Building your website
SpiderPros's free guide to building a website including 100 Do's and Dont's in web design: http://www.spiderpro.com/pr/prstgeb001.html
There are various free search facilities available that you can download and use on your site. One example provided by the Australian government for community groups can be found on: http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/freesearch/
To put a free search engine on your site, see for example Google or Altavista to see how you can do this.
Writing for the web
Jakob Nielsen’s example of how to improve the usability of a paragraph of promotional writing: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html
And his article on How people read on the web
Australian government information on preparing content for your website
A useful paper from the University of Capetown: http://www.writing.uct.ac.za/design/Writing for the World Wide Web summary.doc
Some resources for putting multilingual content on your site: http://www.communitybuilders.nsw.gov.au/linking/internet/multilingdo.html
Hosting your site
The Australian Communications and Media Authority provides good information on hosting and many issues related to ISPs. Their toolkit includes a list of ISPs, questions to ask ISPs and information that will help you make the right decision for your organisation.
Net Registry is a company providing a directory of web hosting ISPs.
Web standards
For a guide to the Australian government’s recommended minimum website standards see: http://www.agimo.gov.au/practice/mws/introduction
Usability
One of the best writers on usability is the American researcher Jakob Nielsen. His website www.useit.com has a wealth of good articles on the subject.
Accessibility for people with disabilities
The World Wide Web Consortium (WC3) has created guidelines for website accessibility.
The webXACT tool is a useful standard in the accessibility field. You can run it through your website to check your accessibility rating.
The Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission advisory notes on disability discrimination and website accessibility: http://www.hreoc.gov.au/disability_rights/standards/www_3/www_3.html
The Australian government accessibility standards: http://www.agimo.gov.au/practice/mws/accessibility
A US nonprofit view of accessibility: http://www.techsoup.org/howto/articlepage.cfm?ArticleId=579&topicid=5
In 2000, a blind man Bruce Maguire lodged a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission against SOCOG, the organisers of the Sydney Olympic Games, on the grounds that their website was not accessible to blind people. His complaint was successful, SOGOG was fined and the complaint later upheld on appeal in the Federal Court. See http://www.hreoc.gov.au/disability_rights/decisions/comdec/2000/DD000120.htm
The UK group Webcredible has a large amount of information in plain language on making your website accessible: http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-accessibility/
Metadata
A guide to metadata and AGLS: http://www.agimo.gov.au/practice/delivery/checklists/metadata
Pros and cons of PDFs
Jakob Nielsen on why PDFs are ‘a crime against usability’
Jakob Nielsen again on gateway pages to ‘prevent PDF shock’.
XML
The main resource for those working with XML: www.XML.org
A private website from O’Reilly Publishing: www.XML.com