Interactive Knowledge, Inc

Introducing our newest employee Eric Veal

loukinard — Fri, 14 May 2010 21:44:13 +0000

Eric Veal (left) with his new co-workers Tim Songer, Lou Kinard and Brent Dunn

We are happy to announce that Eric Veal joined us as a web developer this past January. Eric has a B.S. degree in Computer Science from UNC Wilmington, as well as experience in building websites for a variety of commercial clients. We put his energy and experience to good use very quickly, as we have several big projects in production — on nearly identical delivery schedules. When he’s not glued to his computer here at IK, Eric enjoys gardening and aspires to drive a vegetable oil-powered VW bus.

Designing “Freedom Riders” for WGBH

loukinard — Tue, 11 May 2010 21:10:23 +0000

Interactive Knowledge is working with the producers of American Experience, one of PBS’ longest running series, to create an interactive website for Freedom Riders. This film premiered at Sundance in January 2010 and will have a theatrical release before airing on PBS in January 2011. Freedom Riders retells a dramatic chapter in the civil rights movement that occurred during the spring and summer of 1961. The website will include an interactive timeline, many clips from the film and a unique opportunity to understand the context of key events that helped shape the future of the civil rights movement.

Smithsonian’s American Sabor

loukinard — Tue, 11 May 2010 20:47:08 +0000

American Sabor is a traveling exhibition organized by the Smithsonian Institution’s Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) that explains the influence of Latino music on American popular culture. The bi-lingual site will offer lots of music, oral histories, video clips and an in-depth explanation of many styles of music. The exhibition will focus on five American cities and the ways Latino music has made an impact on the local and national music scene. The website will include content from the exhibition as well as two interactive activities designed to introduce and educate website visitors on the complexity of this music.

Creative Director judging Webby Awards

loukinard — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:59:39 +0000

The Webby Awards began the judging process for its 14th Annual Webby Awards on December 14, 2009. The first-round judges are selected from a pool of previous Webby Award winners who have experience in the category areas. Interactive Knowledge was invited to participate, and Creative Director Lou Kinard began reviewing the vast array of entries in the “Websites,” “Interactive Advertising & Media” and “Online Film & Video” categories. As one might expect, the Webbys has an excellent online process for judging.

Building an online neighborhood in Columbus

loukinard — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:07:38 +0000

Would you be my neighbor? Mr. Rogers would be proud of this new project by WOSU Public Media and The Columbus Metropolitan Library, built by Interactive Knowledge. The “Columbus Neighborhoods” site will celebrate existing communities and create new ones online. Residents will be able to upload images and tell their stories, as well as create online neighborhood galleries. Utilizing social media technologies, such as tagging, RSS and comments, residents will also be able to comment on images contributed by other gallery members as well as receive personal updates (via RSS) when new content is contributed that fits their personal interest or neighborhood profile. This co-creation concept will help build bridges and connections across cultures within the Columbus metropolitan area. The site is scheduled for launch in February 2010.

Helping the Smithsonian do a “refresh”

loukinard — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:44:54 +0000

The Smithsonian Institution has launched an ambitious redesign of their sites based on a visionary “Web & New Media Strategy.” This complete re-working of strategy and technology will take years to implement, so in the mean time the Smithsonian hired IK to do a “refresh” of their primary web portal. This refresh will utilize as much of the Web 2.0 technologies as possible within the existing infrastructure. Committees are being organized and team meetings begin in December at the Smithsonian.

The Fetzer Institute

loukinard — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:23:39 +0000

The Fetzer Institution is a private philanthropic institution whose mission is to “to foster awareness of the power of love and forgiveness in the emerging global community.” For over fifty years the institute has funded people and projects like “Speaking of Faith” on NPR and “Bill Moyers” on PBS, as well as supporting the outreach of leaders like the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu.

Fetzer has accumulated a vast library of information on the topic of love and forgiveness, but this has remained largely out of public reach. The challenge for the Fetzer Institute was not only to redesign an out-dated website, but to create an expandable database of projects, partners, research, videos, podcasts, publications and events that could be managed by a very small communications staff.

Interactive Knowledge has a long-standing relationship with Fetzer through two other web projects, “The Mystery of Love” and “The Campaign for Love and Forgiveness,” so their home site redesign was a natural evolution of our work together. IK began by developing the plan for the website, database and social media tools. The final plan included visitor profiles, site goals, site organization, content outline, wireframes and schedule.

Fetzer requested that the entire site be developed using Joomla as the content management system, so their web managers could update all aspects of the site. The “Resources” library database would also use Joomla as a framework, with functionality extended by our programmers. For added impact, IK used other easy-to-update tools like slideshows built with JQuery and an open source timeline tool called “Dipity.”

The Fetzer website launched on schedule in September 2009, just in time for a highly promoted Fetzer Award for Love and Forgiveness ceremony at the Dalai Lama Center in Vancouver.

Calculation Nation

loukinard — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:44:13 +0000

Calculation Nation uses the power of the Web to let students challenge opponents from anywhere in the world. At the same time, students are able to challenge themselves by investigating significant mathematical content and practicing fundamental skills. The element of competition adds an extra layer of excitement.

The National Council of Teacher’s of Mathematics (NCTM) hired IK to design a system for middle school students to play math-related online games against live opponents. The site features five online games and a customized game room where thousands of students can challenge one another to test their math skills. Before going live, Calculation Nation was tested by hundreds of math teacher’s during NCTM’s annual conference held in April 2009.

Calculation Nation is part of the NCTM Illuminations project, which offers Standards-based resources that improve the teaching and learning of mathematics for all students. Its materials illuminate the vision for school mathematics set forth in NCTM’s Principles and Standards for School Mathematics and Curriculum Focal Points.

OUR CLIENT SAYS: “The games on Calculation Nation provide an entertaining environment where students can explore rich mathematics. Through these games, students are exposed to the same mathematical topics that they see in class…”
— Jim Rubillo, Executive Director, NCTM

The Duke Endowment

admin — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:54:42 +0000

Like many philanthropic organizations, The Duke Endowment has been thoughtful and cautious when adopting new technologies, both internal and public. They want their money spent wisely on tools that their staff, partners and constituents will find useful. Fortunately, the Internet has now evolved so that sites of almost any size can be designed and developed at a reasonable cost with stable, easy-to-use content management tools.

Duke contracted Interactive Knowledge to rebuild the site using the Joomla content management system. They also wanted a robust back-end administration tool and online access to their grant-making database. IK worked with the Williams Group in Grand Rapids, Michigan to develop the visual design.

The site contains a vast amount of content that is all stored in dynamic templates and is easily updated by the Duke Endowment’s staff. The back-end reflects a complex set of objectives, and IK was an integral part of the planning process that determined the templates used to build the site.

IK is hosting The Duke Endowment site and continues to work with Communications staff to maintain the site and keep content, including several video clips about specific projects, up-to-date.

Carrier

admin — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:00:37 +0000

In May 2005, the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz embarked on a six-month deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the Global War on Terrorism. On board were 17 documentary filmmakers who filmed, edited and produced the film “CARRIER,” which aired as a ten-part series on PBS.

After a successful collaboration on the website for Ken Burns’ film “THE WAR,” producing station WETA again chose Interactive Knowledge to create a site for “CARRIER.” IK was given the task of providing background on the film, while expanding on the ship’s history and educational aspects of the story. Knowing that the audience would want more information on the Nimitz and the tour, the site includes two Flash interactives that examine the ship and its journey with photos and videos from the ports of call. IK worked directly with the Navy to get accurate information on the aircraft carrier, as well as the captain’s biography, the fighter jets and military rankings.

The site includes a video database with over one hundred clips, including web-exclusive scenes. The video database is searchable so visitors can choose only the clips with a certain crew member or port of call. IK designed the first streaming video player used by PBS to allow viewers in the US to watch all ten episodes online. Our StoryShare technology allowed viewers to submit stories about their time in the Navy, on the Nimitz or other comments related to the series.

Launched in April 2008, the site has been a sounding board for hundreds of fans of the series and the Navy.