Feeling Great After Week Eight

Shift Work
This week was another week for smartdecision08.com. This was the first week that I thought Smart Decision took up the time I spent out there. I was glad to be busy as usually I try to help out at KOMU.com, but think I add one too many chefs to the kitchen. I spent some of the time updating the most recent stories, and then changing the blog posts to full html. One thing I noticed is posts from the Columbia Missourian use sentence case, while the rest of the stories appear in title case. I changed them, but think we should keep them standard one way or another.

While updating the blogs, I noticed that there were quite a few and that they dated back to March 7. I don’t want to be the person who complains about peers, but worry that others didn’t update the blogs as I worked on March 12.

I also updated the Spashcast, and then began my project for the night. I began adding more categories to file stories under. During my time I complete the cities, counties, city races, county races and district categories.

ePortfolio
I felt I got off to a great start this week with my ePortfolio. Working with Dreamweaver is a little tougher than I thought and I still need to do quite a bit of work, but I am very optimistic. I plan on mixing some of my cut-ins tomorrow night for my anchoring page and then completing my resume and cover letter. I should be just about completed after that.

Project
Like I told you on Thursday, we are ready to go and recruit bloggers. I have found plenty of groups to talk to, many of which are both politically savvy and technology savvy.

Additional Information
Like I told you Wednesday, I attended a lecture called Persistence, Importance and Effect of Narrowcasting. It was very interesting as through two studies, the best indicator of who will win and election is the money they spend on radio ads, not television ads. This is because radio is cheap enough to make many ads voiced by and aimed to many demographics. There are only about four television stations, but dozens of radio stations geared to specific demographics. Also while television is a passive media, radio is very aggressive as people listen to it in their car and rarely change the station.

I think this can apply to the Net as sites like YouTube can narrowcast and it costs little to advertise. Again, you can target audiences such as with ESPN.com, the New York Times online and Fox’s website. Obviously we will have to wait for more elections to pass, but I think the Net could take over the radio’s power. As more people switch to satellite radio or iPods, commercials might prove to be less effective. We have already started to see this trend as political candidates make YouTube ads and I heard that political entries on Wikipedia change every thirty seconds. I truly believe in the coming years with more and more becoming educated on the Internet and those who “fail to update to the technology revolution” die off, the Internet could serve as a major player in the election.

Shift Work
This week my shift was with the dot com work. I felt we as a whole on Wednesday’s shift did a pretty good job. I thought all in all, the night went real smooth. I began my shift approving the Missouri headlines, and then creating the large leads for the stories. I think the reporters are beginning to submit freeze frames that tell the story very well.

There are a few things we need to continue to check and double check. First is AP Style formatting that we normally don’t see. This includes things such as when to use money sing, or when to spell out dollar. I think we also need to read and re-read parts to make the stories clearer. I found that in a few stories, one or two words meant all the difference.

I did learn something new this week as Tyne Morgan had a web extra in a Word document. Instead of saving it as a PDF file, I created a new story and copied and formatted what the Word document contained into a new story. I then linked the story together and thought it looked great.

ePortfolio
I spent a little time this week converting all of my video files to flv files and am ready to start working on my ePortfolio. I also emailed Jonathan Coffman and plan on purchasing some of this server space this week. I look forward to working and finalizing my ePortfolio these coming weeks. I wanted to start, but have a few questions as I have never used Dreamweaver before and you mentioned something during Flash training about creating the background, etc.

Smart Decision Project
We are ready to start meeting with and recruiting mid-Missourians to blog, we just need the green flag.

Done With the Mix of Week Number Six

Shift Work
This week marked another in the Smart Decision category. I spent some time doing the basics, updating the spashcaster, changing the blogs to full html and promoting the stories to the front page. All of the other news sites and blogs appeared to update as a new story, but not KOMU.com’s stories.

I also spent some time researching who was going to be in what race. I then handed it off to Mark. As you probably know, politics is really his thing. I think the categories will really add to the site, as navigation will become much easier.

I also spent more time applying another set of eyes to KOMU.com. I kind of disagreed with one of the lead images, so I went to fix it. In order to do that, Jim Matheny helped me out a ton. He showed me many new things that can be done with Photoshop that I did not know how to do. Jim also made me think of something else I usually overlook. That is making sure the lead image and the abstract fit the story. Many times we just take the freeze frame the reporters submit, and use the first line as an abstract. We need to make sure neither misleads.

Project
As I said my post last weekend, our group is ready to roll we just need the OK.

ePortfolio
In the past week, I have become almost excited about the talk of ePortfolios. The flash training only added to it. By looking at others over the past week, I am starting to see the great possibilities an ePortfolio can offer. Like I have said, I really like what Jason Lamb’s looked like and would love to have my ePortfolio provide the same information that his did.

I would also like to add that I think the flash training was great. I know the basics, but now can think in terms of what flash can do. I might even try to take advantage of some of the classes you can take for free on campus.

Still Alive After Week Five

Shift Work
This week’s shift at KOMU.com seemed to be the first that everything went rather smooth. I spent the shift correcting minor mistakes on the website such as lead image size, AP Style and other little mistakes. One thing that I have noticed that needs to be corrected is last names. I know that Megan Murphy and Sarah Hill often refer to the people in their stories by their first name, but we need to change them for our medium.

I ran into a few problems as for a time the computer keyboard was not working. I had to move to the blue room to do work, but I thought that Adrienne, the two convergence editors (Steven and Sarah), and I all worked well in coordinating everything. The few things I could see improved include better communication with the convergence reporters and getting those lead images in. One reporter I was working with just wasn’t getting that image in. I think the checklist we talked about in class might help out the dot commers.

Project
Our group is very eager to begin working and we understand we simply need to wait until smartdecision08.com us up and running. We have a great start as lists have been compiled of over 60 potential bloggers. To give a brief update on where we sit, we plan to visit the bloggers and persuade them face-to-face. People have a tough time turning offers in person so that should help us out. The personable touch could also help persuade the bloggers.

ePortfolio talk
Like I said in the email, I am going to use Dreamweaver. I originally like what it could create. I like how the video can be watched on the page. I think Jason Lamb’s ePortfolio is excellent and would like to have mine look a lot like his. The price put me off a little, but the fact that I can work on this on campus or in the blue room makes me really like the possibilities of Dreamweaver. The fact that I can also buy server space for 20 dollars is also very attractive.

I guess the only other thing I have to say this week is I am excited about learning flash.

Closing the Door on Week Four

The interactive website I chose to discuss this week also happens to be one of my favorites and most visited, ESPN.com. First and foremost, it has practically all of the sporting news one could possibly need. The site not only gives information about the meat and potato sports (football, basketball, baseball and hockey), but also about tennis, boxing, golf and NASCAR. I say almost, because my favorite sport and the one I read about the most is college baseball. As this sport is not quite mainstream, I must find additional sites to discover the news in the sport. ESPN.com however provides a link to sites when they know they have not covered it completely. College baseball was such the case.

I think the site holds attention because of the presentation number one, and the ease of finding the information the viewer wants. Right when the page opens, a large photograph of today’s most recent news appears. To the right is all the AP stories and breaking news. Commentary on the breaking news is listed as well. The final third of the screen has video after video. Almost 50 different videos can be accessed through the front page. The videos are broken down into the different sports or categories. The scoreboard at the top, along with the different sport tabs also make gaining the up-to-date information literally a click away. This site not only holds attention, it keeps people returning.

To say the site offers good information would be an understatement. The site almost gives too much information. The site provides a minimum of five links per story. First things first, the site posts current, accurate, well-written sporting news stories. Second, the site wrote the book on web extras. They have video, charts, graphs, blogs, forums, links and sidebar story after sidebar story. Wow what a site!

Shift Work
This week I updated smartdecision08.com, but ran into problems as “your people” constantly worked on the site. While I could have called it a day, I spent some time giving an extra pair of eyes to KOMU.com. I corrected mistakes and brushed up on some additional AP Style rules I did not know.

Group Project.
I thought I might just write a line or two about this. I feel real confident in finding mid-Missourians to blog on smartdecision08.com. I found several possible candidates who seem real involved in pushing a candidate or party. Next, we plan on working up a letter to possibly send to them discussing the idea and what we are looking for.

And we're done with week three

Shift Work
This week my shift was to update KOMU.com. Like I said last week, I enjoy KOMU.com more than smartdecision08.com (for now at least) as it seems to be faster paced. I spent quite a bit of time reading through stories that had already been posted and making corrections. AP style needs to continue to be stressed, as does some misleading headlines. The one improvement that needs changing is the communication among the dot com staff. During my shift, the paid staff started to post reporter’s VO/SOTs as the online stories (rather than the 6 p.m. package stories). Then as the 5 o’clock paid “dot commer” told me, we aren’t supposed to do that and we had to take all those stories down and lost time. I am just not sure the communication between the paid reporters and the Advanced Internet Application students (at least me) is where it needs to be. I don’t want this blog to serve as a rant or a complaint box and I hope you don’t see it that way, but if this is to be a true reflection, I must include it. I know that I myself can facilitate this communication and will work to make the transition from shift to shift better.

I did however continue to learn more about the site and how to make it look better and improve the credibility by putting out the best product. One thing I know I will work on more is finding web extras when I am reporting on Monday nights. After seeing some of the reporter’s extras, I really see how that adds to the story. Not only that, they are kind of fun in a way to see the neat things people can do with technology. The biggest lesson I learned however dealt with my roommate Mark Welsh. As we commonly talk about our shifts at our apartment, he told me how a reporter had a story wrong and HE needed to fact check. Too many times I take the reporter’s story and simply correct a few grammar errors and spelling. I need to read the stories part by part and make sure they are 100% correct.

Project
I don’t have any new information, as our group still needs to meet.

E-portfolio
I have spent some time this week thinking about what I would like to do with my e-portfolio. As for now, I am really considering the Foliotek. While money usually is not an issue when I am working on school, I think I would like to use Foliotek to begin my portfolio. It might be a deal when later down the road I would like to change to Dreamweaver, or iWeb. I guess I need to look into the options more and I would really like to see more examples of what I can do with each. This might even be a deal where I need to sit down with someone and discuss the options. I am not set in stone with anything yet, but as of now am leaning toward Foliotek.

Shift Work
During my second week working at the station, I spent about an hour browsing through KOMU.com’s site. I found several mistakes, many dealing with AP style. I found and corrected mistakes on articles Empty Seat for Congress, Wintry Weather is Back, Opening Eyes and Glancing Back at Governors. Your email definitely affirmed what I have thought for the past two weeks. With a focus on broadcasting news style, many of us have forgot AP style.

After that time, I began learning the basics for updating smartdecision08.com. I really like the shift I pulled for updating that site. As I pass it off to the later shift, it is easy to communicate what I have done and what needs to be done as I have a good working relationship with Mark Welsh. He is my roommate after all.

Through the first two weeks, I enjoy working with KOMU.com more than smartdecision08.com, as there is more to do. I think once the election picks up speed and more blogs, stories and other items need updated, the site will require as much work if not more than KOMU.com. I think once my project begins with mid-Missouri bloggers, I will like smartdecision08.com more as I will have a more personal stake it it’s success.

One improvement could be bettering communication between the paid web editors and the students in Advanced Internet Applications. That might just be a first couple of weeks thing. The AP style also needs improvement.

Project
My group will need to meet this week sometime to start deciding what goals we would like to accomplish and how we plan to carry out these goals. I spent the weekend at home so I haven’t put too much thought into the project, but I have brainstormed a few ideas. I think we could target mid-Missouri residents who campaign for presidential candidates to blog as they have “insider” information and could give great stories inside the election stories. (For example, a thing like “Life on the campaign trail,” etc.) Like I said, the project is still in the infancy stage as we have yet to meet, but I think if something could be formalized by Tuesday, we might be able to visit some mid-Missouri communities at the polls during Super Tuesday.

Website Focus
It is a little tough to blog about this section as my group and I have not met. Once we begin to formalize plans, this will become clearer.