The last video relating to the internship - whether there is anything in this project, (and i believe that there might just be) which I can use for my BA project, then some of this will be applicable for the future. Below the video is also a brief summiing up of the internship that had to be written and handed in to the school.
A bit of a read, but here it is for posterity's sake.
Introduction.
My internship primarily took place within a Danish company called Comtech. This is a “Staging and Events” company based in Copenhagen and Aarhus and working throughout Denmark and other northern European regions.
Due to unforeseen circumstances at the time, I had to pursue other more entrepreneurial activities to bolster my internship project as a whole. As a result, I also designed, made and implemented a website for another company - Dansk Rigging og Personsikring Aps - DROP.
The reasons for this extra activity will be explained. I will also compare what I planned in my learning goals with what actually happened during the internship and reflect on the differences, challenges, achievements and short comings.
Expectations
Prior to any concrete ideas being proposed, I had mentioned in the Learning Goals document that a verbal agreement between myself and the head project leader, Lars N*****n, had been reached concerning the direction of the project as a whole. I would present a number of areas of interest that would straddle the competencies of myself, my education and Comtech. This would be subsequently read by Lars and he would get back to me on which areas he thought could yield the most return.
Unfortunately, due to Lars’s often hectic and full schedule, this follow up meeting never took place. I was disappointed not to receive feedback from Lars as I feel this would have given me substantial impetus to strive for a more concrete and functioning outcome. His experience in the industry is well known and respected which is partly the reason he is so busy. I am sure that this is a common occurrence in internships of this kind - the boss thinks it is a great idea on paper but when it comes to actually dealing with the reality of extra responsibility, the everyday workings of the company take priority.
I suppose it is very difficult for someone like Lars to see the immediate benefit of an internee bringing new ideas to the company. Not that someone like Lars is adverse to new ideas, to the contrary, but rather that he must see how the internee can add value to the company. If the internee, as in my case, is proposing progressive strategies that are out of line with the normal thinking of the organization, it can be difficult to see why precious time should be spent on it.
Another expectation in the beginning was that since I had worked for the company in the past, it would be easier for me to talk and interact with other employees with whom I had an already existing relationship. In fact, this actually seemed to work against me. My colleagues were somewhat confused as to what my role was within the structure and at times as was met with either bafflement or derision - not a healthy attitude to be confronted by first thing on a Monday morning.
Though in saying this, once my work colleagues did come to appreciate what I was attempting, the wealth of knowledge that I knew existed within Comtech was invaluable, especially from the younger members. They seemed to understand more clearly the possibilities in better integrating the web with the more customary projects offered by Comtech.
The Learning goals.
Of the three ideas laid out in the learning goals document only the Twitter integration idea was practical. Of the other two, a little must be said to explain why they had to be put to the side;
the 3D projection problem was the most visually challenging of the three ideas. When this idea was first proposed, the people who heard it were in agreement that it would be a great project for the company to do. And, given Comtech’s long working relationship with the Bella Center, there was a perfect opportunity to take advantage of - the grand opening of the Bella Hotel. What was not apparent tome and which, when discovered, put an immediate stop to the project, was the cost. This was a perfect example of creativity versus practicality. Once the figure had been roughly added, it turned out that such a project was going to cost in the realm of 330,000DK where the bulk of the expenditure would be the hiring and running of the projectors. (This is a good example of where Lars Nissan’s experience was lacking - instead of me chasing and investigating the possibilities of this idea, he could have told me from the outset that it was impractical and would not happen in an educational context). Some investigation into this idea did take place before the realization that it would be unworkable - I scoped out various locations close to the warehouse for trails, discovered how to collect multiple images of a location and stitch them together so as they could be imported into the appropriate software and started brainstorming story ideas for a short animation that could have taken place on the side of the Bella hotel
the SMS idea, which prior to the beginning of the internship seemed the most hardware intensive of the three, was put to the wayside relatively quickly due to an internal restructuring of the company (I will explain the structure of the company below). The expertise of this area had moved from the company to another sister company owned by the same holdings firm. Enthusiasm for this idea seemed to have left the building along with this departure for reason that were not disclosed to me.
As for the Twitter idea that i did investigate and bring to a conclusion, i can go through the learning expectations from the Learning Goals document and say a brief amount on how those expectations were met or not;
- learning about the functions and application of the Twitter API - Investigation work had to be taken to understand the workings of twitter. To implement the API, I had to understand it’s intricacies
- implementing a back end database through the use of a CMS such as Wordpress or Drupal - the idea here was to set up some sort of email/user database that would used to experiment with the Twitter application and to “wall-in” the virtual environment. There was one Wordpress plugin that I implemented but limitations of this were quickly discovered due to its lack of interactivity and informational value i.e. it could only parse one Twitter #hashtag at a time. To have written my own plugin utilizing Wordpress was a possibility, though relearning php code would have diverted attention away from my already stated goals.
- assembling and maintaining the on-site hardware structure of such a network - once I was given the opportunity to set up screens, splitters etc I had to maintain the set up in a working environment
- implementing mobile integration - this was easily set up using the Twitter API and other mobile peripheries.
- assembling and maintaining a wireless network - since the set up never left the company warehouse, I was always using the in-house wi-fi system
- designing graphical content in line with clients visual needs - implementation of the Wordpress plugin meant using some graphical content so to illustrate what could be offered. For this case I use Comtech’s own logo to illustrate a live webpage.
- maintaining and surveying real time content in line with clients communication needs - this again came to the usage of the API where by setting up certain #hashtags, a system used within the “twittersphere” to collect and congregate similar tweets together. On a par with how tagging works for photos on flickr.com or videos on youtube.com
project management - possibly my largest failing was managing the project and understanding the crucial aspect of timelines and reaching goals.
Most of the findings and investigation can be found on my blog. There is also a good deal of documentation describing another web based application I discovered called Cover It Live (coveritlive.com). This in essence is what I wanted to do with the implementation of a invited only membership i.e. a walled in environment. The functionality of this site allowed me to feed web pages, or more precisely, iframes, into a webpage that I could control the access to. There was also functionality for live web casts, blogging, user interaction from both ends of the communication line and of course, Twitter integration, where I could control whose feeds could be read and which #hashtags could be followed.
One of the technical problems that I faced was then taking these iframes and setting them up in a webpage with the correct resolution in the browser window that could also be then sent to a big screen and even onto a projector. In this area, expertise and experience from Comtech was invaluable, especially from the younger employees.
Entrepreneurial Aspects
As stated before, I felt that the scope of my internship was not adequate if left only to what i was working with with Comtech and so decided that I needed to find other avenues to investigate.
Another company that I have worked for in the past is DROP, a small and highly experienced rigging company operating in Denmark. I had said to them before that their website was lacking in information and character and approached them again to make a redesign of it to which they happily agreed.
This project was more realizable due to its simplicity and necessity - realizable in the sense that it was something I had done before i.e. make a website, and a necessity in the sense that it was necessary for the company to have some sort of web presence. The challenge in this project, and something that was lacking from my Comtech work, was the utilization of a CMS, in this case Wordpress. The four owners of DROP wanted a website that would be easy for them to update without having to know HTML or php. They felt that if the process of updating the website was too labour intensive then there was no point in having it.
My initial expectations of Wordpress were that it would be as easy to learn and adopt as another CMS system i have been using for 4 years - blogspot. How wrong I was. it took a while for my attitude and working methods to develop when working with Wordpress but I am glad, as are DROP, at the results. Some of the goals reached -
a visually pleasing design that reflects the nature of the companies character
ability to update by mobile means - an important aspect for this company since all of it’s work is undertaken on location
presentation of essential data
security features to protect the website and the owners emails
integration of QR codes
The site will be going live soon (when the owners of DROP have written some content) at drop.dk and a preliminary version can be seen at www.theclearspots.com
Learning in relationship to PBA course
I found most valuable the insights into quantity over quality groundwork in the initial stages of the project. Also in communicating ideas to multiple “listeners” and the need to structure such communications so as everyone will understand them.
Conclusion
Some of the project was a success and some not so much. This was due to a combination of factors - my motivation, the interest of others, the availability of equipment and time constraints.
Looking back, I believe a more structured timeline is essential to a project of this type where all actors have varying amounts of enthusiasm.
I am also glad that I took the initiative to pursue other avenues of investigation. This gave me the chance to learn other web technologies that I might not have otherwise.
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