Patience

I don't feel like I'm accomplishing huge tasks at the moment, but I have been working on some small things to help prepare for the video tutorials I'll be creating.

1.  I talked to my site supervisor about which slides she liked best and we've decided on the following images:

Title Slide

Ending Slide

My site supervisor really likes the pop of the orange title, but we both agreed that too much text in orange would be hard to read.  I tweaked a few other things and feel confident that these slides will be cohesive with the new site when it is live.


2. My site supervisor added me to the WAS listserv so that I can directly communicate with WAS users.  I've sent out one email simply thanking people for answering my questionnaire and letting them know what videos they can look forward to seeing in the next few months.  Maybe when some of the videos are actually created and accessible on the site, I can email again to let users know they are available.

3. I attempted to write an outline for my first video.  As previously mentioned, I still don't have access to the new site so this is proving to be a bit difficult.  Watching the old tutorial that I am replacing mostly left me with questions about how the new site will look instead of giving me a clear idea of how to set up the new video.  I have broken it down into a few categories that I plan to go over with my site supervisor, but when it comes to specifics, I may need to wait until I have access to the new site.  Hopefully I'll get some good news when we meet this Friday in regards to the release date.  She was hoping for early March so keep your fingers crossed!

At this point, I'm starting to fall behind on my hours a bit.  I'm not too worried since I know that the actual video creation is going to take the bulk of my time and therefore I will definitely be putting in more than the 9 hours per week after the site goes live.  It's more of a guilt thing at this point.  I started the semester off thinking that I would put in 9-10 hours per week and it is just not turning out so consistent.  I need to remind myself that it's okay to adjust the schedule I created and budget for 10-15 hours per week after the site goes live to make up for some of the shorter weeks I'm experiencing now.  Since I'm aware of the longer hours I will be putting in later, I can budget for them now by working ahead in my other class and planning ahead at school.  Of course, this will all get a lot more stressful if the site doesn't go live in the next week or two, but I'm trying not to worry about that yet...eek!

The Waiting Game

Maybe that's not an entirely accurate title.  I do have plenty of things to be working on, but it looks like I'll be playing the waiting game with access to the new WAS website.  The IT department has tried several times, but I just can't get into the network from off-site.

In the meantime, I am switching over to Screenflow since Camtasia didn't work out and I am getting started writing my first script.  The survey responses I have received were overwhelmingly in favor of an "Analyze Capture Results" video--23 of 28 respondents picked this choice!  I'm a little intimidated because this is probably the area of WAS that is still the most confusing...hence everyone wanting a tutorial video about it.  My goal for the next week is to create an outline for the video with key points and a script of what I will say.  Obviously some of this will need to be readjusted once I have access to the visuals to go with it, but hopefully getting things prepped now will save me time later.

I have also been working on some "branding" for the tutorial videos.  WAS has a new logo to go with their new website and I have created some title and ending slides to put into the videos based around the new site.  I'm hoping to make everything look like it goes together so that the tutorials and the site are cohesive once they are uploaded.  I have emailed my site supervisor asking her to take a screenshot of the new site so that I can ensure that my slides are cohesive.  Right now this is what they look like:

Title Slide

Ending Slide

I anticipate tweaking them a little once I see the screenshot and then I will be able to include them in each of the videos I create!

*Update:  I've received the screenshots of the new site design and altered the slides accordingly.  I'm not fully convinced that I'm happy with the background color (may make it a little lighter), but I'm going to think on it awhile.

The new site design

Title Slide

Ending Slide

Troubleshooting

I feel like I haven't accomplished much this week, but that is probably due to the fact that I have hit a lot of snags.  Turns out I will likely not be able to use Camtasia after all.  My site supervisor provided me with a Windows license key, but I'm unable to split the hard drive of my Mac to run Windows because I simply don't have enough space.  Looks like my options at this point are either to shell out the money for Camtasia Mac or to use ScreenFlow which is a very similar program that my husband already has on his computer.  I'm a bit frustrated that I spent so much time learning Camtasia when I might not even get to use it, but I think ScreenFlow is very similar so hopefully it will be quick to get back on track.

I have also been unable to obtain network access this week.  The IT department at WAS tried to use my home IP address to make a hole in their firewall so that I could get at the new website before it goes live.  This didn't work so I then provided my work IP address to see if that would work, but no such luck.  I'm not really sure what's wrong...is it my IP or the work around they are trying to do?  Either way, I'm at a standstill in terms of accessing the new version of the website.  My site supervisor is hoping it will go live sometime in early March so in the meantime I will do as much as I can to write tutorial scripts and then plan to actually film my tutorials after the site is live.  Not the ideal situation, but hopefully something I can handle.

On a more positive note, I finished up the survey I was writing and my site supervisor sent it out to all the WAS clients.  Within a few hours we already had 15 responses!  Yay!  I'm looking forward to going over the results and figuring out which tutorials clients are most interested in having on the WAS website.  This will help me prioritize which videos to make first and hopefully I'll be getting into the nitty gritty of storyboarding and script writing next week!

Camtasia and a Survey

This week I have spent a lot of time learning Camtasia, the video editing software that I will be using for my internship.  The program has a lot of really great features that will allow me to capture screenflow footage and audio, incorporate other media, and add effects and transitions.  So far I have watched all the tutorial videos posted on their website and created a practice project using the features so that I will be prepared when I start making my own videos.

One snafu of the program that I hadn't considered is that I use a Mac and my internship site has license keys for the Windows version of the program.  Right now I've been using the free 30 day trial to test things out, but I'm going to have to split my hard drive and install Windows in order to be able to use the license key my site supervisor provided me with.  Kind of a pain in the neck, but I also don't really want to buy the Mac version with my own money...it's nearly $100!  Luckily I have a supportive IT department at my regular job and they are going to help me with the hard drive split and Windows installation.


My site supervisor also got back to me about the idea of surveying the current WAS clients to find out what they would like to see videos about.  She suggests that we create a list of potential video options and have people choose the top 5 or 6 videos that they would like to see.  We'll also provide an open-ended question at the end of the list so that people can add additional answers or information if they feel like we left something off. 

I'm proud of myself for speaking up about this idea.  My site supervisor likes it and seems glad that I spoke up with something that she hadn't considered at first.  I'm a very shy person and don't always feel comfortable speaking up about ideas I have with people that I'm not very familiar with, so I'm glad I didn't keep my mouth shut in this case!  Next step: create a rough draft of the survey and share it with my supervisor!

Gettin' Organized

I feel like I'm starting to get into a routine with this internship!  My site supervisor and I just had our second Skype meeting.  Our weekly slot keeps getting moved earlier and earlier on my Saturday morning (her Friday afternoon) and as much as setting an alarm for Saturday is a bit of a bummer, I'm glad to have the time to really dive into my questions.  We met for an hour and 20 minutes this week and most of the time was spent going through a list of a million questions related to web archiving that I had compiled since our last meeting.

I didn't really think about the archiving aspect of this internship when I applied for it since I was more interested in the video development side of things, but getting a crash course in web archiving is proving to be a pretty awesome bonus.  I don't really see myself being an archivalist in the future (and I haven't taken any classes in it), so the exposure is nice and I like learning something new even if it wasn't on my radar!

This past week, I watched a 50min. training video and went through a huge powerpoint presentation on my own, testing out the WAS service and taking notes as I went.  I got a really good feel for what WAS is doing and, after asking my site supervisor all of my questions, I really feel like I have a good grasp of what's going on at WAS.  I realize this wasn't a particularly formal orientation, but the format worked well and allowed me to explore on my own.  In the long-run, I feel like this helped with my understanding because I had time to experiment and try things out instead of simply listening to a presentation.

My internship is fairly loose in terms of guidance at the moment.  My site supervisor knows she wants better instructional videos on the website, but doesn't yet have specific ideas about what videos.  At this point in the planning process, we are working together to figure out what videos I should make.  I suggested we poll the current WAS customers to find out what they are interested in seeing and she liked that idea.  Over the next week, she is going to ask around her office to find out what the best way to approach customers might be (open-ended question, priority list, guided survey?).  We want to have a useful list and she is a bit concerned that customers will either provide really broad answers or will just want videos about everything (not our goal).

In the meantime, I am continuing to explore the videos that already exist and am going to start experimenting with Camtasia, the screen-capture software that my site supervisor recommended.  We haven't quite solved the network issue that came up last week so I also need to track my IP address and send that to my supervisor so she can get me access to the new interface.

So far, I'm really enjoying the flexibility of this internship.  I like that I am learning a lot about web archiving and that I also have the chance to bring ideas to the table.  My site supervisor has been very supportive in answering my questions and seems open to the suggestions I have brought up.  I'm looking forward to getting into the video creation process.  Script-writing, here I come!