THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 16, 1997 TAG: 9702150607
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD
STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 73 lines
When Matt Field tells people he's the City of Norfolk's ``webmaster,'' some can't help but smile.
``They have this sort of cartoon image in mind,'' the 25-year-old says. ``They'll say stuff like, `Well, where's Spider-Man?' ''
Field's an earnest sort. He doesn't joke much about his job of maintaining and expanding the city's site on the World Wide Web. (http://www.norfolk.va.us)
But who knows? He may just have the last laugh. According to some recent surveys, webmastery is a hot new career.
``There are plenty of job opportunities,'' proclaimed a recent article in Working Woman magazine. It named webmaster - or more appropriately for its readers, webmistress - as one of the 10 most promising new fields.
In Hampton Roads, there are many such people. But most do it as part of other jobs; and those who do it full-time work for small businesses that specialize in creating and maintaining Web pages for a variety of business clients.
Field is unusual. He's a full-time webmaster for an employer whose main business is not the Web.
Newport News Shipbuilding and Old Dominion University are both in the process of creating such positions.
But Ann Harney, president of the Hampton Roads Internet Association, says few local employers can justify the job.
``I think Norfolk is trying to be innovative,'' Field says of his employer. The Virginia Beach native beat out candidates from all over the country for his job - which was advertised, of course, on the Web.
A Longwood College psychology grad, he previously worked for a local Navy contractor. There, he analyzed how computers performed in battlefield conditions.
Since Field joined Norfolk in November, he has spent most of his time helping city departments with no Web presence go on-line. The Web site's most popular feature is its weekly listing of job openings. That's updated each Friday.
Field also reads and then redirects, when necessary, e-mails to the site. The most unusual request so far has come from a former city resident who wanted a picture of his old Norfolk home. ``Some things, we just can't do,'' he says.
His most unusual assignment: use the Web to find someone to design a mascot for the city's traffic information program. He succeeded. Be on the lookout for a white-hatted gopher soon.
In coming months, Field plans to create a feature that will allow people buying tickets for Scope events to ``virtually'' check out their view of the stage. He's also helping Parks and Recreation create a method for on-line class registration.
``It definitely keeps me busy,'' Field says.
Virginia Beach-based Womble Realty, which was one of the first local real-estate agencies to develop a Web presence, can add a claim to its ``firsts'' list. It recently linked with Prodigy Services Corp., the big on-line provider, to offer a free month of Internet access to its local customers.
Tom Brennan, director of major marketing for Prodigy, says Womble is the first real-estate agency his company's Internet service has linked with in the U.S. for such a promotion. He says other such partnerships are in the works with banks, brokerage firms and travel agencies around the country. Brennan says Prodigy prefers such ``targeted distribution'' of its trial software to the blanket mailings of trial software by its larger competitor, America Online.
Colleen Nabhan, Womble's marketing director, says since the partnership began last month, traffic has tripled at her agency's Web site (http://www.womblerealty.com). MEMO: Staff writer Dave Mayfield can be reached at
dmay(AT)pilotonline.com