A little project of mine a few months back started out as just a bit of filler-content for Southern Oregon Public Television's homepage and has steadily begun outgrowing the sidebar where it was born. I'm speaking of a section that I not so brilliantly called "Online Xtras" which was really just a place to put a link to PBS's then new online "TV" show, NerdTV. I also filled it out with links to the PBS RSS page along with their podcasts page and figured I was done. Right?
Well, you probably guessed what happened next... Along came Mediashift. You know I couldn't leave that out. Then, of course, I discovered POV: Borders followed closely by Independent Lens: Off The Map and just as I'm thinking how cool all of this stuff is, it occurs to me that I've left off the granddaddy of all PBS web-original projects, American Field Guide, a vast and underused resource if ever there was one. Then I'm feeling really stupid...
...the granddaddy of all PBS web-original projects, American Field Guide...
American Field Guide is an Oregon Public Broadcasting project that grew--in collaboration with PBS--out of the original Oregon Field Guide under Steve Amen. Here I am promoting PBS online-only content on Southern Oregon Public Television's website and AFG is the last thing that occurs to me. Oh well, I corrected that and went on. Done, right? Well not quite...
...growing PBS trend in creating web-original content...
My "Online Xtras" section (which desperately needs a better name) has already far exceeded the space I had originally planned for it. The growing PBS trend in creating web-original content is bound to expand it even further. Besides that, I have plans to create an SOPTV-original RSS feed of their monthly program highlights that will have to be clearly distinguished from the general PBS feeds. All of this has led me to the conclusion that this entire section of web-only and web-original content needs its own page--perhaps with more extensive write-ups of each item's content and a way cooler name.
Tah-dum... Thus have I led you through the humble beginnings of a small piece of original station web content. You're thrilled, right? Hey, somewhere out there right now someone is applauding something, and you know what? That's close enough for me. Thank you, everyone, and good night.
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Hi,
I saw your blog posted on PBS connect. I really appreciate your willingness to share information.
We are in the process of re-designing our website. I’d love to be involved with the PBS web developers community.
I look forward to keeping up with your blog.
Thanks!
Lorie
WCTE
Wow, Upper Cumberland. Welcome, Lorie. I see from looking at your site that you’ve got a big job ahead. The previous designers practically made the site into an ad for their own work. I hope your going to lose all those snobbish directions on the best way to view the site (which browser, screen resolution, etc.) and design for everyone.
BTW, I love the nerve of their all-inclusive statement about how to view PBS sites as if they speak for all of us. I don’t design that way. I hope no one else does.
I wish you the best on this project, and I hope you’ll keep us informed. We’d love to hear about the meat of this redesign, the struggles and compromises, where you’d like to include more but know that you won’t have the time or resorces to maintain it, you know, the stuff you can only talk about with other web designers. We’re out here, and we’re listening.
Hi,
Thanks for your input and good wishes. As you have already seen, there’s a LOT to do.
Glad to meet you!
Lorie
Promotion of content broadcast by local stations is a real hot button right now even if no one wants to talk about it. There’s less and less promotion going on at the local level at many stations because there is less and less money available for this.
I believe that the web is a valuable tool, but not the only tool for promotion of who we are and what we do. As developers, we need to be able to integrate local with national seamlessly, because, to our viewers at home, our stations are the point men for the product–PBS. Same goes for pledge and development–we need to promote that someone’s gift goes to their hometown station, not PBS nationally (not right away, anyway).
I’d also like to see an ad grant or something similar to help promote and drive people to our websites–not just the “motherships†put out by the larger entities. Developing this kind of promotional synergy now can only help when convergence hits full bore and our viewers – who are going to be adopting the concept AND the technology – will be using it.
Great blog, wonderful info. We can do this.
I am giving back the soapbox now….
Mark
Welcome, Mark, and thanks for chiming in on the importance of seamless local, national web connections. I agree with you completely, and that’s what makes cobranding so important. The movement from the local to the national site and vice-versa should be as transparent as possible. However, an important point to keep in mind is that not all public television is PBS. Many local stations predate the formation of PBS or even the Public Television Act by a good decade or more, and much of what’s aired is still non-PBS programming. Our sites should reflect that as well.
As far as the soapbox goes, I’m more than willing to share it. I may have nabbed the nickname ptvGuy, but I’m certainly not the only station web developer with something valuable to contribute. We’re all of us ptvGuys and ptvGals trying to create something wonderful and valuable to the stations and communities we serve.
Some of us web developers are also the promoguy/artguy/communicationsguy. Public broadcasting has got to be the realm of the multi-purpose, swiss-army-knife kind of individual because there sure are not the budgets to support a highly-sectioned, specialized workforce in most places.
The one thing that I cannot do without is teamwork and solid, rapid communication. The sooner I know what’s going on, the sooner I can tell the rest of the world about it. Likewise, I poll the folks doing the work and ask them what they would like their promotions/web presence to be and try to make it happen, if possible. They have ideas and resources I may be blind to. Their input is invaluable to me and my job.
Believe me, I know the onus of wearing many hats. Besides their websites, I’ve also been their graphic designer on various projects, photographer, general computer technician, and I’ve even found myself running the soundboard for on-air panel discussions and auctions. It’s in the nature of public television.
As far as staff communication, that’s a great point. If no one tells me about things, I can’t tell anyone else. Since I work from home and serve stations some distance from me, I have an especially hard time keeping up with the day to day things going on at the stations. I have to maintain constant email and phone conversations. I truly miss FirstClass.
Great idea for the online-only content. We do have a bit of that, though not much. We are also about to add podcasts of our local news, and I have yet to work on how to integrate a podcast section into our site. I second Mark’s comment about wishing for promotional funds for the sites. It took soooo long to get to the point where we were even consistently including the web address in all the print & on-air material (though thankfully we have been there for a while now).