I know… it is a sad time for video resume lovers the world over. I admit it. I did it. I removed the video resume that brought me so much undue fame acknowledgment. I figured nobody would even notice, but mere days after I did the nefarious deed, my friend David Cohen relayed his tale of grief, that he had tried in vain to show it to a friend.

Why would I do such a rash thing, you might ask? Well, for one the video was over a year old – which, in Internet time, puts it in about the same bin as animated gifs and Ace of Base. Besides that, I am no longer looking for a job, and haven’t been since about a month after I posted the video. So to have an outdated video resume floating around seems counterintuitive. Oh, and I swore if I received one more YouTube comment approval notice for a viagra ad, porn site, or other spamtacular post on my work of art grainy webcam opus, bad things were going to happen. Very bad things. *dun-dun-duuuuuun*

Yes, I even made this abnormally cute, fuzzy thing cry. Ok, I admit it, I just wanted a good excuse to post the photo of this abnormally cute, fuzzy thing. Hopefully it will offer you some consolation in this matter. Enjoy.

Amazon.com has finally debuted their new iTunes competition: AmazonMP3. Well, okay, it’s not the most creative name, but I am impressed thus far with the product offering:

• MP3’s encoded at 256 kbps – yes, that’s good. We like high-fidelity sound.
• DRM-free – translation: no copy protection, so you are free to put it on whatever device you wish
• 89 cents per song – for more than half of the catalog, and slightly more for other songs. I saw some that were 99 cents. That’s still way cheaper than iTunes’ $1.30 per song for DRM-free MP3’s

I downloaded a couple songs today and it was smooth as butter. The only sticky point for me was that I had mixed emotions about the downloader applet. I like it better than iTunes as far as it’s simplicity, but I can’t help but feel like it is not necessary. Anytime I have to install a program (or applet) on my computer for something as simple as downloading a music file, I feel like there is something wrong with the picture. Less is more!

That aside, I will be using Amazon to download my mp3’s. Thank you, Amazon, for listening to my consumer voice and giving me what I want: DRM free MP3’s at a reasonable price. Apple, please take note. Amen.

I won’t say that I’m famous, but my mug made it onto national television this morning for about five seconds (check out the video in the upper-right corner). Now, if I can just find another ten seconds somewhere to round out my requisite fifteen…

Right around time 00:48 in this video of a segment that aired on Good Morning America you’ll see a clip from the video resume that has brought me so much attention from the newspapers. It is interesting how the stories have shifted from reporting on how great and cutting edge video resumes are to how they really don’t work all that well at landing a job. It’s like they’re their own little dot com bubble!

Seriously though, a video resume is merely an accessory to help present an image of the candidate. If anyone lands a job simply because they had a good video resume, I would be disappointed in the hiring company. The more relevant question to ask is, “did you get an interview as a result of your video resume?”

Yet another newspaper has decided that they like my video resume! I was featured in an article in today’s Atlanta Journal & Constitution on video resumes. If I were looking for a job, I should try to get one with a newspaper company after seeing their affinity for my webcamming. There was an unfortunate error in the article which falsely claims I was offered the job that I created the video resume for. I was not offered the job and am not sure why the AJC misrepresented that fact. There is a time line mistake, as well. Despite the inaccuracies, it was a good article and I was featured in far more of it than I would have expected. The full color photo on the front page of the AJC Jobs section was a nice touch, too. Papa, my paternal grandfather, unknowingly discovered the photo and article this morning and called my parents around 7:30am because he was so excited. Hearing about that made my day.

7/26/2007 Update: I asked the AJC to correct the error asap. They will be running a correction bit in next Sunday’s paper and they have already corrected the online article.

8/09/2007 Update: Here is the correction bit that the AJC ran in the July 29th newspaper.

…for every time my resume video was viewed, I’d be a millionaire! Okay, maybe not. But I do find a certain amount of comedy in how many people seem interested in it — simply because I never intended for the public to find it. I get a couple messages a week from people all over the world interested in posting it on their blog or featuring it on a website. Here’s an example of a very nice fellow from Australia who kindly asked to feature it on his site the other day. You would think that my entrepreneurial alarms would be going off, telling me to take this minor success and turn it into cashflow. I wonder what the success here is really attributed to.

Evidently video resumes are suddenly all the rage in the press, and they keep finding the one I posted last year and calling me for interviews. No complaints here. Francesca Di Meglio, a reporter for BusinessWeek magazine, is the latest to call and was even kind enough plug Real Nice Software. Here is a link to the online article for your reading pleasure, and an excerpt from the part where she mentions me:

One of the résumés on YouTube belongs to Allen Ulbricht, a 2003 graduate of Georgia Tech’s undergraduate management program, whose video has him dressed in business casual attire and responding—as naturally as possible—to likely questions for a Web 2.0 gig to which he was applying in December, 2006.

Now the owner of Real Nice Software, which creates custom software for small businesses, Ulbricht says he pulled himself out of the running for the job but is sure his video, an adjunct to his traditional online résumé, would have given him a leg up on the competition. Video will become an expected part of the job application, says Ulbricht, even if it will never replace traditional, written résumés.

…now if I could only find a way to make millions with my new found fame. What fame, you ask? I am featured in an article on video resumes which can be found in the Money section of today’s USA Today newspaper (Wednesday, April 25th, 2007). You can also find the article online by clicking on this link. I’ll be signing autographs after the show.

My first blog post, entitled “I’m famous!“, references an NPR story on video resumes, which listed mine in their top ten. I had posted a video resume to YouTube back in December ‘06 that was not meant for anyone to see except the employer I was trying to woo. But since then thousands of people have viewed it and several media reporters have contacted me for interviews about it, from UWire magazine to USA Today newspaper. The latest interview (and subsequent photo session!) was with the aforementioned USA Today, and it was quite enjoyable working with those folks. The author, Jim Hopkins, was even nice enough to plug Real Nice Software, LLC for me in the article. This whole video resume thing is really taking off! I should start a business with it… perhaps video resume consulting. “I will show *YOU* how to make a great video resume. Don’t wait! Call today!”

My friend David Felfoldi recently sent me a link to Ning, which, evidently, is the white board of social networking sites. This site serves to prove (as if there were any doubt) that the phenomenon of social networking sites (SNSs), as a genre, has reached the saturation point. No mas! As an investor, I would be steering my money away from SNSs in general. However, what does pique my entrepreneurial curiosity, and gets the old gears squeaking, is predicting what the next revolution of social networking on the Internet will look like. Thoughts?

Early last year I developed an extensive design document for a site that would be a MySpace for MMO gamers, specifically targeting World of Warcraft subscribers. A couple differentiators were features such as user profiles based on the in-game character (rather than the subscriber’s person), and a plug-in that would automatically transfer in-game character information to the site and keep the character profile current. After much planning, and even some development of an early prototype, I rested the idea due mostly to concerns surrounding adoption rate estimates and revenue potential.

Enter Napster creator Shawn Fanning and Rupture. If I could have waved a magic wand and ordered my brainchild created in an instant, Rupture is pretty much it. Fanning appears to have identified most of the major components that are likely to make a social networking site successful in the MMO market. There are still some pieces that Rupture would do well to implement, such as a “real life” section in the profile where users can optionally post photos and information about themselves. At first glance Rupture looks great, and it will be interesting to see how it is accepted by the MMO community.