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News
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Written by Stephan
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Tuesday, 12 August 2008 22:11 |
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After just about two years of driving the Renown Health websites, I've switched gears and taken a position as the Desert Research Institute's Webmaster. When I told Paul I had a new job as a Webmaster, he said, "Daddy, you're a superhero! Can you shoot webs?"
Working at DRI is great and it's been a major professional step forward for me. The team is very supportive and hard working (ten hour days are pretty much the norm, and most folks work more than that). I didn't realize how much I missed working with technical folks until I started my new position. There's a kind of quiet brilliance going on that I find energizing. My boss has unbelievable UNIX skills and is an incredible programmer; yesterday I watched him fix a make file in VI by zipping right to the problem in 5,000 lines of code, change the typecast of an object, and rerunning make... all in about five seconds. Personally I'm just impressed that I can do a point release upgrade on a Perl module. Anyway, I go home each night with my head buzzing from everything I've learned. Right now my priority at DRI is to develop a master strategy for the site(s) including an entirely new design, architecture, and content management system (and taking as much of the server maintenance off my boss's plate as possible). All told the DRI sites comprise about half a million pages, so it's no small task. I'm meeting with key folks and getting a lot of feedback as I learn the infrastructure and institutional history. Websites are very political and everyone has an opinion. From my perspective, there are two pieces of really good news: - My boss has set up an unbelievably cool technical infrastructure. His system is killer and secure (he has formal training in computer forensics).
- DRI has a lot of amazing stories to tell- they just need to be brought to the surface.
Despite my frustrations with inefficient policies and one particularly annoying individual with delusions of technical aptitude, I had a good time at Renown. I could not have gotten the DRI job without the experience in web marketing and PR I got there, and being part of the Tahoe Tower opening was great. Although I'm not in love with health care—and believe me, you have to love it to work in the industry—I worked with some incredible people at Renown. And I do love that Reno is such a small town; makes it easy to keep in touch with good friends. |
