Definitions

In my last post, I was thinking about how routines can shift over time, gradually changing us in the process. This idea has really affected how I view myself and my work lately. Defining oneself by one's occupation is the norm, right? If I meet you for the first time and we strike up a conversation, inevitably someone will ask, "So what do you do?" As if what a person does is somehow indicative of who that person is.

I think for people working in Web-related businesses, it's a dangerous thing to define people by their job title. This is the day of the mashup, right? No site is built on a single idea anymore. Google even does more than search now. The web is constantly changing, too, so how we deal with the web, work on the web, has to constantly change. And really, there's no term that accurately describes what I do. Am I a web developer? Yes. Am I a programmer? Yes. Do I do a whole bunch of other stuff that doesn't fit neatly within those two categories. Yes, a whole lot of stuff.

I participate in design and architecture decisions for our sites, am chiefly responsible if the servers go offline or don't serve the traffic properly, have a voice in setting our development/design schedule, and just generally have a hand in most every area of our work at WPNI. As does everyone else I work with. Our editors, Tim and Cara, write, shoot video, take photos, and a whole lot of other stuff. Levi is one part project manager, one part journalist, and several doses of HTML/CSS developer. Jesse does video crunching, flash, javascript, HTML, and CSS. And these are just the quick and easy examples.

Rob is all over the place, too, in terms of what he does. He's really the one we take our cues from and who is largely responsible for this work environment. In fact, it's one of the things I like most about working with Rob. No one on our team is cornered into a certain definition of his or her role. Everyone has a voice in the process and is actually able to work without worrying about artificial boundaries like definitions of "what we do."

I'm probably not explaining this properly, or doing the idea justice, in this quick post, but I think it's key to having a successful and fun time on the web. This is the nature of the web itself. The thing just isn't bound to a single person's notion of what it is. Each blog reflects the personality of its writer. Each site — or any good site — is infused with the life of its creators. And people really are more than any single definition does them justice. My dad is much more than an accountant, my wife more than a massage therapist. And I'm sure who they are is nothing like the personality you just ascribed to them when you read what they do in that last sentence.

So what do I do? A whole bunch of stuff. Oh yeah, and it's all fun.

Posted by deryck on March 23, 2007

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