Web Producers

[Margaret F Riley]

On Mon, 4 Dec 1995, Eric H Schnell wrote:

>    The process of editing a Web site/document is very much like
> a multimedia production. The use digital imaging and audio in a Web 
> site requires skills which are more akin to media production than
> to traditional Librarianship. (Unless you had a few media courses
> in Library Schoool) We have Radio Producers, Television Producers,
> Movie Producers, etc.  Since the Web is certainly a new medium,
> how about Web Producer?

I think Web Producer is a valid job description, along with Web Designer. 
However, I disagree that the effective use of digital imaging and audio in
web pages is limited to those who took media courses in any degree of
study. 

At my college, there is the Webmaster who manages the design of the server
and the Webmaster who manages the system and processing side. He's a
programmer and system technician, and I'm the information manager and
design consultant.  We absolutely work in close conjunction with each
other to discuss what is going on, how design and the use of graphics and
other non-text formats affects the performance of the server and delivery
of information, but we also have our differences and can argue about them
reasonably.  

I'm very specific when I tell people I'm not a programmer, but I also
know enough of the language of that side to be able to state what I want
and why and to understand what is being returned to me.  The other
webmaster knows enough about information management to understand my
concerns about placement of information and management of the database.

Seems like some of this relates back to the ongoing discussion of the
"techies" vs the "librarians."  Cooperation and open-minded discussion
will aid us all, lack of either will destroy us. 

   Margaret F. Riley             
   Coordinator of Networked Resources                  mfriley at wpi.edu
   WPI Gordon Library                                 Ph: 508/831-5963
   100 Institute Road                                Fax: 508/831-5829
   Worcester, MA  01609                    http://www.wpi.edu/~mfriley
                             ++++++++++++++
        Employment Opportunities and Job Resources on the Internet
               http://www.wpi.edu/~mfriley/jobguide.html