I first renovated the Caltech home page in 1997, and the current incarnation is a very good example of a web site that is visually striking while still providing the user with news, navigation to thousands of links, and search within a single screen. I'm probably happiest with the administration interface which provides Caltech staff with a WYSIWYG interface to the random headers, news stories, links, and rotating headlines.

Tech: ACS, DHTML, JavaScript, CSS, SQL, and Tcl

Because this is Caltech's daily news web site it required a sophisticated publishing system that had to be powerful but very easy to use and add content to. It's a shame you can't see the WYSIWYG administration interface because that is where all the work was!

Tech: ACS, AJAX, JavaScript, SQL, Tcl, CSS, RSS

This is probably the most beautiful site I've ever had the pleasure to work on. Caltech student profiles, comments, and images are used to highlight the usual information found on college admissions web sites. Check out the home page and "Techer's Talk" for some elegant mouse-overs and if you're ever Southern California, use the "Pasadena-and-Beyond" guide to find local hot-spots.

Tech: Zope, Python, JavaScript, CSS

There are quite a few off-the-shelf alumni community systems available, but this site shows off why it is usually better to build than to buy. Nearly every section of the site is dynamically built and customized for Caltech's specific needs. The web site serves not only as a communication tool from the Alumni Association to its members, but as a system to allow Caltech alumni to find each other for career advice, information, or simply to renew old friendships.

Tech: Zope, Python, SQL, PL/SQL, CSS, RSS

My friend, Jason Axinn, had been the webmaster for this site for a long time and while it always looked okay, the code was extremely nasty and the maintenance time was continually increasing. I convinced him to switch to Zope and I created an administration interface that allowed him to delegate the majority of regular updates to less technically-minded interns. The calendar, for example, is completely controlled by iCal. In addition to the calendar, there are user friendly interfaces to the news, shows, teams, classes, and players sections.

Tech: Zope, Python, iCal, CSS