Defining Web Services

What is Web Hosting?
Web hosting provides web space on a computer, or server, to store your website files. This server is connected to the Internet 24/7 and allows the public to view your site by typing in your web address.

What is Web Design?
Web site design is where the site content is created and assembled into pages, which form your website. Quality web site design is critical to entice the audience and project a professional image.

What is e-Commerce?
e-Commerce is a special web application that allows users to browse products and make online purchases with a credit card. e-Commerce is a very popular mechanism for companies large and small to sell their products on a worldwide market.

Web Services Glossary of Terms

Auto-Responders:
An automated email reply sent in response to each incoming message for a specific email address. For example, you can use an auto-responder to send every customer who contacts you via email a standard "Thank You" email response, or to notify that you are out of the office until a certain date. To activate this feature, visit www.citizens.coop/internet/email.shtm, login to web mail and choose options, and then Holiday Settings.

Bandwidth:
Also known as your traffic or monthly data transfer. Each time visitors access a web page, image, audio, video, or other elements on your site, traffic is generated. Your aggregate traffic is the sum of all outward-bound, inward- bound, email and ftp traffic. Measured in GB, gigabytes.

Blog:
"Blog" is an all-purpose term that describes a format for publishing on the Internet. A blog, or Web log, generally consists of short entries displayed in reverse chronological order, which often include links to other sites. Usually include responses from their readers, or viewers of your site.

Blog Manager:
Organize blogs with unlimited subjects, Post unlimited entries for each subject, and Create date-indexed archive of past blogs.

Control Panel Ease with Site Builder and e-Commerce:
How easy is it to manage your site through the control panel? Can you easily find the controls you need? Are the functions intuitive or do you need to consult a manual or technical support? Citizens offers tools necessary to easily build and maintain your Site Builder or e-Commerce website.

Customer Service:
This is one of the most important areas that a Web Hosting company is judged on. Are there many different ways to communicate or get help? Was the support staff knowledgeable and friendly? Did you receive answers immediately or did you have to wait several days? Is technical support available 24/7? For 24-hour Technical Support, visit Live Chat online or call 1-800-741-9525

Database Manager:
Download/import data to/from spreadsheets, Create custom database tables, and Edit individual table records. Included in Citizens’ eShop and eBiz

Design process:
Web site design is where the site content is created and assembled into pages, which forms your site. Quality web site design is critical to entice the audience and project a professional image. Free Consultation available.

Details of a Domain Name:
.com - commercial organizations
.edu - educational institutions
.gov - government organizations
.mil - military organizations
.net - network organizations
.org - organizations that don't fit in any of the other categories (usually non-profit)

Country Codes Other countries have country codes in their domain names, this lets you know where the site is being "served". Below is a list of several country codes.
jp - Japan	au - Austrailia
ca - Canada	fr - France
de - Germany	mx - Mexico
ru - Russia	ch - Switzerland
us - United States	uk - United Kingdom

Digital Certificate / Secured Server:
Encrypts information to provide secure transaction processing. Needed for credit card transactions in conjunction with payment gateway.

Disk Space (MB):
Also known as Web space. The amount of allocated storage given on your Web hosting account. This enables you to store files, Web pages, email, databases, and graphics. Web space is measured in MB (megabytes).

Domain Name and Registration:
The process that must be completed before users can access your Web site. The registration process involves two basic steps: Reserving your domain name and then registering the domain name. Domain names are composed of your choice, plus an extension (.com, .net, .org, etc.) Citizens can register your domain name for you and has competitive registration plans. Visit www.citizens.coop/internet/webhosting.shtm and request your domain name today!

e-Commerce:
e-Commerce is a special web application that allows users to browse products and make online purchases with a credit card. e-Commerce is a very popular mechanism for companies large and small to sell their wares on a worldwide market. Citizens eShop is great for private and small business.

Email Forwarding:
This feature enables you to have email messages sent to one address automatically forwarded to a different email address. For example, you can specify that all email messages sent to you@yourcompany.com be immediately forwarded to you@yourISP.com. This feature can be enabled by visiting and our website and using web mail.

Email/Online Support:
Ask questions through an online form or email address. Each question and answer is documented and provided to Citizens for tracking and follow-up purposes.

Editable Storefront:
With flexible design tools choose how you would like your storefront to look. Through our web based administration you can easily change the color and theme of your storefront.

eNewsletter:
With our electronic newsletter feature you can create unlimited email newsletters and send them to unlimited number of recipients and eliminate the cost and hassle of going to the post office.

Event Calendar
Create unlimited searchable calendars, allow visitors to maintain personal calendars, and link calendar events to detail pages. Available with Citizens’ eShop.

Front Page Extensions:
FrontPage extensions are a set of programs on a Web server which allow users to author, administer, and browse Microsoft FrontPage extended websites, and to add enhanced functionality such as hit counters, search forms, and discussion Webs to their sites. (Regular websites only.)

Logo design:
Branding design generates any graphical elements that are central to the aesthetics of a web site theme, i.e. company, product, or site logos. Branding elements guide theme/masthead design by setting color and shape requirements. Many companies create new online versions of their existing print logos because either existing logos do not translate well to electronic media or they want to establish a distinct online presence. If you need a logo to use online, ask Citizens’ Web Designer.

Merchant Account:
Service that handles the financial processing of credit cards. Open your merchant account with the financial institution of your choice for easy use with Citizens’ e-Commerce.

Monthly Data Transfer (GB):
Also known as your Traffic or Bandwidth. Each time visitors access a Web page, image, audio, video, or other elements on your site, traffic is generated. Your aggregate traffic is the sum of all outward-bound, inward-bound, email and FTP traffic. Measured in GB (gigaBytes).

MySQL Database:
A database system which can be used to manage customer records, organize survey data, and even create Web-based applications. Also a multi-user, multi-threaded SQL database server. MySQL offers speed, robustness, and ease of use.

Online/Email Support:
Ask questions through an online form or email address. Each question and answer is documented and provided to Citizens for tracking and follow-up purposes.

Photo Albums:
Create unlimited slide-show photo albums, add captions to each picture/slide, link images to other pages or sites.

Processing Gateway:
Service that enables transactions from your Shopping Cart to your Merchant Account. Citizens’ Internet team will gladly make recommendations for your processing gateway to help get you started.

Server Uptime Guarantee:
Server uptime is confirmed by sophisticated server monitoring systems. Well-maintained equipment and an experienced server administration team can keep servers up and your data accessible essentially this percentage of time.

Server Backup:
How often are your files backed up at the server level? Please check your current ecommerce plan for your specific backup plan.

Shopping Cart:
Add unlimited products to your catalog, allow PayPal, Credit Cards & money orders, and create product searches and categories. Available with Citizens’ e-Commerce plans.

Site Builder:
Citizens’ Site Builder may be referred to as a Packaged Web Application that allows you to easily design, build, and edit your web site from any computer with internet access.*Must use Windows OS and Internet Explorer. Visit www.citizens.coop/internet for a Site Builder demo.

Site Statistics:
Detailed information regarding your Web site, including the number of hits, the source of those hits, most popular pages as well as other useful information.

Site Templates:
Customize included professional designs, create unlimited designs with the Template Builder, and upload and use custom HTML templates

SPAM Protection:
Citizens’ offers Postini and Pop-Up Stopper  that help eliminate spam.

SSL Certificate:
Secure Sockets Layer. A method of ensuring that information submitted through your Web site is secure and cannot be accessed by unauthorized users. Information submitted via an SSL-secured form is transmitted in an encrypted state. SSL is most commonly used for online credit card transactions. Contact us in order to setup SSL certificate. Prices vary, we charge only  for the cost of the certificate.

Sub-Domain Supported:
If you need to further distinguish your domain name, you can use a sub-domain, such as "shop.yoursitedomain.com."

Technical Support:
How available is technical support? How efficient are they at solving your problems? Are the staff knowledgeable or do you need to talk to several different people to get answers? Whether it is during or after business hours, Citizens has technical support available to assist you 24-hours a day, 7 days a week.

Web Mail:
A method for accessing email messages through a Web browser using (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox, etc.) Web-based email applications enable you to check your email from any location as long as you have a browser and an Internet connection. Visit www.citizens.coop/internet/email.shtm to access Citizens’ web mail.

Web Server:
A web server is a computer with special software to host web pages and web applications. Many different servers are in use on the Internet. Some of the more popular ones are:

Apache  - Free open source server
Internet Information Server (IIS) - Microsoft's web server included with Windows NT/2000
Netscape Enterprise Server - Popular server runs on NT and UNIX

Website Budget:
Establishing a budget for your web site will allow you to plan how your site will get developed. In order to budget you must project a value for your site. This can be done by estimating the value of achieving each web site objective in terms of increased income or saved operating costs. Once you have a total estimate you can determine how much a site is worth based on the return on investment you are seeking. This worth should form the basis of how much you have to spend on your site, either in employee time and training or with outside consultants.

Budgeting considerations:
How much is the site worth? (demand side budgeting)
How much will it cost to achieve your objectives? (supply side budgeting)
How available are funds to be used ?
How much would alternative investments return?

Website Concept Creation:
Web site concept creation is where the theory and ideas are built that drive a web site's themes and functions. Effective concept creation integrates the expertise of all web site development team members to assure quality across all aspects of site design. The process involves a series of brainstorming and concept refinement sessions culminating into a cohesive set of ideas. Citizens’ offers a FREE consultation to discuss concept creation.

Website Objectives:
Web site objectives are metrics to determine if your web site is successful in achieving its mission. Objectives should be specific, measurable results you expect from your site. For example, if your mission is to broaden your customer base, an objective may be to increase new customer sales by 10% in the first year. Often it can be difficult to create well-defined objectives. The objective may be difficult to measure, or it may be unclear if other company activities are influencing the results. However, focused objectives are vital to the web site development cycle. They establish your expectations for the site, both internally and to outside consultants. The mission and objectives form the framework for all project strategy and decisions. Objectives will be discussed in the free consultation with Web Designer.

Website Spec:
A web site specification (spec) is a document that describes the concepts and parameters for designing a site. The spec is the conceptual blueprint that provides the framework so that all team members to work towards a common vision. A spec must provide mission-critical direction to all core aspects of site development without stifling the individual creativity of the content providers.

Website Theme:
The look and feel for your site. Citizens’ Web Designer will discuss themes for website during the Free consultation.