About Ryan Jerz and this site
Who is Ryan
Ryan Jerz is 33 and lives in Reno, Nevada with his family. Having graduated in August 2007 with a master’s degree in Interactive Journalism, Ryan’s interests lie in building functioning web communities around local topics and issues, how news is gathered and distributed, and his hometown of Reno. Ryan moved to Reno from Elko, Nevada in 1993 to attend the University of Nevada.
Ryan is the Interactive Media manager for the Nevada Commission on Tourism working out of Carson City. He handles web content, including the original production of video, photographs, writing, and also the maintenance of several web functions utilizing content from other sources. Additionally, Ryan works with the rest of the marketing department to coordinate marketing efforts for the state’s tourism industry and runs the multi-author blog Traveling Nevada.
About this site
This site is really a playground. It’s a place to test technology, design, ideas, and to hopefully engage in conversations that will enlighten anyone who chooses to participate. It is built using a content manager called Textpattern. Textpattern is a lot like Wordpress, only better. As with any blog, it’s a place for opinion to be expressed. So what you’ll find here are Ryan’s ideas about technology, journalism, interactivity, and the people who participate in them. That’s only the beginning, however. In a recent effort to make this site more valuable to the people who visit, Ryan has begun writing on a few topics that the average internet searcher might find useful. Those topics are located in the “Special Sections” part of the site. Check it out.
What you will not find here is a tolerance to closed-mindedness. If you choose to participate, please be open to being wrong. Or at least be open to the possibility that you’re not completely right. We’re all right when it comes to opinion because life is about perspective. We just have to recognize that whenever we take part in a conversation, that perspective changes simply because we’ve been exposed to someone else’s way of seeing things. Understand that, and we’ll have a great time here.
Some of the essentials
These are the posts that have had a great influence on the direction of this site, had the best conversations within them, or are Ryan’s favorites (in no particular order). Check them out to gain the best perspective on what’s happening here.
- I am a logisitical Nightmare
- I can only take so many falling X-mas trees
- Internet dating, mrjerz style
- Hero Worship
- My own way
- Anonymous comments
- They’re going to pay me to go to school
- The Cobb Gobbler
- My role as a journalist
- The future of media, locally and not
- Where are my RSS feeds, Reno?
- Another Reno blogger’s response to Up All Night
- Meet your local Internet personality – Part 1 in a series
- Reactionary Hurl: you can’t force cool and interesting
- On accountability, authenticity, and my relationships with local bloggers
- Post of the Month: February 2008: Joey Gilbert headline draws attention
- A section on Ryan’s ongoing legal battle with former UNR soccer coach Terri Patraw
That’s a lot of articles.
Finally, anytime you see something that you want to be a part of, comment on it. If you want to have a say, but don’t want it to be public, use the contact form. If commenting is closed, you can use the contact form and I’ll add yours as an update. Thanks a lot for coming over here, and enjoy the stay.