The Human Workspace

June 20, 2009 By

I work for a company built on people, even though the machines we employ outnumber us humans drastically.

We depend on a network, and so do all of our customers – so we employ multiple redundancies in that network.

But mostly, we are a people company.  That is why it didn’t surprise me a few weeks ago when I went to console a fellow Racker who lost a parent – and recognized several vehicles from coworkers that arrived before I did.  Another network.  A human one.  Again – with a lot of redundancies.

That is why our (now pretty damned frequent) birth announcements are always met with congratulations and words of wisdom, humor, and just plain support.

We are a young company – look out though – we are breeding like crazy!

I’ve worked for companies that pretended to feel this way about employees.  Said the right things.  Sometimes did the right things..  Usually didn’t.

Now I work for one that gets it.  Really.  It isn’t BS for investors, or a ploy for recruiters.  The care, concern and affection that exists here is real.  Nothing about it is fake.  These people look out for each other, and have each others backs.  And know each other.

And it is all about building a great community that makes a great place to work, and eventually a great business.  Many companies haven’t figured that out (yet).  They are trying to build great companies at the expense of employees and often even customers.  They have no legs.

That’s back-asswards.

Take care of your employees and let them build something great.  And they will take care of you, and your customers. And your business will grow, and it will grow stronger over time.

I’ve ridden every color of this pony there is, and I like the horse I am hitched to now.

Build by hiring caring people that are passionate about customers.  And let them show it.

And you will win – and you will have employees blogging about you – using their real names, because they are proud of where they work, and what they do.

Enlist them instead of enslaving them.

Rob

Filed Under: Community, Customers, education, Management, Personal

I’ve Been Busy!

June 13, 2009 By

Lately my time has been consumed by a new project.- building43.com.  I’ve been building it with an amazing team of friends – some I’ve not even actually met yet.  That’s the power of the Internet!

building43logo I’ve even got a post on the new site.  But it isn’t my site.  It belongs to the community that builds it.  You can join that community.  Learn how here.

It’s been a blast working on the site.  This is something completely fresh – from the graphics to the design.  The content and the idea behind the site – all new.

My employer, Rackspace, is backing the site.  It is an interesting challenge.  It has been from the day we decided to hire Robert Scoble and Rocky Barbanica.  Interesting because the idea is so unique that it is hard to describe.  A site that has no revenue model.  No marketing message.  It exists to help people use the new Internet to improve their own websites.  Particularly businesses.  If we help a business increase sales 10-15%, perhaps they will hire another employee.  Perhaps the increase in their sales means on of their vendors needs to hire more help.

Perhaps we can help the struggling economy one helpful post at a time.  Who knows?  Since it’s not been done in this way before – nobody knows.  But we have sure busted ass trying to find out!

I encourage you to go look at building43.  I am very proud of what the team has built.  I am proud to have my name associated with it.  And I am very, very happy that Robert and Rocky are with us on this project.  On paper, they work for me – but in actuality, we all work for the same purpose.  We all have a burning desire to build something truly meaningful – something truly helpful.

Let me know what you think!

Rob

Filed Under: Community, Customers, education, Events, Ideas, News, Scoble, startups, Web 2.0, Web 3.0

Sometimes, Social is Messy

May 27, 2009 By

Below is a job posting from my employer.  I didn’t see it until it was already posted – and customers showed it to me.

We screwed this posting up in a couple of ways (at least).  We wrote it like we were hiring someone impersonal and or detached.  And we didn’t consult the people already doing this work.

We’ve made great strides in Social Media/ Customer relations over the last months – but this shows we have a bit to learn.  We don’t have an overall corporate strategy on social media (yet).  We haven’t driven the message internally on who “owns” this (yet).

These are the things I get to help with.  This is why I think I have one of the most awesome jobs ever.

This is why 100 hours a week doesn’t feel like work.

I work for a company that is letting me influence these things – and they are listening, and giving me not only a voice, but a mandate.

In fact, they think I am moving too slowly :)

How cool is that?

Rackspace Hosting Named #43 on FORTUNE 2009
List of “100 Best Companies to Work For” in America

Rackspace is the world’s leader in hosting. We deliver enterprise-level managed services to businesses of all sizes and kinds around the world. Serving more than 31,000 customers in eight data centers worldwide, Rackspace integrates the industry’s best technologies and practices for each customer’s specific need and delivers it as a service via the company’s commitment to Fanatical Support®. We serve as an extension of our customers’ IT departments, enabling them to focus on their core business. We started in 1998 and since then Rackspace has grown more than 50 percent a year. There are currently over 2,600+ Rackers around the world serving our customers.

Our Cloud Hosting division is seeking a System Administrator II – Social Media to help monitor communication on various social media sites and blogs.  This position is critical to the Cloud’s customer loyalty initiative.

The responsibilities of the System Administrator – Social Media are:

  • Must love to talk/engage with customers.
  • Monitor several feeds on Twitter (Rackspace Cloud, Mosso, Cloud Sites, Cloud Files, Cloud Servers) and provide a timely response to customer comments.
  • Be a voice in the community – pro-actively tweeting interesting and insightful comments
  • Respond to customer’s issues, this person will need to own the problem – no matter what it involves – and work with the right teams to get the issue solved.  If it’s a technical issue, it would be expected that the individual would rely on their system administration skill set to solve the problem immediately.  If it’s a development, billing, sales, or systems related issue, this person would engage the other teams and take point on the customer communication side.
  • Monitor and respond to our internal forums.  Post insightful/interesting articles, responding to customer concerns, working with the right teams to make sure the correct answers are given in a timely manner.
  • Must have a strong “community voice” – always keeping things positive, informative, and helpful – as the responses will be seen by thousands.
Requirements
The most competitive candidates will have the following skills:

  • Strong knowledge of social media outlets – Twitter, Industry Blogs, etc.
  • Basic knowledge of servers/computer hardware and software. Basic knowledge of DNS.
  • Basic knowledge of Network fundamentals. Basic knowledge of RedHat Linux and Windows OS.
  • Basic knowledge of system services (i.e., Apache, Mail transfer agents (sendmail, postfix, qmail), FTP, SSH and DNS).
  • Continually expands knowledge in the areas of new developments and trends; may make recommendations to management on desirable additions and developments.
  • Requires approximately 1 – 2 years experience working in a computer technical field.
  • Bachelor’s degree in computer science or engineering related field or equivalent work experience, preferred.
  • Technical certifications (i.e., RHCE, RHCT, A+, CompTIA, MySQL or CCNA,) are a plus.
  • Able to touch type 50 – 60 wpm. Good ability to handle multiple tasks and prioritize work in order to maintain required productivity levels.
  • Must be detailed in documenting information and practice good follow through techniques.
  • General problem solving abilities, coupled with a desire to take on responsibility.
  • Possesses good written and verbal communication skills; bi-lingual skills is a plus.
  • Due to the 24×7 operations of the business, must be able to work a flexible work schedule, may include nights, weekends, holidays, etc.
Filed Under: Community, Customers, education, Management

Building Something?

May 23, 2009 By

Every time I have found myself boxed into a very narrow role, I have both failed at my job, and hated my job.

I like a lot of diversity.  Some say I thrive on chaos.  Fine – I agree with them.  But it isn’t exactly chaos I enjoy so much. Chaos is chaotic!  I do like things to be in some control, but I also like to change things up often.  I have a short attention span, but I can have very sharp focus when I need to… just not over a lot of time.

I love the fact that in my current role I may be planning an event, or talking to a large new customer.  I may be helping a current customer, or discussing Cloud Computing on a podcast.  I may be acting as an evangelist, or courting a new one.

The fundemental thing that never changes though is that I love learning and teaching.  That’s why I find Building43.com to be such an intersting project.

Our goal is to teach real companies, real businesses, and real people how to use the Internet “for the win”.

You run a small business?  Have a web site?  Does it suck?  I bet the answer is yes.  Most do.

But what if you could bring your site to life?  What if you could populate it with real people.  With your customers?  What if you could make it truly “alive”?

Is that hard, or expensive?  Turns out it isn’t.  It isn’t even complicated.  It IS a bit confusing.

Building43 aims to clear that confusion – to show you how simple it can be to turn your static website into a dynamic community for your customers.  We want to help you make more money.  We want to help every business grow.  Lofty goals, I realize – but if you fail to shoot high, you will fail to deliver much.

This won’t be easy.  At first, some won’t trust us – fine, we will earn that trust.  Some won’t believe us (and some never will).  Won’t waste time on them.

But if you want to join us – in a community of teachers and learners – stay tuned.  We’re close to launching!

Rob

Filed Under: Community, Customers, education

The American Form of Government

January 24, 2009 By

No embed for this, so I got to send you over here.  Worth the ten minutes.

Filed Under: education, Politics
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