THE WEBSTER’S DICTIONARY
By Ralph Benko
Available as an e-book at www.thewebstersdictionary.com
REVIEWED BY CHRISTOPHER SHAVER
Ralph Benko, aka “the Webster,” has the answers for advocacy groups who want to create effective Web sites, and he has written them down in the format of an e-book that will come into print later this month. The book’s title is “The Webster’s Dictionary,” but Mr. Benko is careful to point out that his term, “webster,” is a word he coined to describe “web pilots,” and in no way is a trademark infringement of the old and venerable dictionary of the same name. Merriam-Webster Inc. weighs in this way: “Other publishers may use the term Webster, but only Merriam-Webster products are backed by 150 years of accumulated knowledge and experience.”
In any case, although “the Webster” doesn’t have 150 years of knowledge behind him, he does have two years of online Web experience. He notes that on his Web he did what other advocacy groups couldn’t do, that is, experiment online with different Web techniques before getting down to the business of putting his discoveries into writing.
“That kind of latitude simply is not available to a policymaker, analyst, orinstitute executive with a real-time mission to fulfill and animage to maintain,” he writes.
He compares himself to Dante being lost “within the forest dark,” when describing the transition from being a website visitor to a Web publisher. Setting the tone for the rest of the book, he notes that starting to build a Web site may be comparable to “a venture into Hell.”
Reviewing Mr. Benko’s book proved to have it own set of problems. At first, as I tried to decipher the trail of words that wind through the Web site, I was confronted with more parentheses than I expected. And the Webster turns out to be a little more verbose than I expected. In the book, there are bits and pieces of information that last for several pages that Mr. Benko could well have summed up in a few paragraphs.
However, the Webster did succeed in introducing this reviewer to the myriad considerations related to setting up a Web site: How much it should cost, what certain buzzwords mean and how a Web site can operate more as an investment than a “silver bullet.”
And if there are questions about who the target reader is, the book’s second chapter makes that clear. Mr. Benko writes:
“The Webster wrote this book primarily for those who lead small and midsized policy and advocacy organizations. The Dictionary is directed at those passionate enough to take some moderate, calculated risks in order to make a real difference.”
But the real meat of the book becomes apparent in the fourth chapter. In it, Mr. Benko incorporates a grand list of facts, including what the term RSS stands for, what the term wiki means in Hawaiian and the difference between Web 2.0 and Web 1.0. (He writes the former is based more around community building, as opposed to the latter, which is based on simple information).
One of the most interesting segments of the book is the one devoted to the success stories of various advocacy groups. MoveOn.org is the main group Mr. Benko mentions. But there is a terrific take on how, with the help of Wikipedia, Trevor Lyman started a successful fundraising campaign online for former presidential nominee, Ron Paul.The Webster also succeeds in showing why Sen. Barack Obama did so well in the Democratic primaries.
For the most part, however, Mr. Benko, steers clear of hot button issues, rarely showing political bias. However, it is obvious that Mr. Benko is a Sarah Palin fan.
As I approached the end of Mr. Benko’s book, it was a pleasant surprise to find that he placed important information there. He had interesting things to say about what the domain name should look like, and he added important information about what components are needed in a site start-up. However, where it might have been helpful had he provided diagrams or screen shots of what he was describing, he chose instead to add random photos with witty punchlines. Entertaining but a little off-task.
Nevertheless, at the end of the book, Mr. Benko did offer some very important tips: Avoid hyphens when choosing your domain name and be sure to e-mail members of your community. His book also gives readers a good idea of what an advocacy team should look like if it is going to be effective. An added bonus are several useful hyperlinks. One caveat though, there are so many of them, they can on occasion be distracting.
Mr. Benko is at his best discussing the spirit of online advocacy. Beyond creating commnities, he shows how they are designed to “excite and mobilize,” which explains why he prefers that his operation be known as a “webvehicle” as opposed to a Web site.
Mr. Benko rounds out his book having some fun comparing “mediocre” sites to MoveOn.org. (A perfect spot, by the way, for more screen shots and less quips). Also, he offers some lively tips about advertising, “page ranking by the search engines,” security and on-site analytics - all of which offer great insight into the online world.
Mr. Benko concludes with even more information that renders his book a winner. There is his interview with Knox Bronson - graphic designer, site designer and site developer - who gives a different perspective on site development and some of the biggest challenges for a professional of Mr. Bronson’s caliber.
The Webster rounds things out by ending with a discussion of legal issues that are useful and crucial. Readers are informed about what they need to know about Terms of Use policies and Copyright infringement policies.
“The Websters’ Dictionary” is nothing close to an actual dictionary, but it is a how-to book for our times, well written and infused with humor. Mr. Benko offers his advice to advocacy groups everywhere to help them get a head start with their Web site and how to avoid common mistakes. Although some of the humor and many of the parenthetical detours may not be to everyone’s taste, Mr. Benko gives online advocacy groups just what they need without the jargon that frequently comes with online how-to books.
• Christopher Shaver is an intern for the Digital Communities at The Washington Times.
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