January 2008

Today Linear and I trekked down to Houston to attend “Got Social Media?” Despite an ugly traffic jam that left me literally in park for 20 minutes on 290, I was glad I went. Much thanks to Erica O’Grady for hosting.

Rather than give you a play by play of what you can read on the slides from the workshop, here are some cool people I met:

Giovanni Gallucci: Marketing Guru with Jordan-like Digg/YouTube/Twitter/Flickr skills. Yes, he can crash your site by getting you tons of traffic, but will we soon see his more artistic side?

Ed Schipul: Schooled us on the three motivations of people. Able to pimp your non-profit better than Galpin Auto Sports or Huggy Bear. Intrigued (or somewhat disgusted)? It doesn’t matter–check back later this week for my interview with Ed.

Chris Bernard: My last SxSW interviewee. Contended that there did not have to be blood in Web 3.0 if the community actively polices itself. That’s quite a relief to me, as I am not a fan of Ultimate Fighting or slasher films.

Aaron Belafonte (Aaron M. Baxter): My accountabilibuddy as designated by Kelsey Ruger’s game I will title “Get Off Your Duffs and Network, People”. A CSS obsessed web designer with a talent for drawing on actual paper. Will be present (unlike me) at BarCampTX.

Paul Chaney: Contact from Practical Ecommerce. Blogger/Blogging Consultant/Twitterer and Internet Marketing Director for Bizzuka. Have a safe trip back to Louisiana!

Snax, will see you at Nuclear Tacos!

I also met some other SxSW panel speakers, who will hopefully make their Geek Austin debut soon.

As a Senior Software Engineer, you will be part of the dynamic, talented and highly motivated team that developed the most powerful Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) in the world. The TippingPoint IPS is based on high-speed ASIC/FPGA technology and state-of-the-art network processors. It eradicates network attacks and eliminates bandwidth hijacking at speeds up to 5 Gbps with latency measured in microseconds.

Minimum Qualifications

7+ years experience in software development * Experience developing embedded systems on an RTOS * Expert in C * Ability to debug at assembly level * Firm understanding of TCP/IP protocol * Excellent analytical, design and performance optimization skills * Experience with all aspects of the product lifecycle, from initial design through implementation and production * Excellent verbal and written communication skills * Preference for a fast-paced, high-performance work environment

Preferred Skills and Experience

VxWorks * Experience on x86 and/or MIPS architectures * Experience with network processors * Network security programming * Knowledgeable in C++

Education

BSCS, BSEE or equivalent experience

Check out Tipping Point's Job Page

Pluck is leading the way in the Web 2.0 space, delivering software-as-a-service community and social media solutions to enable web audiences to participate in the news and with our customers’ websites. The Engagement Manager position is responsible for the day-to-day interaction with customers ranging from the media outlets like Washington Post and Better Homes & Gardens, to retailers like Circuit City, assisting them with implementation of our Social Media and Social Networking solutions.

Responsibilities:

• Working with customers and project resources in scoping and estimating, including authoring Statements of Work

• Customer deployment Project Management activities including:

o Cultivating good professional working relationship with customer project stakeholders

o Planning and executing on-site Project Kick-offs

o Functional requirements gathering

o Product Best Practices consulting

o Managing project timelines and key deliverables around project milestones

o Customer transition to support/operations teams

o Software configuration

o Resolving configuration defects during the implementation engagement

o Assisting customer with test plans, training plans, and deployment/launch plans

o Assisting with debugging and diagnosing customer issues

o Conducting End-user training and Train-the-trainer training

• Inventing and defining critical business tools and processes to enable the success of Pluck's service offerings

• Approximately 20% travel to customer sites

An Engagement Manager also has deep knowledge of Pluck's product offerings and can clearly communicate the products' capabilities and best practices to customers.

Knowledge/Skills:

• 5+ years work experience in the technology sector, specifically with Internet and Web-based technologies

• 1+ years project management experience

• 3+ years relevant customer-facing consulting work

• Proficiency in Microsoft productivity tools (Word, Power Point, Excel, Outlook)

• Proficiency with Microsoft Project

• Working business knowledge of HTML, XML, CSS, Javascript

• The ideal candidate would also have the following experience

o 3+ years work experience in the Business-to-Business Software-as-a-Service/ASP business model

o 2+ years working in the Publishing, Media or Advertising industries

o 2+ years experience in on-line community management

o 2+ years in readership attraction, search engine optimization, and community development

o Technical experience in and knowledge of HTML, XML, CSS, Javascript, and Java or C#

• BS in Computer Science or information technology

Qualified candidates should submit resumes to careersinengineering@pluck.com to have resume reviewed directly by a hiring manager.

The SxSW Interactive Festival is full of interesting speakers from throughout the technology spectrum. SxSW fans like you can choose who you want to hear from using a Panel Picker. Fortunately for me, I was able to speak to the man behind the picker himself, Lindsey Simon.

MICHELLE:
So I hear you work for some company called Google. How is that going for you?