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Conception, copywriting, photography, design, development, maintenance and evolution for ShannonSwenson.com is by yours truly. However, credit must be given to the open source nature of the web and the thousands of developers that share their tips and tricks. I acknowledge and appreciate help for the following site elements:

Site Validation

I support web publication standards to reduce costs of development and to ensure content accessibility to the widest market. In keeping with this approach, I've provided links to public validators for common standards at the bottom of every page on ShannonSwenson.com. The validators are:

XHTML: eXtensible Hypertext Markup Language is an advanced forward-looking standard in web publication advocated by the governing body of web standards, the W3C. It provides a document type to help keep data clean, consistent and portable.

CSS: Cascading Style Sheets enable web developers to separate content presentation from its structure. Like the XHTML validator, this one is also provided by the W3C.

508: To ensure web pages are accessible by people with disabilites, this site is built in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Style Switcher

The style switchers are intended to give more control to the site visitor. Users can choose styles by preference or accessibility needs. This style switcher is built using the A List Apart tutorial, "Alternative Style: Working With Alternate Style Sheets" [Paul Snowden, 2 Nov 2001, ALA Issue No. 126].

Random "Stories" and "Words to Live By"

These elements are visible in certain styles and are completely random. Refresh a page to view different renditions. Some quotes were found at the IMDB.

Photo Gallery

The photo gallery is a custom web app using PHP and Javascript. Thumbnails and gallery navigation are dynamically generated from data stored in a simple flat-file system. You can learn how to build a similar navigation after reading the Building a Photo Gallery tutorial [Todd Kennedy, 25 Jul 2001, Web Monkey]. If you'd like a more robust gallery with web-based administration, check out the Gallery project at Sourceforge: gallery.sourceforge.net

Polls

The Polls are a modification of the free ProtoPoll PHP/MySQL script available from CerebusWebmaster.com.

Graphics and Photography

I use PhotoShop and various filters for all site graphics, iconography, layout and image manipulation. Most of the photographs were taken with a Canon Powershot 100 2.0 mega-pixel digital camera, my personal favorite because of its compact size and quality for web publishing. I also use a Canon APS Powershot and a Minolta X-700 film camera with various lenses.

Other photographs are courtesy of iStockPhoto, which happens to be one of my favorite websites. iStockPhoto is a collection of artwork built by web developers for web developers. Images are free for trial and just 25¢ after becoming a member with proceeds benefitting the artist. iStockPhoto represents early web values of community and sharing, a throwback to when I first discovered the Internet, long before spam ruined the world.

Site Navigation

Site navigation is a critical component of any web site. It should serve as a comfortable attachment for the visitor in the event they become lost, yet be so intuitive that it's presence is virtually transparent. The collapse-expand style menu tree on this site is a modification of a version found at www.treeview.net. Visit Tree View to find free scripts of numerous varieties.

Forms

Web-to-email forms allow visitors to send information via their browser. This mode of communication is easier than sending an email and site owners have control over the consistency of information received. Information sent via forms can be converted to an email and/or saved to a file that can be imported into a database. Forms found on this site are modifications of a popular PERL script.

Body of Knowledge

All skilled web developers learn from each other through articles, script sharing and peeking under each other's source code skirts. I've participated in email LISTSERVS when I began commercial development in 1996 and today I actively help fellow web developers. I've discovered thousands of sites and people that have influenced and inspired me to produce functional web sites with lucid code. Hopefully, my site will inspire and help fellow developers.