Class:Digital Portfolio 2026/Week 1
Contents
This Week
- Introductions
- Discuss class & expectations
- Discuss the Wiki
- A short history of the internet — and how it actually works for us
- Getting your house in order: domains, hosting, and email
- Introduction to building a photography portfolio online
Notes
What the heck is a Wiki
Short version: it's a collaborative website where any user can edit the contents of any page — like Wikipedia. That means all of you can add to or improve these notes if you want.
More on the idea here: Wiki.
How the Internet Works
The internet began in the 1960s as a way for government and university researchers to share information across distant computers, and the World Wide Web — the sites and links you browse — arrived in the early 1990s as one layer running on top of it. But the part worth really understanding is the mechanics: how your computer finds the right machine, and how data actually gets there. Nearly everything we do this semester depends on it — your domain, your host, and your email are all just names and addresses on this network.
Two short videos from Code.org's series, narrated by the people who actually built this (including Vint Cerf, co-inventor of TCP/IP):
- How names become addresses: The Internet: IP Addresses & DNS (~5 min). The Domain Name System is the internet's phonebook — it turns a human name like yourname.com into the numeric IP address of the actual machine. This is why the nameserver layer matters: it's what connects the domain you register to the host where your site lives.
- How data gets there: The Internet: Packets, Routing & Reliability (~6 min). Your data is broken into small packets that travel independently across the network, take different routes, and reassemble at the other end — which is what makes the internet fast and resilient.
These are part of a longer nine-video series (encryption, HTTP, cybersecurity, and more) if you want to go deeper.
- Optional history/background: History of the Internet by Melih Bilgil (2009), a clean eight-minute animated walk from ARPANET to the birth of the internet. (Backup: Internet Archive.) Also History of the Internet on Wikipedia.
Registering Your Domain Names
Looking good online starts with registering your domain name(s).
I keep a Domain Registrars reference page for you here.
- Register your domain at a dedicated registrar, and host your site somewhere separate. This gives you far more flexibility and protection if something ever goes wrong with one provider. Your registrar is the control panel where you point web traffic to a host and route your email — keep that control in its own place.
- If you have a domain registered somewhere you don't love, you can transfer it to a registrar you trust.
- Heads up — the landscape changed: Google Domains shut down and sold all its registrations to Squarespace (the transfer completed in 2024). If you registered a domain through Google in the past, it now lives at Squarespace. Solid current registrars to consider: Cloudflare Registrar (at-cost pricing), Porkbun, and Namecheap.
- A pro domain name matters: ideally your own name or studio name, kept simple and easy to say out loud.
Hosting Your Sites
Most of you will use a hosted, all-in-one platform (Squarespace, Adobe Portfolio, Pixieset, and the like) where the company runs the servers for you — there's nothing separate to "host." A few of you, for specific reasons, will want your own web host.
Do you actually need a dedicated web host? Ask yourself:
- Will you build your own site in HTML/CSS (or a framework) and upload it yourself? → Yes, you'll need a host.
- Will you self-install WordPress? → Yes.
- Will you use a hosted platform like Squarespace, Adobe Portfolio, or Pixieset? → No — hosting is included.
- Even if your main site is hosted, will you occasionally need to put files or a gallery online yourself? → Maybe.
If you do need a host, pick a provider you trust and can actually reach when something breaks.
I keep a Hosting Providers reference page for you here.
Hosting Your Email
Depending on the platform and host you choose, you may need separate email hosting — and you almost always want a professional address at your own domain (you@yourname.com), not a generic free address.
Common routes: Google Workspace (Gmail at your domain), Fastmail, Proton, or email that comes bundled with your host or registrar.
I keep an Email Hosting Services reference page for you here.
Introduction to Digital Portfolio Techniques
This week I walked you through the foundation ideas we'll build on all semester. A few principles to carry with you:
- Your work is the design. The best photography sites get out of the way — generous whitespace, restrained type, and images that carry the page. A portfolio is a sequence and an argument, not a pile.
- You shouldn't have to be a coder to look professional. Modern tools let you build a genuinely strong site without writing HTML. Your job is curation, sequencing, and point of view — let the platform handle the plumbing.
- Mobile is not the afterthought — it's the default. Most people will first see your work on a phone. "Responsive" (a site that adapts to any screen) used to be a selling point; in 2026 it's simply how the web works. Always check your site on a phone before you call it done.
- Own your home base. Social platforms are where discovery happens; your own site is where you control the experience and own the relationship. Use both — but make sure you own at least one.
Photography Site Building (CMS) Solutions
A Content Management System (CMS) lets you add and update your site without editing raw code every time. Some are fully hosted (the company runs everything); others you install on your own host and maintain yourself. We'll spend real time comparing these.
I keep a fully updated Site Building (CMS) Solutions reference page for you here — start there.
Video Notes
Every week I post videos from class. They're large files, usually broken into smaller topics.
Assignment
Your assignment this week is to get your hosting and domain situation in order. Gather what you already have, and make new arrangements where you don't.
With my help, each of you should be able to answer:
- Do I own an internet domain? How many? What is it (or are they)?
- Do I want a new domain? What would it be?
- Where is my website currently hosted?
- What is the username to log in?
- What is the password to log in?
- Have I ever actually logged in?
- Could I upload files or a new site if I wanted to?
- Do I want a different hosting provider?
- Do I like my email address?
- Do I want to change my email address or email provider?
