the software being run is Apache.

Fortunately, the word "webmaster" has become so familiar that it's now used colloquially to describe anyone who's created a web site. It's now easy for nearly anyone to start a simple web page, since numerous sites will offer free hosting to anyone providing a valid email address (including sites like Blogger, LiveJournal, Diaryland, and Wordpress.) But to start a complete web site requires a few more pieces.

A unique domain name can be registered relatively cheaply through a number of services (including Register.com and GoDaddy). But the web pages still need a "host" to keep them online (so the domain name can lead to an actual site!) Most internet service providers offer their users an area where pages can be uploaded - though they offer different techniques for accessing those pages.

A true webmaster would benefit from learning Unix. Many ISPs host their web pages on a server running the Unix operating system, and users can access the actual web directories using a telnet software. This allows the direct editing of the web pages - right on the server - so changes can be saved immediately. Unix also runs the Perl programming language, which can be used to generate extra text for web pages and process user input in real-time.

There's lots of skills that are useful for web development, and lots of ways to become a webmaster. As with many things in life, the key ingredient is ultimately a genuine interest and a willingness to learn.

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