The 66th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and television of 2008, was broadcast by NBC on January 11, 2009, in Beverly Hills, California. Produced by Dick Clark Productions in association with Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and directed by Chris Donovan, the broadcast was watched by approximately 14.6 million viewers.
Award presenters included Simon Baker, Drew Barrymore, Pierce Brosnan, Sandra Bullock, Gerard Butler, Glenn Close, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cameron Diaz, Aaron Eckhart, Zac Efron, Laurence Fishburne, Ricky Gervais, Jake Gyllenhaal, Salma Hayek, Jonas Brothers, Jessica Lange, Blake Lively, Jennifer Lopez, Hayden Panettiere, Chris Pine, Amy Poehler, Zachary Quinto, Seth Rogen, and Martin Scorsese. During the ceremony, Steven Spielberg received the Cecil B. deMille Award for his "outstanding contribution to the entertainment field".
After teaching himself computer programming in the 2000s, Shefik secured his first position in the field of Internet Technology, as Technical Producer at the internationally renowned magazine TIME and its website time.com. His primary duties involved developing web-based applications, which served millions of website visitors daily. In addition, Shefik was tasked with conducting regular training sessions with key members of the editorial staff, to educate them on the proper usage and best practices of the technology that Shefik developed and maintained on a daily basis. As such, he engaged with staff across TIME's international bureaus, and aligned himself with the understanding of cultural conditions.
Coincidentally, while Shefik worked at TIME, Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States. Shefik was already in the process of developing a web-based live blogging system for usage at TIME (an idea he proposed). Therefore, the United States presidential election of 2008 served as a launch for the live blogging system. Shefik's development proved to be successful, as his idea came to fruition. For the live blogging system, Shefik incorporated technologies such as PHP and MySQL, utilizing the content management system WordPress.
Due to the success of the live blogging system, Shefik produced coverage of other highly trafficked events at TIME, some of which also became cross-promotions with the editorial teams at the sister magazines People and Entertainment Weekly. This included Shefik producing TIME's live coverage of the 66th Golden Globe Awards, working with journalists Kate Betts, Richard Corliss, and James Poniewozik to bring up-to-the-minute commentary.
Credits
- Technical Producer: Shefik
Last Updated: January 18, 2024
