Optiem is looking to hire...

We're now looking to add another Interactive Flash Designer to our team.  So if that's you, please visit the site and send us your resume. Optiem careers.

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Optiem is looking to hire...

Just a quick post to let the world know that we, as in Optiem, are looking to hire some talented folks to join in the fun in Cleveland. Please send in your resumes to career@optiem.com if you are interested in being a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Specialist, Online PR Specialist or an Account Manager.  We are also going to be looking for a Project Manager. You can find out more at the Optiem careers page on our website.

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My assault on world media never stops...

If you happened to be on the West side of Cleveland last week and were watching Cox45 you might have seen myself and fellow Optiem co-worker Ben Bykowski on your TV's.

We were lucky enough to be asked to appear on Talk 'N Tech, a show which helps explain technology. This time the questions, posed by host Darlene Zwolinski, were about RSS. If you missed it, I've embedded it below (with the kind permission of Dan & Matt from Cox) for your viewing pleasure.

I believe you can also get this show On Demand as part of Cox's cable package.  It was a cool experience (I must smile more) and hopefully we'll get asked back.

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The internet is growing again...

When I first started really using the Internet it was through a service called CompuServe and a browser named Mosaic via a 14.4k dial-up in Southend, Essex. It was all new and sites were appearing all the time. The web seemed to be continually expanding and as I started building sites myself using HTML Notepad, I found myself going back to foreigner's such as Eric Meyer and Jeffrey Zeldman who were becoming a constant in my daily "pay-as-you-go" surfing.

By the time I came to the US and started working for Optiem I was more comfortable with my online surroundings. I had a good grasp on where to go for information, had been lucky enough to meet a few of "those foreigners" and concentrated on improving the quality of the sites we were building by introducing CSS for layout, validating against W3C standards, focusing on accessibilty and usability and how all the above effect SEO.

But for a time the web, it seemed, had stopped expanding for me.

Most web designers were on board with CSS, semantic layout, standards-based (X)HTML. Blogs had increased the number of voices but RSS was diminishing the number of sites I actually visited. I found I was actually surfing a lot less though my consumption had increased.

Where I'm going with this ramble is that I feel the web, for me, is expanding again - This time in a new direction with a new toolset. I'm starting to feel as I did back in front of my monitor, listening to the modem and waiting for the new to reveal itself.

Social networks, content distribution, a choice of browsers that can be as individual as their users, the expectation of a truly mobile web that is portable, safe, semantic and built using foundations that make sense. The chance for companies to truly shape and grow their presence on the web in 2008 is HUGE and I'm really looking forward to being part of that.

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Bringing the team together...

Although we all work in the same office we're often in meetings or hunkered down, headphones on, enmeshed in our day-to-day. What better way to take a break and have some "quality time" with your co-workers than a pot-luck lunch? A veritable potpourri of nosh including curried chickpeas, chicken curry, taco's, cheesy potato's and pasta. Not to mention the slew of sweets. Thanks to Mike for organizing.

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