City advertising for Webmaster position

Today, the City of Fort Wayne created a job posting for the position of City of Fort Wayne webmaster.

Oddly, FWOb learned of the posting from another blogger.

CITY OF FORT WAYNE JOB POSTING
Applicants must meet duties/essential functions and minimum requirements.

Job Vacancy:	Webmaster/Graphic Designer	Department:	Information Systems
Requisition Number:	08091RFT
Hours:	8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., may vary depending on need.	Rate of Pay:	$48,000.00 to $52,000.00 Annually
Date Posted Up:	4/11/08	Date Posted Down:	Until Filled
Time Up:	8:00 a.m.	Time Down:

SUMMARY
Working under the direction of the Chief Information Officer the incumbent develops and maintains the City's Web Sites, and provides graphic design and commercial art services for the Mayor's Office and other City departments. Incumbent will be responsible for the City’s Internet and Intranet strategies, develop and maintain; web security and content policies. Incumbent will train other content managers and otherwise educate the enterprise on web trends.

Comments

[Andy Borgmann]

Hmmmmm.....

1.) "2+ years experience administering and developing for the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) platform in a server environment;
3+ years programming using PHP, HTML and CSS;"

Check

2.) "Administrator knowledge of Content Management Systems, Joomla/Mambo preferred;"

Check - although I am a little surprised they are using Joomla (or any CMS for that matter) given the large security issues with them.

4.) Specialized knowledge of the principles and practices of graphic design, commercial art, audio-visual display and desktop publishing graphics

Check

5.) Experience maintaining web sites using HTML and graphics tools included in the Adobe Creative Suite;

Check

6.) Experience in creating SQL queries

Check

7.) Love for Fort Wayne and want to return one day

Check

8.) Love for Fort Wayne politics

Check

It's tempting that's for sure.

This is my favorite part though:

"Experience with Microsoft Office Suite"

What web programmer out there has all the other qualifications but gets hung up on Microsoft Office Suite (unless of course their answer is that Microsoft is of the devil and I chose to use the free, Sun Microsystems platform OpenOffice)

[Dan Turkette]

Makes one wonder if they had the current Webmaster put the posting up to replace him/her?

[Al Trimpe]

In this day and shouldn't some knowledge of the web and internet be part of the job description in many department positions?

[Kevin Knuth]

The "Microsoft Office Suite" reference may be used because many Web and Graphic designers do not us PCs.

[Kristina Frazier-Henry]

So let's see - in essence, they want one person to be the technical, creative, and content be-all - for the website.

Dropped Hints to City of Fort Wayne.

1) Allow non-technical folks the ability to manage their own content.

2) Have someone in charge of both the application/infrastructure of the web because it's difficult to make one work without the other.

3) Employ a "creative" type that works in conjunction with your publications group (assuming you have something like this), your techncal guru's (i.e. the app/inf persons), and your content stakeholders.

Don't tie a creative type up in technical crap. You'll be stifling their creativity. Creative types are special folks - the most talented ones - when you get them HOLD ON TO THEM FOR DEAR LIFE. :)

Ed. note:

Kristina - these are all valid points - particularly on the separation between the technical and the creative.

On point number one - I think it has been a matter that some departments are very good about updating material from within the department while others may lack technical confidence to do so. There is not a uniformity in technical capability across departments.

As you know from private organizations, this can have the effect of tying up highly skilled computer personnel in content tasks.

[dan jehl]

If the above comment is from the job specs, there seems to be CURRENT and future WEB technology missing. As no computer wiz and whose teen nephews have to help make one work, I'd still like to comment based on a a current on-line internet class now offered from Purdue at IPFW.

Where is knowledge required of XHTML since over time, it is replacing html; and already the WWW3 Consortium is identfying and removing depracated tags from HTML. How about basic knowledge of web design and web communications and networking, including media blogging. In fact, for the first time ever, IPFW is offering a summer course on Computer Blogging.

Dreamweaver, Macromedia, Photoshop, RSS feeds, and archive techniques?

For enhanced use of the City of Fort Wayne Web Site and as time goes on and changes in the Internet communications occur always, it would seem the job requirements should be proactive skill and knowledge-based and forward looking to meet the needs of the quarter-plus-million potential viewers of the site.

These job specs seem old school. What is needed is both old school and new school.

Actually, I'm pleased to see the city does have a full time Webmaster, and now with a pending ordinance calling for increased usage of the City Web Site for Public Meeting information, it should take no time at all to implement it.

[K.E. Casey]

Two points:

First, great comments from Mr. Borgmann and Mr. Jehl. I totally agree.

Secondly, in regards to Ms. Kristina Frazier-Henry's comment, I must take issue. There is no need for the city to pay even one cent for a "creative type" for the Web site, and if they did so it would be a bigger waste of money than certain other recent projects the City has endeavored to accmplish.

I may be misreading the comment, but I believe it implies that creativity and technical skills are somehow a dichotomy. That is incorrect; creative and technical skills often go together. Some of the techies I know are not only talented in their logic skills but also have a great eye for design and possess an innovative mind (Mr. Andy Welfle please stand up).

And really, let's look at the whole point here: it's important that the city have a good website--but what does that mean. The mission and mandate should be simple: Keep it functional and easy to use, even by people who don't use a computer all that often. That's it.