Marin County Fair 1996

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“News is the first rough draft of history.” Philip L. Graham (1915-63), U.S. newspaper publisher.

Swine Online For the Marin County Fair 1996 (July 3 through July 7), high school and junior high school students from Novato, Terra Linda and other Marin cities, with volunteers from The Novato Onramp (a non-profit, community computer and new media center) collaborated on an online newspaper, Oinker Online. Features included up-to-the-minute news, happenings, announcements, interviews with visitors and VIPs, and behind-the-scenes visits with the most popular exhibits and the people who ran them.

The newspaper was available on interactive kiosks throughout the fair (courtesy of Spike Interactive), and featured on Marin County's World Wide Web site, MIDAS. The newspaper was written, edited and published entirely "on-site," while visitors to the Multimedia Funhouse could observe. No less impressive, the staff achieved the original goal of publishing three editions per day! The articles were fresh and topical, and the paper was enlivened by high resolution images captured at the Fair on Apple and Kodak digital cameras.

Post-game Analysis This was an ambitious and unique endeavor. As the "publisher," ... really the mentor ... I was excited to be involved. It presented me with a unique opportunity to act as a project manager and supervisor of a group of strong-willed creative types. When all was said and done, we had achieved all our goals, and produced (what I think of as) a first-rate Web site.

If you'd like to read my "postscript" on the project, it is available here.

By the way, I also collaborated with Sharon Taylor and several students on the Swine Online Guidebook page, and the Fair Schedule pages. Those cute little yellow clocks are mine, and I'm damned proud of them.

15 January 1997 The Swine Online Web site was awarded the Western Fairs Association 1996 Achievement Award for Best Web Site!

08 February 1997 Work has already begun on the Marin County Fair 1997 Web site. Tune in for updates during the countdown to blast-off!

David Spalding
December 1996

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© Copyright 1997 D.B. Spalding/Korova Multimedia. All rights reserved.

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