From June of 1999 until January of 2015*, I was the Webmaster for this site, a host of limited duration microsites, and managed the majority of our presence in Social Media. Obviously, the definition of Webmaster has changed over the years, so this is a bit of a long read.
1999 – 2003
At first, the site consisted of 2 pages hanging off the domain of the ISP, that had been created by the IT guy with a Front Page template. Coming from a “whiz-bang-free” engineering firm, I saw no reason to change the appearance. I arranged the purchase of a domain name and hosting and developed it into a real website. Using primarily static HTML, CSS, and a few server-side includes, I added several pages of useful content, including a Calendar and Real Audio recordings of the Sunday messages.
2003 – 2004
Near the end of 2003, the new boss took one look at the admittedly ugly website and promptly fired me, as the Webmaster, not altogether. No doubt you’re wondering why I’d include this in my portfolio, so stay with me. For several months, they worked with an agency to build a new website. Alas, our leadership wasn’t satisfied with the appearance of the new site, *so responsibility returned to me.
2004 – 2007
With loads of guidance from a talented team of graphic designers, I learned to see, and became a competent designer in my own right. With a design from the team, and some PHP help from the afore-mentioned agency, we launched a new and improved site in the fall of 2004. I continued to maintain and develop the site with more HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, XML, a dash of Flash, and I never got fired again.
2007 – 20014
In an effort to engage volunteers in the process of maintaining the content, I researched and selected a Content Management System and migrated the site. I created a training program and trained numerous co-workers and volunteers to help maintain the site. This closed source system didn’t provide much in the way of back-end customizations, so I also developed and maintained a number of microsites to accommodate any special needs. And there were many over the years.
A Few Examples from the Microsite Era
- Media Center online from 2007 – 2014
Most of the multimedia content was collected in the Media Center microsite. I recreated the design based on the theme of the primary website with a different color pallete. I developed this site with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Flash, PHP, MySql, and XML. It included: photo galleries, a video library, a document library, the iTunes podcast, and a tool to find suggested readings for the week. - Summer Camp online from 2009 – 2014
The promotion of Summer Camp is a big deal. Each year, this microsite featured a new theme to match other materials. For the first few years, it was a simple single page site built in HTML and CSS. 2012, as I added functionality, I developed it in WordPress, incorporating video and a live Twitter feed. In 2013, I recreated the site in Drupal 7. Confession: I hacked the Zoundation theme. In 2014, I repented from my hacking and created a proper child theme based on Zoundation. - Communications Department online from 200? – 2014
In an organization as large as Beaverton Foursquare, the Communications Department operated much like agency, serving numerous internal customers. To track the myriad of incoming requests for posters, fliers, articles, multimedia, and digital communications, this microsite went through a number of iterations before I migrated it to Drupal 7 in about 2012.
2014 – 2015
In the interest of providing a better mobile experience to our users, I researched, selected, and migrated the site once again to another CMS. Although this too was a closed system, it provided many opportunities to customize both the front-end and the back-end, thus eliminating the need for microsites. Again I created training materials and equipped my co-workers with what they needed to maintain the site. And so, I finally worked myself out of a job. Well done, me. =)