Surfers serving the Internet

University students find interests and difficulties in building personal homepages





Photo By Helena Chui

By Kathy Lo

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    The internet, websites, homepages, electronic mails are terms not new to people as information technology has become a hot topic.
     It has been a recent trend for university students to construct their own homepages.
     These personal homepages often feature the page-makers’ personal information, pictures and text on their hobbies, mostly Japanese animation and pop songs, and their favourite website links.
     Mr. Galan Pang, a Year 1 student of the Department of Digital Graphic Communication at Baptist University, puts pictures of his own comics on the homepage.
     Said he: “I think putting my drawings on the Internet is the most direct way to let people see them.”
     While Mr. Pang aims at exposing his art work to the world, other homepage constructors have different motives.
     Mr. Calvin Chu, a computer science and engineering student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, considered his homepage as a channel for recommending his favourite websites.
     “I have linked up some good websites with my homepage to make it more convenient for my friends and I to retrieve information,” he said. “I set up a homepage also for posting documents and news.”
     Mr. Ng Man Kit, Mr. Chu’s classmate, said constructing homepages is “great fun”.
     “It gives people pride of success since it is easy. I’ve learned much about homepage design,” he said.
     The most basic and essential step of homepage-making is to learn the Hypertext Markup Language, a standard language the World Wide Web uses for creating and recognising hypermedia documents.
     Most homepage-makers at universities learned the skills of homepage construction by themselves through reading books, accessing related information on the Internet and discussing things with peers.
     Mr. Edmond Lam, an electrical and electronic engineering student at the University of Hong Kong, said it took him 40 hours to produce his homepage.
     He said homepage construction gives him a sense of satisfaction in spite of some “careless mistakes”.
     “Some of my friends laughed at the poor grammar in the articles I wrote after visiting my homepage,” Mr. Lam said with embarrassment.
     “I felt bad at first, but I’ve become more careful when writing the text,” he said. “I always strive my best to add creative ideas of presentation to make my homepage unique.”
     The three interviewees agreed unanimously that they have received positive support from the visitors of their homepages.
     “Our friends generally support us as the information on our homepages are useful to them,” said Mr. Chu.
     “Some of them suggested good websites to link up with and photos to present while some provided music samples,” said he.
     At various tertiary institutions, some computing services units and academic departments try to provide related information or services to meet students’ needs.
     According to Miss Wendy Chan, computer officer of the Computer Services Centre at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Centre introduced a UNIX server last summer to help students create homepages.
     The Centre also made a homepage directory, put documents of related information on their homepage, and provided the service of consultancy about homepage construction through electronic mail.
     Miss Chan said that the Centre strongly encourages both individual students and student organisations to create homepages on the Internet.
     “As information technology is fast developing today, the Internet serves as a good means of exposing students to the world.
     “Also, it helps students in future job-seeking and the potential spread of information about the technology to their colleagues in the future,” said she.
     As for problems with the server at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Miss Chan said that the Computer Services Centre has knowledge of their existence and measures have been adopted to cope with them.
     The computer centre at the University of Hong Kong is neutral towards students’ homepage construction, according to Dr. Pong Man Chi, senior computer officer of the Centre.
     Dr. Pong said they hold courses on homepage construction for both students and staff every two months.
     The Department of Digital Graphic Communication at Baptist University, for example, offers various courses for students, entitled “Collaborative Computing and Information Management” and “Interactive Multimedia Design and Production”.
     According to Dr. Krates Ng, assistant professor of the Department, they encourage students to create homepages of their own.
     “The Internet is the medium of the future. The skills of homepage construction have become part of the essential knowledge of our students’ future careers,” he said.
     Besides offering courses and providing sufficient computing facilities, the Department also provides opportunities of experience to students by recruiting them to participate in the production of its homepage.