I’ve been kept very busy over the past couple of months setting up butterscotch.com: Tucows’ new video network, brimming with terrific videos, short and long, providing tips, tricks and insights into technology for pros and tyros. Our new team includes tech media veterans Andy Walker, as General Manager and Executive Producer; Amber MacArthur, Director of Content; Sean Carruthers and Matt Harris, Senior Producers; and Andrew Moore-Crispin, Web Editor. In addition to our existing Tucows team, that’s a lot of talent coming together.
Our current line-up consists of regular shows, such as Andy and Sean’s Lab Rats, and Cheryl Poirier’s spin-off, Miss Download; as well as standard and special tutorials. Tutorials are screen captured how-to’s with a voice over. Special tutorials are a series of ten or so episodes on a particular topic. For example, the two special tutes we have on offer right now are Facebook for Grownups and Gmail for Beginners.
We do have other shows already on the site, and many more are coming, so check back often at butterscotch.com, or better yet, subscribe to the RSS feed.
The challenges, for me, in putting the site together, were:
- slicing up the composite and creating the base page (HTML and CSS) (got a lot of Photoshop help from Joan, our graphic artist at Tucows)
- establishing single signon between butterscotch and Tucows.com
- creating the backend CMS (content management system), where Andrew maintains the content which appears on the site
Of course, we’re not done yet. We’re still developing new and terrific functionality, and figuring ways to integrate the butterscotch and Tucows content. It’s all about bringing more value to our visitors and authors.
Sure developing the site was a marathon of long days and late nights, and it kept me from family and blogging, but this is the sort of challenge which stretches your abilities and forces you to find new insights into your work. I loved it. I wouldn’t want to do it again real soon; but I loved it.