Define "author" of a website

esperanza

I'm doing a project on the evalutation of websites and one of the criteria refers to the author of a website. This term "author" is currently the subject of much discussion in our group , as we can't seem to reach a conclusion about its meaning - is the author of a website the person who creates it or the person responsible for its content? Is it common to find the authors of a site mentioned on the site, for example, their email address and so on.

Please if anyone out there can help, I can start enjoying the rest of my weekend.;)

angelofdeath

the person who creates it is the author, the person who edits the content i suppose would be called the webmaster or something

and yeah most website creators will link back to their own site

steveland?

angelofdeath wrote:

the person who creates it is the author, the person who edits the content i suppose would be called the webmaster or something

and yeah most website creators will link back to their own site

I would've thought it was the other way round.

Webmaster is responsible for upkeep and design, author writes the content.

I suppose it depends on context. The author of the site could be there person who coded it, the author of the content is the person who posts articles etc

AARRRGH

I always consider a website which has an "author" is a website run by one person only, possibly an American.

I always call myself the owner of a website if I write it myself or if I have a programmer working for me.

Syth

I'd say the person responsible for content is the author. The webmaster is nothing more than a typesetter so to speak.

For example if an article in a newspaper was written by Kevin Myers, but that page in the newspaper was layed out by Joe Soap, who would you consider to the author of the article?

angelofdeath

au·thor (ô'thər)
n.

1. 1. The writer of a book, article, or other text.
   2. One who practices writing as a profession.
2. One who writes or constructs an electronic document or system, such as a website.
3. An originator or creator, as of a theory or plan.
4. Author God.

depends on context i guess, could be both

edit:/ actually no, when you say author of a website, then the content alone doesn't encompass the whole of the site, and therefore i still say the author would be the coder/creator of the site

maidhc

In most circumstances the author will be the owner of the copyright of the website. Normally the actual coder disclaims his/her copyright (for a fee obviously)

So if I get Coolwebsites.com to make me a website to my specifications with my content, I will be the author. It doesnt really matter who wrote the HTML. Otherwise Wordpress would be the author of thousands of blogs...

RobertFoster

Ask the person who set the project to disambiguate tbh.

esperanza

RobertFoster wrote:

Ask the person who set the project to disambiguate tbh.

Well, I tried that and because there are two different groups, the lecturer has been very cagey about providing a straight answer.

We asked her on Friday and she said that the author was the person who created the site and the person who is responsible for its content. This, to me, at least doesn't seem all that clear. I would have thought that a government agency, such as a central bank (this is the website we have to study), would subcontract the creation of websites to an IT company or freelancer, thus they would create the site, but of course the central bank is still responsible for the content of the site. Could we use the term "owner" in this case?

esperanza

maidhc wrote:

In most circumstances the author will be the owner of the copyright of the website. Normally the actual coder disclaims his/her copyright (for a fee obviously)

Thanks for your definition of author, now I need a definition to fit the desciption of the person who created the webiste.

steveland?

If someone was making a site using a pre-made CMS/Bulletin Board/Whatever little PHP/ASP/etc application, then I'd consider the person who writes the articles or content to be the author.

If it was someone who made the site from scratch or just encorporated parts of the premade systems then I might consider them the author...

I just don't know anymore

TempestSabre

You need to define website since its too wide ranging. A website can have more than one author. The person who created the website is the author of it. However a website might be build by larger team of people. Also the author(s) of the website might not be the author of all or even any of the content on the website.

This is one of those BS questions that can have loads of different answers depending on the context. Usually favored by lecturers who want some ambiguity in how they mark stuff, or by certification "courses" to catch people out.

I'd say the creator(s) of the website. If someone disagrees because of copyright, or liability etc, then they are extending the scope of the original question and its BS.

esperanza

TempestSabre wrote:

You need to define website since its too wide ranging. A website can have more than one author. The person who created the website is the author of it. However a website might be build by larger team of people. Also the author(s) of the website might not be the author of all or even any of the content on the website.

This is one of those BS questions that can have loads of different answers depending on the context. Usually favored by lecturers who want some ambiguity in how they mark stuff, or by certification "courses" to catch people out.

I'd say the creator(s) of the website. If someone disagrees because of copyright, or liability etc, then they are extending the scope of the original question and its BS.

To define website, here is the website I have to evaluate: www.bankofengland.co.uk

Hope that's clear.

Would the Bank of England be the author of the website?

Snowbat

That depends on whether you mean the author of the content or the author (designer/coder) of the page.

In the context of a website, the term 'author' is far too ambiguous.

esperanza

Snowbat wrote:

That depends on whether you mean the author of the content or the author (designer/coder) of the page.

In the context of a website, the term 'author' is far too ambiguous.

Thanks for that thought-provoking reply. Now, perhaps I can persuade our group to rephrase the question.

maidhc

Author is ambiguous alright, but when you think of it no one really cares who wrote the code for the Bank of England website, or the content within in for that matter. The website is entirely owned by BoE as a legal personality, the fact its employees or contractors did the work is not relevant. Therefore it is only logical that BoE is the "author".

Likewise take "project gutenberg" (gutenberg.org). They dont own any of the content in that website, and perhaps didnt write the code that powers it, but I would say are the "authors" of the website.

esperanza

I would say, on your average(non business) website, the 'author' who set it up is the one(mostly) who maintains it. As for something like the bank of England you're right, this was probably out sourced to a company. It would be that company who is the 'author' but maybe also the people who commissioned it, ie the bank of england in this case could be seen as the 'author', perhaps. Whilst they may not have personally set it up they ARE certainly responsible for its content and so in that context, for me anyway, they are as good as the 'author'. Also, you could, in that sense say, the author is not well identified but is presumed, that is implied to be the bank of england as no other 'author' can be identified. If no other 'author' is named then the reader has to presume it is the bank of england as no other option is readily available.

This is the reply I just got from a friend of mine, I must admit it's the clearest reply I've had yet. Unless there is some Internet expert out there!!!

angelofdeath

i would still maintain that the coders of the banks site are the authors, the bank would own the copyright but that would still only make them the owners of the site, not the authors

as for the content added after the website is initially written, well yes the bank may well be the author of that

Capt'n Midnight

I would say that the Author is the person who writes the text that readers see.

When books are in different formats, hardback / paperback or even translated to other languages the Author remains unchanged. The printer / typesetter / translators / illustrator are not regarded as the Author.

axer

I would inclined to think there are two authors to most websites. The website author (design/coding of website) and the content author (all articles etc.) but obviously sometimes the both content and web development/design are done by the same person.

angelofdeath

i'd agree with axer

i'd say primarily the author of a website would be the creator/designer
taking boards.ie for example, cloud would be considered the author of boards.ie but breaking it down

cloud =desiger of boards.ie
phbb =code behind boards.ie
thread starter =author of the thread
poster =author of the post

so there could be several "authors" of a website
but when you say "author of a website" then to me at least the creator/desgner would be the person that comes to mind

esperanza

angelofdeath wrote:

i'd agree with axer

i'd say primarily the author of a website would be the creator/designer
taking boards.ie for example, cloud would be considered the author of boards.ie but breaking it down

cloud =desiger of boards.ie
phbb =code behind boards.ie
thread starter =author of the thread
poster =author of the post

so there could be several "authors" of a website
but when you say "author of a website" then to me at least the creator/desgner would be the person that comes to mind

THanks for your post, but when it comes to the Central Bank wouldn't you consider the Bank of England to be the author or the company to whom the creation of the website was outsourced?

angelofdeath

i'd consider the author to be the company to whom the creation of the website was outsourced, and i'd consider the bank to be the owners of the site

esperanza

Are those mentioned in the Disclaimer, representatives of national Bank of England, the authors?

Here's the link.
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/disclaimer.htm

If not, how do I find out who is responsible for the content of the website, or in tha case of government organsiations, is it always the organisation?

blorg

We asked her on Friday and she said that the author was the person who created the site and the person who is responsible for its content.

The Bank of England is almost certainly the "author" in this case, they created the site and are responsible for its content. (The fact that they may have outsorced the coding is not really relevant.)

I don't imagine that whatever you put in that one line is in any case going to make or break your project.