The summary, again:

Customer Service is the New R&D
With forums, Get Satisfaction, good old email support and more, let your early adopters help build your product and create the solution they’ve been searching for. See how boot strapping start-ups (and some past the start-up days) build an online R&D lab to turn 1000+ voices into real features.

But enough about me. How ’bout some friends?

In addition to our panel, I’m asking you to toss a vote to some incredible nice and smart friends of mine.

They are (notes are mine):

Michelle Riggen Ransom : Social Media for Social Change

Michelle’s blog and writings at PopTech! are jampacked with all sorts of non-traditional applications of social media. You can’t help but walk away with new ideas.

Joshua Porter : Managing Your Online Identity Outside the Walled Garden

Joshua will be presenting with John Eckman. Seems like everybody is trying to get into this space lately, but who’s doing it well? The site that finally nails the UX for this problem wins.

Joshua Porter : Designing for Sign-Up

Really, it doesn’t get much more important than signup. This is the last step before a user commits to your product. Don’t lose them at the last step!

Brian Oberkirch : Try Making Yourself More Interesting

Seriously, you just have to experience the Oberkirch. Vote for it. And then make sure you don’t miss it.

Saul Colt : Personality Marketing Doesn’t Mean You Are Ugly!

Saul Colt : Building Personal and Company Brands with Web 2.0 Tools

I’m becoming quite the Saul Colt fanboy. Saul’s WOM work with FreshBooks has been nothing short of inspiring.

John Eckman : Managing User Generated Content

John Eckman : Open Source and Design: Ideologies Clashing

John (wow, I’ve only ever called him jeckman…) is an open source guru… really looking forward to Open Source and Design. I’ve always been curious why designers don’t get more involved in open source when developers are so into it.

Mario Sundar : The Future of Corporate Communications

Mario handles corporate communications with LinkedIn (who are famously open with their users). His views on the topic carry serious weight.

Aarron Walter : No Web Professional Left Behind: Educating the Next Generation

Aarron is a designer, author, teacher… I’m not sure there’s anything he doesn’t do. He also is spearheading the Web Standards Project’s Education Task Force.

Kit Seeborg : Your Name Sucks!

I first “met” Kit through WebVisions—she’s the organizer of the event. This panel started as a Twitter discussion and ends up in the Panel Picker.

Jim Barcelona : How to Make Your Own Web Scripting Language

Barce apparently is a wizard who can write his own scripting languages. I had no idea!

David Peck : What Does A Community Manager Do?

My friend Connie Bensen is on this panel. Connie has been a community management superstar over the past year, building her profile like nobody I’ve ever seen.

So, did I miss anyone? Anything you’re particularly looking forward to?

What I wanted to focus on today is how FriendFeed is exposing me to valuable content I would have missed before and how it changes they way I use some of my social media services.

Unearthing Valuable Content

I’ve been a del.icio.us user for quite a while. It wasn’t until very recently that I learned they have a contacts feature. Well, they call it “your network”, and really don’t do the best job of exposing/explaining the feature.

Why is having contacts on a social bookmarking site important? Well, that’s what makes it social. When a contact of yours values a web page enough to save it for future reference, that’s a huge vote of confidence. I want to see those links.

My friend Jeremy Harrington uses a ma.gnolia plug-in to post summaries of his bookmarks to his blog. I have always found some good ones in there. But I never took the time to look up which of my contacts were on what social bookmarking sites.

With FriendFeed, when you subscribe to a person, you subscribe to all of their services. So, when I subscribed to Joshua Porter, for example, I got access to his del.icio.us feed for the first time. He bookmarks some seriously great stuff. Without FriendFeed, I probably never would have made this connection.

Changing My Usage

Now that I am able to easily see what people bookmark, I am consciously aware that other people will see what pages I bookmark on del.icio.us, too. And beyond that, whenever I favorite a photo or video on Flickr or YouTube (not just post), it will show up in my FriendFeed stream. So, if you have a FriendFeed account, think about these things before you save interesting job listings on del.icio.us, favorite photos of that social media crush on Flickr, or save videos of dancing kitty cats on YouTube.

Have you made any interesting observations while using FriendFeed?

I’ve heard a lot of people complain that FriendFeed is an uncontrollable firehose of data. I disagree. If anything, I’ve found that with a few tweaks it can actually help you manage your information better. Here’s a few tips:

You Don’t Have to Follow Everyone

This one sounds obvious. But ever since I started subscribing to feeds or following folks on Twitter, I’ve been very selective about adding A-listers. Why? Those folks tend to produce a hell of a lot of content. Following too many prolific A-listers can really turn your feedreader into a mess.

My theory has always been to follow bloggers with whom you share similar interests. They’ll tend to chime in about the stuff that’s worth talking about. I’m thinking of Brian Oberkirch here. You can’t believe how much time I’ve saved over the last two years by reading Brian and NOT reading other people.

FriendFeed gets this. I don’t need to follow Robert Scoble. I just wait for some of my friends to let me know when they’re interested in something Robert posted. It appears in my feed like so:

Never Miss an Important Tweet Again

I’ve already talked about how I can filter my FriendFeed feed by service, letting me read all tweets on Twitter and not duplicate them on FriendFeed.

But, I’m hitting that “following” threshold that makes it difficult to keep up with EVERY tweet on Twitter. So, if I only have time to skim the last few pages of tweets or I go offline for a few hours (or, more realistically, Twitter does) and can’t catch up on every tweet, FriendFeed will let me know which of my friends’ tweets are being “liked” or commented on.

Follow Stuff that was Previously Clunky to Follow

Does Del.icio.us even have a “friends” feature? I don’t even know. It very well might.

If it does, nobody uses it. And that’s a shame. Think about the mundane things you find yourself reading about folks on Twitter. Then, when you consider that you’re missing an important activity like taking the time to read an article online and save it for later… It’s crazy.

It’s true that everyone with a Del.icio.us account has had an RSS feed, but with FriendFeed it has never been so easy to subscribe to all of someone’s services at once. There’s gold in those Del.icio.us feeds. And the more you rely on your friends’ bookmarks, the less you’ll need to subscribe to a billion blogs.

Saved bookmarks on Del.icio.us appear as individual entries in FriendFeed. This is awesome because now I can see, for example, what Joshua Porter is bookmarking. Chances are, if he’s bookmarking it, I want to read it.

I used to appreciate when people would have a post of “this week’s links on Ma.gnolia” or whatever. I didn’t want to have to hunt for their bookmark feeds. But now, there’s a downside to those blog posts. I’m now subscribed (through FriendFeed) to the blog feed AND the social bookmarking feed. That means I get duplicate content.

But, FriendFeed has all sorts of options for hiding this duplicate content. For example, if you have a FriendFeed friend who has social bookmarking links published in their blog feed, you can just hide all social bookmarking entries from that person. Similarly, you can turn off the other two features I profiled here—you can choose not to see friend of friends’ content or tweets that people “liked”/commented on.

So, FriendFeed can be a firehose, I suppose. But they have put a lot of tools in place to help you turn down the pressure.

Joshua Porter posted a great article yesterday on Bokardo called “Sermo a sign of a larger trend toward specialized social networks“. In the post, Joshua says:

Sermo is a sign of a larger trend: the move to smaller, more specialized social networks that have custom tools to support a unique activity and may cater to a private or exclusive set of users. In this case it is sharing medical information among verified doctors.

I’ve blogged about Sermo in the past. I love what they are doing—creating an exclusive social network for physicians so that they can discuss medical issues long before they hit the journals (and are likely more candid than journals). Of course, they are raising a little hell as the pharmaceutical companies can no longer control their messages delivered to each physician. They are (gasp) talking to each other.

If it is possible to have a crush on a company, you know I’m in love with PatientsLikeMe. I left a comment about them on Josh’s blog, so I’ll just repeat myself:

On the other side of the medical spectrum, I’ve spoken with a few folks from Boston-based PatientsLikeMe, another example of a specialized social network. They are a network for the patients. I love that instead of Amazon’s “customers who bought this also bought this…” intelligence, they have “patients at the exact same stage of ALS as you who are experiencing these symptoms that you are have taken these medications and felt these side effects.”

Ridiculously amazing.

The market of “just because” social networks is now bloated. In order to take off you’re going to need one of these specialized networks that offers something nobody else can. One key to that can be taking detailed profile data and using it to help foster your users’ social interactions (like PatientsLikeMe, and others such as last.fm).

Damn, reading that back, it sounds good. You can tell I love this idea. I recently joined Facebook. I yawned about it here. All I’ve done with it is insert widgets into my profile of specialized networks I have elsewhere (last.fm, Flickr, Twitter) and add friends that I have elsewhere. I find Facebook doesn’t really do anything more than my personal blog already does—act as an aggregator for all this information.

So, these specialized networks—last.fm (for tracking my music listening habits), del.icio.us (for storing my bookmarks), Flickr (for storing my photos), Twitter (for microblogging, public IM, whatever the hell you wanna call it), etc.—offer a hell of a lot more value than the “aggregator” social networks. You can easily hop to another aggregator (or create your own) and add the specialized content to that new profile. You still need the specialized services, but the Facebooks and MySpaces become expendable.

Then there’s OpenID and portable social networks (via Oberkirch). Once these reach their enormous potential, what really is the purpose of Facebook or MySpace?

Just wanted to post a little note about some good news for a good guy. Today, Joshua Porter will be ending a highly productive five-year run at User Interface Engineering and going solo. Josh’s Bokardo was one of the first blogs I ever read and I can honestly say I’ve learned more from that one blog than any other. Josh also happens to be the swell chap that picked up the Blog is the New Resume story, leading to an increase in traffic that has stuck pretty well.

Bokardo Design is the new veture. For social design, he’s the best there is.

Yeah, I had to look it up, too.

Meryl tagged me on a couple levels. First, she presented me with an “Inspirational Blogger Award.” I’m not really sure what to say about that. There are a lot of people out there far more inspirational than myself (I mean, I can’t think of how I am at all). Meryl seemed to like the whole “blog is the new resume” story, so perhaps she was inspired by that.

The meme says that I in turn have to award the blog awards. For “Inspirational Blogger”, it is very hard for me to pick. A ton of bloggers have inspired me. Would it be a cop out to name the crew of Dan, Brian, Jeremiah, and Joshua? For”Courageous Blogger” (the award Meryl was given), I’ll give it to Kathy Sierra. She took a stand after dealing with crap she shouldn’t have had to. She did what was right, though I feel like I’m not as smart a person when she’s not blogging. Kathy could also get “Creative Blogger Award,” but Tara is also quite deserving. I’ll stop there since what I mostly read are tech blogs and those are the ones that fit best.

Not done there, Meryl also tagged me to reply to a meme about revealing tips for dealing with problems (or dealing with adversity, as the original post said). I have five to offer off the top of my head. While most relate to solving technical problems, some can work at a higher level as well.

1. Figure out the high-level problem. This will actually allow you to solve all issues related to the greater problem. This way you can avoid simply endlessly applying band aid after band aid.
2. Get a baseline to work from. This one works best in interface design. A lot of things go into an interface. There are tons of decisions to make. To avoid feeling overwhelmed, you just have to make a first version. You will throw all of it away, but you need to have something to look at to say “I don’t like that.” Otherwise, you’ll never know what you want.
3. Don’t dwell. This one rises above software design. Is this problem really the end of the world? Probably not. I’m totally a “make lemonade” guy. Hell, I love lemonade. Not that crap made from powder, though.
4. Do the other little things first so you can focus. No, it’s not procrastonating. It is eliminating one of the additional stresses you have—the stuff you have to do AFTER you solve this impossible problem. When all that’s left is the impossible problem, you can focus on just that.
5. Get another set of eyes. I’m not ashamed to run something by someone else. I love feedback. It’s why I listen to Mogwai.

So, I hope that fit the bill. I think I survived my first memetag.

I’d have five cents.

So, I trimmed my RSS list not long ago and made a category called “Must Reads”. I’ll share those here:

• Brian Oberkirch: The ultimate aggregator
  
• Joshua Porter: Social web design
• Creating Passionate Users: Empowering user to kick ass
• Jeremiah Owyang: Social media guru, though he digs far deeper than I do
• Dan Cederholm: Because he’s my hero
• Chris Messina: He’s just got his finger on everything
• Tara Hunt: Pinko marketer extraordinaire
• Guy Kawasaki: The legend
• Ryan Carson: Just because I love all of his ventures

I know, for a “designer” it’s a little light on design blogs. But I figure if anything too crazy is talked about in the design world, I can get that from Dan or Chris. I also listen to Paul Boag’s Boagworld podcast, which helps out on that front. But what can I say? I love the strategy side of things.

Turns out, Joshua Porter of Bokardo—a great guy and super-talented social web design expert I finally got to meet in person at SXSW—echoed the idea and added his own (far more organized) list of ideas. Let’s just say, Joshua’s blog is a little (okay, a lot) more popular than mine. When I write something, it gets archived for a rainy day. When Joshua writes, it ends up on Techmeme.

The pair of posts have sparked a great deal of discussion and I want to record some of the highlights from other blogs here. So, this will be a running list in the order they come in.

First, from Josh:

1. Your blog represents you.
2. Your blog is serious business.
3. Your blog is an archive.
4. Your blog isn’t the only mirror of your life.
5. Your blog is your unedited version of yourself.

Anthony Baggett from Antbag had a great post soon after.

It makes sense to me……. and it’s only been a matter of time in our high-tech society. If you needed a good reason to take your blog more serious, this could be it. If you were in the market for a job, could your web presence help you in the process, or would it come back and bite you?

Judy at Point Being: adds…

Of course, this can be a double-edged sword. While an insightful blog can give you a leg-up when looking for a job, your online antics can also get you into trouble. You are what you put on the web…

Nick O’Neill of the Webpreneur wrote 5 Steps to Making Your Blog Your Resume.

1. Have a clean & unique design
2. Have a targeted about page
3. Write about issues related to your industry
4. Provide valuable resources to your readers
5. Keep it professional

I’m not sure I agree with everything there, but it is a great post. I agree with writing about issues related to your interest and providing resources, but I don’t think it needs to be 100% professional. I’ll make a post about baseball or my daughter to also show interests. I do that because when I’m in a position to hire, I like to know a little more about them than just what they do at work. I like to see trends of how their hobbies reflect work interests.

Fred @ ClaimID says that your online presence (not just your blog) is your resume. Fred links to a much older post by Chris Messina where he talks about his Google resume.

At ClaimID, we obviously think that your online presence is more than just your blog, but the essential point of the post is relevant – what is online about you is very important.

Alexander Muse @ Big in Japan (gulp, I really admire the work of these guys) writes about his blogging experience (related to job inquiries).

I have been blogging for a couple of years (Texas Startup Blog) and it has been a very interesting exercise. I have lost track of the number of job offers or inquires I have received as a direct result of my online writing.

Jim Kukral says you better not use you MySpace page as your resume.

Your blog says everything about you. Who you are, what you like, etc… Heck, even your design template that you’ve chosen can tell something about you.

Your blog is you!

The Composed Gentleman quotes both Joshua and I in his post, but I’ll pick this tidbit, because I like it.

He is totally right.

Melinda Casino @ Sour Duck provides a great perspective:

TechMeme drops an ice cube down the shirt of every blogger. Talk about taking the joy out of blogging.

Again, I don’t think this has to take the joy out of blogging. I am myself on my blog. I wouldn’t want to work at a place that doesn’t value the complete package of who I am. That is very important to me.

Michael Specht has some great insight on this. He has a great blog, check it out.

The simple answer to this question is no your blog is not your resume. Let me explain.

The resume provides a framework for you to summarise your skills and experience in a short easy to digest document. Your blog does not. This does not mean your blog is not a valuable tool in finding a new job or finding new employees.

Stephen Collins of acidlabs writes about the complete online persona and how you need to be careful.

Your blog, your LinkedIn Profile, del.icio.us links, etc. all form a pretty complete picture of who you are, how you think and what you have to say. It’s critical that you behave responsibly and professionally online. That you vet your online, public material for stupid mistakes, whether those mistakes are spelling errors, factual issues, or that picture of you on Facebook at the fraternity kegger.

BijanBlog adds more about the complete persona package.

On my blog folks know what kind of music I like, my political point of view, social causes, my work engagements, some of my family life, etc.

It started as a diary but it’s now a two way, interactive experience. And that is the best part for me.

On the comments of my post, Chris Messina adds:

I think another point to make is how important a blog is for demonstrating one’s ability to communicate clearly and articulately — and to think critically. In some senses, folks who are better at code should let their source do the talking for them, whereas those who have a way with words should probably focus more on blogging.

This is great. Obviously, the blogging doesn’t work for everyone. Basically, blogging should be done by the people it will actually benefit—those with good communication skills, some creativity in their writing, a passion to actually keep up with it, etc.

Mario Sundar of Marketing Nirvana touches on this in a post called 5 Steps to Let Your Dream Job Find You.

First off, NOT ALL blogs can be considered your resume. However, for those of us interested in maintaining an online presence/identity it can be a worthy and impressive add-on. As I’d mentioned in my post below, the best repository for your online identity is your vanity google search. My online brand a.k.a vanity search yields my blog, my other blog (mprofs – where I contribute), my LinkedIn profile (Disclosure: I work for LinkedIn), my Images (Flickr), Video, Events, etc… Now, that’s a comprehensive identity.

Eric Strauss links as well with a great point in his title alone: “If Blog=Resume Then Goodbye Action Verbs List!“. He adds:

I think we’ll be hearing more about this.

Brad Bonham gets some ammo to show his friends he’s not crazy.

Resumes will be next to useless very soon. Static content is so 2001. We’re fast approaching an era wherein people can shoot narrated documentaries on a cell phone, edit them and add on some special fx, then broadcast to the world. Actually, we’re already in that era, I just haven’t seen an interesting cell phone documentary yet — but I know it’s possible! Sending a prospective employer an MS Word template or unformatted resume strikes me a little like sending out a wedding invitation handwritten on college ruled notebook paper. Sure, you can do it, but there are other options.

Sorry for taking most of your post, Brad, but it’s damn good!

Nox Dineen even linked on the Hello World! post.

Remember when bloggers were warned that their weblog may negatively impact their current or future employment? Well the medium is now so mainstream that the trend has flipped 180°, now it could be detrimental not to have a blog, especially in the face of competitors who do.

And last, for now, I just got a comment from Recruiting Animal:

I’m a headhunter and like this is so wrong but I don’t have time to explain it now. I’ll be baaack and do the job then. I just want everyone to know that LinkedIn is a better way to establish an online presence for 99% of the population. Are there 200 million blogs in the world? If so, 199 million of them are abandoned after a dozen postings. Therein lies the entire story.

I’m interested to see the followup. If you don’t keep up with the blog, yank the site. Otherwise, to me at least, you look like someone who starts with good intentions but can’t keep up with something. Of course, every case is different and it will depend on the type of blog and the content that IS there (what is your last post…a “I’m too busy right now” post?).

Jeremiah writes about how “Google me” is the business card and how he was hired essentially from his blog.

I know several people that have gotten jobs primarily because of their blog, it had a lot to do with me getting my job too. Employers can see what someone is like, how they think, how the write, but more importantly what others think about them by checking out trackbacks and how people deal with disagreements, comments, etc.

I’ll keep an eye on what else is said about this and post it here.

Update: Later the same day, there’s already some stuff to add.

First, our friend Recruiting Animal returned to elaborate on his previous comment. RA posted quite a bit, and I posted quite a bit back. I recommend heading back to read the full discussion. But a tidbit from Recruiting Animal:

It might be possible for someone who is out of work and has time on his hands but I’m talking about people who maintain a blog while they work as their ongoing profile.

And I countered with:

Check out the top blogs at Technorati. Those people are not unemployed. My blog is by no means one of the popular ones. But it serves its purpose. I’ve got a full time job, side work, kids, family, etc. If you take yourself seriously, you find a way to work it in.

And that’s the point. Those who don’t will be at a disadvantage. Hiring managers will say… “Okay, why does this person Not have a blog? Is it because (1) they have nothing to say?; (2) they can’t communicate?; or (3) they can’t be bothered?”

Peter T. Davis provides a lot of info in a fantastic post called “What does your web presence say about you?” Like:

Why should someone try to find information on the web about another person? Well! A thousand and one reasons, of course. It can help in social situations. I’m learning how to golf, for example. I’m pretty bad still, but enjoying and looking forward to the ground drying out so I can play some more this summer. Someone I meet who’s read that could get a conversation going with me about golfing.

and

But, still, Google shows more. Google even shows what you wrote on the Usenet back before the web became popular. Some people make it easy for others to find them online. Me, for example. On most community and social networking sites I use the same account name, petertdavis. So, google petertdavis and it shows up nearly 20,000 entries. Follow those links and find tens of thousands of more things, articles I’ve written, items I’ve posted, images, designs, ideas, etc ad nauseam.

and this bit about how to deal with a common name:

The other challenge I share with people with common names like Peter Davis, is how to make yourself stand out among the crowd. I started blogging early enough that my blog tends to stay near the top of the results for my name. I do better when my middle initial is used, Peter T Davis. I started using my middle initial quite a few years ago, when I came to realize just how many of us Peter Davises were out there. But there’s still plenty of stiff competition for Peter T Davis.

Sorry to take so much, Peter, but it is great stuff!

Ian Yip at How to Brand Your Name offers this advice for going beyond the resume:

Getting a job aside, blogging is also the best way to show the world who you are. You don’t need to blog about work. Just blog about something you’re passionate about. Why? Because you won’t run out of things to say…and you may even sound like you know what you’re talking about.

Jeremiah has also had some good comments and trackbacks on his blog. Tijs Vrolix (sweet design, btw!) offers:

Of course, “being online” has it’s own disadvantages: the internet – and Google in particular – doesn’t forget about anything. On the other hand, from what I’ve learned from my limited personal experience, use it well and you’ll be astonished by the results. So don’t be shy, start blogging, sign up for Twitter and get heard.

There are a whole bunch of other comments on Jeremiah’s post worth reading, too. Check ‘em.

Next, a look back at the original Bokardo post led me to a comment from Blog for Jobs. Interesting site I’ll have to check out—their about section reads:

Job seekers are blogging for jobs. Yep, thats right. Creative and talented candidates are writing their own blogs in an effort to stand out and get noticed. It’s a new job hunting technique for the 21st century. This is a showcase for those who blog for jobs.

Finally, for now, I poked around Technorati to see if anyone else was talking about this. I looked earlier than my own post and found Zoli’s blog, which I actually remember checking out when I originally wrote my post. I figured someone must have used the term “The Blog is the New Resume” before—but Zoli was the only one I could find. An excerpt of what he wrote:

Resumes are tailored for a particular job, and let’s face it, often “cosmetically enhanced“. If you’ve been blogging for years, you certainly did not do it with a particular job in mind; your blog is likely to be a true reflection of who you really are, what you are an expert in, your communication skills, your priorities … YOU as a whole person, not as a candidate for a specific job.

And I love this:

I am not in active job search mode, but will likely join a startup one day. Still, I have not updated my resume for the past 2 years or so. Why should I? My life is (now) an open book: my blog reveals a lot about my thinking, knowledge (or lack of), and for more facts it points to my LinkedIn profile. I was recently approached by a stealth startup… great, I thought, they must have found me through my blog, that’s a good start. But then they asked me to submit a resume, and I lost interest. If the blog is not enough common grounds for a conversation, then I don’t trust this Founder is hiring the right people, so why would I be interested?

In January, Doug Welch also wrote “Make Your Resume a Blog“. Some highlights:

First, a resume blog allows all your stories to be slurped up by any number of search engines including Google, Yahoo and more. This increases the chance that someone might randomly stumble across you when they are looking for just the right person. Sure, an online version of your paper resume might do in a pinch, but you can do better.

Instead of having only one small description of each past job, I encourage you to post to your resume blog as often as necessary. Minimally, this would include a wrap-up after any major projects or accomplishments. Again, all this information becomes searchable and it helps to lock the stories into your mind so you can easily recall them during interviews or casual meetings with potential employers.

Now, go even further. Document any training you receive and your impressions of how it will be useful to your future work. Describe the hardware and software tools you use and why. The general rule is to include anything that would give a potential employer deeper insight into you and your work. The goal in all of this, beyond finding the best job possible, is to use the easy-to-use features of a blog to capture and share as much information about your work and skills as possible. The more information that is available, the better your chances of getting an interview and a job.

Great stuff. I’ll add more as it comes.

Update: Another day, another few good bits thrown into the ring (not bad for a Saturday).

First of all, on the original post there was some good discussion between Recruiting Animal and justelise.

Anne Zelenka at Web Worker Daily linked to her previous post called “Why You May Need an Online Persona.”

Employers are realizing that what people do online can actually prove their value as potential hires, not just rule them out based on drunken photos or revelations of other past missteps.

Tom Printy offers:

Maybe [blog] is not resume, but perhaps more of an elevator pitch.

I tend to disagree slightly. The About page is your elevator pitch. The blog is the conversations that occur thereafter. I can’t call a blog an elevator pitch because there can just be sooooo much on it. I like to sift through a candidate’s blog, check out the posts over time. This is not an elevator pitch. This is full-fledged research. Your About page, however, is your pitch.

On “Social Media and Your CV“, Jason Ryan offers something not brought up yet:

Senior managers could also regard a potential employee’s blog as a risk to manage, rather than an example of their initiative. They may be worried that the blogger will (inadvertently) drop their organization in it, or that the blog is a time sink that will divert their attention from what they are hired to do.

These, particularly the latter, are valid concerns.

My snotty answer to arguments like this is usually “that’s not someplace I’d want to work,” but it is something others may want to consider.

Update: It’s Monday morning. Let’s update a little.

Shaine Mata worries that now that he is blogging, that may limit his ability to land jobs in the future.

Of course, there is always the possibility of what Darowski writes, which is that blogging will be an enhancement to my resume. If this is the case, I look forward to the doors that will open for me. In the meantime, I will be working on a backup plan in case I can’t land a job due to blogging.

Transparency is refreshing, Shaine. Glad you made the leap.

Joe Sem gives five reasons why he does blog. I’m a fan of #2 in particular:

Blogging is the new C.V. – Adam Darowskie sees ‘the blog as being the new resume’ and I have to agree. It provides a great way of letting your clients and prospects know who you are. Apart from showcasing your business, it also demonstrates a real passion for what you do.

Others include archiving ideas and meeting new friends. These are big. I’ve certainly picked up a few friends from blogging. And this blog was really started as a way for me to store ideas and links.

Update: Even more great stuff still coming.

Justin at Green Goloshes wrote an absolutely fantastic post. Justin… I hope you don’t mind if I take a few tidbits. All, I highly recommend you read the entire post.

Blogging can also be a way to practice selling yourself. When you get a chance to talk to a potential employer, or someone who might know one (see below), talking effectively about yourself and your work is crucial. If you’ve been writing about what you do for any period of time, those conversations will flow much easier.

This is so true. Practice makes perfect. Help refine your sales pitch.

Perhaps the analogy would work better if we thought about blogging as a resume and cover letter rolled into one. Your blog is a way to provide employers with a view of you that is more personal than can be fit into a resume (or even a cover letter). Many organizations don’t even ask for a cover letter – especially those that go through a lot of resumes during their recruiting process. This means that there is no more personal (or even professional) information on you out there. A blog is a relatively easy way to put such information out there in a controlled manner.

You’re right. Kill my meme now. Start a new blog as cover letter meme. Seriously, though… you’re totally right. The blog is more your personal sales package than it is your paper resume.

I was going to post more tidbits from Justin, but seriously… just go read it there. Great stuff.

John Lampard makes this great point:

It would be unfortunate though were employers to make recruiting decisions based to any great degree on they read, and possibly didn’t like, in someone’s blog.

It has to be remembered blogs, particularly of those of a personal nature, as verbose and detailed as they may be, still do not paint the full picture of the writer.

People have ups and downs in life, blog accounts are not always complete, and will be presented with varying degrees of candour and colour. Not all stories will have “follow ups”, or posts detailing the resolution of problems someone may have articulated at an earlier time.

The problem is… even if it is not fair, employers are going to do it. And you have to be prepared for that and have a “strategy” about what you are putting out there.

Daniela Barbosa writes this:

The funny thing is that right before i noticed the meme, i updated my Resume/CV to incorporate social media elements into the standard ‘acceptable paper’ format. Although many hiring managers and recruiters know enough to ‘google‘ someone or find their blog, i figured it would be better to add those elements to a Resume/CV saving them a couple clicks.

Take a look at her post to see the example. I think this is really helpful in a couple respects:

1. If you have a common name, you are weeding out the would-be Google results that are NOT you.
2. You can offer enough social media sites that you wholeheartedly “approve”, maybe they’ll skip the MySpace page where you are a little more informal.

Good stuff.

Update: Been a long while since I updated this, so here goes…

Sean writes a bit about using the blog to manage which links to information about you are recommended:

So while there is nothing really too embarrassing or employment blocking on something like my Myspace page, it is not something that i am going to actively promote (say in the blogroll) or would want a potential employer to see as a first impression. So I sort of try and promote which face I want to put forward and to actively manage it.

Matt Grant @ The Talent Blog has an excellent post that touches on information overload.

Reading through these various posts and round-ups I was struck not so much by the sound advice or the reasonable differences of opinions on display (“blogs are resumes,” “blogs are NOT resumes,” “your vanity Google search is your new business card,” etc.) but by something that Immanuel Kant referred to as the “mathematical sublime.” For Kant, the mathematical sublime, in contrast to the “dynamic sublime,” which we encounter in natural wonders such as Niagara Falls, consisted in reason being overwhelmed by unfathomable quantity.

Mark had an awesome post as well. I hope he doesn’t mind, but I’m going to post his two main points in their entirety. Great stuff, I recommend visiting his post:

1) You can be evaluated on not only the nature of your content, but the skill in which you serve it up – appearance, technical prowess.

2) Even general posts about our daily life activities communicate to the audience subtly what skills we may have.

Are we pegged as a loaner, or a well networked, “team player”? Do we undertake and chronical complex projects? Are we seen as ambitious? Are we seen ask a risk taker? How about our outlook – is it positive, or are we overly critical? What proficiency in unique trades or arts do we demonstrate? Are we an analytical thinker? Do we demonstrate purpose?

Our friend Recruiting Animal, who provided some great alternative views on the original post, chimed in with his two key points as well:

1. Career blogs are beyond the realm of most people in terms of time alone.

2. I do however strongly support the creation of online profiles.

And lastly, I think this will be my last update to this thread as it is calming down. But I wanted to add that I ate my own dog food—my blog was my resume, and I am now with BatchBlue. It was an interesting job hunt—one that relied quite a bit on my blog. In fact, the Pamela (President of BatchBlue) blogged:

As the person who read Adam’s blog as a part of his resume, I’d like to add that yes, yes and yes, a person’s blog is an incredibly powerful addition to the resume. My job as a small business owner is to find the person with the right skills, the right attitude, the right personality, the right temperament and the right passion to work with all of the other personalities and temperaments in my company. Not easy when all I have to go on is a one page resume. While Adam’s cover letter and resume provided a telling introduction, his blog was the real page turner. I learned he thinks beyond the immediate problem, he self motivates, he aggressively educates himself, he aggressively educates those around him and he’s a Red Sox fan. I would have discovered some of this eventually from the interview, the references and various other communications. But in the blog, it all became part of the first impression, helping him stand out from the crowd early on.

And with that, I shall lay the Blog is the New Resume to rest. This generated some incredible discussion—it was very interesting to see so many perspectives. Thanks to all!

I’ve been in the position to hire folks a few times. Let me tell you—the process sucks. It sucks for the person looking for the job and it sucks for the person trying to fill the specific need. If only there was a better way to screen applicants. Phone screens help serve as an initial filter, but they still take time and effort to conduct and coordinate. Wouldn’t it be nice to have more than a vague bulleted list of accomplishments before actually picking up the phone to call the person?

There is. There’s blogging.

Blogging is the perfect way for a candidate to give an employer a more detailed sales pitch—to show they can “talk the talk” (as opposed to just fill a resume with buzzwords). I can’t think of a reason for any serious tech professional to not have a blog. Not only does it serve as an excellent notebook for storing ideas and links, but it can come in handy in a job hunt where what interviewers really want to just know what, professionally (and somewhat personally), engages you on a day to day basis. How often do you look at a resume and wonder what exactly the person’s role on a project was? Well, if the person blogged about it then you would have a better idea—and you would know if the role would fit in with your team.

This isn’t just about employees seeking jobs. My team recently bid for some web work. I found out which person at the other company was in a similar role as myself. I looked the person up and found that person’s blog. I read it. I found out what makes that person tick. I made sure to mold my presentation around what I knew was important in a subcontractor to that person.

This isn’t just about individuals having blogs, either. I feel the CogBlog can help attract talent to Aptima. If they can get a better look at the types of issues and ideas folks at Aptima are discussing, they can have a better idea of what type of work they may be doing on a day to day basis. Sometimes it can be hard to get that type of information in an interview. Heck, by leaving comments a candidate can gauge a company’s responses and see if their input is valued.

It seems a lot of tech folks just don’t care enough to blog. What is going to happen soon is that those people will not be able to land the really sweet gigs. Companies will be impressed by blogging candidates, knowing that they take their work seriously enough to document it and share it. Those who don’t blog will have to settle for the lackluster jobs. Maybe this isn’t a bad thing, since the sweet gigs often require a “way of life” attitude towards the work.

The resume just gives you that vague bulleted list. The blog? Well, here I’ve got detailed posts about specific project tasks, detailed posts about my thoughts on industry trends, documented experiences, photos and mockups, case studies, links to Technorati and LinkedIn profiles, a list of must-read blogs, my public bookmarks, links to what others are saying about me, home movies, etc., etc., etc…

Update: Wow, Joshua picked this up and it generated a lot of discussion. I have published a lot of the discussion on a new post.

Update: I ate my own dog food—my blog was my resume, and I am now with BatchBlue. It was an interesting job hunt.

Another Update: I’m no longer with BatchBlue. I’m now with PatientsLikeMe.

First, here is a background provided by Josh:

The most recent controversy happened on September 5th, when someone named jesusphreak posted Digg the Rigged?, an in-depth article exposing some of the curious details of recently-popular stories on digg. Many of the stories, jp pointed out, were dugg by members of the Digg Top 30, or the 30 most popular digg members (popular being measured by number of stories submitted that were promoted to the frontpage). The Top 30 includes Digg founder Kevin Rose.

This was not the first time that someone has pointed out this phenomenon. On April 18 of this year Macgyver at ForeverGeek posted Digg Army, which included screenshots of who dugg two recent articles on the site. Each article had the exact same 16 people digging it in the exact same order. Of the first 19, 18 were the same. Included in that list of people was, again, Kevin Rose. (for an in-depth history see Tony Hung’s excellent: A Brief History of the Digg Controversy)

So, is gaming something I need to worry about with the site I’m developing? I recently posted ideas about a user rating system, and many of the problems that Digg has had could pertain to my system. Of course, there are huge differences between the two sites (not the least of which is that Digg is wildly popular and mine is still in my head).

Josh correctly points out that we should not blame the users of Digg. We should blame the design that allows the users to behave this way. So, how can I make sure I don’t experience the same problems down the road?

Josh lists some of Digg’s “features in question” in his post. Let’s take a look at what I should watch out for.

Rankings list
If you want people to compete, rank them. This is a big part of the reason why there is gaming on Digg. Getting a higher ranking becomes an incentive to game because if you do then others will notice and you’ll get recognition. (that’s important to people, even in social software) In addition, with the recent offer by afformentioned Calacanis to pay people for this type of work, high rankings may also be a source of income.

This one opened my eyes. I wrote the other day about listing top contributors and even allowing them to post a little message (or advertisement) with their name as INCENTIVE to try to move up the charts. However, Digg’s user base is broad. Visitors to my site will be professionals within a specific field. Most users (I assume) will be interested in improving their work, not improving their own popularity.

Porter comments about Jason Calcanis’ offer to pay top Diggers. Could a high standing on my site be a potential source of income for the users? Not in the same way as a move from Digg to Netscape. But, a high standing could result in increased exposure which might lead to job offers, book offers, speaking offers, etc. But is that a bad thing? Probably not, since the benefits are all directly related to the community.

Friends feature
The Digg friends feature is the means by which the top users promote stories so quickly and with such synchronicity…

Right now, I’m not planning a “friends” feature. Of course, I’m not anticipating a user base the size of Digg. For my site, I think the community will be much smaller and much more manageable.

Exposing who diggs what
At the bottom of each digged entry is a list of people who have dugg it, and serves as the evidence that the two articles above used to expose the issue going on at Digg.

In my post, I actually addressed this, saying “And how do you deal with someone getting mad at someone else and giving them minus after minus every time they post? Well, make the rating history for a particular post/comment public. Any sneaky work can be policed by the community. The questionable ratings can be removed.”

Stories at a distance
It is very possible to interact on Digg, digging stories and burying others, without actually reading a story. That’s because Digg only shows summaries of posts. If you want to read a post, you actually have to click on them and go to the external site to do so. Many people will make this extra effort. But many people won’t.

I suppose my users could rate stories without actually reading them, but one thing worth pointing out is that rating them does not help THEM PERSONALLY in away way. But I suppose it could help friends they have within the system. But where this is a professional community, I don’t think too many of the users are going to know each other personally. Tendencies to assign a “+” to a certain users’ posts is bound to happen, but that’s probably going to happen because you like the poster’s work.

Ease of voting
While it takes extra effort to read posts, it takes almost no effort to digg them. This might be backward…digg is essentially making it possible to vote without knowing what you’re voting on. Although the digg feature is amazing, an excellent example of technology that makes our lives easier, it is also in danger of trivializing them.

My current site mockups essentially allow a user to rate a story or comment without reading it. The other day, I was considering an approach where a user was required to give a rating (+, –, or indifferent) with each comment they post. This was a way to really PROMOTE the user rating system. A way to ensure ratings are more relevent might be DISALLOWING rating unless you’re leaving a comment. Then again, this may just be a problem for a larger community. However, it’s something I need to think about.

Josh then talks about how Digg is a much different approach than something like del.icio.us. Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site where users bookmark (similar to “digging” in some ways) a site, but it’s mostly for their own person use. But because it is a social site, users can view what others are bookmarking. So, you can bookmark sites for the purpose of sharing with others (for example, I could share a list of desktop app replacing web apps by sharing my bookmarks with the “webapp” tag).
Josh says:

The voting on Digg is in contrast to a site like Del.icio.us, where voting (saving a bookmark) is done more independently, often without having any idea whether or not someone else even viewed it, let alone voted on it. Del.icio.us isn’t immune to gaming, however, as there is a popular list, and it’s very easy to simply copy those bookmarks into your own, driving up the numbers just like on Digg.

I’m not sure there would be any benefit to hiding article and user ratings on my site. Perhaps I’m naive, but I don’t see much gaming going on with a professional community. However, it can’t hurt for me to start thinking about these things and employing backup plans if things ever start to get a little shady.

All in all, it was a great article by Josh and it made me realize that with a successful web app can come these very serious issues to worry about. When the integrity of the content can be questioned, it can be devastating for a social media site. Now I know a bit of what to look for.