Lots of respectable geeks have been looking into their crystal balls, foreseeing the day, sometime soon, when Google Android, the Google OS for phones — the gPhone — moves up the developmental totem, jumping to the netbook, then to the laptop, and finally to the desktop, resulting in an integrated Google world of Google Mail, Google Docs, Google Reader, Google Search, and Google Videos!  Sounds like bloody heaven to me because I run my business on Google (and here’s proof) Via WiredGadget Lab:

Google’s Android operating system is not just for mobile phones. It is coming to netbooks.

Asus, which kickstarted the netbook  market with its Eee PCs, has put a team of engineers to work on developing an Android-based device.

The company could have a netbook with Android OS the end of the year, says Samson Hu, head of the Asus’ Eee PC business in an interview with Bloomberg.

Asus already has some experience with Android. The company is working with GPS-based navigation devices maker Garmin to launch a line of new phones, some of which will run Android.

The Android operating system released in October through the HTC T-Mobile G1 phone has already captured the attention of cellphone makers. Handset manufacturers such as Motorola, LG and Samsung are developing cellphones that run Android operating system.

If Asus releases a netbook running Android, it won’t be long before other netbook makers such as Acer jump on the bandwagon.

We at Abraham Harrison, LLC, have built our entire company around enabling our team members to live and work from anywhere in the world; as long as they have a good internet connection and their laptop.

In fact, Abraham Harrison, LLC was formed three years ago while our CEO, Mark Harrison, was living and volunteering in a small fishing village on the southern tip of Zanzibar.  His thatch-roofed hut had no running water, but it had electricity and a 3G mobile internet connection.

Chris Abraham, who was then running AbrahamPR.com, called up Mark, who had run a successful virtual consulting firm over the turn of the millennium, and asked him if he would take over the CEO role of Chris’s rapidly growing PR company.  Mark agreed, but on the condition that the firm would be built as a virtual company that would allow all co-workers to work from wherever they happened  to be in the world.

Mark now has a proper roof and even running water in his houses in Mauritius and Berlin, but the ethos of the firm has remained the same: our company lives 100% on the internet, and our people can live anywhere.

Abraham Harrison operates smoothly around the clock, spread across 14 time zones, with all of our documents, systems, and information in the cloud, being accessed and collaborated upon by our team members via their laptops, Blackberrys, and iPhones, under the shade of a palm, in the powdery snow of the Rockies, or in the bustle of Berlin or Washington, DC.

My buddy David Gelles writes for the Tech section of the FT, my favorite paper. Check out his latest article, New corporate firefighters. Sadly for me, he can’t shamelessly promote my company, Abraham Harrison LLC, because he has ‘journalistic integrity;’ however, it is awesome he works there because he writes awesomely-accessible articles about my space, including social media marketing, social media PR, blogger engagement, Twitter, and also the world of online and social media crisis-response.  It is amazing!  I beat up Pepsi Max over on AdAge and a couple weeks later, Gelles writes an article about the space.  I am both amazingly proud and a little paranoid!

New corporate firefighters By David Gelles

When advertisers launched a campaign last September for the pain reliever Motrin, they hoped to attract the attention of mothers whose backs might be sore from wearing baby-carriers. The advertisements implied that while baby-carriers might be fashionable, hauling a child around could be painful.

Mothers were not amused. Soon after the ads were released, anti-Motrin campaigns appeared on Facebook and blogs. Outraged mums, furious at the suggestion that their babies were a hassle, posted rebuttal videos on YouTube. Through Twitter, the micro-blogging service, thousands of people attacked the company.

Motrin was caught off-guard. For days, no company representative replied. Critics accused the company of being not only insensitive but also unresponsive.

Eventually a marketing executive at McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson that markets Motrin, e-mailed individual bloggers to apologise for the campaign. But the damage was done.

Jeanette Gibson of CiscoThe “Motrin moms” episode illustrates the power of social media — the expanding network of websites that allow users to interact with each other and, increasingly, with companies. It also demonstrates the perils for enterprises that are unprepared to interact with social media.

But now a growing number of companies, including Ford Motor, PepsiCo, Wells Fargo and Dell, are creating new high-level jobs to ready themselves for engagement with social media, with titles such as director of social media, head of communities and conversation, vice-president of experiential marketing and digital communications manager. The role of these new executives is to monitor and influence what is being said about their companies on the internet.

Johnson & Johnson made its own appointment in the wake of the Motrin debacle. Having already dabbled in social media, in December the company promoted Marc Monseau, a 10-year company veteran and former director of media relations, to director of social media. “My responsibility is to work with the corporate office and the individual companies to better interact online,” Mr Monseau says. “It underscores the fact that we realise this is an important audience and one that we need to develop relationships with.”

These new jobs represent a broad shift in media relations strategy at large companies. “Corporate communications has radically changed,” says Andy Sernovitz, chief executive of the Blog Council, an organisation for heads of social media at big companies. “It’s no longer just companies talking to the press, and customer service talking to customers. All these other people showed up in the ­middle. They may not be press and they may not be customers, but suddenly their collective voice is bigger than the traditional channels.”

The essence of social media is conversation. Rather than a one-way stream of information, where companies make announcements to the press and customers, social media enables a great deal of interaction, where companies are in constant dialogue with the public. “We’ve seen a shift from doing things the old way to now having conversations with our customers,” says Jeanette Gibson, director of new media for Cisco Systems (pictured).

Ms Gibson, who began her job in 2007, says there is now a mandate at Cisco that all staff be attuned to what is being said about Cisco online. “It has definitely shifted how we’ve done communications,” she says. “Our executives are video blogging every day. Everybody’s job is now social media.”

Dell, the computer maker, has one of the most robust corporate social media programmes. Bob Pearson, former senior vice-president of corporate communications, became vice-president of communities and conversation for Dell in 2007.

He now has 45 people working for him. The core team works on “blog resolution” — trawling the web for dissatisfied customers, then attempting to contact them to make amends. Others on Dell’s social media team manage the company’s 80 Twitter accounts and 20 Facebook pages. Still others manage IdeaStorm, Dell’s forum for customer feedback.

Dell is taking its customer feedback seriously. When the company launched the Latitude laptop last summer, six of the features, including backlit keyboard and fingerprint reader, were ideas that came from IdeaStorm. “It’s always worth talking directly with your customers. It’s always worth listening to them,” says Mr Pearson. “It’s the wisdom of crowds.”

Peter Shankman, a social media expert and founder of Help a Reporter Out, a service that broadcasts reporters’ requests to a network of experts, says many companies are still reluctant to get involved: “Companies are slow to adapt because they’re still not 100 per cent sure they can make money with social media,” he says.

Yet Dell, for one, has made a business of it. By broadcasting discount alerts on Twitter, it says, it has generated more than $1m in sales. And in the US, 59 of the 100 leading retailers, including Best Buy and Wal-Mart, now have a fan page on Facebook, according to Rosetta, an interactive marketing agency.

Other savings can be realised through the Web’s ability to reach many people at once. “If you solve someone’s problem on the phone, nobody knows,” says Mr Sernovitz. “If you solve that same problem in writing on a blog, it costs you no more, but thousands of people are satisfied. And then, if 100 people never call because they found the answer, you very, very quickly get to multimillion-dollar savings.”

Other companies are using Twitter to douse public relations fires before they erupt. Scott Monty, head of social media for Ford Motors, used Twitter to appease users who were angry after the carmaker sued an enthusiast website that was selling unauthorised Ford merchandise. When fans of the enthusiast site posted angry messages, Mr Monty “tweeted back” to explain the company’s position.

Bonin Bough, who was appointed director of social media for PepsiCo last year, also used Twitter to defuse a brewing crisis after the company released a series of advertisements depicting a cartoon calorie character committing suicide.

“Social media is much more than getting out there and having conversations,” says Mr Pearson of Dell. “It transforms a business if you use it correctly.”

Another one of my weekly blog posts over at the AdAdge Global Idea Network came out today, Bratislava, a City to Watch — check it out:

Bratislava, a City to Watch
Residents of the Slovakian Capital Coming to Grips With Credit and Many Eye-Level Ads

I was invited by Zuzana Zentková of In Form Slovakia to travel from Berlin to Bratislava, Slovakia, to keynote the Daily Web Conference. Not only had I never been to Slovakia, I had never really thought about the country, focusing mostly on the Czech Republic instead of the Slovak Republic. My tickets were booked from Berlin to Vienna because, I discovered, Vienna is only 63 kilometers away from Bratislava — only a half-hour away by some fast highways.

So, here are my impressions after a few days there, having lived the high life. The organizers of the conference drove me from the hotel and back, they kept me in a gorgeous room at MaMaison residence and the conference was at the stunning Rotunda pod Slavínom building at the highest point in Bratislava.

Bratislava is a town to explore on foot, bus and tram. There are some very new cars but I am told that Slovakians are having a tough time adjusting to loans, credit and leasing. When they buy cars, they pay cash. In general, Slovakians only buy what they can afford, which means that there are very aggressive “no cash down” and “no money for a year” incentives to seduce Slovakians into buying on credit. The same goes for mortgages and other forms of borrowing.

As a result, there are many taxis, trams and buses on the road. Mostly, though, people walk. I didn’t see a lot of motorcycles, scooters or bicycles. There isn’t a subway system, but there is a world of pedestrian underpasses linking sidewalks together, freeing up the roads for traffic. As a result, there is a strong reliance on very modest-but-plentiful, eye-level advertisements. In Bratislava, the biggest ads are for car insurance, cars, telecoms (especially T-Mobile and Orange), banking, credit, Christmas and for upcoming events. It seems to me that you can make a lot of assumptions based on the sort of ads you can see on the street. By far, the biggest advertiser in downtown Bratislava is Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile.

One of the most impressive ads in the entire city sheaths the National bank of Slovakia. A Euro coin emblazons the entire site, with the base encircled with all the bill denominations of the Euro available. It is pretty impressive to behold. Slovakia, is a member of the EU, currently accepting both euros and Slovak koruna. Come Jan. 1, the Slovak Republic will complete its conversion over to the euro. There is no longer any border between Austria and Slovakia. You can easily see the wind farms of verdant Austrian farms from Bratislava high ground. Even though Bratislava is close to Western Europe, Slovakia is so far truly a world away. This is still a country in development. It felt to me like lots of people don’t have a lot.

Still, Bratislava has leapfrogged from simple technology to a very strong and ubiquitous 3.5G telecoms infrastructure — and this leapfrogging often bypasses laptops, DSL and even home computers, I am told by the savvy and world-class high-tech participants of the conference.Jan Horna, the Daily Web conference moderator, told me that there are over two GSM SIM cards for every Slovakian.

I only had three days in Slovakia so my experience is limited; however, Bratislava is a city to watch, especially as the Euro becomes the official — and sole — currency of Slovakia in less than a couple months.

Nokia N97, originally uploaded by Robert Scoble.

Robert Scoble started a bit-storm when he got his hands on the Nokia N97 even before I have scored myself an N96. I love love love my Nokia N95 8GB and use it as my 5mp camera, my QIK video camera, and my official podcast-listening device. I wake up this morning and there are a million articles about the Nokia N97 all over the place: Robert Scoble, Gizmodo, Engadget, SlashGear, MobileCrunch, GSMArena, Atmaspheric Endeavors, UnwiredView, Mobile.ie, PhoneMag, Laptop Mag, Geeky Gadgets, Mobile Tech Addicts, GadgetHeat, The S60 Blog, Inside View, Scoble’s Flickr, Teche Blog, Mobile Fun, CNet UK, Phones Review, The Serious Games Blog, TechLime, SlashPhone

Wow, I have to tell you, I am hardwired to my Lenovo ThinkPad x61 whenever I travel worldwide and domestically!  I just learned that upwards of 12,000 laptops are lost every bloody week by travelers!

That’s 600,000 machines a year, many containing sensitive information that companies need to account for.  According to a study by the Ponemon Institute and Dell, only 30 percent or so lost laptops are ever recovered. Los Angeles’ LAX airport reported having the most lost laptops out of any other airport, with 1,200 going missing every week. The most likely place for you to lose your computer is at security checkpoints and departure gates.

Via Gizmodo &  NewLaunches

I met the lovely Andrea Hill at PodCampOhio.  Andrea is a runner, a Canadian, a new media maven, and a senior developer at Resource Interactive.  She also hung out with me part of the day and over lunch and I was charmed — Andrea is lovely.  I would like to share her experience at PodCampOhio, PodCamp Ohio Networking:

PodCamp Ohio Networking

As always, some of the best outcomes from an event are a result of the interaction with other delegates. There is something special about a group of actively engaged, newly informed individuals. Going into PodCamp Ohio, I hadn’t been sure about the people I would meet. I wasn’t a podcaster, would I have things to share with my fellow attendees?

As it turned out, I was incredibly engaged and impressed with the folks I met. There were folks from a wide background, all united by their passion for social media. The entire conference was very engaging and social, including the automated podOhioCheckIn twitter feed. As I mentioned, the first session I attended was incredibly interactive, with the attendees offering their own best practices and advice. I enjoyed putting faces to screen names, and realized that there is an entire community of like-minded individuals here in town I should get to know!

As someone who has worked on fostering online community for a long time, I have weathered all the comments about how technology throws up walls between people. Rather than interacting directly, we’re sitting in rooms on our laptops or mobile phones. However, how we do we explain the coming together of this group of technophiles? One fellow had driven from Nashville, another is based in Berlin and D.C. The Internet is the communication medium that allowed these individuals to find this information, and brought us together to share and network.

While the day passed quickly and I know I didn’t meet as many people as I could have, I have confidence that we will all leverage these online tools to continue to communicate and share our thoughts and insights from PodCamp Ohio moving forward.

I have been trying to think of the best way to convey the weekend at PodCampOhio but my virtual friend new friend Ann Miller did a much better job of honoring the weekend!  And, yes, I was one of the folks who received hand-made cookies! And here, below, is Ann Miller’s (AKA AnnOhio‘s) Introduction to Pod Camp…

Introduction to Pod Camp…

I never ever ever thought you would hear from me, I’m going to Pod Camp Ohio. Yet, yesterday morning I was up and out the door at 7:45 to drive to Columbus for the first ever Pod Camp Ohio. I’ve seen a lot of people on my Twitter list talk about Pod Camp experiences…and I admit I have liked the idea of having so many friends in one place to get a chance to meet. But the rest of it? The sessions? Meh…

I probably would not have gone at all if I hadn’t seen a status message from Chris Abrahams–going to Pod Camp Ohio–I sent him a message, are you serious. That was the nudge I needed to sign up and make plans to go.  I kidded pre-conference that I would be in the corner with the giant panties over my head tied up with a cat5 cable.  :o)

With the help of Andrew I found the location without any difficulties, it was close to the highway and very easy to get to.  A gold star for the Pod Camp Ohio planners for finding such a great location.  The facility was nice, free wifi a geek’s paradise!  I spotted Ms. Sangs, @KaitSwanson as soon as I got in the door.  I had to give her a hug even before I checked in for the conference.   That hug and that chance to finally meet her made my day, could it get any better than this?

I started wandering around, getting my bearings, pulling out the lanyard for my name tag, writing @AnnOhio on it and getting myself organized.  As I made my way back to the room for the first address of the day, I passed a lady with pink streaks in her hair–I knew right away it was @AlisonL.  I gave her a big hug and delivered the promised homemade cookies.  It was nice to finally get to meet her in person.  As a I am talking to her I see a few more familiar faces @BarbaraKB and @DanielJohnsonJr–more hugs delivered.

I found a seat about mid-way back and made myself comfortable.  I love to people watch, and I took a look around and didn’t see anyone else that I knew.  I hear someone behind me talking to the person next to him.  “Hi, I’m Chris Abraham.”  I turned in my seat… “Chris? AnnOhio!” Naturally I jumped up to give him a big hug to welcome him to Ohio.

I looked through the session list, trying to find the non-geekiest session to go to.  First up a session by my twitter pal (who I constantly harass for being a geek) DanielJohnsonJr.  When I got to the room Chris was standing outside, he was planning to attend the same session. Alas, the door was locked.  I pull out my cellphone and send Daniel a text message–the door is locked dummy.  I made my way to the back of the room, I planned to knit during the session. The room filled quickly with people and I was glad to have a seat with a table to spread out all of my stuff.  There was about 10 minutes before the session started, it gave Chris and I a chance to talk a little more.  Daniel then had people do introductions, you know the usual name, where are you from blah blah blah…when it was my turn I said, “My name is Ann I’m here to see Daniel and to knit”.

It really was a great session, I have to confess that I learned about a few new things, and it was fun to see a Twitter pal in a new light.  (That does not mean that my constant harassment of the guy is  going to end!)  I noticed during the introductions a familiar name and stopped him.  “Oh Mr. tw3nty3ight? I saw PreppyDude talking about me to you last night I’m AnnOhio. “

“AnnOhio! I have to take a picture for PreppyDude.” Acckkkk I iz on BrightKite!  But it shows me knitting so the guy is ok in my book.  (Sheesh BrightKite?)

The next session in the room was on viral marketing, I was comfortable and decided the topic sounded interesting, as did most of the other people at the unconference, we moved to a larger room which put the presenter 10 minutes behind.  I could have actually stayed in this session for another hour, I have a feeling that the period after the presentation, the time for questions and responses would have been just as valuable as the session.  Next up..LUNCH!

There were some challenges for lunch, but in no part due to the organizers of the event.  The catering company forgot a few of the ingredients for the tacos.  It might have also helped to make things go faster to pull the tables out from the wall and to let people go through the line on both sides, it was a narrow hallway that may have been a challenge.  I honestly heard no one complaining at any point during the day.  It was a well run event, and the organizers should be proud of what they accomplished.

Lunch, was my favorite part of the day–not because the food was amazing, it was sitting down and connecting with friends.  Talking, laughing, sharing stories…and seeing the circle of people grow and grow.  I made a few new friends–people who I added to my Twitter list with the caveat that if they weren’t adding to my life I was subtracting them.  I saw people sitting off alone, laptops open, Twittering and doing a variety of online social media.  Excuse me? You are in a room full of people, many, if not most with the same interests as you and you are ONLINE?  I’ve been known to stick a cellphone down my shirt at tweet ups when people were tweeting, not even my bra is big enough to hold a laptop.  :o)  I had someone from the conference add me on Twitter–he said he did  the add during lunch.  I later teased him “Why didn’t you come find me at lunch and sit at the cool table and have a real conversation with me?”

After being entertained by Paull Young and Luke Armour I had to stay for their session about what not to do in social media.  They made me giggle, and I would give them two thumbs up as my favorite session of the day.

Then..it happened…I attended a session at the very edges of geekiness, what I thought pod camps were all about.  As more and more html code popped up on the screen I felt the energy, the very life leaving my body.  I turned into pod camp zombie.  The presenter was full of lots of helpful information, but it was clearly the wrong session choice for me.  I hit the geek wall and crumbled to the bottom in a pile.

Yikes, it was time to escape and make my way back to my corner of the cornfields. I passed out a few hugs on my way out the door and headed home in the pouring rain.  I saw several tweets from friends who went out to dinner and or drinking afterwards, and that made me wish I was still there.

A few things I would have done differently–I would have made hotel reservations and stayed in Columbus on Saturday night.  In reality I didn’t even plan to be there at lunch time, I thought I would be long gone.  I would have left the session that sucked the life out of me and just wandered the halls connecting with people.  I’m used to going to conferences and feeling the need to attend as many sessions as possible.

All in all..a day much better than expected and a chance to connect with friends.

tw3nty3ight

Chris Abraham is a Founding Partner and the President of Abraham Harrison, LLC, an international consulting group with specialties in online word-of-mouth/conversation marketing and online business & technology strategy advising. Abraham Harrison, LLC is based out of Washington, DC and Berlin and serves clients across the globe with associates spanning ten time zones. Via LinkedIn

Chris Abraham’s Specialties:

online business intelligence, corporate and pr blogging, online brand intelligence, online brand promotion and protection, online buzz and relationship marketing, online education, online messaging, online social networks, online technology strategy, rss syndication strategy, search engine optimization strategy, virtual community building

Chris Abraham’s Experience

• President and COO

  Abraham Harrison LLC

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Online Media industry)

  January 2007 — Present (1 year 6 months)

  Abraham Harrison, LLC, is an international consulting group with specialties in online word-of-mouth/conversation marketing and online business & technology strategy advising. Abraham Harrison, LLC is based out of Washington, DC and Berlin and serves clients across the globe with associates spanning ten time zones.

• Blogging Instructor

  The Writer’s Center

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Professional Training & Coaching industry)

  February 2006 — June 2007 (1 year 5 months)

  •Instructional courses on blogging, from introduction to advanced techniques
  •Marketing, promotional, and SEO strategies for writers and business people
  •www.appliedblogging.org developed to support blogging students

• Sales Representative

  Visible Technologies

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

  January 2007 — June 2007 (6 months)

  Sales representative for Visible Technologies’ TruView and TruCast software solutions. TruView is the most effective service for individuals and companies to manage their reputations via what appears in the top search engines. TruView is the first corporate solution that helps organizations manage and protect their brand in the Blogosphere and other “consumer-generated media” communities.

• Associate

  crayon LLC

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Online Media industry)

  January 2007 — June 2007 (6 months)

  crayon will help marketers, advertisers and public relations professionals better understand the tremendous changes, challenges and opportunities in today’s dynamic and complex world of fragmented attention, increasing consumer control and hardening attitudes towards marketing communication.

• Consultant

  Comteg

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Management Consulting industry)

  December 2006 — May 2007 (6 months)

  COMTEG.COM is a consultancy focused on Online Advertising, Media Measurement and Publishing. Our consulting services are Strategy Formulation, Market Entry and Industry Political Initiatives. We operate globally with offices in Europe, The Middle East & Asia.

• Blogger

  Self-employed

  (Self-Employed; Myself Only; Publishing industry)

  January 1999 — March 2007 (8 years 3 months)

  Blogging strategist with a focus on PR blogs, corporate blogs, publicity blogs, grassroots blogs, SEO blogs, brand blogs, and media blogs. Current personal blog is Chris Abraham – Because the Medium is the Message (http://www.chrisabraham.com). Experienced blogging trainer and guest-blogger.

• Senior RSS Consultant

  Hinchcliffe & Company

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Online Media industry)

  January 2007 — February 2007 (2 months)

  Senior RSS Consultant at T. Rowe Price on behalf of Hinchcliffe & Company. Research, design, develop, and deploy T. Rowe Price’s client and prospect RSS syndication strategy.

• Consultant

  Abraham PR

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

  October 2006 — January 2007 (4 months)

  Chris Abraham is a web strategist, focusing on search engine optimization (SEO), search engine markeing (SEM), online buzz marketing, online advocacy, blogger relations (BR), blogger outreach, and word-of-mouth marketing. Chris consults clients on new media public relations solutions, delivering strategy documents that include an analysis and audit of the current web strategy, recommendations, and next steps. Consulting, training, and client services are available and tailored to client needs, according to the next steps and client need.

• Consultant

  BoldMouth

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Marketing and Advertising industry)

  August 2006 — September 2006 (2 months)

  •Blog strategy and planning for high-traffic, high-profile blog relaunch
  •Customized Moveable Type installation on CentOS dedicated server
  •Transition from TypePad to newest Movable Type 3.31 install
  •Monetization of blog, including BlogAds and Google AdSense placement
  •Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of blog

• Senior Account Supervisor

  Edelman

  (Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Public Relations and Communications industry)

  May 2006 — August 2006 (4 months)

  •Direct client contact for Wal-Mart’s innovative blog outreach campaign, including prospecting and messaging
  •Spearheaded Working Families for Wal-Mart blog, newsletter, and activation list
  •Developed online word of mouth outreach for Taylor Hicks webcast from Wal-Mart shareholder’s meeting
  •Co-produced “Exposing the Paid Critics” website for Working Families for Wal-Mart
  •Co-produced successful online advocacy proposals to GE, Nissan, Shell, the American Petroleum Institute, and Wal-Mart Realty
  •Designed and developed opt-in membership Email and messaging campaigns

• Technology Strategist

  New Media Strategies, Inc.

  (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Public Relations and Communications industry)

  September 2003 — May 2006 (2 years 9 months)

  •Developed online word-of-mouth marketing strategy and tactics used on Usenet, message boards, social networks, and blogs
  •Developed online advocacy and outreach campaigns for clients’ products, services, and message
  •Produced internal and client protective and promotional SEO campaigns and search strategy to highlight positive online conversation and supress negative conversation on popular search engines
  •Developed in-house expertise on blogging, new media, podcasting, technology, citizen journalism, and CGM, including training, teaching, and the development of blogging and online marketing strategy
  •Developed, deployed, and launched client and internal corporate blogs, marketing blogs, vertical industry blogs, PR blogs, promotional blogs, public affairs blogs, social networks, and podcasts
  •Managed online advertising campaigns using Yahoo and Google contextual ads

• Guest Lecturer

  Columbia University

  (Educational Institution; 201-500 employees; Public Relations and Communications industry)

  October 2005 — October 2005 (1 month)

  Lectured on the topic of blogging and viral marketing strategies for the Executive Masters in Public Affairs Program, for Advanced Management concentrators, at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University.

• Photographer

  Corbis

  (Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Photography industry)

  August 1990 — 2004 (14 years)

  Contracted stock photographer.

• Director of Sales

  eResources, LLC

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Networking industry)

  September 2002 — September 2003 (1 year 1 month)

  •Managed sales force and new business for the ITonDemand™ and the eResources Content Management System products

• Senior Web Developer

  National Legal Aid & Defender Association

  (Non-Profit; 11-50 employees; Alternative Dispute Resolution industry)

  February 2002 — September 2002 (8 months)

  •Developed Web applications and content management system (CMS) developer using Zope, Python, and MySQL

• Managing Director

  beehive North America

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

  July 2000 — February 2002 (1 year 8 months)

  •President, co-owner, and co-founder of beehive North America, the North American office of Berlin-based beehive elektronische medien GmbH
  •Sold and marketed software Zope application development training and services
  •Clients included College of Exploration, The Nature Conservancy, and Space Telescope Science, and Pfizer Global Research and Development (PGRD)

• Online Community Builder and Linux System Administrator

  Caucus Systems, Inc.

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

  July 1999 — June 2000 (1 year)

  Linux/Unix system administrator and online community and event facilitator for Internet company focused on developing enterprise-level virtual online events and conferences.

• Senior Information Engineer

  US Department of Treasury Chief Information Office (CIO)

  (Government Agency; 51-200 employees; Executive Office industry)

  July 1997 — July 1999 (2 years 1 month)

  Senior application and web developer for the Office of the CIO for the Department of the Treasury. HTML, scripting, programming, graphic design, management, development, and deployment of the CIO intranet and public website.

• Online Creative Writing Instructor

  Online Creative Writing Course, EFA/Kalamazoo, MI, Public Schools

  (Government Agency; 51-200 employees; Primary/Secondary Education industry)

  August 1996 — May 1997 (10 months)

  Co-teacher of the first fully accredited virtual online highschool creative writing course. Education for the Arts (EFA) was an magnet program for highschool kids in Kalamazoo, MI. The program supplied laptops and dial-up access to the students. Course did include face-to-face four times a year as well as several field trips to conferences.

• Software Engineer

  Proxicom

  (Public Company; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)

  May 1996 — August 1996 (4 months)

  Web developer for the seminal web application and development company formerly called Proxima, now Proxicom. Amongst other projects, worked on Owens Corner and Garfield official websites.

• Technical Customer Support

  Picture Network International

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Publishing industry)

  June 1993 — December 1995 (2 years 7 months)

  Industry’s first online stock photo agency with dedicated dial-up ISP-based client called “Seymour.” PNI was an online stock photography service with more than 30 stock houses supplying images. It had more than 250,000 images in its library.

• Vice President

  Pacific Rim Productions, Ltd.

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Photography industry)

  October 1994 — November 1995 (1 year 2 months)

  Vice President of multimedia production company. Primary role as producer, photographer and script writer. Clients included General Motors and Hawaii Visitors Bureau.

• Photographer

  Abraham & Dunn

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Photography industry)

  May 1983 — July 1988 (5 years 3 months)

  Family-owned photography company. Have been shooting corporate and travel photograhy since I was 13-years-old.

Chris Abraham’s Education

• George Washington University

  BA, American Literature, August 1988 — May 1993

  Activities and Societies:

  Phi Kappa Psi, Crew Team

• University of East Anglia

  American Studies September 1990 — June 1991

  Activities and Societies:

  Crew Team

Additional Information

Chris Abraham’s Websites:

• My Blog
• My RSS feed
• My Company

Chris Abraham’s Interests:

RSS, blogging, Blogosphere, emergent systems, emerging technology, futurism, buzz marketing, blog, blogs, content management, rowing, sculling, biking, running, blogging, nlp, writing, reading, lecturing, driving, new technology, emergent systems, emergent technology, new media, Internet, viral markeing, memetics, systems theory, emergence, politics, popular culture, culture, trends, programming, news

Chris Abraham’s Groups:

Renaissance Weekend, Viral and Buzz Marketing Association, VBMA, Howard Rheingold Associate, HHWinc, Haft, Harrison & Wolfson, Inc., Urban Institute Communications Advisory Board, DC Zope Python User Group, zpug, da Vinci Group

Chris Abraham’s Honors:

Most Likely to be Famous, Saint Louis School, Honolulu, HI, 1988

En Route to New York City, originally uploaded by Chris Abraham.

Here’s a photo of my little wee Lenovo x61 laptop I call x63 for a couple reasons I won’t go into. Greatest thing about the train: power supply!