KevinPfefferle.com

My excuse for sporadic updates? I’ve been crazy busy with miscellaneous site changes, a new movie, a coming traveling exhibit, and pages for two new permanent exhibit installations (one complete, one under construction). So where do I find time to continue progress on the site redesign? Well, to be blunt, I don’t!

So I came up with a solution… I need an  intern!  What follows is the “official description” of the position. If you or anyone you know would be interested in helping out and gaining some great experience in the process, let me know!

COSI College Internship Position Description

Job Title: Web Production Intern
Reports to: Web Manager
Openings: 1
Time Requirement: Minimum 10-15 hours per week of the internship

I. OBJECTIVE:

To assist in the current redevelopment of the COSI.org web site by assisting with regular site maintenance tasks and email marketing message construction.

II. DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT:

Goal: To gain practical experience in a professional environment using current web site management strategies and tools while learning the importance of planning, current web standards, and accomplishing work in the midst of an active atmosphere.
a. Understand the best practices employed in organizational web site management such as design standards, content contribution, and publisher review.
b. Help COSI keep its web site content current and fresh through use of internal communications, site analytics, and visitor feedback.
c. Learn how Content Management Systems are used to organize, update, and approve online content from a variety of sources.
d. Learn about use of modern web design standards and strategies for greatest browser compatibility and user accessibility.
e. Use a web-based management system to create and update web site content.
f. Learn to adapt content creation abilities for use in email marketing with the opportunity to create unique email campaigns.

III. OTHER DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
Under the supervision of the Senior Director of Marketing & Communications and the Web Manager, the Web Production Intern’s duties may include:

a. Meeting with appropriate COSI Team members as needed to complete tasks.
b. Being respectful of COSI visitors at all times, following COSI’s Guest Service philosophies
c. Other duties as assigned.

IV. EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE/SKILLS NEEDED:

a. One year of Marketing, Web Site Design or Development, Interactive Media, or related coursework completed is required.
b. Interest in current and future Internet communication technologies.
c. Understanding in how the Internet is used to communicate organizational messages.
d. Experience in learning unique or proprietary systems (quick learner).
e. Basic experience utilizing Adobe Photoshop and HTML coding required.
f. Beginner knowledge of web standards and Cascading Style Sheets preferred but not required.

V. SCHEDULE:

a. As arranged by supervisor Monday through Friday between 8am and 5pm.
b. Work from home possible for certain tasks or projects.

VI. BENEFITS FOR THE VOLUNTEER:

a. Orientation and training for your specific job duties.
b. A letter of recommendation at the completion of the internship.
c. Free admission to COSI and discounts in the theaters, café, and gift shop.
d. Free parking.
e. Professional level mentorship and supervision.
f. Invitations to Team events and parties.

Last week I had the fun experience of leading a couple of internal training sessions at COSI about Yammer.  As a service to those who were unable to attend and as a resource to those of you who don’t work at COSI, I will be blogging through the content we covered in these sessions.  At any point, you may also elect to go rogue and just read the tutorials and help documents at www.yammer.com (which conveniently enough is also where you sign up for Yammer…but that will be covered in my next post).

Part 1: What is Yammer and why is COSI using it?

Yammer is a lot like Twitter in that it is a microblogging service that allows you to send quick brief updates to other people that you are connected to through the service.  The primary difference between Yammer and Twitter is that Yammer groups users by email address domain (which is mail.cosi.org for us at COSI).  As a result, you become automatically connected through Yammer to those who work at your company, enabling you to share things with your coworkers.  Only people with the same email ending as you will see your updates on Yammer, so Yammer becomes a great tool for internal organizational communication!

For may organizations like COSI, the primary way in the past to communicate something to everyone has been through an all-team email.  While appropriate in some instances, it might not be deemed efficient to fill everyone’s inbox with the daily lunch special or a notification that an elevator is broken.  Not only does Yammer provide an ideal communication method for these important but non-vital announcements, but it also opens a new level of communication where people can stay informed about all sorts of things that we’d never send an all-team email about.

The prompting question that Yammer asks is “What are you working on?”  A quality answer to this question will inform others throughout the organization in a way that we could never do even with a thousand all-team emails (and who wants to delete all of those anyways?).  By knowing what other people are up to, we can anticipate how other projects may affect us as well as show interest in projects we may like to be involved in.

Some of the Yammers at COSI that I have become a fan of include attendance updates and stories from the floor staff.  Since I work in a cubicle hidden away on COSI’s fabled third floor, I often don’t have a very good sense of what is going on in the visitor areas of the building.  Up here, I can’t tell the difference between a day with 500 visitors and a day with 5,000 visitors, so when our Guest Services team sends a Yammer that says the following (actual Yammer from Saturday), I get a very real sense for what the day was like in the building:

Attendance Update 11/8/2008 – Approx. 2800 GP and Members, 300 “Elmo Event Guests”, 30 Group Guests, and Expected 2500 for AEP Open House tonight!

A couple weeks ago, Steve Whitt (one of our Master Educators) Yammered:

I did an unscheduled [Electrostatic Generator] show for a group whose lead teacher asked very nicely. We’re doing “Launch Into Space” this week, but she’d prepped her kids for EG. So I did the show and the kids loved it! Now I’m off to do the 3:10 space show.

How cool! I would have never known about that if it weren’t for the magic of Yammer!

So what do I Yammer about?  I usually send an update when we post a new blog entry with a link to the blog where the entry can be found.  I will sometimes note when a major update has been made to COSI.org.  I may let people know I am working on a new and exciting project (like the new home page layout that will be coming very soon).  Hopefully others find such information somewhat interesting and helpful as they do their part at COSI…I know I like hearing what they are up to!

Next Post: Signing Up for Yammer