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From FireWiki

HOWTO: Create a Fire Department Website from theFireWiki

Why Create A Departmental Website on theFirewiki

Occasionally I receive emails on how to generate a departmental website using theFireWiki. We've extended this offer to any fire department that wishes to create a departmental website from here. The benefits are two-fold:

1. It provides a free resource for departments to post events, gain a web presence, and to communicate with their community.
2. It begins to catalog as a resource the fire departments internationally.

This has become an incredible resource to research fire departments and how they work. The interesting thing observed is the common threads among fire service organizations that exist internationally. For emergency services, the world is truly becoming flat. Consider for a moment that you are researching some SOG's or practices for your department. Utilizing this resource, you are now able to look within your neighboring communities or the world over for information. Departments can post as much or as little as they wish, all we ask is that you share your information, because what is beginning to evolve is an incredible knowledge base of information for emergency services. As this evolution process continues, you will be able to search information in your native language making information exchange even easier.

Simple Steps to Create Your Website

First, before beginning to develop a departmental site, please review the basic skills of development for this site. While one can easily type text into the window, one can create an amazingly beautiful and creative site. Take advantage of all the tools available. To begin reviewing the basic tools and to utilize some of the tutorials go the Help.

Second, once your site is complete, you will need to create a web address to link to it. There are numerous hosting companies available today to that are free or next to free. Generally, if you are spending more than a few dollars for an IP address, you are spending too much. If you need recommendations, leave your question and user name on the talk page here and someone will reply.

Finally, with your website developed and your web address in hand, go to the hosting service's site and generate a "forward" link to the page address of your site on theFireWiki. This will make it easier for people to find your site. An alternative, if your government runs its own website, you may find it easier to link from there to your site on theFireWiki. If either your hosting service or your government site offers "masking" then apply it if you like. This will keep your web address in the browser window at all times.

Now you have a departmental website that is easy to find and can be updated regularly with ease. If you have any problems or questions, please feel free to post your question on the Talk Page here. Someone will answer it quickly and you will get an excellent response.