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Web Team Volunteer Role Descriptions

The Burningman.com Web Team has a variety of roles and opportunities for web savvy volunteers, so join in the fun! From QA to technical skills to graphic design to web-focused content, there are frequent tasks and projects that require an array of skills and abilities. To help organize these projects and guide our evolving and growing volunteer resources, the following roles have been created:

Section Manager
These are the volunteers who manage and oversee html additions or changes to specific sections of the website - such as On The Playa, Press Here, What is Burning Man - and communicate and respond to Collector trouble tickets. They work with the Skill leads and their teams to make these changes, collaborating with fellow web team members where possible. There can be more than one Section Manager per section as needed. Duties include:

  • available to volunteer 5-15 hours per month or as needed
  • participate on the Web Team email list
  • participate on the Web Team Extranet
  • make or oversee html additions/changes to Burningman.com
  • respond and close Collector tickets
  • attend or remote connect to Web Team meetings

Other reqiurements:
Maintain communication regarding outstanding Collector Tickets, collaborate with fellow Web team members where needed, and help mentor new volunteers to Web team practices and standards.

Skill Leads
These volunteers and staff members are responsible for leading specific skill groups such as graphic design, HTML, and scripting, and who guide and support volunteers with these skills. They mentor web team members, organize and coordinate the resources of their team, and help to define the standards and style of work practices. As well, they monitor the progress of open tasks and assume responsibility (when needed) for open tickets within their skill group. Duties include:

  • send out weekly status reports to team
  • available to volunteer 10-20 hours per month or as needed
  • willing to mentor, train and guide others
  • develop and document practices and standards
  • lead projects and tasks
  • participate on the Web Team email list
  • participate on the Web Team Extranet
  • respond and close Collector tickets
  • attend or remote connect to Web Team meetings

Other requirements:
Maintain communication regarding projects, task, practices and standards, collaborate with fellow Web Team and Staff members where needed, and help establish a productive and rewarding team environment.

Project Managers
It almost goes without saying, but Project Managers manage our projects, large and small. They recruit and manage people to work on projects, assign them tasks and timelines, and nudge and nudge and poke and prod, and facilitate and escalate as needed, making sure that people are making progress towards our project goals. The Project Manager also makes sure that their team has the tools, raw materials and decisions to work as efficiently as possible. Project Managers report status and issues to the Web Team Project Manager. We're always looking for Project Managers to take on the management of smaller projects.

HTML Coders and CSS Gurus
Our site is XHTML compliant and uses CSS and Dreamweaver templates. We use CVS as a version control software and all HTML Coders need to get an account and learn to use the CVS tool. Whether you use Dreamweaver or hand-code your HTML, it doesn't matter. The great majority of our fixes and the pages we implement require only basic HTML skills, the ability to copy and paste from other places, knowledge of our Web Team Digital Design Style Guide and the awareness that you can use the Web Team and the internet as a resource to find out what you need to finish the job. What you don't already know you can surely pick up as you start working on some of the simpler Collector Tickets (our repository for issues, bugs and feature requests). Image selection and webification is performed by our Photo Editor, but HTML Coders should also be familiar with our Image Style and Process Guideas they will often be tasked with placing the final images onto the site. Our site relies heavily on CSS style sheets. When there are CSS issues and changes, we definitely need CSS jockeys to help out.

Image Jockeys
Image Jockeys contribute to the imagification and beautification of the site in a couple of areas. From time to time, images need to be crunched and meta data prepared for uploading into the back end of our Image Gallery database. Some projects require webification of images from the Image Gallery for use in web pages. From time to time special requests are made for one-time image scanning, composite and manipulation projects. Image Jockeys also sometimes help the Photo Editor by hunting for images for specific projects. The Image Jockeys report to the Photo Editor and must be familiar with our Image Style and Process Guide. Generally Image Jockeys use PhotoShop, ImageReady or some other photo enhancement tools to make images look as good as they can. It is helpful for Image Jockeys to learn our CVS version control tool, but is not required.

User Experience
Our User Experience team takes a look at the information architecture (IA) and user interface (UI) of our site, which collectively make up the user experience (UX). The UX team is familiar with the best practices for UX design and development. The UX process is always a key part of the design phase in our larger development efforts. If you have an eye for what works for usability, and especially if you've had experience designing user interfaces for web sites or interest in information architecture and information flow, you're welcome to play on this team.

Designers
We need a great deal of design help during the periodic redesign of the website, which happens every few years. The rest of the time we need periodic help in creating new graphic elements for the site such as new section headers and icons. Occasionally we have new page types or page content and architecture changes that require a designers polishing touch. The design elements are almost exclusively .gifs, including the website banner, section headers, footers, and other graphical elements on our pages. If you can play with PhotoShop and create and edit cool graphics, we can use you on the design team.

Content Writers and Editors
Our Content folks write and edit web-friendly copy for the website. People in this role will have a good idea of what is and what is not considered web-friendly. We look for an economy of words, together with an effectiveness in the delivery of the key information and links to get our users the information they most need or want as quickly as possible, while directing them to other interesting content they may not realize they need or want. Content folks work closely with the Burning Man Communications Managers to ensure that the tone and message of website content is appropriately communicated. It's recommended that Content folks have some writing examples on hand to demonstrate their writing and editing styles.

Quality Assurance Testers
Our Quality Assurance team takes a look at the content and functionality on our web pages and makes sure that everything's in working order and in keeping with our Web Team Digital Design Style Guide and Image Style and Process Guide, particularly after a lot of changes to a page or pages. Generally, that means following links to make sure they work, testing out spam-safed email addresses, things like that. Poke and prod, make sure everything looks a-ok. The Afterburn report is a good example of a section that needs solid QA before it's launched every year. Testers report bugs back to the Section Manager to get them fixed, or enter them into the Collector. Doing Quality Assurance is a great way to quickly contribute and learn more about the website.