When the concept of a community corporate blog was being discussed a few of us in IT were charged with researching what software/solution would be best to use. A few other blogging employees were using browser based blogs such as Blogharbor, Blogger, Typepad and we had a home grown site for Robin's blog "The Real Quixtar Blog". They were all fragmented and organized on a page located off a link in our footer. Not the best plan but we were new to blogging. I dabbled a while myself in a blog called "Blinded by Scion" - musings of cheap, economical car purchases and home improvements. I had some fun with it for a while but alas I removed it from existence.
Jonathan Jespersen found a product called Community Server and it was determined that would be the best solution to our blogging software needs. It came with easy to set up admin tools, templates for different user themes and would work well with our server configuration. That was before I found out I would have to modify .Net master pages to change the look and feel of our individually designed blogs. Yeah, I work in IT but I'm a front end developer with a extensive background in graphic design not a .Net developer. So I took the same attitude when I went sky diving that one time and closed my eyes and jumped in head first. It took a while to figure out the mystery of .Net but I became good enough to do what I had to do. Nice to know David Snyder who designs most of the OZ themes kept challenging me. All in all Community Server has fit our needs quite well. Recent upgrades will make changing UI themes alot easier once I get JJ to install it! Just kidding...
The truth of the matter is, it seems a lot longer than a year since we launched. With all of the projects such as Simply Nutrilite, Quickhits and now with Web 2.0 coming up somehow the year did not fly by.
As I wrap up this post I'd like to thank some other folks who don't get mentioned but are an integral part of keeping the OZ doors open:
Jeff Bosch - Project Manager, for keeping us honest on deadlines and taking up point for us so we could keep our noses to the grindstone.
David Snyder - Web Designer, who graciously challenges us when we say "nope can't do that".
Doug Kelly - Web Design Consultant, charged with maintaining and constructing all new blogs and having to deal with me on a regular basis.
Anna Bryce, Public Relation Lead - just back from maternity leave. Welcome back Anna!
Kate Pearsall, Public Relations Specialist - Who's been doing a great job keeping everything coordinated and making sure all the i's are dotted and such.
Well that's it, I'm off to the birthday party. Funny, never heard of a blog getting it's own b-day cake but what do I care, It's free cake!
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