technology

Fandom, Software, Technology

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You're probably amazingly literate in computer software and the internet.

To some of you reading this, you wonder if I've had my morning Red Bull because you've done a lot of boneheaded things on the computer.  You accidentally erased files, you just had your far more tech-savvy neighbor redo your security settings after the virus incident.  You don't feel too competent, and you STILL don't know where your vacation photos went.

But you're a fan.  You're obviously wired enough to be on-line to read this.  I'm betting you've got a lot more software knowledge than you've realized.  You may geek out more over bishounen than technology, but if you're your average online fan, you have a lot more knowledge than you may realize.

This of course means a few things:
1) you may want to reassess your resume because you have a lot more technical ability than you realized.
2) You may want to rethink some career options as perhaps you like the technology you work with, you just aren't sure you're too good at it – but if you like it, training can make up for ignorance.
3) You may want to reassess what you're doing in your current career as you may be able to do more than you thought, or may be able to improve your skills more quickly than you thought.

So ask yourself just what you know?
* DId your fanfic writing help you get to know a Word Processor?
* Did doing the budget for a convention make you better at Spreadsheets?
* Were you able to use visio to chart out how to get that cosplay done?
* You were editing a fan-wiki,learning all the markups and ins and outs.

You probably know more than you think, software-wise thanks to your fandom.

Keep that in mind.  Maybe give your resume or your career a once-over and ask what you know that you've missed.  Also ask how you can improve it.

– Steven Savage

Convention Idea – Engage your technology

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The roundup of ideas for providing more career/professional elements at conventions is here.

Most of my "convention suggestions" for professional events have focused on, well, the actual conventions themselves.  So as I brainstorm other ideas, something else has come to mind.

Making job and professional elements part of the convention website and forums.  People are going to be going to the website for information and to network on the convention – so add a professional subsectrion if it fits.

Some ideas:
* Add a career section to your forums.  People can discuss jobs, what they'd like to see, etc.  Have people who regularly speak at the con on careers (or organize those events) moderate it.
* Consider a "going pro" section of the website to have pro-attendees network, see events, etc.
* See what kind of job-oriented newsfeeds, job feeds, etc. may be available for the "pro" part of the site or forums.
* Form a mailing list for career-oriented convention information.

There's plenty of other possibilities I doubtlessly haven't come up with.  But if you're going to add serious pro elements to your convention, why not go further with the website?  It'll keep interest, attention, and help promote your ambitious ideas so people get involved.

– Steven Savage

Content Machines

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As I've been contemplating the Everything Wars and content delivery, something struck me about game machines – Wii, X-Box, even DS or PSP.

It seems fairly obvious that the game machines are changing to multi-media machines, as we've mentioned before – Netflix on X-box, e-books on DS, etc.  Yet it's still easy to talk about the future of game consoles, handheld games, etc.

I'm starting to think that's the wrong idea.

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