A few weeks ago, Knight Ridder announced that I am receiving the James K. Batten Award for Excellence in Technology Innovation. It is an individual award. I found out on September 21st, and I have been thinking about it since.

The jury’s statement was generous. They said I have done more in four years than some people do in a lifetime, and that I am willing to do things to help other parts of the company. That is a kind way of describing what I think of as just doing my job. When there is a problem and I know how to solve it, I solve it. When another Knight Ridder newspaper needs help with their web technology, I help. That is not remarkable to me. It is how things should work.

The press release mentioned how I got started at Philadelphia Newspapers. I was a college freshman, and the tech staff had been working on a problem for weeks without a solution. They brought me in, and I solved it in 36 hours. That system is still running. I remember being nervous about whether my approach would hold up. It did.

Since then I have built a number of systems at Philadelphia Newspapers. PhillyFinder, our local search and directory service. AdMaster, which handles online advertising. The Yellow Pages system. An email gateway that connects our Atex editorial system to internet email so the newsroom can communicate with the outside world. A Palm Pilot edition of our content for readers who carry those devices. A system for personalized newspapers where readers choose which topics they want to follow.

Each of these started the same way: someone had a need, and there was no existing solution. So I built one. The satisfaction is in watching people use the thing you made and seeing it solve their problem. The advertising department uses AdMaster every day. Reporters use the Atex email gateway without thinking about it. That is the best outcome for a piece of software. When people stop noticing it because it just works.

This award is mine, but the work was never just mine. Fred Mann hired me and gave me my start. He is the General Manager of Philly.com and he has been my boss for nearly five years. He took a chance on a college kid, gave me real problems to solve from the first day, and then gave me the room to solve them my own way. When my solutions worked, he made sure the right people knew about it. When I needed support, he provided it without hesitation. He went above and beyond in ways that had nothing to do with work, including standing in line with me at the immigration office to help me get my green card. He did not have to do any of that. I would not be where I am without him.

Steve Rossi, the General Manager of Philadelphia Newspapers, has been a champion of my work and has supported the technology team’s efforts consistently. Bob Hall has also been a supporter. The editors who trusted that the web was worth their time when that was not obvious to everyone. My colleagues in the technology group who taught me things about production systems that you do not learn in school.

I am 24 years old. I have been building things for the web at a major newspaper company for four years. The web is still young. The newspaper industry is still figuring out what digital publishing means. I get to be part of that, and I get to build the tools that make it work. The award is a recognition of the work, and I appreciate it. But the work itself, and the people I get to do it with, is what I care about most.