JeffCroft.com

About the team

World Online is a division of The World Company, which is a news and media company headquartered in Lawrence, Kansas (USA). We work on both internal projects for our news properties and external projects for clients of all types. We’ve been widely recognized as one of the most innovative new media operations in our industry. Several of our sites — such as lawrence.com, ljworld.com, and kusports.com — have repeatedly won major awards (what’s more, most of our flagship sites are going to be re-designed this year, so you’ll be involved in some very exciting proejcts).

We are also the birthplace of a little open source web framework you may have heard of (especially if you’ve been reading this site recently), name of Django. All of our work is Django-based, so if you’re interested in the framework, this is definitely the place to be (as an aside, the fact that our administration agreed to open-source a product built here is a good example of just how much they “get it”).

We work in what has got to be one of the most beautiful news centers in the world — a fast-paced and exciting enviroment that makes the days go by very quickly. Our team is small, but growing rapidly. We’re currently at eight developers and designers — but four of us are new in the past six months.

Our team includes such brilliant minds as director Dan Cox (who used to be the Senior Designer here — so he really “gets” design and designers), Python programmers Jacob Kaplan-Moss, Matt Croydon, and Tom Tobin, all-around developer whiz James Bennett, and designer David Ryan. Oh, and me. And you? We’re religious about best practices and doing things the “right” way — so you should be, too.

I could go on about the projects, the company, the management, and the facilities here (all of which are great), but what really makes this job so amazing is the people on this team. I sincerely believe there isn’t a smarter and more creative bunch of web people anywhere in the Midwest.

We also have a lot of fun while we work. Oh, and we’re a Mac shop. That counts for something, right?

About you

As I mentioned above, we work on both internal and external projects. Your particular position focuses expecially on the external ones (though you’ll certainly be involved in the internal ones, as well). You’ll interface with clients and manage the building of their sites. Most of these sites will be for licensees of Ellington, our Django-based content management system.

Your main proficiencies should be in design, XHTML, and CSS. Since you’ll be leading client relationships, you should also be comfortable talking to them, establishing goals, and managing time and resources for each project. Any additional skills you may have (such as Javascript, familiarity with Django templates, etc.) will probably be put to good use — but are not necessary.

You should have a solid portfolio showing work you’ve been involved in. We’re especially interested in people who have dealt directly with clients — so freelancing and other examples of those relationships being sucessful will be to your benefit.

And you should have a sense of humor, fo’ sho.

About the town

Lawrence, Kansas might be the coolest town of it’s size in the world. Seriously. As Jacob said, “If you take every negative stereotype of Kansas and turn them on their heads, you’d get Lawrence.” We’ve got an incredible music scene (The New York Times called Lawrence “the most vital music scene between Chicago and Denver”), centered in a downtown area so active it put a mall out of business. The film scene here is also growing rapidly. Lawrence is home of the University of Kansas, so you’ll find everything you’d expect in a large college town — lots of young people, lots of bars, lots of late-night hangouts, and all the pagentry that comes with having one of the four or five most storied NCAA basketball programs of all time.

Many people refer to Lawrence as being very similar to Austin, TX in culture and vibe (although Lawrence is smaller than Austin) — so if you’ve been to SXSW, you may have a decent feel for what this town is like.

Update: Laura reminds me in the comments that I ought to mention the cost of living here. She’s right. As Jacob noted when a pervious position was open at World Online:

If you’re used to the insane cost of living in most big cities, Lawrence will blow your mind. You’ll easily be able to afford a brand new apartment, or one within walking distance of downtown, or a turn-of-the-century house. Food’s incredibly cheap, too; the best barbecue dinner of your life is less than ten bucks.

Some very representative bits from Wikipedia about Lawrence:

• “While Kansas is one of the most conservative states in America, Lawrence is a tiny island of liberalism. Douglas County, where Lawrence is located, was one of only two counties in Kansas to vote for the Democratic candidate in the past four presidential elections. Douglas County was the only county in the state to reject the amendment to the Kansas Constitution prohibiting both gay marriage and civil unions in April, 2005.”
• “Lawrence also features the customary staples of college-town liberalism, such as an anarchist bookstore, two microbreweries, a half-dozen locally owned coffeehouses, and a law protecting gay people from discrimination.”
• “Downtown Lawrence, in particular Massachusetts Street, has a lively atmosphere and is filled with restaurants, galleries, shops, and music venues.”
• “Artwork, theater, and other related activities are some of the biggest parts of Lawrence.”
• “Clinton Lake is located approximately three miles (5 km) southwest of Lawrence and has areas for boating, swimming, and fishing.”
• “There are a variety of mountain biking venues, including the trails at Clinton Lake, and the river trails by the Kansas River.”
• “The inventor of basketball, James Naismith, was the first basketball coach at the University of Kansas and was the only KU coach with a losing record.”

In closing

If you’ve made it this far, it should be safe to assume you’re interested in the position. So, send me an e-mail, or get over to the official job description and apply. We’re looking for someone as soon as possible, but we’ll also keep the position open for as long as it takes to find the right fit. One of the reasons this team has been so sucessful is that we’re relentless about finding the best people out there. If that’s you, let’s talk.