Making Media
The Virtual Producer

I have watched the web change over the years and I love thinking about ways to present a new web experience to site visitors/viewers.

My first experiences (age 13) on the Internet were not graphical ones. It was in a day when we sat at terminals and used text based browsers like Lynx to 'surf the web'. We were there for the information. We wanted to read articles on Litservs and we sent BOTS to travel the electronic lines and deliver us back loads of information from libraries and various government agencies. I recall the days when I was running a single line BBS (Bulletin Board System.) It's exactly what it sounds like, only one user at a time logged in and the network did not communicate with any other machines.

Today it is all about color and layout. Entire studies are done using eye-tracking technology to determine where a users eye goes first on a page, where did they click, scan left to right or right to left? We create templates with little compartments where content lives based on many variables.

Tonight I found myself on this website: www.dontclick.it

At first I was irritated, navigating an entire site and not clicking. As my mind wrapped itself around the concept and the techniques of mousing without my finger poised to click...well the concept grew on me. I felt like I was having to pay more attention to what was on the page and where my mouse was. This is a huge positive when you are addressing user engagement.

Check out the site and let me know what you think. I am curious to hear your thoughts on this experience.


I pose the question, "Can you imagine an internet without clicking?"

I have been away for a while and it is way past time for me to start doing a daily update. What have I been doing you may ask?

Work has been taking all of my time lately. I had to move content from an old site and into a content management tool (for the geeks out there we moved to a .NET environment.) You can see the new sites here:
http://www.q13fox.com
http://www.myq2.com
http://www.portlands32.com
The Portland site was just taken over by a very talented (local in Portland) graphic designer/internet guru and my new friend Natalie Williams. She owns the sharp look of that site in its current form.

It was a BIG project and there will be many changes and improvements in the coming months. That's my excuse for not blogging for the last 4 months.

Tiffany came to see me for a quick visit two weeks ago and it was awesome! I wish she could have stayed longer. We went and watched a hockey game, had good food and great conversation. We saw our dear friend Reid and shared many old memories over a quick lunch. I could count on one hand the number of friends I talk to that I knew in childhood but Tiffany is for sure one of those gems. I wish she lived closer so we could spend time together more often. More on Tiffany over at DA BLOG!

My goal is to post one cool link with every entry. Ever see line art make rhythm?
http://uploads.ungrounded.net

Today's song of the day is: The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony