It's my third day as a web intern at The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, and I'm told that today is orthodox Festivus. Apparently we're not orthodox, though. We celebrated Festivus in the newsroom yesterday, complete with muffin tops and muffin stumps.
I didn't realize that such hardcore Seinfeld fans still existed.
Silliness aside, my first week has been great. It started with human resource-mandated educational videos (lessons learned: if you spill acid on yourself, you will probably lose your entire left arm; if you have bad posture, you will die of carpel tunnel syndrome) and paperwork.
The web team here works in the newsroom with everyone else, so it's busy and noisy all day. My view is that when the web staff lives out-of-sight in their own separate offices, they become the unhelpful, unfamiliar "geeks" who no one really interacts with. When both groups share a workspace and interact on a daily basis, it makes what we do more collaborative, more relevant and hopefully more successful. So I’ve got a fairly ideal workspace here.
Of course, it’s only fairly ideal because everything is Microsoft here. I am a loyal Apple and open source user -- although I’m no evangelizing extremist -- and so I’ve had to learn a new programming language very quickly. They use ASP here, which is the Microsoft counterpart to PHP, the language everything for tv.ku.edu and eHub is written in. ASP and PHP are similar in the way that Spanish and French share a lot of vocabulary and syntax, but it’s the little stuff that keeps hanging me up. (Rick: There are no semicolons here!)
My project this week is adding Google Maps capabilities to stories and adding a system for larger map features. I’m told that forest fires are a big issue for the area around Spokane, and now a map that marks the locations of several fires can be quickly produced next time fire season rolls around.
Next week I’m going to learn how to use the content management system for the print product so that I can sub in for the web producer when he goes on vacation. It’ll be like what our online producers do, but on a bigger scale.
And as for the city itself, I’m not sure what I think of Spokane yet. Everything’s covered in a thick layer of brown slush, so I’m trying not to pass judgment until it all melts.
