The Types of Personal Websites: The Professional

It is so common now for celebrities and professionals to have websites that those without are viewed with more suspicion than those with. A celebrity without their own site is in danger of being viewed as unaware of the hip and current, and unwilling to participate in the future. Most celebrities, of course, understand this medium no better than their own and, correspondingly, their websites are about as personal as a FAX from their publicists. What differentiates, for me, a personal site from a professional one is a sense of authenticity and genuineness as opposed to mere officiality. Most professional sites and, basically, all celebrity sites have such a stench of publicity as to turn away even the most devoted fan.

Of the professional sites, there seems to be about six different kinds:

Professionals: Paul Allen Escape Artist Mathew Cooper Ain't-it-cool News	Celebreties: Michael Bolton Diana Ross Shaq	Porn Stars: Directory Porn Star (example)
Resume/Job Finding: Torrey K. Zaches www.erandycox.com	Thoughts and Insights: abbe don nathan shedroff Justin Hall	Portfolios: volumeone (Matt Owens) beth o'rourke - illustration [po.WAH.zek]

First, there are the technology and business professionals.

Some professional sites are fun and interesting, like Matthew Cooper's, an escape artist. Some are even insightful, like Harry Knowel's Aint-it-cool News, becoming a destination for many people (in this case the film industry and those who follow it).

Compare these to the worst of the professional sites, the PR vehicles without a cause, like Paul Allen's noisy, busy, almost completely unilluminating site. Imagine an autobiography composed only of press releases and built with television in mind. This is a site in search of an understanding of interactive media-something most students at SFSU'S Multimedia Studies Program "get" after their first course when they set-off to build their own personal sites with a fraction of the funds available to Mr. Allen. Perhaps I'm being to hard on these guys (mostly), but this is their medium. If professionals (nee, celebrities) in the technology and media industries can't create a good personal site, then what exactly is it that they know about their own businesses and investments?

A second type of professional site is the star site.

These are a mega-celebrity's online vehicle. Unfortunately, these are also some of the worst offenders. Witness Michael Bolton and Diana Ross' sites. You get the impression that neither of these performers have ever even seen their own sites, let alone visit on a regular basis. They aren't updated very often, they don't sound personal, and they make you feel like a customer instead of a fan. At least at Shaq's site there's, a feeling that some of the information is fresh. While there's a place to talk with other Shaq fans online, there isn't a single place to even email the star, Shaq himself. This, more than anything else, betrays the intentions of Shaq and his "management." His site turns out to be yet another cheesy promotion for site sponsor, CBS Sportsline, and a poor use of an otherwise interesting medium.

These sites ascribe to the ideal that identity is an aggressive strategy more similar to Marketing and PR departments, than a passive one that respects the two-sided nature of a conversation.

Next, of course, are the porn stars.

While their sites are probably more revealing than other professional sites, the scariest fact of all is that many are much more personal than the sites of more mainstream stars or professionals. Compare paulallen.com to auntpeg.com and you tell me which you feel represents a person better. Intimacy is one thing, but the lesson to be learned by these professional sites is that authenticity and updating makes more of a difference in the tone of a site being personal than PR details.

Fourth are the simple resume, job-hunting sites.

There are probably a million or more of these. Almost every college grad or soon-to-be-grad has one of these. These are serviceable and typical but they work because they're unassuming. They don't give you a good impression of what these people are like, but at least they cover the basics in a clear, unpretentious way. There is as much a variety of these sites as there are resumes, but most seem to strive to duplicate their paper-based cousins rather than take the opportunity to innovate.

A fifth type of site are the portfolio sites.

These are probably most interesting to designers. Personal sites are a great medium for displaying and discussing your work. Here is where the self-promo pedigree truly shines. While some sites are perfectly well-done portfolios of a designers' work, like Beth O'Rourke's site, others have found a way to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary in ways that self-promos could never be before. Matt Owen's Volume One is an example of this. Aside from being a beautiful website, it is more than merely a portfolio but a kind of online magazine about design. His views, experiences, and tastes come through as much as his work, giving potential clients and other designers a sense of him as an artist as well as a sample of his work. This is the kind of successful site that skirts the line between the personal and the professional with grace and intelligence.

Lastly, there are the insight sites.

This is a kind of professional site that doesn't have any real correlation in other media. They attempt to not only describe opinions, but offer examples, links, and resources about a particular subject matter. For example, if you want to learn about online storytelling, one of the best places to start is Abbe Don's website. Coming from the "old school" of interface design, she still sees the value tracing her path with breadcrumbs for others to follow and build-upon. Most professionals either cannot make the time to seed the community or next generation, or are too afraid that doing so might endanger their own competitiveness. Instead, Abbe happily offers her own observations and insight alongside helpful links and her reward is the conversation that comes back to here from those who have their own resources and opinions to share with her. Her site isn't so much a portfolio as it is a magnet, attracting like-minded professionals and students to engage in conversation as well as a legitimizing site to set potential clients' fears to rest.

 

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