Beginning student developer: Please help with basic questions

[ATrue]

Hi,
I am new to developing for GIS (only have taken one ArcObjects class). I have an ArcGIS Desktop (Editor + extensions) student edition. My goal is to create a simple web map (with JavaScript) for a very small non-profit organization I volunteer for and attach it to their website. This project will span 2 semsters at school, so I have time to learn.

Can I develop a web map and deploy it without ArcGIS Server? That does not seem possible (or really make sense). I don't know anything about ArcGIS Server in any case.

Basically, all I have to do is create one shapefile and display it with various types of public data (e.g. streets, population, schools). I would like users to be able to click layers on/off, pan around, zoom in, etc. It seems like simple stuff, I just don't know how to get my shapefile out into the world. Is there any way a student can do this?

Thank you

[MicahWilliamson]

If you are asking if you can publish a shapefile as an ArcGIS Serivce, without ArcGIS Server, the answer is no.

if you just want to share data; there are tools outside of ESRI that will allow you to post files. I'm thinking of KML files, Google Map API, Open Source MapServer, cloud computing etc...

Jack Dangermond (ESRI CEO) just gave a talk about "Open GIS" last week at the Where 2.0 conference, here's a link.
http://www.youtube.com/v/YK9ny-t_CdQ

I don't think i answered anything, but i hope i helped.
-Micah

[ATrue]

Micah,
Thank you. You did answer my questions. I had just begun looking at http://arcgisonline.esri.com/home/ There are some dead links right now, so I cannot sign up and play, but I hope to be able to create a webmap and embed it on the non-profit's website. I don't know how much you can customize a argisonline webmap though.

The thing that I find confusing now is, can you create a webmap on ArcGIS Online with ArcGIS API for JavaScript and ArcGIS Online hosts it for you? Or, am I stuck with their basic webmap and I won't be able to touch code?

Apologies if I sound ignorant. I know a little about GIS and not a whole lot about servers and web enabled systems.

[HermanusBrynard]

You may want to look at MapServer for Windows as an option to serve your map. There is good documentation and some nice examples on the website (http://mapserver.org). TheOneGeology website (http://OneGeology.org) illustrates how this is is implemented.

[MicahWilliamson]

I'd definitely recommend starting with the JavaScript API Samples. The HTML code is completely open and you can re-position the map to be over your location. The maps, however, are not open. If you want to host your own data, maybe a Google Map or A Bing Map Mash-up?
http://resources.esri.com/arcgisserver/apis/javascript/gmaps/

Good Luck & have fun.