Replicated on this website, I’ve moved away from the dated strapline (‘computer scientist and IT professional’) in order to better reflect my career path, hobbies and passion. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m proud to present:

John Alexander Rowley – Computer specialist and online marketing professional’.

So maybe a strap-line launch party would be a bit much, but I thought I’d take this time to go through the new lines added to the new cards – coming to a wallet near you soon.

computer and technology specialism

Ok, number one. I think the first few words are pretty obvious (especially to those reading articles on this site). The vast subject of computing and even broader area of technology is fundamental to my education, career and hobbies.

My grandfather used to say “There’s no such thing as a specialist”, and I tend to agree. However, the definition for ‘specialist’ over at ‘the free dictionary’ is pretty accurate to what I’m trying to convey. ‘One who is devoted to a particular occupation or branch of study or research’. Add something about pastime into the mix, and we’re just about there.

online marketing strategy development

This is much more accurate to my career path than the previous ‘IT Professional’. Whilst I hope I remain professional, I definitely don’t work in IT. I’m sure there is thousands of online marketers across the country that get as wound up as I do when approached with the line “Oh, you’re in IT then, right?”.

Online marketing is another massive and complex area, covering campaign analysis, brand promotion and online presence management, to name but a few. Add email & social marketing, search engine optimization and Pay-Per-Click analysis and you’ll hopefully have an overview of what this sentence is attempting to define.

website production and analysis

Half way through now. Phew. The keyword ‘production’ caused some concern. Attempting to summarise ‘design and development’ (as per previous business cards), website production covers the whole journey of a website: initial graphical mock-ups, structure design, coding, maintenance, updating and migration. Not to mention database management and server setup / migration.

The ‘analysis’ postfix was added to identify the overlap between online marketing and website production. As mentioned SEO and PPC, as well as SERP supervision and keyword investigation are all integral to producing a successful website.

business information management

My final point relates to my final year and experience in the industry in an effort to depict my business comprehension. With one third of my final university year being business orientated (as well as a twelve month placement the previous year) I feel this is justified as I continue to develop my personal credentials.

Studying and actively engaging in elements such as project management, KPI production and business analysis assists me in fine-tuning my knowledge of organisation’s critical information. Handling and analysing this data is defined as the process of ‘business information management’.

Interesting. Moving away from the 15 year old structure is surely a good thing – we all know how quickly technology develops – but replacing the entire curriculum with an open-source code based emphasis doesn’t seem like a great move, in my opinion.

The opinion of a computer scientist

As a ‘Computer Scientist’ (I don’t really think of myself as one, but I have the skill-set to call myself one at times like this) I understand the importance of being able to code. But as an ‘Online Marketeer’ (more inline with my job role) I respect the importance of knowing basic (and advanced) office IT skills.

Take for example Excel. It was the primary focus in ICT, with emphasis on advanced calculations and spreadsheet design. This will be removed and replaced with basic game development in some specific language (currently under industry review).

Now, I love being able to code. But I admit it’s not exactly a ‘life skill’. The number of people I encounter who can’t use a simple excel chart, Word document or Access database is incredible. I don’t think anyone can argue that being able to write a simple program is more important than basic IT office skills.

So why are these office critical skills being replaced? What’s the proportion of A-Level students who go on into a computer science orientated career? Compare this to those who go into an office based career where tools such as Excel, Word and PowerPoint are used almost daily. I think you’ll find the later is a much higher number.

The result of changing the curriculum

My expectation of changing the curriculum is that a lower number of students will take the ICT A-Level. Those that do will be more likely to proceed into a computer science degree. However, I expect this to be due to creating a more niche subject, rather than the effect of the course on it’s students.

In summary, the conversion rate of students moving into a computer specific career will increase, however the number of conversions will drop as more versatile students decide against the coding based A-Level.

If I were to have a say on the progress of the ICT course, I would suggest bringing the existing curriculum up to date (whilst maintaining the tools used). Almost an ‘ICT for an office environment’ course. In addition, an ‘Advanced computing’ course could be created, for those dedicated to software engineering and alike.

Of cause, that’s just my opinion.

Skill Set #1: Design

First things first – You need a good design. The attractiveness of a webpage can affect the users perception of credibility, the read rate and of cause, overall bounce rate. Here Photoshop is your greatest ally, quickly (a relative term at best!) mocking up several designs at (again relatively) little cost.

This skill set is as much about prior experience as it is intuitive design ideas – although the two do generally go hand in hand. Knowing what your audience likes is, perhaps, a skill of it’s own – ‘Monitoring’. Being able to take ideas from thought to paper (or canvas, in the case of Photoshop) is another paramount feature of designing.

Skill Set #2: Development

Phase two – The area that most ‘Website Developers’ are associated with. And with good reason. This code orientated skill set is based on taking the designs (from oneself, in a self sufficient methodology) and converting them to a functional structure. This often includes the knowledge of HTML, with DIV’s being the favored method for website structure.

CSS, a styling method, is also a must know language for development. The method in which a self sufficient developer does this is up to the individual; either opting for the quicker inline technique, or the more structured style sheet approach.

Skill Set #3: Content

This is the area that many, including myself, find most challenging. When done well it seems effortless and can definitely be the difference between a successful website and a struggling domain. But creating content for a page is a lot harder than it may seem from an outsiders perspective. Text is the key to most websites, and can change rapidly with altering trends. It does seem, for now at least, that the whole ‘Web 2.0′ friendly and personal approach is here and in full swing.

Text is only the start of it: There is images to contend with too!

Skill Set #4: Marketing

Often overlooked, this is probably the most important factor to producing a successful website (along with content, which is king, of cause). AdWords, Search Engine Optimization and all those other online marketing tools are essential for getting the word out to your potential readers / customers.

Managing your search engine result position (SERPs) with your chosen keywords is a fun and ongoing battle. SEO isn’t a one-time action: It takes constant maintenance (within reason) to ensure your audience keeps on flowing to your site (and converting, if that’s how you roll!).

Skill Set #5: Analyzing

The final piece to the self sufficient puzzle, analyzing those visits to the site is important in order to identify your strongest areas, possible pages of improvement and generally keep track of how you’re performing on the web.

You can track your performance against others, too. Competitors, friends or similar websites. Analyzing a developed website doesn’t mean that you’re finished: A good (proactive) self sufficient web developer will continuously use these individual skill sets in parallel to get the best results.

It all started on Tuesday, the first of the month and the first day of the new financial year for EvoEnergy. The previous day, however, had been far from tranquil. With government cuts affecting almost every sector, the FiT (Feed In Tariff) which effects Return on Investment (ROI) for solar panel installs was cut by 50%. No problems as such with that, it was forecast a long time ago. What was more of a shock to solar specialists, however, was the December 12th deadline (three months prior to expected!). Anyway, that’s probably as much (if not more than) I’m aloud to say on the subject. Needless to say, EvoEnergy sold a ton of stock on Monday and it’s been a pretty manic week for the company (all with a positive outlook, however). You can read more here.

Anyway, so my new position as Online Marketing Associate is based around the website structure / maintenance, E-Marketing and Campaign analysis. There’s more to it than that, but that’s the basics.

My own little desk space comes equipped with a lovely new laptop, 22” screen and peripherals, located to the right of the copywriter. There is also Suzy (Marketing Manager) alongside Daniella and Rachael, who make up the marketing team (headed by Tom, the Group Marketing Manager).

So, what’s it like!?

EvoEnergy is already a great company to work for; They provide tea and coffee (which is a great start) and gives the general atmosphere of the internal workings! The composition of young, skilled, professional enthusiasts makes the office a bussing place to thrive. There’s even a Kitchen area and sofas to ‘relax’ (although there hasn’t been much of that this week!).
Another great touch is the interaction and “real life” approach of the CEO, Dr. Kevin Hard, who is in and around the office regularly, and has real involvement with the office happenings.

So there is it, a bit of a review of my first “real” (excluding Thermo Fisher Scientific UK Ltd) week at work! Bring on next week (after a bit of a rest, please. Going out on “work nights” is proving a bad return on investment!

Now though, I’m starting to lean more and more towards them, and not in the traditional sense. After the release of the final Harry Potter film earlier this month, I was persuaded by a housemate to download the full Harry Potter audiobook collection and give it a go. I was doubtful, but to my amazement, I’m actually rather enjoying it.

I started ‘reading’ (or rather, listening) to the audiobooks on Friday, and today is the following Tuesday. I’ve just finished the second book. That’s pretty amazing for someone who’s got really no interest in novels.

As I start on the third book of the series I’m starting to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of this style of ‘story-telling’ (keeping the terminology brief to include films, traditional books and audiobooks).

One major advantage is that the books, in this case read by Steven Fry, give a good balance of detail (with accents and voices being replicated) whilst still leaving enough to the imagination to maintain the elegance of a traditional book. Furthermore, audiobooks are perfect for long drives, and I tend to find myself staying up for “just one more chapter”, which I don’t think I would personally for a paperback.

On the downside, the books may be read a little slow for those who like to read a book a night (the first two HP books are 8 hours each). I also can’t imagine wanting to listen to the audiobooks again; I know some avid book-readers who like to re-read their books several times.

Overall, however, audiobooks are perfect (for me, at least). Those who already read may not see them as beneficial, but if you’ve not read the Harry Potter books (in particular) then I would definitely recommend giving this medium a chance!

Suited and booted, me and others danced right at the front of the stage all night, followed by a walk through Nottingham with ringing ears to the after party at the city’s Student Union bar!

What a night! The Nottingham Ice Arena was dressed in typical ‘prom-esque’ white sheets, and the music, lighting and entire night was amazing! Also noticed how ALL the DJ acts had MacBook Pros (Just to keep the blog partially on track!).

Wicked end to an awesome four years at Nottingham Trent University. Now let’s just hope the results replicate all the hard work?!

Iv’e had debates time and time again. More often than not, these seem to conclude with facts, figures, claims and so-called evidence based on “something [someone] read online”. The fact is, however, that almost any argument can be justified by something found on the internet. As a higher-education academic on a computer science orientated degree for four years, I have heard countless times the strategy of “only citing respectable sources”. This, it seems, is often focused on NOT citing Wikipedia. That said, Wiki pages do appear to becoming more and more creditable by academic institutions, backed up by a number of interesting reports regarding said credibility. (I wonder if those journals cited Wiki?).

Either way, it’s frustrating to come to dead-end debates based on something found online, with quotes usually being either out of context, cited in the wrong scope, or in some cases completely fictional. You’d (probably) take articles from weekly magazines with a pinch of salt, so why do we so regularly cite online content?

Take for example the Fukushima Nuclear Incident; One of my peers commented that the exact reason was known for the meltdown very quickly after the incident. Now, without going into too much detail, I had reliable sources that told me this wasn’t the case. News papers, online journals and other media was claiming to know the full story, quoting extracts of Japanese interviews, but this, for the most part, wasn’t the full story.

Basically, it’s just a case of summing up how likely something is to be true, and taking things with a pinch of salt. If the source is more reliable, reduce to a few grains of salt. Unfortunately, due to some content/rubbish posted on the internet (no comments on this website, please!) it is often necessary to use a full spoon of salt!

P.s. I took down the PlayStation Network, single handedly, using my sonic screwdriver.

I’m talking (obviously!) about the Navigation Pane, New and Improved for Word 2010. The navigation pane can be found by going to ‘View’ and checking ‘Navigation Page’ (obviously, again!). It sorts chapters, headings, sub headings and even sub-sub headings (providing they have been set up correctly via the ‘Styles’ feature in Word).

This indexes all the headings and sub-headings down the left hand side of the page, allowing for quick access to any section. Furthermore, using the format which allows the navigation pane to work correctly also allows automatic contents page generation, by clicking Insert > Reference > Index and Tables > Table of Contents.

It had been in the back of my mind for some time, so the first available Sunday (after the stress of exams and deadlines for final year) I took my trusty (although ageing) camera (Cannon IXUS75) and an old Sony tripod into university to try and get some clips. I’d roughly planned out the sections I wanted to talk about, and had written five or 6 bullet points for each section on different pieces of A4 paper. These auto-cues were pinned directly under the camera (you can probably see my eyes move down slightly every now and then).

It was actually really intimidating talking to a camera, with no-one else in the room. The task of getting over a fun, bubbly character and also one who is serious about computing and work is no easy feat! However, I think I did OK, after about 25+ attempts!

So then the videos were reviewed and the best chosen; Into Windows Live Movie Maker 11 they went (which I don’t rate at all by the way – far too pretty with a lot of useful features removed!). There were however a couple of nice transitions, and knocking up the section headers only took a couple of minutes.

Finally I added a transcript using WLMM11 captions, which was tricky and time consuming. Finally, I used a piece of software called Watermark Maker 2 (Free trial for 20 days) to add the watermark in the top left.

Hey presto! One upload to youTube and a couple of blog articles later and I’m done. I’m pretty proud of the result, considering it only took one afternoon (and evening!).

Let me know what you think.

And why not read about how I came to make the video HERE!