Project Progress... FINALLY

For the first time I was able to meet with Matt Thompson over the ColumbiaTomorrow project. This is the project I've been assigned to for my Advanced Internet Applications Class. It's been extremely difficult to schedule a meeting with the group based on my schedule this semester. However it was nice to finally get this meeting out of the way.

I learned a lot about the project and the direction Matt wants us to go in. When I first got on this project, I thought it was going to be mapping out the different ways Columbia has grown over the years. Instead it's about how Columbia is planning to grow. I think both ideas would be really interesting to do. The way Columbia has grown map would be a great sidebar to the entire website. That way visitors can see how the city has grown. It could be used as background information.

It was interesting to talk with Matt because I think my idea of mapping is VERY different from what he wants, however, I think a collaboration of ideas would really benefit. When I thought of this project I saw flash maps, but he wants us to actually map out these new developments. I think a combination of these ideas could make some really interactive graphics which would really enhance the website.

This project is going to be really interesting to work on and I can't wait to get started. It's going to be a great website and very informative for mid-Missouri.

Educating on the Web

Today was all about education on KOMU.com. I helped the convergence student put up a slideshow. Thankfully, last week I figured out how to post one myself so I could help him. My teacher Jen told me on slideshows it's better to have discriptions for the pictures, which helps tell the story. I was happy to help pass on the information. Knowledge is power.



I also educated one very important KOMUer on Facebook. I'm proud to say Angie Bailey is now on the fabulous networking site. We went over the basics of friending, notifications, the wall, comments, photos, etc. My next conquest will be to get the rest of the KOMU anchors on Twitter. Speaking of Twitter...


I have come to love Twitter. It is so much fun to update my staus and catch up on the mini-events in people's lives. I find on Monday, I update it constantly... Tuesday has less frequent updates and by the time Wednesday rolls around, I'm down to one or two a day. Hopefully, I can keep the participation up. I'm learning the @replies business and the RT capabilities. I wish there was a tweet-to-tweet function. Like wall-to-wall on facebook. Sometimes I want to look at the conversation's I've had with other people. Hopefully, they'll figure it out soon... or maybe I will...

EDIT -- The search capability on KOMU.com is struggling, and so I can't find the story I helped with. Now that I mention it... I couldn't find one of my stories last week. I want to make our content more searchable and easy to find on our website.

PROJECT UPDATE -- I have not met with Matt Thompson yet on our Columbia growth project. For some reason, I am very booked up this semester. We're working together to find a common time so at least Matt, Jill and I can meet.

Workin' on the Web

This was probably my first official web shift since the summer. It's weird because I've come full circle in a sense. My first shift at KOMU was the paid web shift a year ago... now I'm one of the freebies helping the paid person. I will say this... once you learn it though, it's hard to forget. I might not have done web in about 6 months, but I still remember how to post everything like video and images.

I came in and my partner in crime, Nick Guillory was already posting the dayside stories. Most of the reporters had their copy written and the earlier web person, Kat Lucchesi, had already saved the images.

Slowly but surely, we got everything up. At one point we thought we had a deadline of 7:20 because the video transfer system from NewsCutter to ACM was being updated. Thankfully we got most of it pushed over before the deadline. We missed the Caring Familes pkg by Meredith Miller, but the story went up and added the video later.

My pride and joy of the night was the slideshow I made for the Sarah's Story on the champion cake maker that works at HyVee. It was actually really easy on flickr. Not going to lie... the idea came from Kat. Talk about teamwork.

Nick and I started working on the nightside reporter's story. He's a grad student and it was his first shift so we wrote his vosot for him. We also worked on getting images and video. Video was having some issues once they upgraded the transfer system from NewsCutter to ACM -- the Sarah's Story video never went through, and then it took about 30 minutes for the three pieces of video we cut from the 10 p.m. show to transfer.

All in all, it's great to be back on the web.