>I am looking at developing an web based app that I created as a desktop based application. Please don't laugh but.... Where do I begin?
You might want to take a look at Lianja (
www.lianja.com). The release looks firm for 8Jan2014 including the cloudserver, which takes the desktop app you build and runs it in pure html5/CSS3/Javascript (utilizing JQuery merged with bootstrap, etc., but you don't have to do any of that) on desktop and mobile (the latter using Phonegap, with the packaging all set up for you).
Hank