Here in the year 2008, I start this blog with the urgings of those who know me. I’ve been in the ‘web design’ business since 1995. As time goes on, my educational background, BBA – Mktg, my business skills (this is my second company), along with the artist in me, has combined to put me in the thick of an incredibly fast paced, and fascinating field.
In 1995 none of us knew that the field would be where it is today. Oh, we had clues. I was positive that this medium would be PERFECT for distance learning. In 1996 I was contracted by Gardner Communications, in a collaborative effort, to provide CREN (Corporation for Research and Educational Networking), Internet2 and Merit Networks a shell exactly for distance learning purposes.
Back then, the challenge was that the platforms were all in a very fast paced development phase. The tools were Netscape (Number 1 browser by a landslide) and the very new javascript. Every time we made some headway in the project there was a new release, either of the browser or javascript and we were back a few steps. Rick (our programmer) was on the phone with the Javascript developers pretty regularly, as I recall. We pushed through and created a cutting edge environment that allowed for synchronizing of video, graphics and animation. It relied on Netscape 3.1, SMIL, html, and javascript. As long as you stayed with Netscape 3.1 it worked perfectly! The problem was no one had a pipe big enough to view our educational series online. The final delivery was a CD!!!
My part of this groundbreaking technological feat, was that of information architect (a brand new field set into being by 2 friends who had their office one block from mine – Peter Morville and Lou Rosenfield), creative director and coder.
Ahhh, but I digress. Here it is way down the road and I am still here. I LOVE this field. Our websites are now made by a team of talented specialists with my strategic leadership. I am a marketer who understands the powerful effectiveness of a mindfully produced site. A web site is an integral portion of a comprehensive marketing strategy. The biggest development in the field that facilitated the importance of the online presence is metrics. We can now measure the effectiveness of our online marketing effort. We can determine what is working. We can, through persuasive calls to action, drive traffic through a specific path and achieve a specific action. Metrics bring the whole effort together. But you have to know how to get it done. We utilized measured creativitytm.