Rory Gilchrist

Biography

Web developer, journalist, general technologist and CTO of The Urban Times.

My Urban Times Story

I first became involved in Urban Times as a writer; in July 2010, I'd had a few jobs freelancing for Channel 4 and various other news outlets and was looking for anywhere to get my ideas and articles published. It was then, on a train from Newcastle to London, I found Urban Times.

At the point it was quite obvious it was a small, but rapidly growing news outlet, with an ethos which was closely aligned with my own. I got in touch, stating that I wanted to write and, with my long history of web development, could help out with that too. I expected the response to be more targeted toward journalism, but after a conversation with Charlie, it was clear he was extremely interested in my web development profile.

I started doing odd things here and there for the website, and in January of 2011 was invited to attend a meeting in Baker Street with the team, where I met Alex and Steph for the first time. As usual I arrived a bit late, but was warmly welcomed by everyone there - the atmosphere and the vibe coming from the room was great. We discussed journalism, article ideas and then, more intensely, web development.

I agreed to play a stronger role within the web side of the business. It wasn't until later that month, my role as CTO was cemented - the server went down and it was clear we were growing at a rate that just wasn't sustainable on the server we were running on, at that point we took the matter into our own hands and I set up our own server and distributed all of our static content to the cloud.

After that we embarked on the mammoth task of overhauling the website design and structure and creating something which was beautiful to use, but was also extremely fast and functional. Charlie and I worked all hours of the day, regularly sending each other emails in the early hours of the morning with new ideas we'd come up with.

By April 2011 we'd completed the website (the one you're viewing right now!). Since then, there's rarely been a day go by when I haven't spoken to the core team (Alex, Charlie and Steph) about awesome new things we can be doing in the web space.

Working with Urban Times is unlike anything else I've ever done - the sense of community and optimism is so rewarding and I couldn't think of anywhere else one could progress so much as a person and in their desired field. I also can't think of a better team to work around than Charlie, Steph and Alex and would I'd recommend anyone who want's to help change the world to get involved - you won't regret a second of it.