As corporate America's wet dream - a low-cost advertising medium with an ever-expanding audience - the Web has become a proliferation of product plugs and repurposed content from other media. Not so NOVA Online. More than just a marketing mechanism for the TV show, NOVA inspired its television counterpart to run a documentary on Mt. Everest after the debut of its interactive adventure series, complete with RealAudio clips, video streaming, and dispatches from the summit of the world's tallest and most foreboding mountain. "Most people think of it as going the other way," says online producer Lauren Aguirre of the multitude of Web sites that are merely spinoffs of their companion TV programs.
NOVA Online, which prides itself on educational and technologically innovative content, has been producing original material since its inception in February 1996. It started with a look at the Internet-friendly topic of alien abductions (which attracted readers who were opining believers and skeptics) and included information on the physical evidence of the alleged kidnappings. The site has run a multitude of other original features - on topics such as balloon races, Einstein, and Incan ice mummies - while maintaining an expanded version of the weekly prime-time program for its Web audience.
To continue the site's pace, NOVA Online is looking for a college intern to work part-time from October until mid-January. The intern will work with Aguirre and a small team of Web specialists to put together features for November and the months that follow. This non-paid position requires a lot of research, fact-checking, tracking down images to use on the site, and finding contacts. "It's more for someone who's into the writing or research vein," says Jennifer Uscher, the production assistant. "Not for someone whose dream is to learn Java."
Because the site is relatively recent and the staff fairly small - only four people work full-time for NOVA Online, though there's a lot of collaboration with the television crew - both Uscher and Aguirre stress that the intern will have ample opportunity to attend brainstorming sessions and contribute new ideas. "The possibilities are endless," Aguirre says. "It's not like TV, where everyone knows what their job is."
The offices for NOVA Online are located in Boston, Massachusetts, just a short trek from Harvard University. The building NOVA calls home houses a host of other public prime-time television shows also produced by WGBH, the largest producer of the prime-time TV programs seen on PBS. One of the perks of working there, Uscher says, is running into people who are working on projects for shows like Frontline and the American Experience.
Those interested in the part-time internship should contact NOVA Online right away. Uscher says she hopes to find someone by the end of September, although more internships will open up in mid-January and again in the summer.
This article appeared originally in HotWired.
