historical web development projeX
My first work with web development began sometime
in 1995 working as a public affairs specialist for an agency within
the Department of Defense. Interested in getting press releases in
the public domain as quickly as possible, I found myself learning HTML
and sending the files via e-mail to the techies who posted the information.
Offered the same position, same pay, same grade at the agency's headquarters
outside our nation's capitol, I thought a little about it, but knew for
my career there really was no thinking necessary. Once at the headquarters,
Steve and I began the biggest clean-up the agency's internet site had
seen since its establishment - a clean-up initiated by successive letters
from the Doc - removing content and standardizing information. It wasn't
soon after that I began developing a plan and aligning the site toward
the principles I believed the plan should support.
To move the agency into similar thinking, I jumpstarted the agency's
Web Committee, that Steve established to review the web content, and
established the agency's Web Management Council, designed to bring
the 'information resource management plans to the top realm of the agency's
decisionmaking'. In the spring of my final year with the agency, I had
written two policy memos:
the first, established the headquarters public affairs office as the focal
point for all information considered accessible to the general public
via the internet;
the second, established the headquarters public affairs office as the
focal point for all information considered for inclusion on any web platform,
inter, intra or extranet.
The first letter went off without a hitch. The second letter, while signed
into policy, didn't hold water. No one in the agency recognized the public
affairs office as the focal point for information that wasn't going public.
I agree on the surface with many of the arguments, but someone or some
entity had to take control of the agency's web program and I felt our
office was positioned to do so.
I resigned from the position in July 1998. The internet site exists for
the most part as it did prior to my departure. The site now includes a
feedback/inquiry form, which Steve and I had tried to implement upon my
arrival in the headquarters. Not having access to the intranet or extranet
sites, I can't imagine that they've changed, because if the necessary
changes were made to them then the internet would have been impacted.
And the maverick sites still exist. The doc wouldn't be happy.
Imagine an IRS site without tax information or the social security site
without retirement information. It's probably hard to imagine a site so
negligent. This site had so much potential.
I'm not suggesting things were any better when I was there, but maybe
that's why I left on my terms.
I thought my next position as a web manager for a division within the
National Cancer Institute would be different and in many ways it was.
It was more money, more flexibility, and I final made it to the private
sector. In a democratic society where majority rules, it was exactly the
same. Management still didn't recognize the significance of a web presence,
couldn't decipher between an internet, intranet or extranet, and because
of this couldn't share their understanding with subordinates.
I'll qualify the above statement by saying that if they did know the difference,
they still failed to recognize their audience or failed to make things
happen in a timely manner.
I said the new position offered money and it did. More importantly, it
raised my confidence in my abilities as a web developer. I knew when I
took the position that I was being underpaid as a web developer, but it
was more than I was making before and at least now I knew I was being
underpaid. When working for the government, I was even more nieve.
I said the new position offered more flexibility and it did. I wore gyms,
jeans and T-shirts to work everyday that I wasn't going to an interview.
I got to touch all the technology that I wanted, if I wanted.
With the server in the same room as me, I learned a lot about the
technology that I didn't understand while with the defense agency. It
helped me understand what control freaks the techies were, because I became
a similar control freak now that I held the 'keys' to the server. I also
got to learn how to develop database application development using
Cold Fusion 3.0. It helped me understand how unconcerned, uninvolved
or unknowing the techies or management were, because the right query application
could have done wonders for the site.
The flexibility also allowed me to make the site - my site. For most of
the time I was there, when I wasn't learning from David, I began to develop
the second iteration of the division's
web site with the existing content flaws and under the confines of
the NCI Web Integration Project. (The division has since went to another
look and feel. It appears that the transition to Story Server or even
the attaining the goals layed out were never accomplished - the beauracracy
wins again. 05/05/2000) I wanted to make the transition to Story Server
as easy as possible, for the person who would have to transition information
from our server to the NCI server. Story Server was to be the etopia for
the NCI web, but it's still in progress and it will likely inherit a lot
of the problems that are inherent in the existing subordinate sites. The
second iteration of the site may have been better than the first, but
it still suffered from lack of ingenuity. I designed the site from embedded
concepts from the previous position that I had always wanted to employ.
Some of it worked. Some of it didn't. If someone seemed to care for the
right reasons a little bit other than myself or David, I would have tried
to care a little more.
I said the new position was in the private sector and it was, but it wasn't.
As a contractor for the government, I still had to deal with the old school
tactics, play the 'game of soothing people's egos' and watch decisions
being made that spent money - senselessly. This was a good experience.
It helped me understand that working for a company outside of the government
doesn't make you immune to some of the 'stupidity' within it.
I suppose the best part of this position is that I found a colleague in
David, who has as many crazy
ideas as I did and some of his work, and that I learned that I have
no career aspirations of being a techie. The new motto is I want to understand,
appreciate and be able to conceptualize the technology, and maybe be able
to do it if it gets me the right position, but I need to remain focused
on the communication aspects of the business. There were really on two
downfalls to the position:
first, the commute was a killer and I can't image what it would be like
in the summer, on the metro with sweaty people nestled next to me;
second, it was only David and me. Two people, especially us, could come
up with a lot of ideas, but not enough ideas, not enough interaction.
This third web development position opportunity came out of the blue.
A temp agency that I had spoke with nearly nine months ago called and
informed me of the position. I interviewed and now I'm here. The money
is better and I know it always can, and it's in the private sector. There's
a lot going on in the company, a buy-out, personnel changes, and they're
not sure where I'm going to be working as the guy who hired me has left
the company, too. The new IT manager is leaning on me to provide guidance
and standards for web development. I'm a consultant of sorts. I've
provided a review and recommendations of the current corporate site (which
isn't live yet) and not sure where it stands. I'm not sure where I stand
at now either. At this point the company seems somewhat reactive. I like
waiting around and learning things on my own initiative, but I'd like
a position that pushes a little harder.
For nearly the last year, I've worked in the current position as the operations
lead for DefenseLINK. There's tons
of work here and for the first time since the first position, I'm working
closely with the public affairs community again. This position seems to
be slightly more technical, in that, I'm responsible for the development
of the content management application (using Cold Fusion). However, at
least I get to interface with the information owners and it appears the
information owners are busy enough creating and managing the information
that they enjoy the fact they have technical support web-enabling their
information.
The last couple months on this position have given me the opportunity
to develop the content publishing/management system. It's a web based
environment that allows content owners to post information to a form and
submit it for posting to the web. I developed it so that any number of
different 'products', information formats, can be generated. I also worked
to make templates so that the information published can be downloaded
from the web to hand-held devices in a friendly format. It allows content
owners to embed images and load captions to these images, upload related
files, or even create relate sites or hyperlinks within the body. It's
a pretty robust tool and after the initial beta test and with a thorough
scrub of the code, it could definitely work to manage the content on any
small development site. As I learn more about it and have a better understanding
how the infrastructure supports it, I can isolate how well it will work
on a major development site.
Nearly 10 months after departing the DefenseLINK post, I write this. My DefenseLINK experience was by far the most rewarding experience in retrospect. The number of projects, the volume of work and the visibility of the efforts are likely unmatched in any other position thinkable. The content publishing system described above never came to full fruition under my tenure; however, several visible modules did and worked very effectively from my perspective. The module developed included the application necessary to update the Web Sites, Selected Sites and Top Sites sections of DefenseLINK. It provided content managers the ability to update the site without knowing HTML, having to learn how FTP worked, or anything other than the web interface for input. This module was a robust effort and through the diligent quality assurance of Capt. Taylor became a huge accomplishment. It was a simple but elegant solution for providing his team the ability to update their area's of responsibilities on the site. In addition to this module, the publication module was completed. This provided the Harold the ability to update the site, as well, with current publication information without the rigors of learning HTML, FTP and the like. It appears that the application is still in use (Dec. 6, 2001) as many of the properties of the pages are retained since my departure.
Prior to departure, I provided two fairly extensive documents for the team that would replace me 1.) a document which highlighted the existing inconsistencies in the site and 2) a vision of what I thought the next DefenseLINK should look like with justification for each design element. I anxiously await their arrival
Atlantic Information Services.
In April 2001, completed a report for Atlantic Information Services which offered a synopsis of areas of improvement on their web site located at http://www.aishealth.com/. The scope of this report covered three categorical areas for improvement:
I. Items that can be changed immediately or through understanding will immediately improve the site;
II. Items that can be changed in the short term;
III.
Items that can be changed in the long term.
While the site still contains the same look and feel that it had prior to our first meeting in early March, many of the fundamental flaws addressed in these meeting and the report have been addressed and satisfied to some extent.
Department
of Communication and Creative Arts. (Live
Feb 5, 2000)
This design experience was certainly interesting as I met with the "client"
once face-to-face during a visit to Indiana. All other communications
occurred via e-mail correspondences. With the framework laid for the site
toward the end of the year, the most time consuming part of the effort
was probably experience by the "client" who was responsible for providing
the content. The site was activated in February 2000.
While today the design looks somewhat elementary, I believe great steps
where made in the way that information is organized and available - specifically
the addition of the course schedules and alumni information which previously
did not exist. The two ways in which the university is able to generate
revenue is through students registering for courses and alumni contributing
donations. Now these audiences are recognized by the department. Further,
the banner appearing on the home page offers the department a means to
advertise events or information of significance - at this time it is rotating
banners between admissions
and the campus
map information.
Furthermore, I believe the department has become proactive in recognizing
the value of their web site as a communications mechanism. Updates to
the site appear to be occurring more regularly than an annual process
and as I understand it students have taken over the operational duties
of the site.
Southwest Florida Chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association.
Completed and Launched in January 2002. In October 2001, took over responsibility for maintenance of the Chapter's web presence. By January 2002, I will present to the Chapter Board of Director's a plan to increase the effectiveness of the web site, to streamline the maintenance of the site, and to introduce the Board to the idea of nominating our Chapter's site for an award.
CompuSven E-Mail Shuttle Evaluation Download.
In November 2001, launched the initial release of the CompuSven E-Mail Shuttle Evaluation Download Site. This effort provided an opportunity to work with Cold Fusion, again. The application provides end-users the opportunity to register and to obtain access to the company's evaluation software. Once registered and approved, users will have access to up-to-date information and evaluation software. Update January 2002: The Evaluation Download Site has been focused to be the download site, so that new and existing/closed customers retrieve the software downloads from the same site. Also, several backend applications have been designed to maintain, administer and oversee the site.
