Bastian Karweg

Light as a Wave by Mr.Wizzard, on Flickr

Yesterday i was watching the YouTube recording of a gaming show. It was a commentary of some guys playing computer games (see twitch.tv for examples). Whats great about these shows is that they do a very good job interacting with their audience through the shows live chat. E.g. answering questions, running polls or even just eying the chat to get instant feedback on segments, jokes or other elements of the show.

The problem though was, that it was a recording. So when it came to a point where i wanted to take part in the action - it became painfully clear to me that this dynamic crowd and interactive action was merely a shadow of the past. 

:(

So i felt intrigued that such a show could produce the experience of me being part of a happening even when it was long done and at the same time miserable because of the lost opportunity to get involved.

…

The second time this happened was earlier this morning: I read through the old mailing lists in which bitcoin was born. Even though i can read through the comments and the intelligent discussions the moments in which such a crowd gets together through technology to inspire and elaborate only are alive for a short period of time.

While tLilLigheoes not forget much, knowing that i can read the archive of these shelved happenings but not take part in it any more is a new kind of misery about lost interactivity i have not experienced before.

Mein Fachartikel für die Web 2.0 Bestenliste

Mit der Ajax-Technologie wurde damals die Art und Weise, wie man das Web bediente und wie es sich anfühlte, komplett verändert. Das Internet war nun keine Abfolge von Einzelseiten mehr, sondern eher wie eine Software. Flüssige Übergänge in der Navigation, dynamisch nachladende Seitenbereiche – all dies war so vorher nicht möglich gewesen. Auch 2012 gibt es mit HTML5, dem Canvas Element und CSS3 wieder einige spannende technische Verbesserungen…

James, I think your cover’s blown! by laverrue, on Flickr

One startup concept I’m really excited about revolves around job search. It resonates so much with me because I really think that the classic approach is broken. 9 out of 10 of the best people I hired did come through recommendations. So while there are some gems in the open job market you really need to have a lot of luck to find the right match for your team. And also the best talent is only available for a very short amount of time which requires the company to be constantly looking to not miss out.

Most likely the one rockstar that you are looking for to complete your team already has a job at the moment. So a classic response would be to go headhunting. Problem is that this is a crowded craft and very expensive as well. A rather novel approach is to try to chance the mindset of people who currently are employed. If we get them to constantly list their profiles when employed, this creates a huge new market. And hey - it can’t hurt after all to know what you are worth right?

So we are not talking recruiters sifting through a ton of linkedin profiles and cold calling you - but about people like you freely deciding to be open to arising opportunities.

There are already a few companies active in this space (e.g. jobdreaming.com or poachee.com) and I think this really will be a huge market in the future.

— Bastian 

P.S.: on a personal note - the question “what have you done” more important than ever. This is why a lot of good programmers get picked after reviewing their code contributions to open source projects on github - or in terms of marketing, project management and other disciplines you look at what they blog about or how they answer questions on quora, stackoverflow and other platforms. 

P.P.S.: the general trend should be called “skill hunting”

Yahoo schließt den Social-Bookmarking-Pionier Delicous. Das Ende des Dienstes ist bezeichnend für den Niedergang eines ganzen Sektors.

[German] Mein Fachartikel über die Zukunft von Social-Bookmarking und den Aufschwung im Bereich social-search.