Dynamic website

Dynamic website

Overview

A dynamic website displays constantly updated information to users. These sites function as tools for regular communication and discussion. Updates to the site often occur automatically and users can typically customize the information they receive from the site. Many of the services discussed in this guide (e.g., Ning, Google Sites, Facebook) create dynamic websites.

Strengths

Dynamic websites are ideal for fostering regular communication and dealing with large amounts of information. The constant updating of these sites encourages users to visit the site regularly for new information. For the individuals running the site, the simplicity of adding new information tends to result in websites containing large amounts of content.

Weaknesses

The large volume of new information can be intimidating for some users. For this reason, most dynamic websites provide a mix of static and dynamic content.

Examples

eBird, a partnership between the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society, uses a dynamic website (http://ebird.org/) to regularly communicate new information to users.

Tutorials

Google provides a simple tutorial for setting up a dynamic (or static) website with Google Sites (http://sites.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=guide.cs&guide=23216&topic=23221).

Further reading

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website#Dynamic_website 

This publication is dynamic in that it will continue to be improved, updated, and expanded over time. Suggestions for improving the content, organization, and scope of this publication are encouraged and can be contributed here (http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NP3Y772).