Elevator Pitch
Thanks very much for visiting On a path media. I'm currently only accepting a very limited number of projects due to a very full work calendar. While I'd love to work with everyone who contacts me there simply aren't enough hours in the day. Please do contact me about your project and I'll let you know straight away if, based on your needs, I can take on your project at this time.
I'm a front end web developer and content producer who straddles the creative and technical camps to create well documented web sites and projects that are user friendly, functional and accessible.
Website Development
Movable Type
Blogs
Content Production
Documentation & Technical Writing
Consulting
What Have You
Louisville Locals
Website Development
I build websites. Sometimes I build them from scratch with a design from my own imagination. In those cases I create the look and feel of the site and write the code that makes it work. Other times I work with someone else's deisgn. I'll take a loose design concept from a client or a complete design mock up from a designer and turn it into a functional website. Does that make me a website designer or a website developer?
Website developer suits me. I'm not a trained designer though I do design sites from time to time. My greatest strengths lie in strategically planning sites and developing the code that makes them work. For all my web development projects I focus on simplicity, usability and the end user experience. I'm not a fan of throwing in bells, whistles or widgets just because you can. Add only things that make the site and the user experience better.
I'm also really good at finding and implementing tools and technologies appropriately into web projects. One of my client's compliments me by saying "you're really good at saving us money by not reinventing the wheel." If an existing tool can be customized to fit your needs you don't need to pay significantly more to have a new one built from scratch.
Keywords: HTML, CSS, PHP, Movable Type and other Content Management Systems, Project Management
Movable Type
I love the power and flexibility Movable Type offers. In my opinion it's the best system for blogging and I think it's a great system for publishing entire websites, not just blogs. Using Movable Type to power an entire site makes site wide updates and maintenance much easier and it makes do-it-yourself maintenance a viable option for many site owners.
I'm available for hire for any and all things Movable Type related. It would be easier to list things I don't do with Movable Type (I can't think of many) than to list all the things I do it with it so let me just hit a few highlights. I install, upgrade and configure Movable Type and install and configure plugins, hacks and mods to it. I also modify default Movable Type styles and templates and integrate new and existing designs into Movable Type templates (for example making a Movable Type blog match the rest of a site's design) and port existing themes to Movable Type. Or, in other words, I build websites with Movable Type.
Keywords: Installation & configuration, plugins, template creation, theme design & implementation, site building, blogs
Blogs
I have an insatiable appetite for media and content, an unending intellectual curiosity. Blogs keep me fed. There exists a blog for any common or obscure topic you can imagine. And if one doesn't exist yet it will be started tomorrow or next week. Blogs allow everyone to communicate in ways both intimate and large scale like never before. Newspaper columnists have always had an audience but it wasn't until blogs that a brilliant five part study on the evolution of the Batman logo could find its audience. You simply can't tell me the world would be better without such a study.
I believe everyone has something of value to say and blogs allow those valuable somethings to be read by people across town and across the world. That's just cool and its why I enjoy helping people start, develop, design, upgrade and modify their blogs. I'll get your blog setup with Movable Type, advise you on design and content, implement your design, add useful bells and whistles, port a design from another blogging system or just implement some cool feature you want. If it's blog related I'd probably be excited about working on it with you.
Keywords: Movable Type, blogs, blog design, blog customization, widgets, social media
Websites need content to fill their pages. I, naturally, write and otherwise create content but I also research and find interesting and brilliant content on the internet, strategize what kind of content (including pictures, audio and video files) your site needs more or less off and dream up good ways to deliver that content to your audience.
Activities that fall under the umbrella term Content Production include but are not limited to:
- Blogging
- Feature Article Writing
- Locating appropriate art, audio and visual content
- Securing permission for reproducing existing content
Keywords: Writing, content, content creation, website content, blogging
Documentation & Technical Writing
Few things in life are more frustrating than documentation that isn't clear or helpful. Well, a complete lack of documentation is perhaps moderately more frustrating. Writing documentation isn't easy. It's hard to write for audiences of different skill and knowledge levels, it's hard to distill complex ideas and procedures into smaller, digestible bites that users can easily consume, and it's hard to spend money and resources on documentation when other aspects of the project seemingly need them more. If you care about your users at all though you'll spend some time and money on documentation.
I enjoying writing documentation and technical tutorials because I really enjoy helping people. Call me Pollyanna if you must but it's true. I didn't go to school for technical writing and I've never held a full time position with technical writer as the job title but I've written detailed tutorials and project documentation for nearly every large project I've worked on in the last five years and I spend a great deal of time writing tutorials for tools and technologies that I love and then giving them away for free on the internet.
I'd very much like you hire me to write your web app or project's documentation but if you don't hire me then hire someone else. Seriously, paying attention to your product's documentation is that important.
Keywords: Documentation, tutorials, instructions, technical writing
Consulting
Consulting is a very loaded word that means lots of different things to lots of different people. In the case of calling myself a "Web Consultant" what I mean is that I eat, sleep and breath the web. I use it to consume media and content, keep my self organized, find information, connect with friends and strangers, publish art, be a cheerleader for my city, encourage people to be civil to one another, help non-profits get the word out about their work and help artists find buyers for their work. I use it for buying goods and services, for business and personal networking and researching a million topics, ideas and products.
I take all of that web knowledge and experience and apply it to your website, web application, marketing plan or other projects. This sharing of knowledge and experience can occur in small ("Explain Twitter and any benefits my company might get from it") or large ("We need help planning and organizing our website. We have a web designer, we need someone to help us organize content and move the project from each stage of development to completion) doses.
Keywords: Online commerce, social media, blogs, de.lico.us, twitter, web 2.0, citizen journalists, project management
What Have You
I want to be involved with people and projects doing interesting things on the web. You've read what I do and heard my sales pitch. If you've got a project you think I could help with please don't hesitate to contact me.
Keywords: Startups, small businesses, online media, alternate content distribution models, non profits
Louisville Locals
I'm a geek for hire for your Mac, PC, digital photography and digital music needs. Requests like the following are right up my alley:
- "Hook the printer up"
- "Make it work"
- "Show me how to use this software"
- "What's a virus scan and can you give me one?"
- "How do I get my CDs on my new iPod?"
- "What's the best way for sharing digital pictures? "
- "Help me buy a new computer"
- "Teach me to use my computer"
- "How can I back up my files?"
Keywords: Louisville, technical consulting, computers, computer geek, PCs, Macs, iPod, Digital Cameras, backup strategies