Like reporters on assignment, members of the NewCity team began work on a new web site for the International Reporting Project (IRP) with two ideas in mind: probing questions and a deadline.

The IRP, based in Washington, D.C., is a fellowship program for professional journalists covering critical issues in some of the most under-served regions of the world. The program is hosted by the Paul H. Nitze School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at John Hopkins University.

According to William Colbert, IRP communications coordinator and webmaster, over the past 11 years, the program acquired quite a catalog of incredible material by journalists, including written works, video, audio, and photographs. “NewCity understood our dilemma from day one: How do we bring these stories, once hidden on the old IRP site, to the forefront? This mutual understanding allowed us to hit the ground running,” said Colbert.

At NewCity, every project begins with the end-user in mind. For the IRP, the end-user included editors, journalists, as well as readers. According to Melissa Beaver, User Experience (UX) project lead, “In our research for this project, we found that the author was as important as the content. People read a news blog because they like the blogger. The subject is the primary draw but it's a personal connection that keeps them reading.”

Another way the NewCity team connects the reader to the story is through an innovative story map browser that unites geography and journalists to their stories, creating what Beaver refers to as a “sense of place for the reader.”

“The new site has exceeded our expectations,” says Colbert. “The site's contemporary look, improved functionality, and simplified navigation places the IRP in a position to continue its longstanding tradition as pioneers in non-profit news.”

Pioneering experience design is the foundation for NewCity projects where the end-user experience is where work begins.

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An example of the work of the International Reporting Project (IRP):  IRP reporters visited Lebanon and Syria in 2004:

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Like what you read about tech companies in the Blacksburg, Virginia area?  Rackspace Email and Apps has openings for developers.

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The Rackspace Tech Showcase is sponsored by Rackspace (R) Hosting.  Rackspace Email and Apps is a division of Rackspace located in Blacksburg, Virginia. 

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From Jim Flowers:

“Success or failure of a new venture is determined very early, on the strength or weakness of only a few fundamental factors, four, to be exact.  Those four factors are Market, Magic, Mentors, and Moxie.  If these are not "right,” nothing else really matters.  It's not that a business with some weaknesses in these areas can't survive; but it's highly unlikely that it will flourish.”

Excerpted from MOXIE and other fundamental entrepreneurial concepts.

In June, 1993, Matthew Gray at MIT ran a small program which automatically traveled links within the Web network to try to count active sites.  His small "World-Wide Web Wanderer" found around 100 sites – total.  That same year David Poteet became an intra-preneur.  He convinced Radford University to fund and launch its first website.  By anybody’s reckoning, David was on the bleeding edge of the www phenomenon.

The success (including awards) of the Radford site convinced David that his days as a designer of print graphics were over.  In September of 1994 the emerging Web was made available to all comers on a patent-free, royalty-free basis.  David looked around, thought it over, took the entrepreneurial plunge, and launched New City Media in the summer of 1995.  He rented an apartment with a high-speed Ethernet hookup and worked out of the spare bedroom.  That took some Moxie, and an understanding wife.  By the end of 1996 New City had four employees and an office; and the Poteets had their guest room back.

David recognized a dynamic, new Market opportunity.  He had the “crazy (at the time) notion that the Internet was really about communication, not just technology.”  He saw “humans making connections with each other and building communities unrestricted by geography.”  David wanted to build a “new city.”

As a young business owner David relied on a handful of Mentors to help him both to avoid and also recover from serious blunders.  He gives particular credit to David Shanks at the Radford Small Business Development Center, Ron Lussier (his first CFO), and Bonz Hart, another local software entrepreneur.

In 1999, while the internet community was booming, “rookie mistakes” took the growing company to the brink of financial disaster.  David credits his mentors, incredibly loyal employees, aggressive bankers, and a strong faith with providing the Moxie-fuel to keep him going in the face of serious financial challenges.  He put everything he had on the line, committed to success, and came home a winner.

But, beyond the Moxie, what has made New City Media special?  What is the Magic that attracts a continuing march of high-profile clients?  It is faithfulness to the inherent power of each client’s own story, dedication to esthetic excellence, and insistence upon a truly pleasant and intuitive total user experience.

Today New City Media is not a web design firm.  It is an “experience design agency” and a trusted and intimate partner to its growing list of prominent and well-satisfied clients.  It doesn’t just publicize each client’s story.  It quietly and professionally becomes part of it.

It’s a true pleasure to shake hands with David Poteet.    

Jim Flowers is the architect and Director of the VT KnowledgeWorks business acceleration center in Blacksburg, Virginia.  He is the author of MOXIE and other fundamental entrepreneurial concepts.  He is a client of Handshake 2.0.

From Z. Kelly Queijo:

What began as project for a small town resulted in big results for many people.

Among those people in the small town that ended up the Most Wired Town in America was David Poteet, founder and president of New City Media. 

New City Media (NCM), a successful web design firm, got its start in Blacksburg due solely to the fact that in 1995, Foxridge Apartment Complex offered affordable broadband Internet access. At that time, the availability of Internet access would not have existed community-wide were it not for the Blacksburg Electronic Village (BEV).

New City Media in 1997.  Pictured from left to right, Marilyn Myers (still with New City Media as Controller), Bronwyn Bebee (Designer, now back in her home country of Australia), David Poteet, and Amber Thorneburg (Project Director, now a VP at Bank of America).

For Poteet, Blacksburg was the right place at the right time. “We moved into Foxridge in the summer of 1995 specifically because it had high-speed Internet. I couldn't have started NCM without access to low-cost broadband. We ran NCM out of our second bedroom until November 1996 when we moved into the CRC [Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center], after landing the contract to develop Roanoke.com for the Roanoke Times.”

What began as a two-person web design company with one client has grown into an award-winning international design firm with high-profile clients that include National Geographic Magazine and the Imperial College London.

New City Media is just one of the 100+ companies which, over the years, chose to build and grow here in the Most Wired Town in America , a.k.a. Blacksburg, Virginia.

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Z. Kelly Queijo writes about business and technology, people and their passions.  She is a frequent contributor to Handshake 2.0.

The Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, a technology, research, and science park on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, is home to high-tech start-ups and established technology businesses. 

Handshake 2.0 asked companies about the business benefits of locating at the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center--known locally as "the CRC."

From David Poteet, President, New City Media:

We've benefited most from:

• A culture of success - just being here and being part of an environment where people tackle big challenges every day and succeed more often than not - it's very motivating and encouraging.

• Flexibility with our space over the years - we've been able to grow within our building without relocating.

• Credibility associated with the CRC - it's not as important to us now as we have established a strong reputation, but it was more important early on. It helped us to sound (and think of ourselves) as legitimate.

New City Media creates strategies to grow our clients’ brands and develop profitable relationships through interactive media. We combine award-winning design with smart user experience to create web sites, web applications and campaigns that move people to connect, communicate and engage in new ways.