We believe in an approach that benefits the majority, and the use of Free and Open Source Software does just this. The site is written in PHP, MYSQL and is based on a LAMP server.

Every central page of SDB.ORG has the icons ‘Add to Favourites’ and ‘Send to a Friend’. By clicking on these icons you can respectively bookmark (that is, add the preferred page) to your Favourites folder at the top of your web-browser, or you can send the same page to a friend.

If you wish to link a particular page of sdb.org to your website just click on the icon ‘Add to Favourites’. At the top you will find the exact URL address which you will have to insert on the page of your website. In this way you can link any page you want directly from your website to the official site of the congregation and avoid making your visitors search tirelessly for relevant material.

Suggestions follow for a local/province website

1. Important questions:

• Who will this site be for? (Salesians? Employees? Students? Young people? The whole world?) Accordingly words, graphics and content would have to be chosen.
• What do we want to communicate to the target group? How can we present the information in a brief and appropriate manner?
• How can we build a site for this group that downloads fast, and is useful and easily navigable?

2. The province site and the official site of the Congregation, www.sdb.org:

• Concerning general information or information regarding the Salesian Society, www.sdb.org can be used for links from your site (see how to do this by looking at the first question above) . It is pointless repeating information already on the Congregation’s site.

3. Some useful titles for a province site:

• Province vision (aims, motives)
  1. of the province
  2. of the site
• the history of the province
  1. founders
  2. provincials
  3. deceased
  4. important dates
• A page on each work/institute/project (with LINK to that site if it exists)
• recent news, events
• province statistics: how many of us, where are we, what works, what kinds of work…
• Official documents for downloading
• Resources, sharing
• Photo gallery of province
• Forums, Discussions, etc.
• Links
• Reserved area?

4. Technically speaking:

• It is important that the site is light and downloads easily. Heavy graphics and animations slow the pace of downloading.
• Text should be precise and to the point (no long paragraphs) unless these are documents.
• News, events, daily announcements on the home page, of interest to the visitor, will keep the site updated.
• If the site has been created for young people, then more graphics, colour and animations are useful – but without making it too heavy.