As of yesterday, I officially live in Nevada, with a Nevada drivers license and plates for my car. But more importantly, yesterday was the start of the high school football season!


I wrote this story about a brand new high school in the area. I am not a big sports writer, but it was fun to watch this new team get ready for their first game. I also took pictures for the game as well as for another game.

I was not part of it, but our team did an awesome video for the game of the week.

The other paper in town launched a new prep sports site this week. Look at it. Now look at our coverage. Enough said.

Also this week, I did a video for the first day of school. It goes with the Home News' profile of a new teacher and his first day of classes.

And in case you have not seen it, check out our new weather page. (Yes, I know it's hot here.) Again, I was not a part of producing it, but I think it is the best weather page in the country. Here's what Rob Curley said about it.

I've always liked that Beatles song....

After interviewing with newspapers in five different states, I have decided to accept an offer to work with the Las Vegas Sun and Greenspun Media Group's online staff. I am really excited about this opportunity, the Sun's Web site is stunning and I think I will be able to learn a lot and hopefully contribute a lot as well.

I will also be working with some of my friends from WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive, including Rob Curley.

Suzanne and I will be moving to Vegas in about three weeks. So if you ever find yourself in Las Vegas, drop us a line and we can get together. But don't forget the sunscreen.

This morning was San Jose State University's commencement at Spartan Stadium. I joined a couple thousand other graduates for the festivities.


San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed was the commencement speaker and told us that we need to go out and be leaders. He also said that San Jose and Silicon Valley needs us.


Most of San Jose is covered today by fog and smoke from the fire burning in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I hope that the smoke is not a bad omen for the graduates.

My favorite thing from today's ceremony was a decorated cap. I should have done the same thing.


The more important event for me was the School of Journalism and Mass Communications commencement that was held on Thursday. It was a great ceremony.


Kevin Fagan from the San Francisco Chronicle was the speaker. He said that journalism is not dead or dying, but the business model we have been using is done.

So I have officially graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism. I am the first person in my extended family (on my Dad's side anyway) to get a bachelors degree, but my family has done a lot for me and prepared the way. I am really grateful for them.

UWIRE released its list of the top 100 college journalists this morning, and I'm on it! A big thanks to those that nominated me and said such nice things. It's a huge honor to be on this list with some of the best people out there. I know a lot of other people that should be on the list. I am a little surprised that there do not seem to be a ton of online people on the list. Hopefully that will change in future years. Congrats to the other 99 people on the list.

Oh, and Howard, I was not on the SPJ list, but I bet you will have the same result with the UWIRE list. Students and schools are both to blame for not understanding the importance of building an online presence. Google me, I'll be there.

In other news, I have finished all of my finals and am officially done with college! The journalism school's convocation is tomorrow night and the official graduation is Saturday morning.

Tomorrow is my last day as the editor of theSpartanDaily.com. I have very mixed emotions. I am excited to graduate and (hopefully) get a job, but at the same time, I am going to miss this place.

Anyway, I am putting together a list that I can give to the rest of the staff tomorrow. A sort of going-away present. All of the staff writers were required to do at least three multimedia projects over the course of the semester. Almost all of them had never done something online before, but all of them fulfilled their requirement, many did more. Most of them did at least one video and one Soundslides. Plus a mix of other things.

I was really surprised at how willing they all were to try this stuff out. When I was a staff writer last spring we did nothing for our Web site and almost all of the students in the school seemed hesitant to even try producing online content. All of the sudden, everyone is excited about trying new things, and they have been doing a pretty good job.

I want to give them a list of resources and suggestions that will help them to build on what they have learned this semester and hopefully get even more excited about online journalism. Here is what I have so far. What would you add?

Read:

Innovation in College Media
Invisible Inkling (Spartan Daily alum Ryan Sholin)
Kyle’s Comments (that’s me)
Photojournalism From A Student’s Eye (Daily alum Daniel Sato)
News Videographer
Romenesko
Teaching Online Journalism

Watch:
Common Craft

Join:
Wired Journalists
College Content Management
LinkedIn

Try:
Blogging! www.blogger.com/ or wordpress.com/
An RSS Reader
Twitter

Of course, there are a lot more blogs in my reader and a lot of other sites I visit, but I think these are the basic essentials. I also included some of the Daily alumni so they can see what is possible. What would you add to my list or tell young reporters to encourage them to become wired?

I haven't had much time to post lately (or do much else online lately). Maybe it has something to do with my graduation in 15 days....

But the major project this week is the live coverage we are doing over at theSpartanDaily.com of the three candidates for the SJSU president job.

The finalists are on campus this week and we have been doing live blogs and live video of all of the public meetings and media conferences. You can see everything we are doing on the frequently-updated theSpartanDaily.com/president.

On top of that, we covered the current president's last media conference yesterday.

I am no great photographer and have no training at all, but I enjoy taking photos and am trying to get some more practice in. My friend Joe Proudman invited me to go with him to Joseph D. Grant Park last Saturday to take some photos (he even let me use one of his nice cameras). It was a lot of fun and a nice little hike. I realized how much I need to improve, but there were a few good photos. I am especially inexperienced at nature and landscape photos, but it was fun to try. Here is my favorite:


I also finally uploaded some photos to my Flickr account. I will add more soon. So far, they are all from Grant Park and two groups of engagement photos, the most recent being my sister Kelsey (congrats!) (and Sam, too). I will keep updating my Flickr page at: www.flickr.com/photos/kylebhansen/