The problem, I think, is two-fold: part design and part scope.

The design problem is pretty straightforward. As soon as I arrive, I get that the time I spend online is representative of my identity and that my identity is valuable (why, thank you for recognizing that!). But aside from telling me that, I’m not sure what they want me to do about it. There’s a download that theoretically allows me to track my own path through the Internet but, how is that going to protect me or recoup the value of that time? Can I get paid for my data or do I simply want to prevent others from getting rich off of me? I’ve been writing a lot of grants lately and everyone tells you that you can’t just present a problem without a solution… or a problem without proof.

The problem of scope… the notion that I can somehow save and contain my identity doesn’t actually seem feasible. Online, it might just be possible, however, as it is in the real world, if I was constantly managing who I was — selling it, lending it, reclaiming and re-selling — I would cease to have the time to simply BE.

It occurs to me that this is what the native peoples of the Americas could not understand about the Europeans — the idea that we alll “own” things. We are all visitors here, passing through. Why worry about that which is transitory?

Objective

The website exceeded five thousand static HTML pages containing text, graphics and audio, which were poorly maintained. The design and the backend needed a serious overhaul which would reflect the dynamic, professional nature of a flagship NPR affiliate.

Solution

The first step was an exhaustive audit of 100 public radio and media websites and a detailed review of internal department and external audience feedback, generating a completely new information architecture, design and production flow. A custom content management system was built for the web staff, radio program producers and other support staff to collaboratively produce content. Finally, the site and its subsequent mini-sites were deployed using web standard and accessible design techniques, which created a flexible foundation for new services like podcasts and online community tools.

Technology

PHP/MySQL, XHTML, CSS, JavaScript

Notes

Frank Hamilton was specifically hired in 2002 to overhaul the site and manage the station’s Internet strategy as the Senior Web Producer. He left the position in 2006.

Related Sites

The Diane Rehm Show, The Kojo Nnamdi Show, MetroConnection

Rebecca Kingsley’s documentary, The Last Colony, chronicles D.C.’s modern home-rule and voting-rights movement from its birth in the civil-rights era to the present day. Much like enfranchisement, however, Kingsley’s film isn’t something D.C. residents are likely to see any time soon.

After seven years in production, the self-financed doc is stuck in limbo: Kingsley needs $100,000 for post-production expenses and to purchase the use of copyrighted archival footage before she can finish her longtime labor of love. Kingsley began working on the documentary sporadically in 1999; in 2003, it became a full-time affair. “I knew from the beginning that if I wanted people to take me seriously with this that there had to be a certain level of production value,” Kingsley says. “I went through my savings, cashed in my 401(k), and [applied for] several credit cards.”

“She didn’t go out there with her little Handycam and shoot it herself,” says Erica Ginsberg, co-director of Docs in Progress — a bimonthly workshop for documentary filmmakers — where a rough cut of The Last Colony screened in May. “When she’s finished with this film, it will be very powerful in getting people outside of the Beltway to understand that the capital of our country doesn’t really provide democracy to its own citizens.”

If she finishes. Earlier this year, a cash-strapped Kingsley submitted a proposal for part of a $1 million grant offered by the Office of the Mayor, geared toward educating the nation about voting rights in the District. Kingsley had hoped the money would give her film a much-needed financial boost. Two months before the Docs in Progress screening, she found out she wouldn’t receive a dime.

“I just really believed it would be sort of a no-brainer,” Kingsley says. “One percent, just $10,000, would have shown some support from the city. I mean, that was just really devastating not to get one penny from them at all.” Instead, the grant was split three ways between D.C. Vote, the League of Women Voters, and Our Nation’s Capital. D.C. Democratic State Party Chair Wanda Lockridge, one of a dozen volunteers who reviewed the grant applications, says Kingsley’s proposal leaned more toward advocacy while Our Nation’s Capital didn’t focus on voting rights at all. “We had to score according to what the instruction was,” Lockridge says of the strict guidelines set by the Mayor’s Office. “And that was to stay away from the [proposals] that talked about promoting voting rights.” Though Lockridge ranked Kingsley’s proposal higher, the Office of the Mayor had final say.

After years of dedication to her film — during which she’s raised close to $120,000, interviewed nearly 200 subjects, and devoted countless hours to research — Kingsley can’t help but feel like she’s let her cause down. “I have this constant feeling of disappointment,” she says, looking at a timeline of D.C.’s struggle for democracy scrawled on a Post-It note. “I feel like I’m constantly disappointing people.”

With a new administration, however, comes a new hope. In early November, members of Free D.C.! and D.C. Vote presented a pre-transition plan at Mayor-elect Adrian Fenty’s request. One of their stated recommendations was to fund Kingsley’s film.

“[That] would be like a B-12 shot, let me tell you,” Kingsley says. “It would be like, ‘Holy shit, I can finish this thing.’”