Kenneth R. George

176 Park Avenue Arlington, MA 02476
781-646-2599
kennethrgeorge@yahoo.com
Resume in Word
CAREER SUMMARY

Over ten years of professional experience in web producing and/or project management for news and information websites.

RELEVANT PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

WBUR, BOSTON UNIVERSITY, Boston, MA
www.wbur.org
New Media Production Manager, 2000 – present
Managed a team of web producers, designers and programmers and supervised updates of wbur.org and affiliated websites.

Created multimedia features with graphic, audio and/or video components

Managed special projects including award-winning site on Madagascar

Managed breaking news updates during intense news cycles

Collaborated with marketing staff, producers and designers on special projects

Wrote online features including reviews and blog on the build-up to the war in Iraq

Rewrote and copyedited radio news summaries

Edited and prepared audio and images for web use

Supervised and trained interns

Produced weekly podcast: conceptualized topics, wrote scripts, edited audio

MASSLIVE, Springfield, MA
www.masslive.com
Production Editor/Manager, 1998-2000
Coordinated aspects of web production during the start-up phase and spanning several successive design rollouts.

Created online technical style guide

Reviewed page templates for compliance with company standards

Trained news producers in web methodologies, graphics software and HTML

Collaborated with the designer on homepage redesigns

Moderated online community forums

Wrote email newsletters

Created graphics and prepared photographs

Editor of special college section and of Western Massachusetts visitor’s guide

Wrote headlines and summaries for the homepage

Wrote headlines and summaries for the homepage

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, Boston, MA
www.csmonitor.com
Web Production Assistant, 1996-1998
Part of the production unit responsible for the international newspaper’s online presence.

Wrote headlines, summaries, reviews and news quizzes

Produced and edited online audio news summaries

Compressed video for the web

Created graphics and prepared photographs for the homepage

Rendered text and informational graphics from the newspaper into HTML

Supervised daily production during production manager’s absence

COMPUTER/WEB SKILLS

Authoring Tools:
Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, RealMedia Producer, Macromedia Dreamweaver, HomeSite, Microsoft FrontPage, BBEdit, iMovie, Adobe Premiere, SoundForge, FastEdit,
Audacity

Languages:
HTML, Use (not creation) of ASP, Pearl, Javascript, Java, UNIX, PHP

Platforms:
Windows, Mac

EDUCATION

Bachelors of Art, 1989
Earlham College, Richmond, IN

Additional course work in graduate level journalism, communications and web production at Harvard Extension School, Boston University, and Emerson College

INTERESTS

Current events, writing, internet technologies, news media

Visit Site

During the build-up to the war in Iraq, WBUR maintained a daily weblog, chronicling aspects of the story of the war on Iraq from an online perspective. Producers Ken George and Will Thomson wrote on topics ranging from international reaction, to the war’s potential death toll, to the media’s coverage.

Click here to read the blog.

Podcasts

“ArtsCast” was WBUR’s podcast dedicated to all things cultural in New England and beyond. Hosted by Bill Marx, who has been critiquing the arts in Boston for over 20 years, and produced by Ken George, the podcast was an experiment born from a desire to cover cultural issues with the same depth and passion of WBUR’s Online Arts ‘Zine.

Click here for a list of all the podcasts.

Visit Site

A media-rich website exploring one of the most biodiverse places on earth. Environmental journalist Dan Grossman surveys unusual plants and animals of what could be the first place where the struggle to preserve earth’s diversity of life is won or lost.

Click here to visit the site.

This site was the recipient of the following awards:

>> Website credits

The hemlock forests of Massachusetts are under invasion.

View Slideshow

The culprit? An insect called hemlock woolly adelgid. And this winter is make-or-break time for the scientists trying to save the trees from this infestation.

WBUR’s Meghna Chakrabarti recently visited Petersham in the central part of the state to find out more about the insect invaders.

What do Malcolm X, Sacco and Vanzetti, famed Boston Mayor James Michael Curley, and the Boston Strangler have in common?

View Slideshow

Boston’s newest luxury lodgings will boast a view of the Charles River and Beacon Hill but its old bones afford an even bigger view into an often unsavory past, as WBUR’s David Boeri reports.

Using specially designed acoustic buoys, scientists will monitor and record the sounds of the whales.

View Video

It’s a joint effort from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Cornell Ornithology Lab. Meghna Chakrabarti joined the Cornell crew on the day they deployed the buoys in Massachusetts Bay.

Video Edited by Ken George using Jumpcut.

Skip the multiplex and sink your teeth into some of these classic gothic horror gems instead.

My son’s taste in Halloween costumes hews closer to classic film monsters and less to the super hero du jour. Last year we conjured a mummy out of strips of cotton baton painstakingly glued to street clothes. And this year we are planning to have a pretty respectable bloodsucker wandering the streets of Arlington.

In honor of his ghoulish tastes, here are three movie recommendations for All Hollow’s Eve. The films are listed in no particular order of importance and I don’t pretend they represent “the best scary movies ever.” They are simply among some of my favorite gothic horror gems.

Nosferatu (1922)
This celluloid nightmare has to be the most frightening vampire movie — strike that — the most frightening film ever made. German director F.W. Murnau ladles on the visual trickery, leaving the viewer perpetually off-balance if not downright queasy. And the silent film’s titular vampire is an ugly, alien variant of its romanticized cousins. Max Shrek as Count Orlak is all fangs and claws; A bald, alien apparition that looks like it sprung from somewhere deep within the ID’s inner recesses. The elongated shadows of the creature’s claws playing against a wall is just one of many scenes that should set your heart pounding. If it doesn’t, you’re undead yourself.

Frankenstein (1931)
The template for the modern monster-movie. It’s all here: Director James Whalen’s laboratory set-pieces, the genre-defining make-up and Borris Karloff’s iconic turn as the creature. His performance is restrained and his monster so pitiable, that despite its homicidal impulses, I was rooting for the heavy-lidded one during the climatic showdown with the pitch-fork wielding peasantry. Noted stage actor Colin Clive hams it up as Dr. Frankenstein, but his manic exortations comport nicely with all the whirring and cackling of the anachronistic lab equipment.

Horror of Dracula (1958)
I have no use for the fey and frilly nightstalkers of the Anne Rice novels and films. And at the risk of alienating his legions of fans, I never could sink my teeth into a Bela Lugosi feature. No, I am a Christopher Lee man through and through and for me his Count Dracula is the most urgently visceral undead ever. And all thanks to Hammer Studios, which single-handedly made gothic horror monsters hip again, but whose latter offerings would unfortunately devolve into pure drek. Lee’s count is an aristocratic serial stalker who would just as soon rip your throat out as talk to you (and indeed, Lee utters no words this first of many times he dons a cape).

I am interested in hearing from you. What are some of your all-time horror favorites? And two rules: no city-stomping behemoths or killers in hockey masks. Let’s limit ourselves to various incarnations of the undead, ghouls, witches, ghosts, mummies, demons and man-made monsters.

ADVOCACY

Cultural Survival
Cultural Survival is a non-profit advocacy group that promotes the rights of indigneous peoples around the world. The site includes project summaries, as well as a very impressive collection of links to complimentary sites. Economy of design and intutive interface makes getting around easy.

AUDIO

AudioNet
This largest single source of audio broadcasts over the web is truly an audiophile’s delight! Provided you have Progressive Networks’ RealAudio installed in your web browser, you can hear music, news, sports, special events, and more. A list of genre specific choices, a weekly schedule, and scroll-down menus help with navigating the site. Still, visitors should expect some effort and time in locating their listening preferences.

ECONOMICS

Dr. Ed Yardeni’s Economic Network
This content heavy site is chock full of graphs, charts, forecasts and analysis, and links to other economic resources on the Web. Viewing most files requires Adobe’s Acrobat Reader web browser plug- in, and a few files are proprietary; restricted to employees of Dr. Yardeni’s firm. A very thorough site map streamlines the maze of economic data.

EDUCATION

Educational Links
John Mullens, a high school principal in West Virginia, has assembled an exhaustive collection of links to education related sites. Despite the rather broad sub-headings (expect to do much scrolling to locate what you’re after), the sheer quantity (and quality) of links make the site an excellent starting point for finding educational resources on the net.

Exploratorium: ExploraNet
The Exploranet, modeled after The Exploratorium museum in San Francisco, is a multimedia rich, interactive educational site geared toward the exploration of the arts, sciences, and “human perception.” It includes virtual exhibits, instructions for classroom experiments, interactive downloadable activities, audio interviews with scientists (RealAudio required), and links to other arts and science sites. Although designed primarily for the younger set, there is enough here to delight, enthrall, and educate explorers of all ages.

ENVIRONMENT

Earthweek
For a weekly capsule summary of natural and human induced “events” all over the world, visit Earthweek. Phenomena run the gamut from the disastrous (i.e. hurricanes, earthquakes, oil spills etc.) to the unusual (i.e. primate attacks, goose posionings). Although the summaries are a bit brief, the global perspective, ease of use, and quality of graphics, make this site a must stop for Netizens fascinated by the vagaries of nature and man’s affect on the environment.

FAMILY

Parent Soup
Visitors to this site can submit reviews of books, Web sites, movies, and other family oriented material, participate in numerous parenting discussion forums, as well as topic specific live chat sessions. Other features include a library of baby names and an archive of articles on family life. Content is broad enough to appeal to issues associated with all family types and needs, and non-parents too should find plenty here of personal interest. Ease of use, active communities of interest, and quality of content easily make this one of the better parenting sites on the Web.

FOOD

Mimi’s Cyber Kitchen
What it lacks in polish, it more then makes up for in its enthusiastic, unabashed advocacy of better eating. Mimi serves up a mix of mouthwatering recipes from her kitchen, pointers to other food sites, a recipe forum, and more. Judging by the quantity of participation in the latter, she has quite a following among culinary enthusiasts of all skill levels and palettes. Getting around the kitchen is fairly intuitive, and a site search engine allows keyword searches for specific foods and recipes.

GARDENING

GardenWeb
Discover a plethora of information on how to keep your garden green, tomatoes plump, roses red, and violets blue at Gardenweb. You will find articles on gardening, a prodigious number of discussion forums (even one in French!), links to other gardening sites, a merchant index, and more. The site is well designed, easy to get around, and fast loading.

LAW

The Legal Information InstituteCornell Law School’s Web site provides a comprehensive collection of links to numerous resources, the full text of various laws and legal statutes, and topical summaries on various facets of the law. Visitors can also sign up for a free email service that distributes US Supreme Court decisions. Though design and layout could be greatly improved to enhance navigability, the site is an indispensable resource for those with an interest in the law.

LITERATURE

Literary Resources on the Net
This literature index includes everything from biblical literature to “Hypertext fiction” (a new literary form unique to this medium). Links go to university libraries, online literary publications, Web pages devoted to specific authors, and other resources. Navigation devices include a main menu with many subheadings and a site search engine.

POLITICS

Political Resources on the Net
This is a comprehensive list of links to all things political all around the world. Links include media, academic, government and political party sites. Navigation is a snap – countries are geographically grouped by continent or alphabetically by country name.

POPULAR CULTURE

Sarah Zuckos Cultural Studies Center
The “Center” is an impressively catalogued collection of links to a multiplicity of sources concerning the study of popular culture and the media of its transmission. Though decidedly academic in orientation, the breadth of topics presented – everything from postmodernism to science fiction – should hold some appeal to the nonscholar as well. A clean, functional design enhances navigability.

RELIGION

Facets Of Religion
This is a mega (and I mean mega ) index of religious sites – all the major world religions and denominations are included as are many less widely practiced beliefs like paganism. Hierarchical menus, descriptive summaries, and a search engine ease the chore of negotiating all the links. Due to large file sizes, visitors can expect a healthy wait as pages download, as well as much scrolling on individual pages.

SPACE

Astronomy and Space on the Internet
Those hankering to learn more about space, the final frontier, would do well to point their Web browsers here. A large collection of quality astronomy links, topically arranged, some with brief content descriptions, makes getting the latest on, say the Mars mission, easier than beaming up Scotty.

SPORTS

World Wide Web of Sports
The strictly utilitarian layout is one of the hallmarks of this enormous index of sports links designed by engineering wizards at MIT. The site also contains nifty features one would expect from engineers: a site search engine and the ability for visitors to customize the index. No sport is too small for inclusion in the index; sports enthusiasts with interests beyond American Football should bookmark this page.

WEATHER

Weathernet
Here you will find cool radar and satellite imagery of meteorological phenomena, weather maps, a search engine to access current conditions in many US cities, and a prodigious collection of links to other internet weather sites. It’s fairly easy to navigate, although those interested in weather in countries outside the US and Canada will have to dig a little harder.

THE WORLD

Africa New Online
This site is a gateway to information about current events on the continent. It includes daily news update, special reports, cultural features, and requisite links to other information about Africa. Sources include news agencies, government press releases, and human relief organizations. A colorful clickable map of Africa makes regional and country specific news and information a mere mouse click away.

Geopedia® Online
If you want particulars on a specific country, and want it fast, then bookmark this site! Geopedia is a very easy to use online encyclopedia of every country on the planet – a must for educators and others with a special interest in geography. The country summaries are pithy and the alphabetical index makes for effortless navigation.

Russia Today
This is an English language news site with a heavy emphasis on the economic and business climate of capitalist Russia. A fairly busy index page may be intially daunting to the first time visitor. But the quality of information presented within the site makes the navigational challenges worth the effort.

Zoran Djindjic Speaks at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government

CAMBRIDGE, MA (2002-09-20)
A Public Address By: ZORAN DJINDJIC
Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2002.
ARCO Forum of Public Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Zoran Djindjic, Biographical Information:

Zoran Djindjic is one of Serbia’s leading intellectuals and a former political activist. He became Prime Minister of Serbia in January 2001, following months of street protests that ultimately triggered the downfall of Slobadan Milosevic.

Djindjic’s run-in with political authorities began shortly following college, when he was jailed for several months by Yugoslav dictator Josep Tito for organizing student groups. After his release, he continued his studies and received a PhD in philosophy from the University of Frankfurt.

In 1989, he abandoned the Communists to co-found the reformist Democratic Party. Though championing a more democratic and Western oriented Yugoslavia, he remained a staunch Serbian nationalist and visited the headquarters of the Bosnian Serb forces during the siege of Sarajevo.

Djindic’s first political triumph came in 1997. The preceding year, he was a key organizer of a coalition of three opposition parties. The coalition won local elections in Belgrade and when the government’s attempt to annul the election failed in the face of mass protests, Djindjic was installed as mayor of the city in February 1997. His victory was short-lived however, a split in the coalition forced him from office just several months later.

In 1999, Djindjic was a key organizer of the anti-Milosevic uprising that gained momentum following NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. In September, Milosevic was driven from power when his Socialist party was trounced in Yugoslavian national elections. Djindjic led the Democratic Opposition to victory in Serbia elections in December and he was elected prime minister by the Serbian parliament the following January.

In perhaps his most controversial action since becoming prime minister, Djindjic defied a Serbia Supreme Court Ruling and handed over Slobodan Milosevic to an international tribunal in The Hague to face trial for war crimes. Djindjic has subsequently denounced the trial as a “circus,” and he has all but ruled out extraditing any more individuals wanted by The Hague.