One of the challenges of being the “Tech Guy” is that everyone wants advice or work for free. I have undertaken those opportunities over the years. Usually, because someone else dragged me into it or asked too nicely. I have started websites for several education groups and schools. I spent a lot of time doing these and found the most prominent issue when doing something of this nature was different expectations than the final product. I would sit down with people and ask what they wanted. They would often utter the words of doom: “Whatever you think we need.” Those words have haunted me several times over the years. No matter how much time and effort I gave the project, someone would find fault or make strange suggestions. No matter what I tried over the years I encountered problems. I finally hit on a semi-solution. I had them draw me a picture of the front page and then write a list of everything they could want. I also asked them to give me websites that have the features they wanted. I found that it was the same as being a teacher as well. No matter how explicit the directions I always had different interpretations of my directions. Here is a partial list of some of the websites I had a hand in at the beginning or along the way. I have not been associated with most of these for several years and have been impressed with how some have come along. The best one was Montview Elementary in the mid-1990s. The school district said that an individual school could not have a site and I ran it on my personal AOL account for the first five years.
