The Blogo’Shawn

I am very pleased to announce that I have accepted a job as a Sr. Product Manager for Yahoo! Local where I will be working to grow and enhance community. The job is a great fit for my interests and background and the notion of working for Yahoo has actually appealed to me for awhile now and, especially, ever since the most splendidly orchestrated Yahoo Hack Day last fall. I join a solid team of engaging people who will be wonderful collaborators and I look forward to what lies ahead!

SFGate ran an article about Citizendium, a contender to Wikipedia…and instrumented by a purported co-founder to Wikipedia: Wikipedia Co-Founder Seeks to Start Over. My main thought is that I’d like to mash-up the best of both. Citizendium intends to benefit from the contributions of named sources, preferribly experts and authorities in their fields, while Wikipedia can be somewhat erratic in relying on the contributions of many who usually lack credentials and traceable identities…but both approaches have relevancy. It’s a shame they will be presented separately as different sites. My bet is on Wikipedia remaining on top, especially given Wikipedia’s tremendous and sustained first mover advantage. I hope, though, that the emergence of Citizendium inspires Wikipedia to take steps towards better highlighting content contributions from verified experts.

Now that I have wrapped up work for the redesign of a major web2.0 mobile community website, I have had some time to re-explore Second Life. Alot more people are onboard now and it’s a delight to hear a smattering of languages, more so than ever. Last night, I conversed in German and Spanish. I look forward to more occasions to flex language skills.

I am also anticipating the advent of voice in Second Life which will introduce a whole new dynamic. Namely, I will be more inclined to go into Second Life after a hard day of typing, because I will be able to let my fingers do the occasional avie navigation while my voice counteracts repetitive typing stress!

I have also been wondering…wouldn’t it be great if you could review places, performers, artists, etc., in Second Life?! Sure would make it easier for newbies to figure out what to check out first!