Think you’re such a social media expert that you could tweet for a living? Well, President Obama is looking for an official social networks manager, and you might be just the tech whiz for the job.
According to President Obama’s website, The Democratic National Committee and Organizing for America is in the market for a new hire. According to the Wall Street Journal, Mia Cambronero, who currently holds the position, said, “[I] will be stepping down from my infamous role as ‘Barack Obama’s twitterer… We’re looking for someone who is available to start immediately.”
And what exactly are they looking for over at the White House? According to the job posting:
“The Social Networks Manager is responsible for maintaining the Democratic Party and Organizing for America accounts on all social networks (such as Facebook(), Twitter() and MySpace() accounts, etc.) The Social Networks Manager works closely with the rest of the New Media department to execute grassroots campaigns to advance the President’s agenda for change.”
Said person must also be willing to work hard — “this isn’t a 9-5 job,” the posting said — and be “passionate about engaging millions of Americans in advancing President Obama’s agenda and changing the country.” Yeah, that’s not daunting at all.
Social media has been integral to President Obama’s career since the beginning. He launched his Twitter account back in 2007 (although he only really tweeted for the first time last month to support Haiti relief efforts after admitting back in November that he was too clumsy to use the microblogging tool), and recently used YouTube() to engage with the nation after the State of the Union address.
Although both the Obama and White House Twitter feeds used to read like a stream of press releases, the tweets have become much more lively in the ensuing months. Whoever fills this new position will have to continue to up the ante when it comes to engaging with the American people. Will you apply?
In an interesting turn of events, MySpace CEO (and former COO of Facebook) Owen Van Natta has suddenly stepped down from his position. He will be replaced by two newly created co-Presidents, COO Mike Jones (founder and CEO of Userplane) and Chief Product Officer Jason Hirschhorn (formerly of MTV and Sling fame). Both will report to Jon Miller, Chairman and CEO of Digital Media for News Corp.
But let’s back this up….on Feb. 4rth, TechCrunch reported that, in fact, it was Jason Hirschhorn who was on his way out:
But the real problem may have been a lack of chemistry between Hirschhorn and his fellow executives. CEO Van Natta was supposedly hired by Murdoch directly for the job. Hirschhorn and Jones were hired by Digital chief Jon Miller. Since the whole team was brought in at once, Van Natta didn’t have any say at all in the hiring of his two right hand guys.
Even FT reported on the troubles between the executives, siting apparent disagreements between Van Natta and Mr. Miller over Hirschhorn’s role in the company. It seems Van Natta wanted Hirschhorn out and Miller refused.
Too many cooks in the kitchen? Maybe, but can anyone blame Van Netta if he wanted to leave? MySpace is in deep trouble and the numbers are BIG and speak loudly. News Corp paid $580m for the site way back in 2005, and as it stands now, MySpace will miss traffic targets on its $900m search deal with Google, resulting in $100m less than previously thought.
Ouch. Good luck to Hirschhorn and Jones, they will need it. Many insiders already think MySpace is DOA.
MySpace, R.I.P GigaOM
MySpace chief executive steps down FT
Gossip: Everyone Wants Out Of MySpace Business Insider
Owen Van Natta Out As MySpace CEO; Miller’s Memo paidContent
Anoop’s online media team is reaching out to us once more with a few specific questions. Fans and street teamers, let’s help them help Anoop. March is just around the corner.
1. Music Festivals: Are there music festivals near your area that are good fit for Anoop? Provide info here. Please note that they are interested in overseas fests as well as US ones: http://anooptroop.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=campaignboard&action=display&thread=385
2. Do you or someone you know maintain Anoop-related social networking pages (i.e., iLike)? Please come forward here. Anoop’s peeps are interested in potentially helping you update the page with unified branding: http://anooptroop.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=campaignboard&action=display&thread=386
3. Do you know of social networking sites other than Facebook, MySpace or Twitter (such as orkut, Ning, and Multiply) in which Anoop could benefit from establishing a presence? Please post here: http://anooptroop.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=campaignboard&thread=387&page=1
I have run into my first real “stumble along the way” type moment… I have not been to the gym in about a week now. At first it was all due to the fact that I may have overdone it one day by going so often and pushing too hard. Now, it is just because I haven’t gotten back on my routine. There are a couple of reasons for that. I went to see a friend’s band practice on Monday night and was out late, so I slept in the next day, and, we had a hell of a Tuesday at work and I had a few drinks and ended up sleeping in the next day. And, last night, I met up with a fellow DJ and my “brother from another mother” DJ OZ at Silk Stockings, another gentlemen’s club, and got some music from him and hung out for a bit, slept in today. I really need to get back on track. I have slipped a couple times with the type of food and drink I have had too, and I haven’t been eating enough either. Skipping meals is not a good thing, for me anyway, because I will end up being hungry late at night, and that is the worst thing to do.
I have, however, not smoked since October 19th, and I am happy to report that I am definitely beginning to feel a difference, though, I don’t think my lung capacity is back to 100%, I don’t know how long that takes. I really need to get back on track, I don’t want to take the chance of falling into old habits, I haven’t yet, but, I don’t want to take that chance! I need to figure out a way that I can manage my time a bit better and still include somewhat of a social life as well. I will be happy when the work week is over and I can get some things done.
I know what I have to do, all I need to do is get my schedule written down and stick to it! Focus, focus, focus! I know I can do it, that’s not the issue at all. My goal, starting tomorrow, is to get back on my pills (vitamins and supplements) and on an every other day gym schedule. I also need to start getting food together in advance so I am eating healthy at work too. Starting tomorrow, I will make sure that I do this for at least 21 days, then, it will become habit and will be a lot easier. It’s not like I don’t enjoy going to the gym, and I certainly don’t mind the healthy food… I just have to do it!
I have to say, not a bad week, all in all. I hope the rest of the week goes as well as the beginning has, at work, I really could use the money! Can’t we all?
Thanks to all of you for your continued love and support.
As always, take care and remember…
The super popular South-Korean web portal “Cyworld” notified their American users that they will shortly discontinue services here. Cyworld is known as one of the worlds first interactive social networks and public profile sites. In 2006 they tried recreate their South Korean success and expand their services overseas to the US, Germany and China.
However, Cyworld could not recreate the hype that they had in South-Korea. From the start the services Cyworld USA provided were lost in translation. Usage based by nation-only stand-alones made it impossible for members to link overseas Cyworld accounts. The lack of members being able to globally network seemed to handicap users who are usually used to sites that will allow anyone to join, such as ike Myspace, Facebook and Friendster.
There is also the debate that Cyworld USA lost membership do to offensive graphics. Many users who were familiar with their South-Korean portal noticed that the avatars available to the US had very noticable differences. Avatars were described as too bulky and having funny facial features. Some even said that they were just uglier than their Korean counterparts. Cyworld avatars and avatar rooms were upgradable with dotoris points, which were available for purchase. Americans were lost on why should they buy avatar skins and upgrades when already existing sites were free of charge.
Cyworld USA’s announcement said they will shut down their USA site on February 19th. They apologized to allow the users who are left to gather any data they may have used to design their Cyworld profiles. They are offering refunds for any unused dotoris points. These are the “acorns” that users purchase to upgrade and design their avatar rooms. However refunds and data backups stop on February 19th 2010.
So if you are a Cyworld US user make sure you get your data back and your acorns refunded!
I honestly dislike myspace these days even though i still choose to keep it and check it regularly. I barely answer to people though and only do so if its someone i actually talked to before. Even when i was addicted to myspace i still didn’t like messages. Its like getting people spam and people know you read and get mad when you don’t reply. Oh well. I still do read th ‘ messages i get and this message caught my eye. I get some flattering comments from time to time and i just don’t pay attention but this message was really nice. So, i thought it deserved some special attention even if i didn’t respond back.
“Let me just be real honest, I know this is completely random and I know you have no clue who I am, but I was looking through profiles and saw yours and I was blown away. Absolutely blown away. You are beautiful. Not just the good looking girl you see occasionally, I am talking like the kind of beauty that you don’t see EVER. You know how a person addicted to drugs knows his drugs, he knows the “good shit” from the “not-so-good shit”? Well I know beauty. Its my drug. And you, are good shit. So I guess what I’m saying is…you are my drug…and I’m addicted. Your beauty is insane. Like I said, I know this is random, but I had to let you know. I figured you probably hear it all the time, but hey, I couldn’t let someone as gorgeous as you get away without me at least telling her first. Anyway, congratulations on being so magnificent.Sorry if it annoyed you. If you want though, you should look at my profile, I worked really hard on it, haha, but there is a lot of information on there, so only go read it if you enjoy reading or you could hate your life. I tend to ramble.
-Sebastain
P.S. After I re-read this, I realized it kind of sounds like spam, but I can assure you I’m not spam. *in pinnochio voice* I’m a real boy! I know its pretty lame that this is what I do when I’m bored, but I have nothing better to do. Lame huh?”
Anyways. Thanks Sebastian for th ‘ beautiful message.
Signs of Hope consists of; Paul on vocals, drummer Mario, Evan and Jon on guitars and bassist Pat.
“Hailing from Southern Connecticut, Signs of Hope is a fast and energetic old school hardcore band with a touch of melody. The band was formed in September of 2003 with the intention of playing straight to the point songs loaded with sing-a-longs, mosh parts, and an overlaying positive message. The band’s demo quickly earned them a reputation as one of Connecticut’s premier acts. The ability to establish themselves as a home state headliner off a six minute demo reflects Signs of Hope’s capability to resonate with fans and win the hearts of the hardcore scene. Now these guys have 2 releases out on Detonate Records and have toured half of the globe!”-Taken from the bands Bio on Detonate Records.
This interview was done via-email with the vocalist Paul.
Tyler: How did Signs of Hope start and what made you decide the bands name?
Paul: 10 years ago when I was 16 years old, me and a friend named Chaz decided we wanted
to start a band. We were picking through band names and Signs Of Hope came into mind, as soon as I said it out loud there was an instant “yes!” reply from Chaz so that was it. There was no particular reason we just wanted a name that the two of us liked and agreed on. That was three years before we cut our demo and Chaz has actually never played in the band.
T: Can you tell us a little bit of history about the band?
P: Sure, I started writing songs in year 2000 and finally pieced together a lineup to record our demo in 2003. We started playing shows, started touring, changed some members, toured some more, wrote a new record, changed some members, did some more touring, then even more touring, then we finished another record and changed more lineups and kept on touring. We have actually never toured twice with the same lineup. Not that I like it that way but that’s how it is. It’s too hard to keep the same five people dedicated to touring in a band where they make no money and they can’t always get time off from their jobs neither.
T: Signs of Hope has toured all over covering, Belgium, Costa Rica,England, France, Germany, Sweden and so much more. Why haven’t you guys been to Canada yet?
P: We have! I just forgot to update the list! [Laughs] I got it up there now. We did a couple of weeks in November and December. We almost made it all the way out to Newfoundland but the ferries were canceled because of the weather. So we got to do a few shows in Ontario, a few in Quebec, and a couple in Nova Scotia. We missed two in NFL, one in PEI and one in NB cause we just went home when the ferry was canceled opposed to hanging around with five days off to play two more shows.
T: How does the touring experience differ from place to place?
P: It all depends on what you have to work with. When we play the US and Canada we take my van. When we played Tijuana Mexico we walked across the border with our equipment and walked all the way to the venue. When we toured in Central America we flew in to Costa Rica and worked our way all the way up to Guatemala by taking public transportation from city to city. Sometimes we would just be sitting at bus terminals for hours in third world countries with all of our equipment, looking really out of place, and we would have no clue if the show promoters were even coming to pick us up and bring us to the places where we were supposed to play. There’s always other methods of touring though [laughs]. We got some good experiences though!
T: With all that touring, how do you guys keep busy traveling?
P: I do all the driving [laughs] so I’m never bored, when we used buses and I didn’t have the option to drive I just slept on the bus. When we get to cities early we just look for places to screw around at and kill some time, or places of interest. other times we have things we need to accomplish like if someone needs to go to the doctor, or if someone needs to find somewhere to use the internet because of something important they have to do online.
T: What’s the craziest thing to happen to you guys yet?
[Laughs, pauses thinking] uhhh… I don’t know, there’s a lot of crazy things we’ve done but the craziest to happen to us? Alright a drunk bum in Costa Rica tried to bum change from me and I turned it around and got him to give me his change, then he pulled a knife on my band members and chased them while I was yelling “stab them!, stab them!” they were so fucking scared! I knew he wasn’t going to stab them because I was outside bullshitting with him for 20 minutes before they came outside and got “attacked” so I had a pretty good read on him [laughs]!
T: On your site it says you guys have been featured on “100,000 compilations”. How does it feel to know your music is well received?
P: Well I can’t guarantee that all 100,000 copies made it to listeners and that every single one of them liked our song on there. But I do feel that our music is well received when kids are singing along in places we have never played before and it is a great feeling. But yeah, the compilations are just a form of promotion that we had to pay for and I’m not exactly sure how great of an effect it really had. But it’s cool to be on there because I found a ton of great bands from compilation cd’s when I was younger.
T: The band just released Choices Made how much time was set aside to record and write new material for it, and where was it recorded?
P: We recorded it at Dexter’s Lab in Connecticut. The studio is nearby so we just took our time in small sessions over the course of a couple of months rather then having 1 time slot for a few days straight. As for the writing, I never set aside writing time so most of the material was just accumulated in my head over the course of years and finally brought to life.
T: Can you tell us about the feel of the album, how it differs from
previous releases?
P: Its a little heavier and a little more melodic then our first record. We were a four piece until late 2005 when a fill in guitarist didn’t leave the band after a tour and stayed as a second guitarist. Since we became a five piece the writing changed accordingly so that we made use of both guitars, which is the reason for the slight change in sound from the first album.
T: Do you feel the album portrays the band well, that it’s what the band was aiming for musically?
P: Yes and no, I think we played everything too slow on the recording, at least that’s how it seems when I listen back to it now after being too familiar with how we sound live. I was happy with the pace at the time of the recording though. As for the recording itself… if I can go back in time I would definitely record elsewhere. I was never happy with that recording at all, But it sounds good! I just had better visions for it.
T: That’s all I’ve got anything else or any shout outs?
P: Yeah! Shout outs to my favorite band from your area, Envision. Check them out if you haven’t already. Thanks again for the interview too. Hopefully we can (make it out there soon).
Follow these links to check out SIGNS OF HOPE and XenvisionX!
The super popular South-Korean web portal “Cyworld” notified their American users that they will shortly discontinue services here. Cyworld is known as one of the worlds first interactive social networks and public profile sites. In 2006 they tried recreate their South Korean success and expand their services overseas to the US, Germany and China.