Why I’d Make A Good Social Media Club Board Member
July 14, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
—Please Vote For Me, Jonathan Coffman for Social Media Club Board Member by clicking here (voting is open until Thursday —
I’ll try to keep this post short and sweet, but I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and my ideas for the SMC.
If you weren’t already aware, I am a candidate for the final open seat on the founding Board of Directors of the Social Media Club. The SMC is a national non-profit organization that is working toward standarization, simplication, and openness in social media.
Members include people like me who live, work, and breathe social media professionally as well as people who support the ideas of an open and inviting social media landscape. I’ve been a member since about a month after they opened their (online) doors.
As someone who understands and works in and with social media daily for a major media company, and as someone who supports and honestly believes in an open and safe Internet I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to assist this great organization in getting off the ground.
My current employer is PBS, also a non-profit with beliefs above and beyond most American media brands. While I work each and every day to spread and enhance social media adoption and usage across the system I also devote a large amount of my personal time to research and participate in conversations surrounding the best practices and most inclusive ways to foster online community building. Here at my personal website I publish and evangelize my own personal beliefs outside of my professional capacity.
Social media is more than a job for me, it’s a way to look at world. My vision is for a social media landscape that we don’t even have to call social-media. Social media should become as ubitquitous as the Internet itself.
My vision and passion for social-media and online communities is why I’d love to assist and be a part of the Social Media Club. I feel like I can bring a lot to the table for them and help to not only evangelize current and emerging standards, but also serve as a beacon to newcomers in this exciting time.
Please feel free to contact me via any method that’s efficient for you and I will gladly answer any questions or clarify any information.
What Working for PBS Engage Means
June 23, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
As the product manager for PBS Engage, the social media initiative of the Public Broadcasting service, I get to work with magnificent people day in and day out to bring social-media to the masses. It’s a very exciting time to be working in social-media, and especially at such a stellar organization.
My one month-iversary at PBS is this week and here’s a sampling of what I’ve learned:
- Public Broadcasting loves you
- Public Broadcasting is relevant to your life
- Public Broadcasting is inexpensive to the everyday American
- Public Broadcasting wants to hear what you have to say
- Public Broadcasting depends on Viewers Like You for support
- Public Broadcasting hires and retains some of the awesomest people I’ve ever known
- Public Broadcasting has amazing online content that just wants to be found
- And so much more!
Why It’s PayPal’s Fault, Not The Browser
April 27, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
About a week ago there was some buzz floating around about how PayPal may block Safari because it doesn’t have phishing protection built in. This has since been retracted by PayPal:
PayPal: No plans to block Safari
A representative for PayPal on Friday said the ecommerce firm is developing features to block customers from logging into PayPal when using obsolete browsers on outdated or unsupported operating systems, but has no intention of blocking Safari as a company white paper seemed to imply.
“An example of such a browser/OS combination might be, for example, Internet Explorer 4 running on Windows 98,” said spokesperson Michael Oldenburg. “In doing so, we better protect our customers from viewing a phishing site through their browser. We have absolutely no intention of blocking current versions of any browsers, including Apple’s Safari, from our website.”
(Nugget by AppleInsider)
Might I suggest that it’s not the browser’s responsibility to block security threats on particular web sites? Maybe it’s my not-liking of blaming others for your own problems but I believe that PayPal and PayPal only is responsible for their own PayPal.com site. It’s their job to keep their customers safe, not browser developers, or any other type of web application developer.
Sure, I have a little bit of a bias here. I used to be a large (in my mind) PayPal merchant, who ditched all that in favor of better customer service elsewhere. I know I’m not alone in that boat. However, I feel the same way when eBay blames Apple or denies support of the site if you’re using Safari on eBay.
(Wait a second, I may be on to something here, both PayPal and eBay are owned by eBay and both were virtually run into the ground under Meg Whitman).
To close out this ranting post, let me say that I fully support web application developers and browser developers who want to protect their own customers from the dark side of the Internet, but I don’t think the fault and responsibility should lie on their shoulders as opposed to a multi-national corporation who certainly has the tools and resources available to help themselves help the world but chooses not to.
New Research on Premium Branding
April 21, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
This weekend I got the chance to sit down and read some of the huge stack of magazines that I previously hadn’t had time to read. I certainly didn’t make it through all of them, but a couple caught my eye. One of the most recent ones is the April 28th edition of Business Week.
One of the first things I noticed was that they are really trying to be trendy in their page design. They’ve got highlighting, charts and fly-aways, and some interesting section headings (like BTW). Since this is the first time I’ve noticed these things, I guess that tells you how often I read Business Week. It’s no fault of their own, magazines just aren’t as high a priority as working through the 1000+ headlines in my RSS reader in the evening (I often cheat and hit “mark all as read” if in general the headlines aren’t grabbing my attention in any particular folder of feeds).
But back to the post at hand, in this week’s BTW there is a short blurb about premium branding. As in, another researcher just did the old “wine tasting” test again. Where essentially they blindfold people and tell them they’re trying a $5 bottle of wine, and then a $45 bottle of wine… People inevitably choose the $45 bottle as tasting better even though the wine came from the same inexpensive bottle.
It’s a nasty trick for those of us easily influenced by marketing. But it illustrates something larger, since people still respond to premium branding. Shouldn’t you be interested in branding yourself as a top-shelf whatever you are?
I think that in the age of personal, and professional branding that more attention should be paid to finding out what makes a brand premium or not on the web. Is it different than in the brick and mortar world? What makes an online brand premium? I would argue that it’s easier to “fake” a premium brand on the Internet. If by image alone, the raw talent of the magnificent graphic designers and writers out there should be able to pull off a premium distinction.
That’s not to say that consumers on the Internet are more more susceptible to being abused, in fact customer service and having the solid foundation to support a premium brand is harder to fake. People using the Internet for research, entertainment, or learning gain the skills necessary to figure out “fake” premium brands. There is no long-term shortcut. As in the brick and mortar world, your image can get your foot in the door but it’s your content and substance that makes the sale.
A Personal Update
April 19, 2008 by Jonathan · 1 Comment
Today’s post has two different themes, 1) a change in blog format and 2) my job search.
I wanted to start out by saying that I’ve changed the way things work on here a little. After getting several emails, I re-evaluated having my Twitter updates archive to my blog. I’ve decided that there isn’t very much value derived from having those posts reposted here.
This blog and my Tweets fill very different needs and have very different value. I have decided that while having a searchable archive of my Tweets here was nice for me, it really wasn’t providing very much value to you, my valued readers. I’ve disabled the cross-posting of Tweets on this blog until a better solution crops up.
In the meantime, be sure to Follow me on Twitter. About two weeks ago I hit 300 followers on Twitter and am now proud to be followed by nearly 350 people. Thank you so much for your support and I hope that you enjoy the insight and knowledge that I share with the community.
On another personal note, you may have noticed that my blogging has been inconsistent as of late. This is a short-term situation and I hope to resume normal daily posting very soon. As you know, I’ve been actively seeking full-time employment, and looking is nearly a full-time job. Normally I would be writing daily and scheduling posts a day or two ahead of schedule about ideas, thoughts, and conversations happening. However, I don’t want to jeopardize any of the opportunities coming down the pipe.
I’ve already had to make some tough decisions, and there will be no shortage of more difficult decisions for at least the next several weeks. As I make those decisions and finalize plans, I will post some information from the numerous conversations I’ve been having with wonderful people across the country on the future of information and knowledge distribution (formerly known as the news business).
If you haven’t already, I’d like to invite you to subscribe to my blog via email by using the form in the right-side column or by adding my RSS feed to your feed reader.
Jonathan’s Twitter Updates for 2008-04-12
April 12, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
- Yeah yeah, no one likes to talk food on Twitter, but I had some great sushi tonight #
- Good Morning Twitterville, lots of prep work today before I head out of town early tomorrow morning. #
- wow, I made it to RSS Reader Zero just now, granted I now have 30ish tabs in my browser to read #
- @bbum have you been reading the TSA’s official blog? There are some very smart people commenting, not so much on the TSA end though #
- Uploading video into a new YouTube account, my previous one refuses to cooperate, and Google support is no help #
- Darnit, I’ve got a "B" boarding pass for my Southwest Airlines flight tomorrow, never waited this long to checkin before #
- Doing some writing that fell through the cracks, should be done shortly. #
- Deleting videos off my Flip Video camera and finishing up packing for Las Vegas #
- Want to track my flight to NAB tomorrow? http://tinyurl.com/6kquzs #
Jonathan’s Twitter Updates for 2008-04-11
April 11, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
- Working on my calendar for the next couple of weeks. #
- Being CEO/CTO/CFO/Visionary for Contributr is pretty taxing, I’ve got to get this under control. ha! #
- @dsilverman Not a fan of Utterz? #
- Headed to bed early tonight, g’night Twitterville. #
- Good Morning Twitterville, not too terribly busy today but we’ll see what crops up #
- @acafourek It’s that nice out? wow. #
- Ran a few errands this morning, now reading about Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone: http://tinyurl.com/5rz9mf #
- @rdempsey I’m on my way to vote for Ruby support in G. App Engine right now. Thanks for the link. #
- @shawnz Yikes that’s not good at all, we need you in tip-top shape for first-rate Tweets. #
- @misslacey123 I think I might grab a copy and add it to my reading list. #
- I’ve been asked by RJI to get lots of pictures with news execs as I present Contributr to the masses #
- While I’m showing off at RTNDA/NAB next week, Contributr will also be presented at NAA/ASNE #
- Got quite a bit done today, ran lots of errands as I always have to do right before a trip #
links for 2008-04-11
April 11, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
Introducing Google AppEngine
April 7, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
It’s Google’s first foray into application stack support and infrastructure and I for one am very excited to give it a try. I was planning to go to bed early tonight and get an early start to tomorrow but now I feel the need to wait until 9 PST to signup and be one of the first 10,000 to signup for the developer’s beta program.
Do I know Python? Nope, but I’m certainly going to learn it now. Python is very popular among modern web applications and is one of the 4 or 5 primary (and exclusive) languages and Google uses and approves of in-house.
What’s amazing is that when you think of the end-result for Google by releasing an application stack of infrastructure like they are. If every developer in the world has a chance to develop web applications using the same base as Google does, well what can’t Google do?
Frankly one of the neatest aspects I see is this, if you develop on Google AppEngine, and Google likes your idea, they could buy your company or your app from you and launch it immediately. There wouldn’t be any more of this 1-year plus delay from purchase to beta re-launch under Google like JotSpot and GrandCentral who wait patiently to be integrated into the GoogleMachine. Your app already uses their system and works within their constraints, so what’s holding it back?
I’ll update this post with more as I encounter more news and information about the program in the coming hours and days. Stay tuned!
Crossing The Skills Divide
April 3, 2008 by Jonathan · Leave a Comment
There is an almost constant drone of phone calls and emails in my life right now, I’m right in the thick of finding a job for when I become available in May. It hasn’t been an easy road, but I’ve made great strides in my approach, the types of jobs I apply for, and the way I manage my personal brand.
I couldn’t do it if I didn’t have the help of all you out there, my favorite bloggers, my Twitter followers, my family and my friends. I am very thankful for all of the support I’ve gotten so far in my search and am very thankful for the education I have and the life experiences that have prepared me for this experience.
I’ve been using my support network a lot lately. Part of the reason is that I have a very diverse skill set, not only am I good with producing and editing content, but I also hold technology skills that allow me to create things like this blog, Smart Decision, Contributr, and more. But even beyond that, I have an entrepreneurial spirit that lends me new ideas, new inspiration, and new ways of looking at old and new problems.
I feel like this variety of skills that I have is hard to explain and describe in the limited contact I’m given with potential employers. Doing my best to convey those thoughts, ideas, and skills is getting easier as I do it more of course, but it’s a different way of looking at the world that’s for sure!
Typically I think that people possess one side or the other, they’re either very good writers and thinkers, or they’re very good programmers and developers. Both are on an equal standing as far I’m concerned, it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement.
But then, where does that leave me? I’m someone who loves to think of new ideas, concepts, and products but I’m also aware of the technical abilities of current technology tools as well as their weaknesses. Taking that a step further, I also am able to clearly explain, teach, and lead developers to create technology tools that don’t exist yet.
The biggest problem I’m having during interviews these days is making sure that I convey my abilities and varied skill set while emphasizing that I do in fact prefer the idealization, and content side of the world.
Sure I can build web sites, blogs, Facebook applications, and other tools, but I recognize that there are people who can do those things much better than I can. It’s hard for people (including myself) to describe and explain how that works, yes I can DO those things, but no I’m not completely comfortable starting from nothing and building up on the programming and development side.
I feel like I have a good variety of skills and that I exert my leadership and entrepreneurship skills well, but I have to be careful not to pigeonhole myself into over-exerting my technology skills just because I think it’s cool that I can do both.
This post is a sort of stream of consciousness for me as I try to work out these details for myself. Be sure to visit again tomorrow as I look at the type of jobs and employers that I’m most interested in.
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