Frank Derfler › Likes

enjoyed the career advice to hang on to teaching or marketing skills even if giving in to today's trendy title. - MaryAnn Chick Whiteside

somebody was trying to get me to apply for a job with the title "webmaster" today! It was with a .wa.gov.au prison department, but we are not really that far behind here. One the other hand web 2.0 social media expert for prisons is not a job I would relish either. - Nick Cowie

Excellent as always Louis, I really like the "What do you really do?" part. We do have to focus on what social media brings to a real business, not just on how exciting it is to constantly refresh Twitter and FriendFeed. - Svetlana Gladkova

I love this post -- felt this way for a while and I'm sure others have too. No doubt you'll get some of the "Social Media Experts" giving you flack for it. "Web browsing expert" LOL! - Shey, Jamaican of FF

I remember webmasters :) If the newer 'social people' could only bury that hatchet with some of the 'old guard', this whole environment would be a better place. - Charlie Anzman

It happended the same with Information Technology in the 80/90s. I guess there is a lifecycle typical of new technology roles: at first they are prominents in applying new technolgies to business. After some times the technical knowledge is not so exclusive anymore, and you start to look for more managerial approaches, roles and resumes. Finally the specific tech wisdom become a commodity. That's ok to me, just beware and avoid to be caught in the lifecycle commodity trap - Marcello Del Bono

agreed, good post - early days of the web - webmaster was a multi-functional jack of all things internet role: root/superuser, sysadmin, netadmin, html dev & graphic oversight all rolled into one - as teams that supported websites matured fragmentation of roles occurred for all the right reasons - webmaster at that point was usually the single point of contact into the property behind the website, especially for reporting web related bugs & for routing of inquiries - normal transitional maturity - mike "glemak" dunn

"I'm afraid that for the most part, their efforts to rebrand as social media experts will be short-lived and futile. Saying one is an expert in utilizing social media sites is akin to brand one's self as a 'Web browsing expert', an 'e-mail expert', or a 'telephone specialist'." That's pretty funny. - Hutch Carpenter

I Agree. Webmasters had been more than "multi-functional jack of all things internet". To most people that did not know too much about filesystems, servers and the like, they were short of magicians (cf. Clarke's Third Law). But is the rise of social media that much about technology? I don't think so. It's more about pushing technology in the background. It's about getting rid of the magicians. So, just being able to set up a blog within a few minutes will very soon lose the magical aura. - Benedikt Koehler

The funny thing is that I - as someone who spends a significant piece of my day managing this stuff for my firm - get forwarded job postings for "Social media manager" or other such titles for $125k +. Clearly people are landing themselves jobs in marketing/PR departments with this title. How long will their jobs last? - sarahlefton

Cool! I'd love to know what social media tools those folks in DC were using today! - Susan Beebe

@Robert Great post. I loved how Congressman Culberson owned the guy from TMZ. That was a classic. It will be really intriguing to see how committed these politicians are to building relationships using the social media tools that they have at their disposal. - Chris Rodgers

Amazing post Robert. What an incredible day you must have had. Curious to hear what Patrick though of it all too. So envious. I've been looking forward to this post all day as I could not follow you live. We are clearly helping shape the future with our efforts on there here socnets. Wait till GW hears that we are talking to people in Iran on Friendfeed. *chills down spine* - Brian Daniel Eisenberg

Thanks for the DC update - Mitchell Tsai

Wow, this is great story with amazing amount of detailed use of social media tools. who would have known?! shock and awe - Susan Beebe

Great article! I love the bit about the Congressman twittering from the Oval Office. - Michael Zitek

I believe in the tech I was arguing in it's favor 8 years ago on the Hill but until it decides in a House or Senate election, I call bullshit. Robert I believe in the earnest and true honestly of belief of your effort. I am not talking ideology or what the people belief you think but until it decides an election they(DC Hill folks) really won't believe. - Thomas Vincent

Thomas: do newspapers or radio decide House or Senate elections? I don't think so. They sure help, though. - Robert Scoble

True Robert, but more so than internet does yet? But we are getting there soon :-) - Thomas Vincent

Thomas: I think for people passionate about politics the Internet is already having way more impact than any other media. For those who aren't passionate, yes, TV is still the #1 way they get their info, but that's changing pretty quickly too. - Robert Scoble

It is changing things, but you also have to ask it changing things across the whole spectrum of those who are involved in politics, i.e. the rich and the poor, the educated and the not? A system in which everyone has access to this that and the other thing is nice, but you also has to ask who all is included in 'everyone', especially in a country in which many people don't have computers or net access. - Andrew Leyden

Think your theme loses out to Lawrence Lessig's idea on changing Washington.http://change-congress.org/pledge... Don't think it matters if a guy is corrupt and pork barreling and Tweet's or doesn't. The system is bad, not the toys they use to navigate it. - Mark Forman

Perfect no Andrew, but those who have an interest can find their way - Thomas Vincent

Mark: Lessig's idea is awesome, but Culberson disagrees with you. He is of the belief that if you shine light on things that the roaches scatter. - Robert Scoble

Robert-on that point certainly holds validity. That's why discussion is better than a monologue because it allows consideration on more than one point.I think that many different idea and discussions are needed to make DC a little bit better,not even good or passable,just a little better. Ironic that that place was a swamp. - Mark Forman

I worked on a "low-budget" Maryland senate campaign for Allan Lichtman in 2006, fresh out of college, and we were dubbed in an article by Business Week as the first campaign to fully embrace myspace/facebook. We had a staff member who's full time job was adding friends, and other profile management type services. Now, campaigns have full-time departments to do just that! amazing. Here's that article: http://www.businessweek.com/technol... - Brian Ries

There is also a huge divide between the politics of the Hill and the politics of a campaign. The two are very very different things and those who work on the Hill usually don't know the first thing about campaign politics and vise versa. Both worlds will find completely different uses for new technologies - Marco(aureliusmaximus)

I wish @BarackObama would post more from the campaign trail. No, I don't expect to be him personally, but yes, I'd expect him to have a guy or gal to post one thing to Twitter each day. - Kirk Kittell

Kirk. I told Obama's tech guy just that at breakfast. - Robert Scoble

Robert: Did you find out if he ever does it himself? I mean, not all the time, but once in a while is it him who updates it? I guess probably not. - Eric Florenzano

Thanks Robert - However, I might have appreciated it more if you had volunteered me ;-) - Kirk Kittell

I believe the word we are searching for here is "transparent"!! I think everyone wishes that government officials were more transparent with their decision making processes as well as things happening on Capital Hill. Kudos to Scoble for shedding some light on a new wave of thinking from inside the hallowed halls of our government!! Even if the wave is too small to ride yet!! - Nathan Finley

Eric: it isn't him most of the time but he says that Obama is the fastest keyboarder on a Blackberry. I told him (and one of McCain's advisers too) to use these tools interactively. We will see! - Robert Scoble

@scobleizer How is tech changing Washington politics? Interesting FriendFeed discussion here. Thanx! - Barbara K. Baker

too bad there isn't a directory of Govt folks to show who's on online using social networking tools like twitter, FF, Qik, etc. - Susan Beebe

Still pains me to think about how tech-illiterate McCain is-- remember his interview on TechCrunch. The tech future's in much better hands with Obama, but that's an argument for a different time and place. - Harish V