Photo by TheBusyBrain

In an effort to work on more interesting projects, TFnS will occasionally post a project idea in hopes that there's a client out there who's interested in funding the work. If this idea isn't up your alley, check out some of our other ideas.

Background

Journalism is entering an interesting period of development. While many traditional media outlets are dealing with broken business models and reduced income levels, there is still a strong demand for the watchdog function that the media has traditionally provided. In order to remain competitive in a world where the competition for information gathering can legitimately come from anybody with a computer and an internet connection, media outlets need to look to alternate ways to engage the public and stay relevant.

Photo by flyzipper

When it comes to creating a web site, many site owners should really consider the maxim “Less Is More.”

Photo by bre pettis

Over the holiday break, I learned the hard way that you need a power drill to put up wainscoting.

Flash provides a great interface for customizable interactions, but with typical Flash development, it's cumbersome to edit content after publishing an application. For many Flash projects, updating content after the fact isn't important. But if you want to save data or update information in your Flash application, then you're going to want to look at having some sort external data source.

External data for a Flash application can be accomplished by simply having the flash application read cookies or text files on your web server. This bare-bones approach is appropriate for some, but such an approach is pretty low-level and susceptible to bugs. If you want an application to have any sort of ongoing maintainability, then you'll want to have some sort of CMS to house your information. Because of its flexibility and widespread use, Drupal is an excellent choice for your CMS.

This tutorial is geared towards Drupal developers who may or may not have a background in Actionscript coding. You'll need to know how to install modules and be comfortable with digging into a .module file to tweak some code.

Photo by mushon

I have a real soft spot for newspapers.

Before I set off on my own as a web designer, I worked at a newspaper in Memphis as a web designer for two years. My college degree is in Media Design, which is an amalgamation of a journalism degree and a graphic design degree. I cut my teeth laying out print pages for many, many different publications. So when I hear news that newspapers are dying, it makes me sad.