MikeSchmidtComedy.com
Web Developer [ MikeSchmidtComedy.com ]
- Challenge: Create complete redesign of site using pre-planned art-based pages. Needs included podcast solutions, audio clips gallery, two blogs of different subjects, merchandise sales, and an image gallery.
- Solution: Built on Drupal platform. Researched and presented Zen theme and modules that were most appropriate for this application. Launched site with heavily modified theme display that is customized for a completely unique, new-media entertainer’s needs. Ongoing site maintenance, feature development, and updates.
Snake River Animal Shelter
Web Developer [ SnakeRiverAnimalShelter.com ]
- Challenge: Create site redesign in Drupal 6, with better design, richer display features, more powerful information communication and flow, and aN easy-to-use, customized admin page for staff. This was a summer internship project at North Wind, Inc.
- Solution: Built on Drupal 6 platform. Created custom content types, custom views, custom panels, and tweaked Zen theme for layouts. Clients were very pleased. Ongoing site maintenance and periodic updates while employed with North Wind, Inc.
M-Cubed Construction
Web Developer [ MCubedConstruction.com ]
- Challenge: Create business portfolio website from scratch. Needed ease-of-use, rich display features, and aesthetically pleasing design.
- Solution: Built on WordPress platform. Researched and presented plugins and themes that were most appropriate for this application. Launched site with heavily modified theme display customized for construction worker’s needs. Ongoing site maintenance and periodic updates with new construction projects.
MarcusKlotzer.com
Web Developer [ MarcusKlotzer.com ]
- Challenge: Create artist portfolio website from scratch. Needed ease-of-use, rich display features, and aesthetically pleasing design.
- Solution: Built on WordPress platform. Researched and presented plugins and themes that were most appropriate for this application. Launched site with heavily modified theme display customized for artist’s needs. Ongoing site maintenance and periodic updates with new artist works.
devPMS
Web Developer [ A Developer's Project Management System ]
- Challenge: Create a PHP and MySQL-driven website of our choosing with user management, login and logout functions, a contact page, and some kind of content viewable only by logged-in users.
- Solution: A classmate and I were not yet familiar with other project management applications like Microsoft Project, BaseCamp, or Project Pier, however we recognized the need for just such an application so we designed one ourselves. We worked well on this together, collaborating and splitting tasks, but then the next semester we learned to use more sophisticated project management applications. Still, this was a great effort for a couple young developers with no basis of the PMA realm.
Idaho Falls Magazine
Freelance Article Writer [ Idaho Falls Magazine ]
- Challenge: I was invited to write articles for the Idaho Falls Magazine by their editor. I guess their editor saw the quantity and quality of the articles I wrote and the way I was leading the way locally in the digital realm.
- Solution: They gave me free reign to do any topic, which was considerable latitude. I stuck mostly to issues of importance to southeast Idaho at large and Idaho Falls especially. Articles were 750-900 words and due every other month (for the bi-monthly publication). I found it more challenging to write for their magazine than for my blog. I could write about that day’s events on my blog and generate immediate discussion. The magazine articles were not published for a few months, so the topics could have worn thin by the time of release. A few of my articles generated some letters to the editor, which were always positive and never negative. After writing a dozen or so articles, I was “laid off” when the magazine switched to a paid subscription and the economy tanked. I look back on it as an overall positive experience.
IdahoFallz.com
Web Developer.com [ IdahoFallz.com ]
- Challenge: I worked at a telecommunications sales job for three years after I left the teaching field. I did it for the great pay, but I was bored silly. I yearned to do technology projects on my own, so I created a telecom-related blog to answer common consumer questions. This idea tanked, but it was a good first failure. I knew I wanted to try something else, so I brainstormed topics I knew about, and my hometown of Idaho Falls was on the list. I researched and discovered nobody had yet created a blog about Idaho Falls (this was 2005), so I started IdahoFallz.com as a hobby.
- Solution: I had no major plans for the site at first. I just took thousands of pictures of the local area, and wrote hundreds of articles about things going on in our town. Sometimes I interviewed local and state politicians, sometimes I wrote complaints, sometimes I wrote crazy ideas I had to improve things, and sometimes I just wrote a blurb about local events. The local event articles generated lots of amazing discussions among locals who had not had the chance to discuss things in this manner before.
- Milestones: I quickly earned and maintained a Google PageRank of 6 out of 10, which is a fair accomplishment. My site was written about in the local newspaper and city magazine, and I was interviewed by a local television news station. I motivated dozens of other people to contribute articles of their own, and hundreds of people posted thousands of comments. I got to interview both state governor candidates in 2006, and the city mayor a few times. I attracted about 20-30k visitors each month, and earned more than a few bucks each month from the Adsense revenues. It was not much, but the monthly paycheck was not bad for a hobby.
- Getting out: After two and a half years of running the site, I got tired of doing it. I was tired of controversies, settling disputes between users, lawsuit threats, and I just wanted to focus on the programming side of it. I spiffed it up with a new theme, cleaned up the code and old garbage posts, got it evaluated from a few sources, and put up a for sale graphic on the site. I sold it within a few weeks for almost three times the appraisal estimates, and the new owner seems to be happy with the product, still running it to this day.
- Takeaway: I had a lot of fun and frustrations with this site. I wish I had planned it more seriously at the beginning. I managed to attract a lot of locally-important people to on-site discussions, and I got to interview several local and state politicians for site articles. This project led me to a freelance job writing magazine articles, helped me get at least two programmer jobs, and led to the city mayor nominating me to serve on his economic impact advisory group for technology. This is where I also got my first taste of PHP, and got me interested in programming, which then led to my double degrees in software and web programming I have today. So in a sense, this little hobby eventually led to my new career where I am happier than ever. Overall I am happy from the experience due to how much I learned from it, both the positives and negatives.
Digital Yearbook
Middle School Yearbook Producer[ Melba Middle School ]
- Challenge: I inherited the dreaded annual yearbook project on the first day of my first year teaching in a rural school district. Project historically was a huge time drain on whichever teacher got stuck with it. Project historically cost the school more than they recouped, and the principal considered eliminating it altogether. End result was always a small, soft-cover publication resembling more of a pamphlet than a traditional yearbook, containing a hundred or so black-and-white photos.
- Plan: I decided to ditch tradition and self-publish a digital yearbook on CD. This was 2002-2003, so at the time it was a new idea. I was proud of this project because I had to convince the primary decision-maker (the principal), who then served as my advocate during the school year whenever skeptical parents called to complain about the change.
- Process: I used my eighth-grade class to decide the theme, design the cover and label, and take photos and video around school all year. Involving the most mature class helped create sense of ownership and they became advocates for how cool the product would be at the end.
- Process: Pre-sales were initially slow due to skepticism of this new idea, and due to complaints that not all families owned a computer. I set a pre-order price of $8 with a deadline after which the price jumped to $12. Sales took off enough to prove the school would at least break even on the project instead of losing money.
- Solution: End product contained over 1,400 color photos and over one hour of color video. The buzz and excitement grew as I finished and demo’d the product to classes and parents. I handed out the finished product to pre-paid students on the last day of school at their dance (as you see in the last two pictures). Afterward, I went to the office and found a long line of students buying the yearbooks at the post-production price of $15.
- Takeaway: Despite high skepticism and complaints about doing something new, I secured the critical buy-in from the key decision maker. I and my students learned more about digital technologies doing this project than if we had produced the traditional paperback yearbook (I taught computer classes). I did not track my hours, but I am certain I saved myself a lot of time doing it digitally rather than traditionally. The end result cost less than the traditional yearbook, contained much more content and much higher quality content. The school also earned enough money that they paid me a large bonus out of their profits, something they did not think possible when the year started.
