Presenting on the Web

The Web offers you the opportunity to present your work to a vast audience. To use the Web to best advantage, consider the following information:

Purpose

Why are you posting your work online? Do you just want others to see it, or do you have a larger purpose in mind? Here are some common reasons to post:

To Inform: Did you create something others can learn from? Essays, articles, reviews, instructional videos, or podcasts can share important or new information with your audience.
To Entertain: Is your creation entertaining? Other people with similar interests may find your work enjoyable.
To Persuade: Do you want to argue for or against a decision or convince others to support a cause? Persuasive editorials, protest songs, promotional videos, petitions, and so on can be posted online.
To Invite: Do you intend to share a topic or issue with a community of like-minded people? You can contribute your work to a sharing site or community message board.

Place

The Web holds a variety of sites. Some give users ultimate control over what is published and who can see it. Others are open to the entire public and allow users to submit, experience, and share all of a site’s content. The table below lists the pros and cons of different types of sites:

Location	Pros	Cons
Personal Site	Total control over the content Complete ownership	Hard to attract traffic Perhaps not special- media friendly
Classroom Site (Blog or Wiki)	Safe site Student work fits with site’s larger theme Easily accessed by friends, family, and classmates	Limited audience Work eventually “taken down” Limited room for displaying work
Public Site	Broad audience Professional presentation of material	Give up some rights Privacy concerns Spam and advertisements

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Timing

Time on the Web is a fickle thing. Nothing ever really goes away, so something you posted a long time ago may attract attention weeks, months, or even years later. Still, posting your work at premeditated times, depending on what you want to accomplish, can yield beneficial results.

If the post is time sensitive or your project is simply finished . . .	Post as soon as you’ve completed all the necessary steps of the inquiry process. Then use social media or other communication measures to promote your work through hyperlinks and direct messages to friends and family.
If you know your audience’s general online habits . . .	Post at the time of day your audience is most likely to be present online.
If you normally post items at a certain time, or on a certain day . . .	Post your project to fit that schedule. For example, if you publish a blog entry every Tuesday afternoon, wait until then to post your project for a “waiting” audience.
If you need to draw an audience . . .	Connect your post to a special event, holiday, or contest.

Procedure

Because sites vary, check that your work is compatible with the one you’ve chosen to use. Before posting, study the site’s rules and specifications for file size, file types, content, and so on. If you must sign a digital agreement, as many public sites ask you to do, read it carefully. The agreement may require you to give up certain rights to your material. If so, consider again whether the site is the best choice for presenting your work.

Once you fully understand the compatibility and property considerations, follow the instructions for uploading your work. Many sites will allow you to preview your uploaded material before you publish it.

Your Turn Before presenting your next project online, review the material on the last two pages. Post your work only after you are comfortable with your answers to the following four questions: Why am I posting? Where am I posting? When am I posting? And how am I posting?