July 2000 to April 2001

Overview of position:

Sprint PCS, the DITA (Distributed Information Technology Architecture) Work Team

Consultant with CENTURY Computer Consultants

DITA provides guidance to the development and technology deployment organizations at Sprint, for the use of products that are consistent with Sprint’s overall technology direction. This Team is the STANDARDS-SETTING group for Sprint.

The existing web site consisted of approximately 250 pages. The reconstruction has added about 50 pages of content, and has reduced the number of graphics files from 1000s of individual small files, to consolidated Flash animations. This has reduced bandwidth and loading concerns, as well as cleaning up the FTP site into a manageable architecture.

The initial project was one of management and re-work of the existing web site, with enough reconstruction that it would function on a base level. This included digital and paper-based reorganization of information, and much work with the Team’s SMEs (subject matter experts). Technical writing was necessary for rewriting and new writing of content. This was accomplished in text editors, HTML editors (primarily Allaire Homesite and Macromedia Dreamweaver), as well as in Microsoft Office. Many pages were reconstructed in Microsoft Excel, for export as HTML tables.

The Intranet web site was reconstructed in Macromedia Dreamweaver 3.0 and 4.0, with some portions developed in Macromedia UltraDev 4.0. The prior site was designed in NetObjects Fusion 5.0, so the initial work was to break down the coding errors and re-develop the pages in Dreamweaver. Much of the HMTL coding was done in Allaire Homesite 4.5. All graphics – including backgrounds, art images, GIFs for animations, logo designs, interface/button design – were produced in Adobe Photoshop 5.5.

Extreme care was taken in the development to assure that the interface – the ease of interactivity and the “look and feel” – was exact in the two primary browsers, Netscape 4.7 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5, which are the Sprint standard versions. I produced an extremely high-tech web presence, utilizing the most current of available web software. This very large project was created from the ground, up, in a timeframe of seven months, with approximately 900 hours of actual hands-on work.

I created the company/department logo with Photoshop 5.5, ImageReady, Macromedia Fireworks 4.0, Macromedia Flash 4.0 and 5.0, Dreamweaver 3.0 and 4.0, and Coursebuilder (for certain specific HTML coding), and GIFanimator. The navigation “consoles” created for the site are extensive examples of Flash animation capabilities. The animations are graphics-based rather than text-based, which makes the works very proprietary to DITA.

The site was constructed using Frames technology, which separates the content from a left navigation bar that controls internal DITA content, as well as a top navigation bar that controls choices within the Sprint Intranet, but external from DITA (such as Sprint.com, and the extended “Pinpoint” Intranet). Extensive Javascript scripting was built into the site, to make navigation more user-friendly. Content pops up in auxiliary pages that overlay the Home Page; thus, the user never loses sight of the primary information page. Pages are also coded to disappear when the user returns to previous pages, so that there is not a “build-up” of layered pages.

Skills Expanded or Acquired in Sprint position

Additional Skills Acquired (outside of Sprint position)

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