We Want Your Organization's  Technical Links To Support The FOA's New Reference Guide To Fiber Optics

Submit Your Links to Fiber Optic Technical Materials For Listing On The FOA Online Fiber Optic Reference Website Executive Summary: The FOA wants to expand its Online Fiber Optic Reference Website (http://www.thefoa.org/tech/ref/) by adding links to other organizations' online materials. The FOA is doing this Free as a service to the industry like our other projects. All you need to do to participate is to tell us what page on your website links to your technical material or create a single web page on your site to list the materials you wish to offer, keep that web page updated and promise not to move it so we won't have a lost link. The new FOA Online Fiber Optic Reference Website (http://www.thefoa.org/tech/ref/) is now available for use by everyone. We created it as a comprehensive website on fiber optics to complement our textbooks and Tech Topics website. It is designed for use as a teaching tool for our hundreds of FOA-approved schools and their thousands of students taking CFOT certification classes each year. It’s designed as a technical reference site for the 25,000+ FOA CFOTs certified since 1995. And it’s made available free to everyone interested in fiber optics looking for a single source of comprehensive technical information and lesson plans for self-study on fiber optic topics. Feedback in the first month indicates it’s going to be a very popular site! Take a look for yourself if you have not seen it yet: http://www.thefoa.org/tech/ref/ and peruse the contents page http://www.thefoa.org/tech/ref/contents.html to see the extent of its content available already. Are we already the largest "library" of fiber optic information on the web? That's what we're being told! The FOA recognizes that many fiber optic vendors and other organizations have created lots of technical reference materials that are valuable to those working in the industry or studying to become part of it. It will also help us provide an even broader spectrum of information on fiber optics. The problem is making sure those interested can find that material! We think we may have a solution. The FOA will create an “Information Links” section on our Fiber Optic Reference website. For each contributor, we’ll have a vendor or organization logo, description of materials available and a link to a special page on the vendor’s website listing the materials available. Contributors are free to promote white papers, technical application notes, product literature, or anything they think will be of interest to our audience. Organization listings on the FOA web page will be alphabetical and indexed. Why should you participate? It's free publicity! The website will be promoted highly. It will provide high quality referrals to your website. It should be seen by lots of readers. Did I say it was free? In today's economy, that must have some benefit!! And, an added benefit is the FOA has added a unique "Google Custom Search" function to the  Fiber Optic Reference Website (see it on the Table of Contents) which will help link people to your technical materials and products! Participation Participation is free to any organization, but there are some conditions (for everybody but publications- see below): You must have or create a webpage to list all the links from your company’s technical literature (white papers, technical application notes, etc.) and products you want to promote on our site. If you have a permanent page of links to your technical resources, we can link to that. That web page URL must NOT MOVE! We want these to be valid links so our readers will not get frustrated chasing bad links. Company web developers are notorious about making changes and we do not have the resources to chase bad links. You must have a FOA-dedicated page and the URL must be fixed, something like  <yourdomain.com/FOA/> or <yourdomain.com/FOA.html>. Or create a unique domain, e.g. <yourdomainFOA.com>. We'll get everybody to update their materials once a year. So the viewers we send to you know they are at the right place, we'd prefer this FOA linked page identify itself as a referral page from the FOA, show the FOA logo (download from http://www.thefoa.org/FOA2.jpg), have a link back to the FOA Online Fiber Optic Reference Website (http://www.thefoa.org/tech/ref/) as well as all your links. Links on your page must be in sections, e.g. White Papers, Application Notes, Product Literature, etc. as appropriate. Each link should have a title and an explanation of the material. Within these bounds, turn those web developers loose! But please remind them we are promoting our site as being useful for not only PC users but to portable web-enabled devices like the iPhone, so they should consider that in their designs! Magazines & Publications: Because of the large number of articles archived, it's probably easier to link to your search page and provide directions from out site. Just let us know you want to participate! What will the links page look like on the FOA website? Something like this preliminary page. It  includes a few real links already! What should a contributor page look like: Here's one idea of what we recommend. Want to contribute? Contact us to let us know you are interested.(Email jim@thefoa.org or call 760-451-3655) Set up a page for your company and send us the URL along with a small (150 X 150 pixel logo) and a short (<100 word) description. We'll add you to the page and publish it on our site ASAP. Questions? Email <jim@thefoa.org> or call 760-451-3655. We hope you can help us organize all that great info out there!

 

(C)2009, Table of Contents: The FOA Reference Guide To Fiber Optics