First off, a disclaimer: I never have and never will consider myself a technical developer. After having the pleasure of knowing and working alongside a number of talented developers — many of whom I also consider some of the most creative thinkers I’ve ever met — I recognize that my kung-fu is nothing in comparison. And thankfully in my role on the account management side of the agencies at which I’ve worked, no one has had to rely on my coding skills to get the job done.
That said, however, I’m constantly amazed by how many folks that profess a career expertise in interactive development, digital marketing or social media arenas don’t bother to stretch into this territory. So, loyal reader(s), is a brief versioned history of Patchchord and my personal attempts at better understanding what happens under the hood of a web site.
v1.0/2.0 - Contrary to what you see here, I’ve actually been blogging since about 2002 in one form or another. I developed my first site using some cheap server space via Netfirms and leveraging a now-defunct blogging platform called Greymatter. The site was frame-based (I guess I missed the memo from usability guru Jakob Nielsen six years prior when I was in college working on that music performance degree) and the capper was that rather than purchasing a vanity URL, I instead used a go.to address. This was my very first intro into HTML. As I recall, a re-skinning of the site was the only difference between v1.0 and v2.0. Mercifully, none of my original v1.0 site graphic files have survived (*cough* *cough*).
v3.0 - Somewhere around 2004, I unleashed the next iteration of my site, the first to carry the patchchord.com URL. I had wised up and gotten rid of the frames and ditched Greymatter. Originally using Movable Type, I eventually opted instead for Textpattern, though around this time I started my first freelance forays into web design for friends and family using MT as the more layman-friendly content management system. Here I added CSS and some MySQL basics to my bag of tricks. Say goodbye to Netfirms and hello to Dreamhost.
v4.0 - 2005 saw the re-purposing of patchchord.com into what would become a two-year experiment in grassroots journalism on the local KC music scene. For more of that story you can always click here, but to take a look at the site itself, a proper archive version still exists. Two years of constant work on the site exposed me to a ton more about CSS, simple javascripting, SEO, podcasting, PHP, writing to MySQL databases and assorted other oddments and necessities.
v4.5 - Sometime during this public foray with patchchord.com, I’d say late 2006 or so, I realized how much I missed having a personal web space. As a result, I bought leftcoastmissourian.com and launched a new blog using a push-button install of WordPress. This was about the time I started to mess around with extending beyond a personal blog to incorporate other features, like mobile Flickr integration and other social media tools, by discovering the joys of WordPress plug-ins.
v5.0 - After the previous patchchord.com shut down, the domain remained idle for about a year before I repurposed it back to being a personal space last winter and re-launched with this current iteration, closing down leftcoastmissourian.com at the same time. This time around, it’s been all about social media integration and understanding how my personal space on the web should integrate with all the other assorted places I like to hang out.
So why the detailed change log? I firmly believe that if you’re going to work in this space, you should at least be able to hang with code on some basic levels. How else are you going to have any sort of valuable insight into how this magical thing we call the web is put together?
Web hosting, software platforms, development timeframes, integration — if you can speak to these things with more of a “sleeves up” understanding of how it all works, you have a more credible voice in front of a client. Similarly, you will also have a much better idea of the right questions you should be asking your internal team on any given project.
No one should expect an account management-type to be able to code the next Facebook or keep pace with the giants over at Google Labs. But if you’re going to talk the talk, then why not try walking the walk for a change?
4 Responses
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I don’t have my own site, but I know “why” things work and at a somewhat-more-than-basic-level “how” they work.
I don’t find myself with the time to keep up with a blog (I do own a domain name - haven’t done a damn thing with it for 2 years. One of these days, I keep telling myself… one of these days).
Of course the more you know, the better off you are. But, even if your kung-fu is strong, that still won’t stop clients from thinking they know better than you.
You’ll NEVER regret your decision to “participate”. Back in the “Middle Ages” — early, mid-80s and later — working directly with the l’il black and white 512K Mac, on floppies, I started with Pagemaker 1.0… a few years later I previewed PhotoShop (pre 1.0) with a “Barneyscan” 35mm scanner. It was bundled with the hardware. Similar story with Quark Xpress 1.0 and so on…
I’m on my 6th Mac at home not counting the ones that I went through at work. I’m on my 5th PC including one that your brother convinced me to “build” from parts… I’ve bought, been given or simply aquired dozens of upgrades for virtually every graphics program for 20-years.
But I can no longer keep up with or find relevance in “social” whatever, but I’m glad that you do! It will mean something, someday but the speed with which appliances, infrastructure and social acceptance and the directions that seem to be emerging are just dizzying.
The traditional and inherent difficulty of aquisition, preparation and distribution of any media beyond typewritten pages and audio or video tape in the “Middle Ages” imposed the role of editors on all publishers. Most also adopted ethical standards and pratices that made their media somewhat credible.
Monitization came from selling the “atoms” that made up this media… print, tape, CD. Now “bits” of media have no substance and very little protection from perfect duplication. Monitization depends on honor, convenience, copy protection and some of the ugliest advertising ever witnessed in form and execution.
Editing is limited to “spell check”…
Today, any bad musician’s CD cover and self promotion is thrown into the media stew pot without a publisher’s critical input. Any rumor and malicious or simply wrong report can ride along with insightful and diligent reporting. Obama and Michelle on the New Yorker cover without the accompanying satirical article makes that issue appear like a confirming article in a KKK gazette to Hillary’s working white minions.
The power of the press is in the hands of the unwashed masses!
I’m old and grumpy tonight… but I guess that I have to ask you to help me with a 3.0 for my web page if I’m to continue some semblance of relevance in the social jet lane, and to provide a vehicle that I can supplement a classroom with.
I’m proud of you.
Hugs — :-)}
BTW… if you want your last name dot com… I own it!
;-)}
@Genius: You’re what I consider an exception to the rule, but also perhaps part of the new generation that has grown up with so much technology that process and whatnot is a deeper part of your DNA than us Gen Xers. Of course, you are the Genius. That was evident from the first few minutes of your job interview!
@Dad: To paraphrase my favorite anti-drug commercial, I learned this from watching you!
The funny thing is that people are treating social media as some extraordinary “other” when it operates on so many of the same basic principles of modern human sociology. Sure, technology is augmenting and enhancing the process in amazing ways, giving people the ability to readily quantify their influence and network. But it doesn’t change the rules of the game that mom taught me so well: be yourself, be honest, be real.
As for the rest…power to the people! Brands (and advertisers) need to evolve or risk the certain death that comes with burying one’s head in the sand. The fact that you’re asking me to help provide some digital shape to your “personal brand” tells me that regardless of the grey hair, you “get it.” That, pops, is the key!