Stewart Shelline, the developer of the Crossroads Information System, hasn't always been comfortable around computers. Not so long ago, he admits, he was terrified of technology.
As a Brigham Young University student majoring in journalism, Shelline even dropped a newswriting course because of a requirement that all assignments be written on a computer.He preferred writing stories in longhand and typing up a final copy on a typewriter. A stint as a reporter for the BYU Daily Universe forced him to use a computer for the first time as a college sophomore.
That experience taught him that a computer is merely a machine.
"Think of it as a microwave," Shelline tells technophobes. "You don't need to know all the inner workings of a microwave to figure out which button to push to warm up dinner."
After college, the 34-year-old Shelline got interested enough in computers to become a freelance programmer, developing labor scheduling, inventory and payroll software for fast food restaurants around the country.
After joining the Deseret News staff in 1989, Shelline was asked to help put together a bulletin board for the newspaper. He soon saw the possibilities for providing news online, and has been working on Crossroads ever since.
But even after writing - and sometimes rewriting - the tens of thousands of lines of programming needed to make Crossroads run, Shelline balks at being called a computer nerd.
"I consider myself someone who uses computers to solve problems," he said. "I've never dismantled a computer and put it back together. I've never messed with electronics. Even my Boy Scout electricity experiments failed."
Crossroads editor Steve Hawkins, a former assistant sports editor, also avoids the label computer nerd. Hawkins' motto is "Computers are idiots."
Other key members of the online team are managing editor Don Woodward, who provided vision and dogged support, systems manager Dave Croft, designer Cory Maylett, city editor Rick Hall, marketing director Steve Handy, and software testers Jean Cassidy, Audrey Clark, Lois Collins, JoAnn Kilpatrick, Scott Taylor and Susan Lyman-Whitney.
"We've had great support," said Shelline. "The editors, copy editors and makeup editors have been very supportive. They labor under intense deadline pressure, yet they have absorbed additional work without complaint."