DeMint Fails to Lead Charge Towards "Private Accounts"

Members of Americans United for Change, joined forces to face off and win against Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina in what was an attempt by key Republicans in Congress to pass a bill that would privatize social security.



Senator DeMint has tried and failed to pass this very amendment for the third year in a row. DeMint's move comes closely after a statement made by John McCain stating that he would revive a previously rejected privatization proposal made by President Bush 2005.

Looking to the Future

Is it really that time again? The year is drawing to a close and this'll probably be the last post I do for another week or so. I actually love doing this kind of stuff. It's a great way to channel your thoughts and why not eh?

So what's coming up in the future? We should definitely look to Google Open Social to see what happens there. Recommended reading? If you're into this stuff, there's Mashable if you want a brief general overview or if you want something a little bit more opinionated I recommended 3by9.

What's going to happen now? Who freaking knows? You can never fully predict the future. And even if you did somehow predict that future, the time you spent predicting it probably prevented you from taking advantage of that future, jinxing yourself out of opportunity. Have a great winter break.

New Media Videos Check it Out

Useful and entertaining.
http://www.geekentertainment.tv/2007/11/17/newteevee-live-old-media-and-new-talent/
http://www.geekentertainment.tv/2007/11/17/newteevee-live-pleats-and-a-long-tail/
http://www.geekentertainment.tv/2006/03/22/sxsw2006-now-that-its-1997/

People Want to Create UGC

Websites like Wikipedia and Yelp don't create content for themselves. People take the time out of their workday/life to post reviews/articles without receiving any pay.

So why do it? People are passionate about the subject that they write about. That is for sure, there were a couple of articles I read about this way back and the author came to the conclusion that bloggers/reviewers did it because they were intrinsically motivated.

Intrinsic motivation literally means that you are doing something for the "right" reason. Of course it is more complicated then that but if you think about it, a person who is writing not for a paycheck but for himself will be able to write more freely.

There's a saying in writing that you should write for yourself. Go into an endeavor trying to predict what your audience wants and the quality of the piece goes down.

Blogs Are the New First Impression

Joshua Porter, wrote a stimulating post on his blog about blogs being the new Resume. I completely agree with his post. And I do think that people in the tech industry would be foolish not to start their own blog. Let's face it, employers will probably try to Google your name so you might as well have something to show for it.

A well developed blog can encapsulate the personality of a person. Integrated Flickr photos, delicious links and Last.fm tracks can show a lot about a person. In my case I have a creative banner plus an informative/unique about page that will give the potential employer an impression of what I'm like.

Writing styles can be picked apart and analyzed, delicious link can be compare and people can be pretty judgmental when it comes to music. So yes in a way your blog can serve as a comprehensive first impression to a person who's never met you.

The YouTube Effect: Creating the Means

One of the cool things about making website is that once you actually create a super awesome mechanism, the creators of that website loose the ability to make major change.

Website creators need to create websites that almost anyone can find useful. And as much as the creators would want to influence the tastes of the users, chances are that they won't. I mean who listens to the Amazon.com editor recommendations anyway?

The YouTube Effect refers to the idea that anyone in the world can create a video about a politician/political issue and get a potential audience thanks to the power of the web. Now chances are that you or I will never have anything funny enough nor important enough to make it past the 500 page view mark but YouTube is there waiting.

P.S. the article that speaks of the "Next Cultural Revolution". Wasn't original Cultural Revolution the one where children under the direction of Mao beat and tortured their teachers. Sickening. I hope the Internet doesn't do something similar...

Skill vs. Mojo: How Technology is Making the Job Market More Competitive

There are a number of articles on the Six Degrees website that talk about the future of online networking and whatnot. Some of the articles are cautious and question the value in online networking when applying to a job.

When wizard Draco Malfoy was set to take his job examination, he said this: "It's not what you know, it's who you know." Surprisingly he is not far from the truth, or rather that technology not magic is making it easier for employers to asses and judge potential employees.

Picture this, you apply for a position for a new company, it can even be an internet based company. Fine, you send in your resume, link to your blog and friend him on facebook.

What do employers do with that information? They judge you. If on your blog you complain about life or use bad grammar, your employer might think "man this guy is going to be a real downer and he uses bad grammar." But is it wise for an employer to base such decision off of "fun" rather than skill?

My answer is that: they can now. In the olden days, people weren't as smart, for gods sake look how fast I can order shoes online. So you have a ton of educated people ready to pounce the job market and then you have the Internet.

In the olden days if you wanted a PHP/Assembler developer you would use the people you could get a hold of in the area and the person you found was probably the person you use, because Assembler is a hard language to learn and the chances of someone knowing both PHP and Assembler were pretty rare.

In today's world a potential employer can, look someone up on facebook then pick and choose between multiple candidates. He will send out interview requests to the person he likes the most. Because there are multiple people with the same skill level Technology makes the job market more competitive, it really then becomes who you know and also if that person likes you.

Maybe Draco Malfoy was right?

Update: Whoops this is a good article that adds to my post.