Professional Geekery

Promoting Professional Geekery #31 – Revive And Repurpose

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When doing research for my books, I’ve found the internet is a kind of necropolis of dead and inactive sites.  Sure they’re out there, they’re visible, but nothing is happening, updates haven’t been made in years, no one is paying attention.  They’re frozen, mummified, and mounted on the sides of servers for us to see as we pass by.

You’re probably nodding – many people have “dead sites” that are visible, just with no signs of life.

There’s also plenty of other dead things in our geeky and professional lives; the con that faded away, the column that’s no longer updated, the career book that has no sequel.  In the age of print-on-demand, instant-blogging, and ez-post technology it’s surprising how much is just dead.

You’d think that great career blog would be easy to restart, or you could suggest to that author that maybe that sequel to that job guide come out . . .

Yes, I’m challenging you to look at dead sites, books, columns, cons, etc. that were really great for progeeks.  Ressurect them.  Be a geek necromancer*

(Or if, say it’s a con, resurrect it WITH some more professional tracks.)

If your mind isn’t already reeling back to that awesome blog that you realized hadn’t been updated in 4 years, or that con you miss, you’re not trying hard enough.  Go have some coffee and get back to me.

So, why resurrect a geeky career site or publication or event?  Think of it this way:

  • Name recognition.  If you get it back and running, you get all the old name recognition, which instantly helps promote your efforts.
  • Attention.  When a band gets back together or a game gets re-released it’s free publicity.  You could get this on a smaller scale – or with a little smart PR work, make it as big as anything.
  • Past work.  That dead site you’re resurrecting, that book whose author you’re bugging, all have plenty of material already there.  You get to build on that (which calls attention to it and saves effort).
  • Learning.  You’ll learn a lot digging into the past of a website or publication.  Some of it may be depressing, but it’s still educational.
  • Staff and allies.  Bringing an old con or book series back to life for progeeks is also going to give you allies new and old.  You might be surprised what you can do – and who will help.
  • Re-focus.  Maybe a con or publication had some good career stuff – the “revived” version can do even more.

Sure I’m all for new stuff.  But if you’re looking to give your fellow professional geeks a hand career-wise, maybe the old stuff is where you look first.  There’s plenty of advantages to be had.

– Steven Savage

 

* That would also be a good name for a band.

Promoting Professional Geekery #30 – Tell Authors and Creators

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When is the last time you told an author how much their book helped you in their career?  Or an instructional video creator how much they changed your life?

Probably not as often as you’d like.  Actually *I* could be better at it, truth be told, but at least I feel guilty about it when I don’t do it.

If you want people to appreciate and see the value of the Fan-To-Pro lifestyle and career, you need to tell people who helped you out.  That includes authors of the career guides, instructional videos, and other information products that are helping you build your dream job and life.

Almost every author out there has a blog/book web page/something out there.  It’s not hard to find them – in fact it may be hard to avoid them as authors want to be found.  They’re not writing the Necronomicon, they’re writing and selling books and they want to be located.

So go out there and find the author whose book or video changed your career point of view or opened your eyes and let them know how good their creation was – and let them know you’re a professional geek.

Why do they need to hear this?  Well first of all, trust me, any author wants good feedback, we can be kind of insecure.  Also, it helps us become better authors by finding what you liked and didn’t.

But for we progeeks?  We need to let authors know they help us, because they need to know about us and our demographic.

Unless said author is writing a book specifically targeting progeeks, they’re not going to necessarily think about us very much.  They may not even know we exist.  Their world may not include anime-fanartists turned UI designers or ambitious writers turned to tech communication.

When you let them know how great their books or classes or whatever was, you let them know about you.  You let them know about people like you.  They get a sudden jolt that gives them a bit bigger picture of reality.

That means they can better get their books, videos, or whatever out of people like you.  That may mean supplemental material that helps out your fellow progeeks.  That means they may make new and interesting creations targeting people like you  They may blog about their thoughts on people like us.  Making them aware helps them work with people like us – and helps them more.

You help them become aware, do more, and reach more, just by saying “I consider myself a professional geek, and you helped me reach this dream.”

Who knows you might make a new friend or find some new options yourself.

So when an author makes a difference in your career, reach out to them.

– Steven Savage

Why We’re In The World Of Eternal Nerdstocks

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So Wednesday we had the big Apple announcements.   New iPad!  Apple TV!  More Siri!  We learn what Voldemort’s plan is!

. . . er, wait a second.  Yeah, sorry, the last sentence was wrong.  See it only felt like some giant release of a big novel.

I’ve noticed lately that big technical announcements, especially ones relating to Apple, consumer electronics, and of course games, are huge events?  Have you noticed the social bonding as people wait for products and specs, then share them?  Have you fanned over gizmos and games and stats?

Well, if you’re reading this you probably have.  For all I know now you’re wishing Mass Effect 3 came on the new iPad so you could play it using Siri.  For all I know someone is doing it.

Technical announcements and events have become just like big book events and big movie events.  They’re big productions, important, everyone is there, and we line up around the block to get our stuff (even if it’s only a virtual block).  We bond over it, it provides *meaning* to us.  It provides social bonding and connection.

Nerdstock is every few months.

I can’t overstate the importance of this – we are now bonding over technology and tools.  Sure some of the technology is fun technology, but even then there’s a technical aspect to it (“What machine are you running ‘Mass Age 3: Effect of Dragons’ on?”*)  Our social interactions now have a strong component of “what tool is coming out next?”

Our social bonding has thus taken on a strangely practical quality in the geekosphere.  We’re analyzing what we can do and what we can achieve and what we can play on some new device.  Tegra chips and hi-res screens are things we talk about over dinner.  We walk the Apple store with our friends appreciating the lovely gadgets.  We make jokes about the Adobe building**, in contrast to their software.

It’s not just geeks either.  Google TV has my parents talking about the virtues of browsers-on televisions.  Tablets are discussed by education professionals.  Everyone has some kind of smart phone that does many things including let you direct unhinged avians at angry bacon sources.

We’re bonding over technology as sure as we would of a film or a book.  It’s getting even more prominent.

I actually think this is a good thing – as in many ways it’s practical and educational.  People learn.  People use the technology.  People do stuff (even, again, if it’s winged creatures versus walking pork).  It’s a celebration of stuff we do stuff with.

This may also be part of what I noticed is an increasingly progeny streak in younger people (which, as I head to 44, I should clarify means anyone under 27 to me).  They’re used to celebrating tech and using it, used to the amazing things coming out.  Also, they’re probably thinking more of the future since some of us kinda screwed it up for us.

I only see more Nerdstocks in the future.  I see people discussing where they were when SiriBot 6000 came out.  I expect to see people discussing how they fell in love at a Microsoft Event openly.

. . . I’m kind of all for this.

– Steven Savage

* Dragons in space and sexytime with alien elves.  Tell me you wouldn’t play it.

** Really, that thing is ugly.