While busy at work with people fresh from the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival streaming in to get some dinner or drinks, dozens of thoughts streamed through my mind, as my body moved about following muscle memory.

One that has bothered me over the last two weeks is the realization that the last View from Here was a complete mess. A mess that I should have seen coming but didn’t. Thinking back, I was still riding high on my horse from all the awards we won from the Journalism Association of Community Colleges Conference.

In addition to this, were the dozens of thoughts and desires for what I hope to achieve as Editor in Chief. I’m sure you remember last issue, when I mentioned that our goal was to focus less on print and more on our online presence.

Traditionally here at the View, we’ve focused on our print production, but with the impact that the internet, smart phones, iPads, and other handheld electric devices have had, on the way we interact with other people and the world around us. It’s hard to believe that it was only back in 2001 when the first iPod was released by Apple, MP3s, and phones the size of your fist or a brick were still in common use.

We’re a decade late to this development and I don’t have any excuses or reasons why. This aside, our focus on our online presence includes our Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Instagram, and our website which is updated each week.

I’ll admit that our Flickr, YouTube, and Instagram have barely been updated at all but it is my aim to change this in the future. This move will be part of the push to increase our online presence and ensure that we have a stronger presence there.

It may seem odd, but there is little that we can do about it. We need people with Public relations, Business, or Multimedia skills, but due to the tradition of so many of our students joining the staff as writers, photographers, and the ever so rare Illustrators/cartoonists. We’ve never had as many students signing up to be part of the newspapers because they were interested in Public Relations or Business.

Believe me, we indeed do have space in these two areas for any students who are interested or are majoring in these areas. Just as we have space for anyone who is interested in Multimedia.

That said, overall it is my hope that the program continues to grow and develop throughout the semester, in addition to our online presence increasing.