Faces of Econtent

Michael Boor maintains the Wonderware Developer Network (WDN) Technical Support Website, an online knowledge center for Wonderware, a real-time operations management software solution from Invensys, Inc. Boor says, "The WDN has evolved and grown from a community-focused site into a central self-help source for the Wonderware software platform." ??"My role is a combination of technical communicator, content strategist, business system analyst, videographer, usability expert, fixer-of-problems, and rock 'n' roll drummer," Boor says. His primary focus is to provide news, reports, content, design, functionality, and content strategies that support the site. And there's no end point to the project. As Boor says, "By definition, the site is never finished. It must always evolve."

With a job description that most sports fans would salivate over, Dylan MacNamara, senior deputy editor at digital sports media network Bleacher Report, Inc., manages the site's NFL associate editors and the myriad featured columnists who report to them. "I'm also involved with the NBA team, specifically helping during creative sessions and talent recruitment," says MacNamara, who is also helping to build a scouting department for the site.

Stan Garfield considers himself a maven, a salesman, and a connector in his role as leader of the collaboration program for Deloitte Development, LLC's consulting business. "I provide advice and support on communities, enterprise social networking (ESN), and social media, primarily to internal users," Garfield says. This involves training, monitoring, and encouraging users of Deloitte's ESN to "narrate their work, or work out loud," Garfield says, for more efficient communication and knowledge sharing within the organization.

Ernie Smith, social media journalist with TMG, a content marketing firm, focuses on writing and running AssociationsNow.com, the online presence for ASAE's (American Society of Association Executives) Associations Now. Smith says, "I work directly with ASAE staff in shaping the tone and the style of the content, which is largely curated with daily blog posts and a strong focus on visuals. I design my own infographics and illustrations, I help post to social media, I played a key role in designing the look of the newsletter which we publish Monday through Friday-and a key role in writing it, too."

With a title like "Catalyst," Zak Greant of Magnolia International Ltd., the company that develops the Magnolia open source enterprise content management system, has a wide-ranging remit. "I focus on community strategy, community development and contributor development," says Greant. "At its core, community work is about people."

Peter Sunna is a product manager at EPiServer, a provider of web content management (WCM), online social community, and ecommerce platforms. Sunna says, "I work with our content management tool that editors and marketers use each day to manage their different online channels, ranging from their websites and mobile to social."

As a senior experience architect for Siteworx, Inc., an interactive agency with a focus on agile design, web content management, and systems integration, Dara Pressley says, "I put together the structure, or bones, of a website." She's responsible for user research, information architecture, competitor analysis, and interactive designs, and she also works with a team to produce the work.

As a senior sales engineer for CSG International, which provides business support solutions to content producers to help them grow digital entertainment businesses, Ryan Anglin's job requires both technical knowledge and an understanding of the econtent industry as a whole. "My primary responsibilities center around educating current and prospective customers about our direct-to-consumer platform, Content Direct," Anglin says, "so I have to understand how it fits within a customer's current infrastructure."

As a lead front end architect at Kaltura, which provides an open source video platform for more than 150,000 websites, Michael Dale's role boils down to making it easy for people to communicate with video online. "My focus is on platforms that support the HTML5 video standard on desktop and mobile," Dale says. "I work to build a front end video player architecture that scales well to massive amounts of video views and supports rich online video experiences."

As an applications engineer for Bunchball, an industry leader in the field of gamification, Kasey McCurdy develops front-end applications for the Nitro gamification platform. "I started my career primarily as a designer, and because of my unique background, I often find myself helping with design, user experience, and the overall conceptualization of different products and solutions," McCurdy says. "I get to implement Nitro with a large variety of platforms, from Salesforce.com to Jive Software to mobile."

At FishBowl Worldwide Media, an independent production company that develops scripted television, unscripted television, and digital content, Kelly Nash is a manager in the unscripted television division. "I develop new television ideas on my own, and also meet with independent producers in the community who pitch me ideas," Nash says. "When I partner with a producer, we develop the format together as a 50/50 partnership." After putting together a presentation that includes a "sizzle reel" to provide a taste of the show and its characters, the team pitches it to television networks.

As senior product manager at Cambridge Semantics, Inc., which provides operational intelligence software, Rob Gonzalez is responsible for developing and executing go-to-market strategies for Cambridge products."We have a new product line coming out called Anzo Express, which has a 6-month marketing and engineering plan associated with it," Gonzalez says. "I co-developed the strategy with one of our co-founders, and really enjoy working at that level."

Rachel Goldberg is a solutions consultant with the professional services team at Brainshark, which provides cloud-based software for creating, sharing, and tracking online and mobile video presentations. "My role is a mix of being a product expert and connecting that to our customers' communication approaches in areas like customer and partner education, internal training, sales, marketing outreach, and HR," Goldberg says.

As online marketing/SEO analyst for Sitecore, a web content management system software company, Ted Prodromou manages online ads and marketing campaigns all over the world. "I'm also responsible for the search engine optimization of Sitecore's corporate website and the microsites for each international region, and I play an integral role in Sitecore's social media strategy," Prodromou says.

As the sole database administrator (DBA) for startup Perfect Market, which provides traffic and content optimization solutions for web publishers, Tracy Tan likes the dual nature of her role. "It's nice to play with data-when business users ask me questions I can retrieve the answers. But I also like table design, and I get to do that for both our operational database and data warehouse database."

Of her title as conference co-chair and community manager for O'Reilly's Tools of Change for Publishing (TOC) area of practice, Kat Meyer says, "That's a long way of saying I am a connector. I seek out and bring together the people, companies, and organizations that are creating the future of publishing." The TOC team produces in-person events, co-produces events and publications with partners, and publishes books. Meyer helps maintain TOC's online and social media presence via Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and the O'Reilly Radar blog.

Name With The Face:Casey Jenkins
Job Title:Senior Product Manager
Organization:Elsevier B.V.
URL:www.elsevier.com

"I'm tasked with making an impact internally and externally."

‘We work closely with them to pinpoint the kind of information they need.'

"I never get to sit at my desk."

"I coach and guide my team in figuring out what product offerings are the best fit."

"Some days I will be locked into my chair, headphones on, surfing the web to compile competitive intelligence."

"I work alongside our production and content licensing teams to develop the final digital product for our web team and partners so they can access, manage, edit, publish, and distribute online."

"Being in the newsroom also means that every few months I get to work on some breaking news event where everything happens in an instant."

"While I don't do the translations, I am the hub for the various teams involved in the process, from product managers to developers, QA staff, technical writers, in-country teams, and translation vendors."

"I explain why the world needs more librarians and help to develop and educate librarians to fill the unmet needs out there."

"I'm fascinated by trends in information delivery especially to enterprise users, and my role here is to help companies get the right information to the right people at the right time."

"There is a plethora of research and historical materials here with value in the global open access environment. It is a sustainable model, as it will be maintained in perpetuity with URLs that never change."

As a technical project lead for ClearForest, a Thomson Reuters company providing text-driven business intelligence solutions, Sumit Shah works primarily on the company's Calais initiative, which offers free metadata generation services, developer tools, and an open standard for the generation of semantic content. In this role, Shah has a broad mandate, both helping customers who have deployed OpenCalais and adapting the platform for internal use at Thomson Reuters.

"I train people from all over the world, and curriculum development and understanding of different learning modes all still applies. And I still give assignments; It's old school but it helps customers retain what I've shown them."

'Essentially, font management is a specialized form of digital asset management, except that the asset is also a system-level software resource.'

‘I spend most of my day working with faculty to help them both showcase and develop their research.'

"I was once at a customer site for a few days and noticed that a printer had been running continually, requiring an employee to feed it reams of paper..."

"I'm currently preparing an exhibition on Darwin [that] will open soon in our gallery."

"My focus has been on education and awareness-building."

"Using scrum allows me to provide a rapid, flexible response to our client's business needs."

"Success is typically measured in small forward steps."

"I get to meet the people with whom I frequently work virtually."

"I am at the front line of customer interaction."

"Provide the best access to the huge variety of online resources."

"‘Success relies on whether we foster ongoing communication with our customers."

‘I hope to make a difference for the good.'

"It is challenging to find the best fit for the software."

"They were stunned at how quickly and easily it was done."

"My job is to translate their knowledge and expertise into the information that our customers need."

"I'm measured on the maintenance of the site's content."

"Usage metrics only tell part of the story."

‘We want a one-stop shop for ordering.'

"Sometimes customer service is like walking a tightrope, due to the time difference."

"I don't get woken up in the middle of the night these days."