06 October 2008

new hobby (lawyer version)

I've been collecting a lot of information on college campuses lately. In fact, this blog blurb is a distraction, but I felt inspired to share after stumbling onto this photo:

[edit: photo removed]
Example of a late-90's era website: scientist bio

(I'm convinced this guy looks totally different in real life.. unfortunately.) Some observations:
  • Medium-sized schools that got their webpages up in the early days of the internet tend to let it show.
  • Schools with a regional view tend to forget that the internet is global
  • It is really easy to take a bad portrait
  • In extreme cases, it's possible for the geeky look to loop around on itself and be interesting and compelling. You can't fake that.
  • Smaller liberal arts schools tend to be arty and updated. Larger-sized schools tend to hire students from liberal arts schools to work in the "Office of website management" corner of IT, which the medium-sized schools can't afford.



EDIT:
Those close and more wise than me suggested that it's risky, or at least in bad taste, to post a photo (or perhaps, a link to the original page with that photo) of someone and describe that photo and website as "geeky" or "old fashioned." Not everyone is a photography hobbyist who makes fun of themselves quite as readily as I do--perhaps I am being insensitive to the plight of a guy who's been asking to have his photo updated for the past 9 years but every year gets told "No!"

What do you think? Is it unwise/unfair/uncooth of me to use such a personal example (a portrait) to make my point that "early/old websites really need to spend money to update their web-presence" ... even when that website is open to the public? Did I understate the fact that I like and find it interesting for people to have a distinct, unique fashion sense?

... related, perhaps more interesting food for thought: corporate photos are a tradition in many industries, and I'm sure a large fraction of employees would prefer to have more control about which photos get used & how their used. Are there employee photo rights? Should there be different levels of "photo use rights" depending whether the photo is in a collage in the lobby or used online?

1 comment:

CharonAcheron said...

Can't speak to the legality of photo approval rights of employees ...

Make friends with the IT peeps! I have managed to avoid having my picture posted to the corporate intranet, and somehow manage to convince most corporate security guards to grant photo approval for all visitor badges (especially on windy or rainy days).