A. Information regarding the host site :
The host site and staff were very accommodating for the most part, though face-to face contact was limited due to distance, and the fact that the DFW was conducted remotely. Assigned tasks consisted of planning, designing, and implementing a SharePoint site for the company MicroGreen Polymers Inc. Specifically, this included creating a site architecture, including document libraries, lists, calendars, home pages, security permissions. MicroGreen Polymers is a plastics company located in Arlington, WA with about 10 full-time employees. WRF helped found MicroGreen Polymers Inc. The organization was structured into these positions: CEO, VP Technology, Business Development Director, Operations Director, Technology Leader, Research Scientist, and various lower level shop workers.
Staff all work in the same office for the most part, with the shop people usually in a separate area. They are a small start-up with few resources and do not have much time for staff training on technologies for instance. They also have a facility in Green Bay Wisconsin, and the upper level management travels the majority of the time. The host site is not very large and is far from Seattle, and the majority of research is conducted there, while actual manufacturing is out-of-state. I communicated primarily with the Operations Director and DFW Supervisor directly, and the Operations Director facilitated communication with other employees at MicroGreen Polymers because she functions as an information gatekeeper essentially.
My initial expectations were that I would be able to learn somewhat about information architecture, working in a corporate environment, and about using SharePoint as a collaboration tool. The Directed Fieldwork placement meet your stated expectations to an extent, though the CEO was very committed to a certain way of organizing the SharePoint site, so I had to accommodate that in my information architecture. I believe that I performed assigned tasks well in terms of effort and doing background research to really understand SharePoint technology. I could have done more to communicate in the first half of the DFW, though I improved on this in the second half.
An HCI Design course (IMT 540) helped me focus on the design process and really taking into account user interaction and interface issues within SharePoint. Classes in information organization, such as on metadata, might have helped me more with this DFW when organizing the document libraries’ facets. Theoretical concepts in the core courses that were helpful were information organization, user-centered design, and understanding the user’s needs. The only issue I had was when I found out that the company’s IT contractor is actually a SharePoint expert, and he implied that the reason they were using me was to save money instead of hiring him to do my work. I felt that my supervisor at WRF was concerned with me learning more than the host site itself. The Directed Fieldwork program could be improved by not just relying on organizations that students have used in past, and actually reaching out to local organizations to include new or different kinds of DFW sites. I believe that the DFW program is very important, and I wish that MLIS students would have the option of turning a DFW into a Capstone project, similar to the MSIM students, in lieu of doing a portfolio.
