My new job

Well, I promised to spill the beans as soon as I could and since I’m here in the office today at Extractable, I guess it’s safe to go public.

I’m not sure what my exact title is or will be. It might be senior information architect, or strategist, or content monkey, or whatever, but I’ll be doing what I always do – sorting out user interfaces and making the information design of web sites and software applications more sensible and intuitive for users, and planning and implementing content-management solutions.
The crew at Extractable is very cool. Smart folks, friendly, hard working (although I hear rumors about parties on Fridays), and an impressive client list.
Back to work for me, but more about the new gig when I have time to report back.

Update on my job search

Well, I haven’t entirely succeeded at playing out this whole job search thing in public. First of all, thanks to everyone who linked to my original entry going public with my search, and everyone who’s given me advice or passed my resume along to their contacts.
Not surprisingly, however, I’ve found that it’s been prudent to keep most of my solid leads private as a matter of discretion and respect for the people considering teaming up with me for a sustained effort.
To the extent possible, when I do start a new job, I will try to fill in the gaps on how I got to that point and acknowledge those who helped me; without, again of course, violating any confidences.
I’m breaking silence partly because several people have asked me for an update and partly from a conviction that within a week or so I will be on my new track. I can say that with some confidence because I have a firm offer from a great company that I’d be very happy to join and at the same time I’m in the final stages of talking to another great company about a slightly different opportunity. One way or the other, within a few days, I should know how these things are going to play out.
As a very broad observation, I would say that indeed Web 2.0 is taking off and some of the old excitement (but I hope not the hypermania) of the first go-round has returned to the Bay Area tech world. The job market seems very promising for people with relevants skills and who’ve kept their hand in, and I believe that the time I’ve spent exploring and writing about blogs and wikis and social media and online networking has been time well spent.
I’ll say more about all this when I can.

From blogger to talking head

Political Wire: Blogger Moves To TV:

“That foul-mouthed red-haired vixen known as the Wonkette… has leveraged her popular political gossip site, Wonkette.com, into a gig with MTV News,” the Washington Post reports. “The network will announce today that it has hired Cox, 31, to cover all the incredible tension and excitement that is the Democratic National Convention.”

Wanted: Despamming intern

Because spammers subsist on donkey-anus jerky, cleansing the nightly sputum out of the comment system of my nanopublishing network node (it’s an empire I tell you, a veritable Conblogulated Edison of small-press samizdat and closely observed ephemeral minutia) is starting to take at least half an hour each morning. I could adopt best practices, make posts over x days old autoclose comments. Start requiring TypeKey. Whatever.
Here’s a better idea. I’m looking for an intern to do two things for my blogs over the next six months:

1. despam
2. suggest improvements (ask the readers)

Applicants must demonstrate the ability to get email through my spam filters.

Wanted: PHP Nuke expert

I’ve heard about an interesting work lead for someone who knows how to hack PHP, especially if they are a good communicator. If this sounds like you or if you know someone who fits the bill, drop me a note and I’ll hook that person up with the lead.
At the request of the source, I am deliberately being coy about the details, but suffice it to say that I think it’s an interesting opportunity.