According to ComputerMajors.com’s “10 Hot Computer-Driven Careers,” I’ll (*fingers crossed*) have a secure career for awhile. Their list, partially based on the BLS Top 30 fastest growing careers and on interviews with computer professionals, includes several jobs I’ve done, am doing, or am planning to do. From their list:
- Digital Film Production Assistant and Technician
Thanks to Internet TV software such as Joost and Babelgum, many dozens of video sharing sites, and of course the traditional film and TV industry - including Pay Per View and Cable - demand for video content will simply grow. While actual reel film might have its advantages and still be in use, post production-wise the trend is digital - both for movies and TV - using sophisticated computer systems that require a specialized training to use. Add to this the pending widespread use of HDTV (High-Def) broadcasting, and the distribution of content online, and additional technical careers will no doubt be available to be filled.
- Website Network Manager / Administrator.
Magazine writers don’t have to know the technical details of keeping a print publication afloat. So why should writers in an online publishing network be expected to know all the admin and technical details of managing a site, even if it is CMS? With the growing number of website and blog networks, the need for people with technical skills to maintain the networks will grow as well.The ideal person will understand how to install CMS platforms such as WordPress and Drupal, maintain domain registrations, manage the content databases and backups, monitor hosting, and move servers if necessary. They might also need to know how to tweak website themes, create plugins, etc. Management skills might also be a requirement.
- Visual and Audio Content Producers.
The greatest growth in online content over the next decade will be in Video and Audio. From viral video production to visual tutorial content producers, the major differentiating factor for online businesses is going to be their ability to create compelling visual and audio content. Familiarity with high-level codes like Action Script and the ability to use video screen capture software such as Camtasia Studio and web-based embeddable video distribution services such as Splashcast, will be very marketable. In addition, the ability to storyboard tutorials and write text content increases your career opportunities, so don’t neglect those English & Literature classes!
I can verify that last point: at the Stanford Publishing on the Web workshop I attended a few weeks ago, numerous tech industry heavyweights and visionaries including Kevin McKean (Consumers Union), Sean Nolan (Men’s Health.com), Molly Wood (CNET), Guy Kawasaki (Garage Technology Ventures), and Robert Scoble (scobleizer.com) all shared the opinion that video will be an integral part of the web in years to come.
Thanks for the sunny forecast, ComputerMajors.com and Bureau of Labor Statistics!!!
Chris Jordan, a Seattle-based artist, has some amazing photography and digital artwork at his website. In his current series, “Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait,” Jordan takes statistics from American culture (energy usage, the environment, consumerism) and digitally parlays those stats into thought-provoking (that term’s often overused, but in this case it’s appropriate) works of art. The image at left is composed of 200,000 packs of cigarettes, the same number of Americans who die from cigarette smoking every six months.
Check it out — you probably won’t believe what you see.
Not that I don’t want anything for Christmas, BUT…
Morgan Spurlock (”Supersize Me”) has a new film out, “What Would Jesus Buy?”, about Reverend Billy, a Vancouverite who preaches against consumerism on Buy Nothing Day. The antithesis to Black Friday, Buy Nothing Day has been popularized, if you will, by Adbusters. From this CNN story:
A review of “What Would Jesus Buy?” in “Christianity Today” questioned whether (Rev. Billy) Talen’s act, poking fun at both religion and consumerism, went too far.
“Yes, it’s condescending. Yes, it cheapens Christianity,” the magazine said, before concluding: “But the whole argument of the film is that our commodity culture has already cheapened Christianity.”
Something to think about.
After six months, April and my honeymoon pictures from Seattle, San Juan Island, and Vancouver are now finally viewable at Photobucket (if you didn’t get my email with the password, let me know and I’ll send it.) Well, honestly, they’ve been online for several months, but I just haven’t publicized them. I hope you think they’re worth the wait 
I was planning on publishing them to my Flickr account, but I’d already named and sorted all of them on Photobucket and it’d be a time-consuming task to do the same on Flickr (unless there’s an automated process that I’m not aware of.) Photobucket, in my experience, is great for uploading photos that you plan to post on websites and share with others, but Flickr’s great because users can share comments about other people’s photos, and it’s much more user-friendly than Photobucket, in my humble opinion.
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser has taught me that patience is a virtue I’m severely in need of. I spent much of my Thanksgiving break (probably almost a full workday) trying to figure out why the heck Internet Explorer was making the sidebar menu navigation on this site and List-en up! look like crap. I had no idea how horrific and unprofessional it all looked until I test-drove the sites on my mother-in-law’s computer, running IE 6.0. The sites looked wonderful (in my humble opinion) in the Firefox and Safari browsers that I’d been testing on, but for some still-unknown reason, IE piled every single part of the sidebar on top of itself like so many layers of two-week old digital lasagna, as if the navigation didn’t matter at all. (I guess it didn’t matter if no one was visiting the sites.) If you’re reading this, though, and hadn’t visited the sites until now, you won’t have a clue how bad it all looked, thankfully.
Anyway, after tweaking and testing nearly everything I could think of on the sites, I decided to reinstall the display theme (K2), and voila! Everything was in its right place. So now I can sit down for some leftover pie, without worrying that millions of strangers (or none) are laughing what used to be my pile of worthless sidebar doo-doo.
(Thanks to my wife and in-laws for tolerating both my absence from cooking duties and my obsession with fixing this wonderful CSS problem.)
Mission accomplished!
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings in Indianapolis, originally uploaded by Securis777.
By the way, I’ve also posted two more photos from my Monterey trip, taken by cell phone from the plane. One is of the amazingly beautiful hills around Monterey (not sure what they’re called), and the other is of the mass of humanity known as Los Angeles. It was my first time there, and I couldn’t believe the size and density of the city.
It’s April’s and my six-month wedding anniversary! I can’t believe it’s already been half a year. I guess time flies when you’re having fun I’ve written a new post at the Angie’s List publication department’s blog that touches on our wedding and home ownership.
Also, the second episode of the podcast is up and running, about customer etiquette. If you order a cheeseburger but are rude to the waiter, you might get some spit along with the beef. Same thing with contractors: if you’re rude to the guys doing your roof, you might end up with roofing nails “accidentally” caught in your car’s tires.
This punk stole my bearclaw!, originally uploaded by Securis777.
Anyway, to make a long story short, I just got back from Stanford’s Publishing on the Web conference in beautiful, sunny, warm Monterey, California. Though the sessions lasted all day, we did manage to take some time on the last half-day to kayak the bay and bike to scenic Pacific Grove. If I had $1.5 million to buy a house, I’d be living there right now
Visit my Flickr photo set to check out a few more pics (especially you, Mom: there are a few with otters!) I think I need a better digital camera, though. It’s hard to see the cute little otter faces 
One more note: Since I just started this blog, it’s going to undergo a variety of facelifts, so don’t be surprised if you revisit and things have changed.
Yay! Tristan’s personal life is back online in an arena that’s not Facebook or Myspace or Angie’s List
