What’s your cutoff? How do you balance the stress and time of side jobs?

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In the web the idea of an expert is often a misnomer. It seems that to web people the expert title is often given freely to any person who knows more about a specific topic than you do. For example, I was once labeled a Joomla! expert after a single installation of the software without even launching a site on the platform. Why? because I had done it and the other person hadn’t I must be an expert.

On the flip side, after coding CMS systems for 11 years I was told the other day that I was a rookie as I didn’t code in this particular person’s language of choice. To this I had to say really? Simply because I don’t know your language I am a rookie at all things web? How strange.

A single install of Joomla! does not make you an expert in Joomla!. However, the ability to look at the code of Joomla! and be able to understand it and modify it could very well make you an expert in PHP. On the other hand, the ability to code a million line PHP application may make you an expert in your application, but if you can’t read and understand anything else you might never truly grasp the language and will never be recognized as an expert. This last example I see all the time as a CS student in code which is never written, but merely cut and pasted together to perform some function. After all, if you can’t explain or understand what you’ve done than you really haven’t done much at all.

So then, what really makes an expert. In my humble opinion and expert is someone who through their merits and experience is recognized by their peers as a leader in their field. Someone who can not only do the work, but actually understands what they are doing and can communicate that idea to others. So, web people, when throwing around titles such as expert make sure they’re going to a deserving soul and not simply someone who can follow a readme file. Anything else is just insulting to those who really have mastered their craft.

Looking back there are a number of goals completed, a number still to go, and a few that I never even anticipated. In the case of our redesign we started in April, the main site is still to be done. This is due primarily to the uncertain outcome of our university’s web standards committee. We don’t want to over-invest in a product that will not meet whatever standards they decide to come up with. While waiting however I’ve had time to really refocus and expand our web presence while [hopefully] being able to provide a far more useful product to all of our customers. We’ve installed and launched WordPress MU for individual, group, and class sites. We’re nearing the launch of a MediaWiki installation to be used as our local intranet. Finally, we’ve greatly expanded our social media presence and finally convinced the powers that be that our marketing dollars are better spent on the web than limited magazines and other media.

Stepping away from the web I’ve made a lot of headway in a number of projects. We launched (and then decommissioned) a Squid proxy to restrict internet access during the day due to very limited bandwidth. It worked almost too well and was quickly removed for mostly political considerations. We’ve also begun the rollout of non Microsoft desktops to our faculty and staff in the form of Ubuntu as the primary OS. Only 3 desktops and our webserver have been migrated so far but considering that we had never looked away from MS before that it is definitely a good start. Finally, we added a windows update server to provide more control and better use of our bandwidth while still maintaining the ability to make sure all systems are completely patched.

Now on to the future. My first priority is, as always, our web presence. Pending the outcome of the campus web standards committee I hope to get a new main site in place very quickly. In addition, depending on current content contributions, I would like to see our new Wiki launch at the beginning of the Spring semester. It has been in the making for a little while now and promises to provide a much more complete and, more importantly, standardized method of intra-department communication. Beyond that I would like to see our file services migrated to Samba and Linux away from MS Active Directory as well as continue the gradual migration of departmental desktops to the Linux platform.

With all that I’m sure it will be another busy semester. However as with every semester I look forward to the challenges and can’t wait to see the outcomes!

Day in and day out we go through our lives at work and home without much reason to change. Although what we are doing now might work, we often don’t have much incentive to learn anything new. Blogging helps by forcing you to learn something new as you investigate material for your writing. For example, us techie bloggers can find all sorts of new tricks and tools in the quest to research the topic of our latest post. More often than not these can be some pretty cool items we would never have heard about otherwise.

2.) Blogging educates others

Blogging is about educating others. It is about taking something you have learned and passing that information out to others in your field, interest group etc. There is no better way in today’s society to get you ideas published than by doing so yourself on the internet.

3.) Blogging makes you a better writer

Most of us were not trained as writers or journalists and lets face it, when we try we can often use some help. Like so many other skills in life writing is one in which practice makes perfect. and in an economy where the ability to efficiently communicate our ideas and experience through writing is so crucial a little practice can go a long way.

4.) Blogging increases your visibility

You might be the best in your field, but if no one knows about you what good does it do? Whether your an experienced professional or new rookie, writing in your field gets your name out there.

5.) Blogging can be fun

Not much to say about this one except it is a cool experience to see one of your posts make the front page of a service like Digg.

This is where I stand right now with our primary website at work (http://www.aviation.siu.edu). I have been actively developing this site on my own for about 10 years with some very basic concepts. First, there was no direction from anyone in the department. This means that in everything from features to server configuration and more I had free control over it all. Heck, I couldn’t even get a critique if I begged for it. I know to some this might not seem like a problem, and for years it hasn’t been to me. What is a problem is that with only one person working unguided on a site of 1000′s of pages it can lead to numerous unused features and an administration that is slow to react with trends in online marketing. Second, I’ve been designing and redesigning a custom content management system for the site since the beginning. This also has never really been a problem, but combined with no direction it has lead to a system with little documentation and virtually no connection to other common systems users our familiar with such as WordPress and others.

Now things are changing. The administration in our department has realized that putting all its advertising money into magazine ads isn’t the most efficient use of their budget. Consequently they are turning their sites to the web. Although I haven’t been officially asked to do anything (and still find very little guidance as to their vision) I recognize this shift in ideology and know that I need to work to making the most use of our advertising budget and at the same time work to redesign not only our site, but much of our entire marketing strategy.

So where do I start? First I realize that I cannot do everything by myself if for no other reason that a second person can see things I cannot. Consequently I am getting help from a small team I’ve put together. Although beneficial, at the airport this is quite a change in philosophy and like any such change requires a little getting used to (I must say that of everything that’s changing, a team is the most positive change for both me and the department as I like working in teams normally). Second, although the CMS I have used is nice, there is a lot of good open-source products on the market now that provide the features we need as well as excellent documentation and other features making it easy to incorporate information from more sources.

Putting this all together has left me with quite a headache. Stepping back from 10 years of one direction and refocusing on a new one has not been easy at all. The good thing however is that I realize when it’s done we will have a better product for the entire SIU Aviation community (even though it might take a little longer than I originally hoped).

or

82%

This quiz was provided by – Search & Social – Media Experts

That can’t be good.

First of all, I need all the writing practice I can get. I was never an English major, nor was I ever great at writing papers or other correspondence. These facts however don’t negate my need to communicate both professionally and personally. One of the biggest reasons I blog is to improve these communication skills for use both at work and personally. They say practice makes perfect so I figure this type of practice is my only real chance.

Second, and this applies more to my tech blog than my personal blog, I like teaching. I don’t do it professionally anymore but blogging about topics of interest is one way for me to continue to teach indirectly by sharing knowledge of topics dear to me.

Next, personal marketing. With a little bit of luck one day I’ll walk into a job interview in which my name is already known as the interviewer has read (and hopefully liked) my online work.

Finally, writing for the public is my one real indulgence to satisfy my ego. Like many I have some desire to one day be famous and although I know I’ll never be an Oscar winner or president of a country publishing my work online gives me some measure of satisfaction in knowing that someone somewhere has taken the time to read what I have to say.

So while all of us have our own motivations for our writing and mine probably don’t fit the norm, they work for me and give me something I can look forward to well into the future.

I first did my taxes about 3 weeks ago and for the first time ever I owed the federal government about $300. I was pissed and I didn’t want to spend the money right now so I decided I would wait until April to submit. I’m glad I did because they just changed the rules for first time home buyers giving us up to $8000 or 10% of the value of our homes back as a tax credit (not a deduction) and unlike the old program as long as we live there for 3 years we don’t need to repay it. WOO HOO! So I redid my taxes the other day and found out that instead of owing money were gonna get more back than we ever have. Thank you uncle Sam!!

We are excited, it was just too good of a deal to pass up, but a little nervous all the same. With a little luck all will work out though….