After a long slumber, IvanMerrow.com has reawakened and has started to evolve along with a changing set of priorities. This is a brief breakdown of some of the changes I’ve made and the reasons why.
New Header; Accepted to Queen’s
For about a year now the header for IvanMerrow.com was a picture of the beautiful Toronto skyline, where I was proud to reside as a co-op student over a few seasons. Soon after my location changed back to Kitchener-Waterloo (KW), and then to Ottawa for co-op, and then back again to KW so I could finish my undergraduate degree. All the while I kept the Toronto skyline on IvanMerrow.com, knowing I’d be back before long. However, I’m proud to say that in August I’ll be moving to Kingston Ontario, where I’ve been admitted as a dual JD/MBA candidate at Queen’s starting September 2011. My header has been updated to reflect the change.
Out with the Old, in with the New
Old sections I got rid of that were no longer applicable:
- “For Employers” section — originally this was an information page with some info to help employers learn more about hiring co-op students from uWaterloo, including an excellent promotional video from former UW President (now Governer General) David Johnston. Now that I’m heading to law school, recruiters know everything they need to know about hiring summer students and articling students. (If you’re still interested in hiring uWaterloo co-ops, check out this page for Prospective Employers)
- “For Students” section — this has been transformed into the Archive where some of my old articles from the Imprint and IvanMerrow.com are stored that largely pertain to student affairs. It was lucky that I decided to republish my old articles on my own website, since the Imprint recently underwent a website migration that wiped out access to archive issues (although the new site does look beautiful).
New features I added to keep up with the times:
- Revamped my sidebar to include a broader list of legal experts and online resources (after being inspired by internet-savvy blawgers Law is Cool, Omar Ha-Redeye, Michael Geist, the Court and others)
- Two Twitter account feeds, @IvanMerrow and @CanadianLawGuy (that may one day be integrated)
- RSS feeds of the hottest legal news/issues blogs
- A fairly comprehensive disclaimer in case my site becomes wildly popular or controversial
- Streamlined the resume section so it’s easier to load, read, and navigate.
IvanMerrow.com remains an ongoing web development project as its goals change. For now I’d like to see IvanMerrow.com originated blog content show up via links in Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn feeds to drive traffic. To gain exposure, I’d also like to start generating content worthy of contribution to some top Canadian legal blogs over the next two years. Check back soon — you might be surprised at how much things have changed.