Chris Winchester

25 things about me | 25 things they said about me

  1. I am a UK-born New Zealand Permanent Resident, working in central Wellington and living near the Kapiti Coast.
  2. By day I'm a web project manager / advisor for an educational design company.
  3. When I’m not at work I like to spend time with friends and family, particularly my wife and three-year-old daughter who are (usually) great fun to be with. I’ve played in various bands, have dabbled in writing (and occasionally performing) comedy and satire for the stage, for radio and online, and my ambition is to take over the world with a crack team of exploding superhero honeybees.
  4. You can follow me on twitter @chriswinchester if you like.
  5. One of my inbound email addresses is: chris[AT]chriswinchester.com - but if you get a reply from another of my accounts please don't be alarmed.
  6. To help get established in NZ I threw together a comprehensive personal marketing campaign in just two weeks, including brand development, t-shirt design, snowman-photographer recruitment and last minute semi-circumnavigation.
  7. That was all so I could get to meet the lovely people at Webstock 09 in Wellington. (And because I need a job!) You can read the interview I did with the SitePoint Tribune about my experience here:
    http://tinyurl.com/chriswinchester-on-sitepoint and here: http://tinyurl.com/ozgxd5
  8. You can view my public profile on LinkedIn here:
    http://www.linkedin.com/in/chriswinchester
  9. Many years ago, after graduating in Computer Science from a Prodigious University, I took a newspaper journalism qualification at an Unheardof College. It got me interested in headline writing and page design.
  10. I consider myself part-creative, part-geek. The percentages vary with the moon. This might make me a challenge to pigeonhole.
  11. I am equally at home editing other people's copy or code, devising a new site’s information architecture, doing bits of video and audio editing or tweaking old pictures in Photoshop. (This doesn't mean I'm good at those things I hasten to add!)
  12. I am also an experienced project manager, trainer, mentor and negotiator, and I enjoy good jokes and bad puns. I like to do a mix of things and work with a mix of people.
  13. Most of my web experience was acquired working on the same site for seven years. It may be a total coincidence, but I understand that this is the same length of time kidnapped souls had to spend in fairyland before release.
  14. When I was brought in to work on that site, it was a flat file of about a thousand static pages, plus images, in a single folder, with no consistent design template. I imposed some initial structure on it and then customised an open-source CMS to take it forward (having worked on the IA and some initial wireframes for usability testing). I also devised a mechanism for cross-linking related pages.
  15. I also managed the development of a "virtual gifts" site and a site aimed at primary schoolkids. I wasn't entirely satisfied with either of them, but I think they both contained some good ideas.
  16. I used to write topical "haiku" (technically not haiku, but that's another story) for Guardian Unlimited's daily competition. I won the weekly prize on several occasions. You can still see some of my entries - rendered in ancient HTML - at http://christophergraeme.com
  17. I devised the concept for the garden sharing project swopaplot.com, which I've been very happy to hand over to the River Cottage Land Share team.
  18. I have outsourced a lot of stuff over the years - development, design, hosting - while retaining creative control in-house. Remotely managing designers, developers and our hosting company was an interesting challenge at times but I found maintaining good relationships and good humour was often the best way to get things done.
  19. My hand-coding has got a bit rusty due to a lack of recent practice. I don't expect I'll be doing much in my current job, so it may be a while before I get back into it!
  20. For three years I have worked a 4 day week. It suited me and my employer very well. In an ideal world I would work an 80% contract so I can spend more time with my family and discovering Things Kiwi. But my employer needs help and I'm flexible!
  21. I once co-wrote and performed in a comedy show at the Edinburgh Fringe. This resulted in the following two reviews:
    "I have to say they're absolutely brilliant."
    "The sooner these boys throw away their guitars and get themselves a decent scriptwriter the better."
    I still have a copy of the former review but for some reason I mislaid the latter. Which I think is a shame.
  22. Years ago I did a course in 16mm filmmaking. It was great fun to be part of a production team who were learning as we went along.
  23. I consider myself more of a generalist than a specialist, but my areas of expertise include: web usability, information architecture, project management, client and supplier liaison, content management system customisation, server management, sub-editing, photo editing, video editing, audio editing, interactive content development, branding and identity, character development, scriptwriting, storyboarding, union negotiation, health and safety, work/life balance, and making the tea.
  24. I drive a Subaru Forester Turbo. VROOOM! If only it were a bit greener...
  25. Here are 25 things other people have said about me. (OK, I was dangling them upside down over a vat of cold custard at the time, but it was kind of them nonetheless...)