I got an email from someone inquiring about my availability for a project yesterday. Another person asked me through New Tech Heroes' contact form about a job possibility last week. Both asked the same question: "Are you available for long-term work?" They enjoyed the blog, and got the idea that I have some idea what I'm talking about and can use the technologies involved (which is one of the reasons that anyone involved in new media should have a blog). They weren't sure, however, if I was actually available for work.

Let me clear this question up.

Yes, I am.

This is a fast-moving time in a fast-moving industry. Startups are launched and shut down in a matter of months. Anyone working in new media or social publishing should be open to new opportunities, and I certainly am. While I have a small list of ongoing clients' projects, I'm also living in Michigan, which a quick peek at the statistics will tell you isn't exactly a hotbed of economic growth in 2008.

So, yes, I am open to opportunities. Full-time or contract jobs, projects, you name it. If it's related to writing or web development, particularly using open source tools like Drupal or Joomla, please consider me if you like what you see here on New Tech Heroes. I have a wide range of media and communications experience, and I'm willing to relocate or travel as needed. My resume is available here.

Image source: Steve Woods (woodsy on sxc.hu), Colchester, Essex, U.K.

It's long been efficient coding practice to reuse proven blocks of program code. After all, if you've already written something that works, why reinvent the wheel the next time you need the same function or operation? With open source coding, the resources for good, proven code are even greater. Thousands of solid scripts and code blocks are available for use in a new project, just by searching online. This not only improves reliability, since the code you borrow has already been battle-tested, but it also reduces development time and costs.

So why are there are so many social media sites apparently being developed from scratch?

I've discussed the positives of building a business site around a blog, or adding a blog to an existing site before. Darren Rowse of ProBlogger also listed the pros and cons of converting a website to a blog format in a recent post. I believe that the interaction between you and your customers that a blog-style site can create is essential in today's business communications.

The number of businesses and organizations looking to develop seems to be growing every week. Jeff Whatcott of Acquia took a look at the number of job postings related to social applications and found a large disparity between those just looking for PHP programmers (which he assumes means they're planning to write their own code from the ground up) and those mentioning Drupal (which assumes they understand the advantage of starting with an established, robust content management platform). Jeff notes:

There are currently 816 social app building jobs mentioning PHP skills and only 89 mentioning Drupal skills. As you page through the actual job postings, you see evidence of lots of social publishing application development going on out there, but a lot of it appears to be heading down a path of custom PHP development.

So what's up with this? Drupal is the killer social publishing system. It's built on PHP. It saves a ton of time over building a custom system from scratch. Why are so many people who are friendly to LAMP and PHP in particular decide to reinventing the wheel? Which of the following do you think it is?

1. They've never heard of Drupal
2. They're vaguely aware, but not sure why it might be relevant to their projects
3. They've actively evaluated it in the past, but rejected it.
4. They know Drupal and like it in general, but it's just a poor fit for the current project for some reason

Companies that are looking to develop a next generation web site need to understand that content management systems have matured to a level where, at a basic administrative level, it's not a requirement to be a PHP expert to implement a CMS-based site. It's nice, but it's not absolutely essential unless you're looking to completely customize every element of the site. Requiring multiple years of experience in PHP and MySQL in order to qualify an applicant to create and maintain a WordPress, Drupal or Joomla-based site is like asking someone who'll be using Microsoft Word to be fluent in C++. It'd be nice, but hardly required for the task at hand.

From an evangelism point of view, those of us who are marketing these new technologies to clients need to emphasize the time and cost advantages of starting from a solid, proven base instead of building a web application from the ground up.

UPDATE: Nick Lewis weighs in with "Top 5 Reasons Developers Don't Use Drupal."

• Drupal developer wanted. Must have 8 years experience with Drupal or similar Open Source CMS.
• Client needs a Workpress programmer. Required skills include C++ and/or Visual Basic.
• Social Media Manager. Looking for a Facebook and MySpace guru with 5+ years experience and a BS in Social Media. Master's preferred.

"New Media" jobs are hot. We've seen the power of connecting directly to our clients, constituents and pretty much everyone through blogging and social networking applications on the web. Now businesses and organizations are trying to figure out how to make effective use of these technologies to expand their reach, improve customer relations and take control of the online conversation.

Search the big job boards and you'll find plenty of postings seeking people with experience using online networking applications like Twitter or Facebook, or those who know how to install and customize a WordPress or Drupal site. It's a great time to be involved with new media.

So who's writing these ridiculous job descriptions? Excepts from three of them are above, and they'd be funny if they weren't also real. Eight years experience with Drupal? I think there's only one person on Earth with that qualification. Workpress? Is that another startup that sounds like WordPress, or was someone not listening very closely? C++ and VB are great, but what do they have to do with WordPress? And five years experience with Facebook and MySpace? Good luck with that, not to mention finding someone with a Master's in Social Media.

The HR departments that posted these jobs were faced with something new and strange, and apparently tried to apply existing requirements for "normal" jobs like Programmer or Network Administrator to these new positions. The problem is new media is developing so quickly, and the demand for professionals to work in the field so great, that old expectations don't apply. In some cases, the best qualified person for some of these jobs may not have graduated from high school. It's tough to get used to the idea you're going to have to pay someone under the age of twenty-five a wage approaching $50.00 an hour - and they may not even have a Bachelor's degree!

If you're hiring, flexibility and curiosity are keys to look for from applicants. The most important qualification anyone can demand from a new media hire is the ability to think creatively, because as the field continues to grow, the person you hire will have to be able to adapt to those changes. Having a genuine curiosity about other people and now they think and react is important, too (maybe a new use for a psychology or sociology degree?).

Companies that can think outside of the box when looking for new media candidates will be rewarded in the long run. Those that reject candidates for not matching unreasonable requirements may find it hard to find anyone to fit their needs, at a time when the potential benefits of new media and social networking is so great.

Photo credit: Maare Liiv, Estonia (www.sxc.hu)

Drupal Economic Indicators Mashup v1.0 - by Jeff Whatcott from @FIRST_LIGHT - "Drupal mentions in job postings look really strong relative to other social publishing technologies. But there still aren’t as many postings as I would like to see. If you dig into the data, only hundreds of job postings actually mention Drupal whereas thousands of job postings mention PHP. But at least Drupal is a specific skill that people are willing to pay for."

Citizen media and the Beijing Olympics - by Hugh R. Macdonald from New Media Mogul - "[The IOC plans] to let athletes maintain personal blogs surrounding the games, provided they don’t comment on the performances of other athletes or upload audiovisual content they have created of an Olympic event. Speaking more generally, it would appear that the IOC considers blogging to be ‘a legitimate form of personal expression’ rather than journalism."

New Media: an Important Place to Be - by Luke Armour from blogtalkradio - "Let’s look at the reported Percent of Media Influence on Electronics and Year over Year Growth for Web Radio: up 14.4%, Satellite Radio: down 6.9%, Radio: up a tiny 0.8%, Newspaper down 1.2%, Magazines down 3.7%, TV/Broadcast down 13.9% and Cable down a whopping 14.4%. And we don’t expect the trend to slow down any time soon."