Web Design and Buildouts
January 23, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
As a web designer I have a small bit of experience ranging from e-commerce and mail-order companies, to micro-sites advertising goods and services, to blogs, discussion boards, and a philanthropic site. I’ve built a wide variety.
I’m passionate about online communities, and in order to positively affect change you have to remember who you ultimately are serving, the almighty user. Enhancing user experience is vital to any project whether offline or online.
You’ll find links below to some of the sites I’ve designed and built over the years. The methods and the technology has changed, and so have I. Design and development went from largely Photoshop comps hard coded into HTML sites to standards based XHTML, Flash, and Content Management Systems.
All of my projects strive to be standards compliant and I especially enjoy working with people who believe in open source software (Drupal and WordPress are my favorites) the benefits to both the developers and the users when taking advantage of open code.
News and Journalism based sites:
- Smart Decision 2008
- KOMU Blogs and Boards (online community, still in development)
- KOMU News Base (online training and tutorial site for newsroom employees)
- Kansas City Pets (WDAF-TV micro site)
Personal and Professional Sites (many of these sites are simply archived copies, some links may not work on them):
- Creative Celebrations (2002)
- FunFunFun For Kids
- CB Designs
- Family Guy Quotes
- How You Can Volunteer
- Perennial Podcast
- JonathanCoffman.com Version 1
Local TV News Online
January 23, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
I worked at KOMU-TV8 in Columbia, Missouri for 3 years. All of that time I have been involved in content, design, development, editing, and producing for KOMU.com. I started as a web editor writing and producing content to go into a new content manager that the station had licensed (Avid Active Content Manager). From there I build up quite a list of stories that I worked on, over 1,400 before leaving to concentrate on social media and online community building.
In addition to the daily editing and producing work, I periodically managed teams of reporters and field producers to ensure that online and new media needs were being met in the field. My management and producing skills allowed KOMU.com to see a lot of growth and new online features including slideshows, behind the scenes video, raw interview footage, and the beginnings of an online community building effort.
Here are some examples of stories and web packages that I worked on at KOMU.com:
In addition to working for KOMU News, I also have had a summer internship with FOX 4, WDAF-TV in Kansas City, Missouri. While with WDAF I,
- Researched, developed, and launched a Kansas City Pets micro site
- Implemented and wrote a Before You Go daily email update
- And worked breaking news like the Kelsey Smith Murder case, all while moderating blogs, discussion boards, and chatrooms.
My sound news judgement has allowed me to take on leadership, and team cooperative roles in television newsrooms. Through my creative and entrepreneurial drive I’m able to take stories to a higher and more interactive level for online and on-air viewers.
Journalism
January 19, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
First we had newspapers, then radio and television, and now the Internet, cell phones, and more. The practice of journalism has evolved for a long time and will continue to change. In recent years however, the way journalists and news media present facts and information has changed dramatically. Journalists and the business behind the news can no longer sleep heavily and depend on slow growth and profits.
The constant invention and expansion of news delivery formats has increased the demand for journalists, producers, and sales people to exert more time and energy in forging new relationships and connections with more people and businesses.
As news and information is further commoditized it becomes more important for a journalistic entity to expand it’s reach and stretch it’s resources.
Here are some journalism pieces that I either wrote or edited for various news organizations. All links open in a new window
WDAF-TV 4 (Fox Affiliate)
Special Projects:
Kelsey Smith, 18, was ubducted from a Target parking lot. I generated original and online exclusive content including live-streaming from SkyFox helicopter, live-chats taking questions from viewers, and moderating hundreds of blogs and discussion board posts.
Planned, Designed, and Implemented Afternoon Web Update. This is a brief that is posted every-day from 3PM till 5PM with ‘everything you need to know for the drive home’.
Moderated and participated in FOX sponsored chat and blog sessions on a daily basis.
Planned, designed, programmed, and prepared for launch a special pets related micro-site.
General Assignment:
- New KCMO HR Director Missing
- Kansas City Kansas Man Fights For Custody
- Child Sent to Hospital For Tick Bite
- Woman Jogger Nearly Abducted in Lenexa
- Ruling Opens Doors For Executions to Resume
KOMU-TV 8 (NBC Affiliate)
Special Projects:
Planned, Designed, and Coordinated a community site for viewer interaction based on the open source Drupal project.
Moderate and Post blogs and news updates to legacy discussion board system.
Converging The News
August 24, 2007 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
I’ve spent some time in the newsrooms of various media organizations and one common thing is that they’ve all acknowledged the web and it’s power.
In fact, during my time at a FOX affiliate this summer there were weekly conference calls between all the MyFox web managers and nearly daily updates to station management as well.
WDAF-TV in Kansas City has been the newsroom that was most receptive to new ideas and willing to take those ‘risks’ that are inherent when working with a ‘new’ media. They were open to new ideas and processes, and beyond that, openly asked for and received comments both good and bad internally and externally.
Not every newsroom is willing to make The Web such a large part of their operation but it sure was refreshing in the time I spent there to see management and staff supporting and giving their web site everything they could.
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