Jordi Romkema

Recently I launched Snospace which runs on a Media Temple dedicated server. At first it didn't really cross my mind to make backups. I'm used to managed hosting where they usually take care of this sort of stuff for you. I know it's highly important to backup your important files, but sometimes I forget... like eating vegetables.

I wanted a clear and simple solution that would backup my entire server, or at least the most vital information such as website source files and databases. For me it was really important to get these backups, without any human intervention to either an FTP account or my Amazon S3 account. Obviously in the event that something does go wrong, it should be easy to restore from a backup. Read the rest... »

The majority of this year I have been working on a personal project in my spare time. Some of you might know, but I know most of you don't. I haven't really told a lot of people about this because I didn't want to jinx it. But now the day has finally come that I can say that this project is finally ready to be released online!

The name? Snospace. What is it? It's a mix between a guide for ski and snowboard resorts and an online community. The site offers loads of information about almost every ski and snowboard resort in the world: reviews, videos, photos, statistics, snow reports, weather updates, twitter updates, news articles. Most of these subjects have already been covered by other sites obviously, but the most interesting part will be the community.

As you can imagine, right now at the start the community is still pretty much nonexistent but I invite you to join it as you can do so many things such as uploading photos, importing photos from Flickr, create your own powder tracker (you can use this to check where the fresh snow is falling), create your own SnoMap (and show off where you have been to or what to go to), write reviews, write comments, connect with other members and much more (cliché, I know it... but it's true). You don't have to create an account though, you can also use your Facebook account to log in instead.

You can check it at snospace.com and please spread the word! To get more updates you can also follow @snospace on Twitter or become a fan of the Snospace fan page on Facebook.

Snospace Homepage

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Most people probably already know this but I hadn’t really officially announced it yet: After almost four and half years at MTV Networks I have decided that it’s time to go somewhere else. It truly has been a great time with great and innovative projects. I started as an intern there and gradually worked my way up to Senior Designer at the Digital Media department. It has been so much fun: great colleagues, all the parties, trip to Marocco, all the award shows… but it’s time to leave!

My last day at MTV will be December 24th 2009. I’m looking forward to an explosive ending during the annual MTV Christmas celebration to complete my ‘journey’ at MTV!

You might be wondering what I’m going to do next. First I’m going to work on my house, work on a personal project (to be revealed soon) and do some work as a freelancer. If you’re interested, drop me a line.

Secondly, on March 1st 2010 I start my new job at MediaMonks as Senior Designer. MediaMonks is the largest interactive media agency in The Netherlands and is mostly known for creative and innovative flash games. I can’t wait to start!

Television show Leukste dorp van Nederland (roughly translated: Best small town in the Netherlands) revolves around the search of the best rural town in The Netherlands. In this show you follow TMF VJ’s Willy and Saar in their search of this special town.

What’s so special about this show? You can follow it on television but also online. People had the chance to submit their own town to TMF and now the 12 best towns have been picked to participate in the show. In each episode the people from these town do their best to get as much points for their assignments. These assignments range from who has the best looking girl in the local supermarket, who can make the most noise with their tractor, etc.

Besides the total score of these towns on television there’s also a big online challenge: To get as many friends on Hyves (biggest social network in The Netherlands). If you have more friends on Hyves, then the town has a bigger chance of winning the race.

After twelve weeks the two best towns will compete with each other in the finals.

Homepage

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SuperNick has returned to Nickelodeon after enormous success of the previous four seasons. SuperNick is a popular Saturday morning live show for kids presented by Terence Scheurs and Patrick Martens.

During SuperNick well known people from the Netherlands visit and are challenged to tell their secrets. Kids compete with each other in a quiz and in the Superrace. In Make Me Famous kids can become a big celebrity through a makeover. The whole shows revolves around a continuous battle: Will the girls or the boys win?

SuperNick homepage

Most of the games in the show require online registration first and therefore a website with a playful layout that matches the decor was needed. The site has been designed by me and built by Fabian Scheepers and Niels Filmer at MTV Networks.

If you have missed an episode you can view it on the Supernick website. Besides the close connection with the television show, the website also offers online games and a weblog containing updates from the presenters.

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It's been a while since I posted anything new here, please excuse me! I've been working hard on a special (personal) project which I will reveal very soon.

Last month, I and my girlfriend went on vacation to Florida (again!), I uploaded all of our photos to my Flickr photostream but forgot to write something about it. Oops

We went for two weeks and started off in Orlando. The day after, we drove to Clearwater to visit Honeymoon Island & Caladesi Island State Park. There's a beautiful white beach on the island and you can only go there by a small ferry. It's quiet and peaceful on the island. The next day was not so quiet when we went to Busch Gardens, a theme park slash zoo near Tampa. The theme park was alright, it has a lot of roller coasters but all in all it doesn't really compare to the Disney parks that offer more entertainment and scenery.

Quiet beach on Caladesi Island.

Next stop was Naples, a cute and beautiful town at the coast with many great shops and restaurants. We stayed in a hotel that had a private beach you can only access by using a golf cart on a boardwalk over the mangroves. Naples is pretty close to the Everglades. On our way to our next destination, Key Largo, we visited the park and even took an airboat ride in Everglades City. Wow, never imagined this would be so much fun!

Town of Naples

We only stayed for a day in Key Largo but it was a really beautiful day. Our hotel was on the shoreline tucked away between ancient trees. The water was so clear, you could see all the fish swimming and crabs walking in the water. The next day we arrived in Key West and we stayed there for a couple of days. The first day we rented bikes and checked out the town, the day after we went on a sailing tour to some of the uninhabited keys. The sailing tour was awesome, we also went snorkelling and kayaking. We saw animals that we have never seen in our lives such as the ancient Horseshoe Crab.

Sunset in Key Largo

After three days we left Key West to go back to Orlando. We visited some of the Disney parks in Walt Disney World such as: Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Blizzard Beach.

It was a perfect vacation, hope you enjoy our photos

Lately I've been working on some SMS to Screen designs. Most of them enable the user to send a text message to a special number and their message will be desplayed on television. To be honest it's not groundbreaking work design-wise, but for me it has been really satisfing seeing my work on television. I'm used to seeing my work online all the time, I remember back when I first started doing web design I got that same excited feeling everytime I put something online. So eventhough these are all small jobs, it's very rewarding seeing your work on national television. Here are some of the latest SMS to Screen designs you might see on Dutch television channel TMF:

Design for television show Kijk dit nou with SMS chat and SMS voting. On air photo here.

Design for the TMF Awards. Breaking news and winners were announced and viewers could chat about these Dutch music awards through text messages.

Design for TMF Chat, a television program with music videos viewers can chat about through text messages.

This post is long overdue since the site I'm about to write about has been online since February this year but I never got around to write about it. The site is called Kijk Dit Nou and plays a vital role in the daily live television show on TMF with the same name. Not to be confused with an earlier post I wrote about Kijk Dit Nou, the site in the previous post is totally different and it has been rebranded as De Loads.

The site is basically a daily updated weblog written by the VJ's/presenters of the show. They write about their life, current events, lifestyle, movies, music and everything else that's interesting for their young viewers. The visitors can decide if a post should be discussed in the show at the end of the day. Visitors are constantly up to date through RSS feeds, Twitter and mobile photo uploads from the VJ's/presenters. The television format thrives on input from the viewers and website visitors and currently has a strong following both online and on air.

Kijk Dit Nou is currently on a summer break but next week they're back online and on air again every day on TMF at 16:30

Last Friday I was interviewed by Klaasjan Tukker from Adobe at the Adobe User Group. Before the Interview I held my presentation along with other young talents such as Lowman, Jasper Schelling and Marcel Kampman. I had a great time presenting and watching the other presentations.

Anyways, here's the interview. It's in Dutch though. Topic is Spongebob.nl and the Cartoon Creator.

Just a quick message here! I haven't been able to blog for a while: it's been hectic at work as usual and also because me and my girlfriend bought a new house. So we're busy choosing a kitchen, bathroom, decoration, furniture, etc. Fun stuff, but also less fun stuff such as taxes, payments, mortgage. Our new home is still under construction, from time to time I post pictures on my Facebook account.

Something totally different that I wanted to share: This Friday I'll be giving a presentation at the Adobe User Group meeting in Amsterdam. Theme for this meeting is Young Talent and they asked me to show some stuff from my portfolio. So that's what I'll be doing For those interested, it starts at 12:30. You can get more information at the Adobe User Group website. The presentation will be in Dutch.

Next time I promise to write a little more, but for now this'll do