The most common and traditional method is hand coding. Before the HTML WYSIWYG application and database web pages, HTML hand coding was the language that allowed web pages to exist. Hand coding a webpage can be very simple or it can be very complex. If you want to make a simple webpage that is mostly text, then hand coding it will be fairly easy. If you want complex interactivity then hand coding will become more advanced. Another good aspect about hand coding is you don’t need an expensive program to do it. All you need is a free program like notepad (standard on all PCs) to be the hand coding application. Now there are some downsides to hand coding a web page. The number one downside that most people would probably agree to would be learning the HTML language. To hand code a web page you have to know the HTML language, which can be very complicated for some people to learn. A simple text website requires you to know the basics of HTML language, but if you do want a very complex page, a person will have to study the language a bit harder. To add on to this, HTML language is the code to a webpage, one typing error and that portion of the web page will not work.

A popular way of making web pages in today’s world is using a HTML WYSIWYG application, which stands for “what you see is what you get”. This application allows a person to look at a web page more so of the design aspect of it. Instead of just entering a bunch of code that really makes no sense, in a WYSIWYG application you can literally click and type to add text, click and insert a picture, and add layout features without entering a single bit of code. This may sound great and it is to a certain extent. Even though it may be as simple a click here or a click there you still have to have knowledge of the HTML language. When creating a web page in a WYSIWYG application it still is producing HTML code to create the web page. The problem with this is that these applications use complex code that can be very difficult to understand. And even using these applications you will still have to do some hand coding and with the complex code the applications create, hand coding can become more difficult.

Database driven web pages are becoming more and more popular in today’s society. Websites such as wordpress, facebook, myspace, etc are all database driven web pages. These types of web pages are actually really cool. Forums and blogs are the most common types of database web pages that allow people to publish their material for all to see. The Shopping Cart that you find on retail websites is a database web page. Database web pages also have their downsides. Users can face security and privacy risks. When shopping on the internet people can be vulnerable to credit card and identity theft. Also, during upgrades, these web pages will be brought down for the duration. Lastly, everything is instantaneous. If you post a message on a forum that you didn’t exactly mean to, it’s too late to take it back. Once you click the submit button that message is automatically posted for the whole world to see.

Like everything, these three methods have their ups and downs. One thing that is clear though, you need to have a basic understanding of the HTML language no matter what method you choose to create your web pages.

Some of the pros for creating a tiered internet are that it will allow more internet providers to start up, thus increasing broadband service throughout the country. This action would eventually lead to broadband service being available as much as telephone service. Having a tiered system would also allow providers to offer different levels of service at different fees. This can be both good and bad. The good aspect of it would be if your a person who uses the internet for just searching the internet and checking email, you might subscribe to a lower level of service for a smaller fee and just the opposite if your a gamer or avid downloader of large files. This system may also help internet providers stop cutting back a users internet connection, because they are using too much bandwidth my downloading large files or playing games. The bad aspect is explained in the next paragraph.

Some of the cons of having a tiered internet are by having different levels of service for different fees, it could limit competition. Smaller providers that are not as financially secure will find it difficult to provide higher levels of service and thus, can go out of business. To add on to this, larger companies, such as AOL, then have a good deal of control over the internet and can limit what a user is allowed to do. For instance, the internet provider may not want to allow certain applications or website to be accessed by their users, which can be frustrating for the user. Also by having different levels of service, applications can be blocked. So if you subscribe to a lower level of service, you may not be able to access websites such as youtube.com because the applications that run the site are not allowed with your service. What all this does is causes a free internet to become almost a dictatorship, where internet providers have control of what you access, which goes against the grain of what the internet is all about.

Overall, I believe a tiered internet system can be a good thing if it is handled properly. At the moment, really only two types of companies are internet providers, which are cable and telephone companies. There really is no law that provides a set of standards that these companies have to adhere to, so they are pretty much given free rein on what they can do, to an extent. Bills, such as the Telecommunications Act of 1996 have begun to help set these standards. By allowing more businesses to become internet providers you help technology evolve. These companies may find a new way of providing the internet or how it is accessed. If Microsoft was the only software company that provided an operating system where do you think we would be today? Probably, not as far was we’ve come with operating systems. Mainly, we need to keep the internet an open world of information that can be accessed by anyone.