seeking work

[cos]

This week I got my last paycheck from the Jesse Gordon campaign, and now it's time to find the next thing to work on. I've been ambivalent for a while about what sort of work I want to do - back to geekdom? More campaigns? Try music? I have a hard enough time trying to figure out what to put on a resume and how to organize it, without imagining five or six completely different resumes!

So I'm casting about for pointers to interesting work or projects. Do you know of anything?

Here's what I can (and like to) do:

• politics and grassroots organizing
  Field organizing & get out the vote; volunteer coordination; campaign message; online outreach, blogs, and campaign web sites, civicspace; voter database & tech stuff for field campaigns; organizing meetings, training local organizers and meeting hosts, connecting groups; lots of ties to the Massachusetts progressive movement; coordinated a ballot petition drive in 30+ cities/towns; coordinated meetups for Dean throughout the state (took us from 14 to 50 in six months)
  
• geekery
  Unix admin, experience with servers & networks, Internet protocols, email, web, etc; perl; databases (I took a grad course in database theory, even :); Apache + mod_perl + DBI/DBD + Informix/mySQL/Oracle web app development; ... but no Microsoft admin - I can stand to use a Windows box, if I get to pick my own clients for things like email, but I don't want to administer Windows, IIS, MSSQL, etc.
  
• music, sound, and radio
  I've been a community radio station program director and general manager, DJ'ed thousands of hours, including talk, music, and news shows; audio tech (I can explain the difference between balanced & unbalanced lines! :) - I've run sound at clubs (Passim, the Middle East, Fire & Water, others), done over a thousand high quality studio-ish recordings; booking & promotion - I booked a venue for over a decade, booked serveral artists, solo & band, done artist web sites and email lists
  
• teaching/training
  I did the K-6 education certification program at Brandeis, and student taught, but the public school environment is not for me. In other contexts, though... taught sailing classes at CBI; trained live music engineers at WBRS for over a decade (it takes 4-8 months to train a new engineer); designed a DJ training & testing program at WBRS that remained in use for many years after; trained new precinct captains and poll watchers for a political campaign

So what am I looking for? Maybe setting up and maintaining databases for a few progressive campaigns and doing some remote perl contracts? Booking a band on tour and working for a campaign when they're off tour? I can't pick one ideal scenario. Do you know anyone who needs any of the above skills and will pay for them?

[ Edit: I should mention, though most of you know - I don't want to move away from Boston, but love to travel around the US. Also, do you know anyone who wants to buy some Treo accessories? ]

Comments

[ratontheroad.livejournal.com]

Years from now, if I'm still interested, I might pick your mind on how to become more involved in various campaigns, but for the moment, it's against the law for me to do so.

On a side note, how do you like the 650?

[cos]

*nod*

I mostly like the 650. I was really used to the 300 so most of my impressions of the 650 are how it compares to the 300. The most important reason I got a Treo in the first place, was to have mobile Internet access for my laptop, and in that aspect, the comparison is mixed. Because the Treo 650 has bluetooth dialup networking, the third party software I was using to connect via USB on my 300 did not get upgraded to support the 650, so I'm stuck using bluetooth. On the one hand, it's nice and convenient - no cords to plug in, and fewer windows and clicks to go through to connect. On the other hand, bluetooth is slower than USB, and I feel like the network connection I'm getting is slower.

The other thing I miss is the flip-cover, which was a very intuitive on-off switch and phone pickup/hangup device. With the 650, the interactions of the phone on and off switches' more overloaded functions sometimes produces weird results for me. For example, I think I'm turning the phone on, and I accidentally dial a number.

In all other respects, the 650 is much superior. More memory, better software, much clearer screen which makes the web more usable and Vindigo maps more readable, and it has real SMS and simple SMS-like email. Phone call quality seems about the same.

[ratontheroad.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info... I've been thinking about it for a little while now, so I'm not so reliant on hotel internet overseas... the trick might be finding a good service plan though.

Thanks again :)

[also-huey.livejournal.com]

Do you know Deb Finn (http://blog.deborah.elizabeth.finn.com/blog)? She's Bostony, and might know of something that combines the 'grassroots', the 'geekery', and maybe the 'teaching/training'. And she's interesting enough to just hang out with, even if she has no hot social-networking-fu to drop employment on you with right now...

[cos]

I don't think I know her, though the name sounds a bit familiar. Shall I contact her and say you sent me? :)

[also-huey.livejournal.com]

You should contact her, although I'm not sure that mentioning me would help. I'm just some idiot that typed at her on usenet for several years.

[listgirl.livejournal.com]

You may move to PHX and be my bitch.

[cos]

If you pay may enough to actually still "live" in Boston, and fly or drive back and forth all the time, I will consider it. What are the duties? How do they match my skills as described above?

[listgirl.livejournal.com]

yes and what's more, I can totally afford all of that on a teachers salary!!! (doesn't america rock?)

[cos]

Why do you hate America?

[elleliss.livejournal.com]

Hey Cos,

I'm not exactly sure what you should do, and I don't have any leads right now (helpful, huh!) but I wanted to wish you lots of luck finding the right thing. And lots of success once you have :)

Liss