Intern No More

This blog marks the end of my summer internship at Indyish. Now, I honestly wish this could be a scathing tell-all account of the daily horrors I encountered between Risa’s egotistical domineering dictatorship and Elran’s elitist programming jargon, (and don’t get me started on the artists….) but sadly, there was no dirt to dig and actually all that stuff will be featured (in fictionalized form, of course) on the highly anticipated BITCH BLOG. Stay tuned for links to this critically inane drama of intern life in Montreal.

But to reflect for a moment on my time with the Indyish, I’ve found there are certain stages people go through who find their way into the web of connections surrounding the site and its peoples. Reading over the first messages I exchanged with Risa (thank you gmail for your massive storage space) I realize I had pretty close to no idea what the heck was going on. Which explains my later blog post entitled “What the heck are these people doing anyway?” which was intended as a sincere explanation for people with similar questions.

After ignorance came curiosity, followed by confusion and ceaseless questioning, and finally nervous excitement. I think it was taking part in the Arts Weekend and talking shop at Risa’s and Elran’s office that really helped me “get” what Indyish is doing. Since then, I’ve watched two friends go through the process of reading the blog occasionally, coming to the launch, and finally finally having it click. When that happens, the person usually experiences a “giddiness phase” which can last for a few weeks or span entire careers (Risa….). But I think the questioning stage is kinda crucial to understanding Indyish because it’s pretty frickin cool what’s going on here and one needs to sit down with a friend and talk it out in order to let the philosophy aspects and technological stuff have common sense meaning.

(One of those giddy friends is artist, Tyler Rauman, who recently joined the Indyish, bringing along his show posters and drawings. Check out his work on polls around town and online at My Neural Art)

So…for artists: I recommend arranging to hang out at the office (by which I mean the apartment) and have a mini-lesson in blogging or whatever else you wanna know about. I agree with Risa when she said that this type of meeting is the base on which other network connections are built. Or maybe she didn’t say that and I just corroborated my own point. But I agree.

For Risa: We need a section that collects all the information on what the site is about and lays it out in one easily found place. And maybe a short write-up describing the philosophy of open-source. Something from Open Journal could be grafted and brought in. I feel as though this will become my next task.

For everyone else: Navigate the site as much as you can. There’s tons of good stuff around and it’s the act of searching that turns information into knowledge. Ask questions. Email me or Risa or Elran or your friend of that guy who knows some stuff about stuff. I’d love to help more people reach the giddiness phase and maybe hear about it once they do. So let’s talk.

And don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere. I’m just not an intern anymore. I know you were worried. But don’t be.

Tessa@Indyish.com

p.s. I wrote all the links in this post myself!! You can too! It’s super easy, but I honestly had no idea how to before working at Indyish (or really how any of that internet stuff is put together)