Hybrids

Here's a little scifi to brighten your day. It's a short, not a trailer, though one could wish it were the latter. Given its success online, maybe Hollywood will come calling. Who knows?
HYBRIDS from wsp on Vimeo.

Clothe the Homeless with Abercrombie & Fitch

Abercrombie & Fitch has never been my kind of place. Aside from the fact I'm a man approaching middle age and so definitely not part of their target demographic, the place smells. Stinks, really. My daughter loves the store but I can't stand to be in it very long because of the boys locker room odor that is apparently part of the brand identity. Every Abercrombie & Fitch store has the same stench. My reaction may be exactly what the clothing chain is going for, because as a self-described (and undisputed) geek, "boys locker room" does not bring back a lot of great memories for me. I imagine it does, however, for the "cool kids." According to comments made by CEO Mike Jeffries, the store only wants the "cool kids" as customers.

Fine by me.

In response to Abercrombie & Fitch's position, Greg Karber has called for a re-brand. He wants to make Abercrombie the brand of choice for America's homeless.

I'm divided on this approach. On the one hand, I'm all for clothing those in need, and it's certainly a poke in the eye for the down-and-out to be identified with the Abercrombie brand. On the other hand, it certainly seems exploitative towards the poor.

Here's the video where Greg lays out his proposal for giving Abercrombie clothes to the homeless. What's your opinion?

Quebre o silêncio

"Dos filhos deste solo és mãe gentil."

O Bola na Rede é um movimento de enfrentamento à exploração sexual de crianças e adolescentes no turismo.

Digital Project Manager (NYC)

Every so often I put my personal blog to use for...well, personal use. This is one of those times.

Until recently I was employed with a major magazine publishing company working with online projects. For a year I was assigned to a well-known tech brand and worked with a team to bring order to the development process, before handing it off to an on-site tech lead. In that role I established the project workflow and coordinated the work of a team on two coasts. The end result was a well-functioning brand team. For the months following my time with that brand I managed online projects for three other major magazine brands. Although I enjoyed my work with these brands, the time has come for fresh challenges.

I have a strong background with proven skills in project management, web production and customer service. I have a Bachelor's degree and am PMP and CSM certified. I'm familiar with standard PM software and am capable with HTML, CSS and -- to some extent -- Javascript. I am also Linux-savvy and have a working knowledge of Ruby on Rails. I've worked in Teamsite and with Wordpress, and know my way around issue management tools such as Jira and Pivotal Tracker. Additionally, in a prior role I set up and maintained the company's social media approach. Fluent in Brazilian Portuguese.

If interested, please use the "Contact" form on this blog to receive a full resume. References available upon request.

Doing Twitter Wrong

Guy Kawasaki, co-founder of Alltop.com and former chief evangelist of Apple, has a pretty active twitter profile. He has over a million followers and I've seen his profile turn up on a few "recommended Tweeters" lists. That said, this week I realized his feed is little more than robo-spam.

For context, understand that this is the week that the United States faced bombings at the Boston marathon and had to deal with a deadly explosion at a fertilizer plant in Texas. As far as national news goes, it was a rough week. Through it all, Guy's feed just keep spitting out gems like "Instagram your next pair of Nikes" and "Deadly bird flu in China. Some info." To his credit, he did eventually start tweeting Boston bombing news, but that's not the point. What I'm getting at is that his feed now seems to me to be very unnatural, as though it's programmed well ahead of time and that his only objective is to raise his Klout score (or something similar). He's free to do that, but it turned me off.

The slideshow below lists some errors in Twitter marketing, one of which I'm at least somewhat guilty (self-promotion). What do you think about these? Any you disagree with? Any to add?

How to Fail at Twitter Marketing from SHIFT Digital Media

The Flatiron School: Teaching Ruby on Rails in NYC

One of my new favorite places in Manhattan is just a couple of buildings down from the first place I worked in the city. Presently located at 33 W 26th St (I've heard a rumor they're moving this summer), The Flatiron School offers a 12 week course in web development that's based on Ruby on Rails. Although I couldn't take a hiatus from work that long to study, it's a great option for young people looking to get into the field, and for people more my age to make a career change.

My connection to the school is solely in events hosted there. Last week I attended two meetups there, one for the Ruby Blind group (for newbie Rubyists) and also a talk by Lucas Mazza. The Ruby Blind meetup featured David Black, author of "The Well-Grounded Rubyist," who provided examples of changes coming in the move from Ruby 1.9 to 2.0. Mazza, for his part, talked about the features that make São Paulo based Plataformatec, the company he works for, so great.

If you're into Ruby, live or work in NYC and have a chance to attend a meetup at The Flatiron School, go for it. And if you're looking to get into developing and have 12 weeks and whatever the tuition fee is to spare, go for that too.