Just two more full days at Citysearch. Time flies.

Yours in countdowns-ville, Eric Small

So the news is true. Another stage in my life has come to an end and the next begins.

As of Monday, I have two weeks left in my tenure with Citysearch. It has been 3-1/2 years – a lifetime in Internet time – and 4 title changes, all very exciting in their moment. I’ve seen 4 re-designs and innumerable product improvements, both from the technical side and the business side. And made more friends and developed more professional relationships than is probably fair for one person. But everything comes to an end eventually, and my time at Citysearch is due.

For the record, I am very proud of my accomplishments at Citysearch. I’m proud too of my more firey moments. My professional demeanor has changed and grown. And I can truly say my passion for my work is firmly intact. I leave not because I see a dearth of opportunity. Citysearch, with good execution, a step up in collaboration, and some focus on its other problems, can achieve. Local, as an industry, will be explosive in its growth in the months and years to come.

I simply grew weary. I picked my battles. I won some. And I lost some.

I produced. Got much done. And wished for much more.

And I innovated. And celebrated those achievements. And planned out many more.

But in the end, Local, as a problem, became a repetitive one – at least for me. That which was “new”, was no longer for me. I had seen all the major variations of the Profile Page. I had completed a social network integration. I had described the ideal user experience and simplest registration system. And so it was time to move on.

In comes GOOD. It’s a start-up. And it’s new! New people, a new place, and new challenges. Certainly I will apply all that I know and have learned, probably in some novel and unexpected ways. And that frankly thrills me.

For those wondering, I will be taking on the role of VP of Product Engineering.

With that, GOOD is a return to my roots. As leader of their technical efforts, I will again truly be able to apply my technical skills in tandem with my business skills. I, of course, won’t be able to help but to guide and advise on Product and Social Media issues. And with my background, I think I’ll do pretty darn good at it all. Call me “Ready!”

Lastly, I get to BUILD! I’ll be joining a really great group of people, doing a great thing, while building a great company, and within that, a great technical team. The challenges will be many, and the coolest is that I not only get to nurture a team, but in effect, create one from scratch. I know all of you reading will support me when I need to reach out for advice too. That’s what you do, and I’m honored by that.

So…that’s the story. As I close one chapter and start the next, I expect many of you will continue to be characters in my continuing story, and I in yours. Stay tuned!

Yours in transition, Eric Small

The ongoing series of photo archive commentary

* WPG2 CANNOT LOCATE GALLERY2 ITEM ID 4613 * Among the many proud jobs I’ve had the pleasure of working on, was the original (read, first) cubs.com web site. Back in 1996, when the corporate Web was just being birthed still, I was at the Tribune Media Services company within the grander Tribune Company. I had a cubical in the historical Tribune building on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, facing out over Navy Pier on Lake Michigan. It was beautiful, truly. As one of the first hires working on web sites, I was picked to work on the new Cubs.com site. It didn’t hurt that I had successfully created an automated sports scores publishing mechanism, which we ultimately integrated on the live copy of the Wrigley Field scoreboard you see above. I worked with my friend Valerie Nozick as the primary on the content side, me being on the technical side. And we did it in the matter of a couple months.

It was a proud time and set me firmly on a course of success in the Internet industry. And like it or not, I have been a Cubs fan ever since (shhhhh) ;-)

See more of the screen captures here: Cubs.com photo album

- A Proud Internet web site papa, Eric Small

Just got back from the Social Media Club LA meeting at the Sheraton Universal, where the crowd got a little raucous after one of the panelists seemed to be “all about the buck” then proceeded (seemingly) to diss on the Motrin Moms. That was Rob Frankel. Also on the panel were Anne Plese from Cisco — an excellent speaker by the way — and Babette Pepaj of BakeSpace.com, all of whom made some interesting points on how to approach social media conversations on the web when representing a brand.

Most interesting to me was the dichotomy of approaches between Cisco, the bohemoth with $millions being spent on branding and BakeSpace with a mom-and-pop style founder branding “team”. Cisco is all about watching the conversation, then jumping in and supporting the positive or encircling the negative ones in side conversations (kind of vulture-like) and having their advocates naturally choke off the oxygen for those who speak ill. BakeSpace, lacking all of those marketing dollars, instead immediately jumps in when something negative pops up and strikes at that negativity head on. Both approaches seemed prudent given the market position of the players, but I’m left wondering where a known but not super-well known brand like my company should land in that conversation. I wish sometimes I had a colleague that could attend these things with me.

Sigh.

The whole Twitter-stream can be found here.

Enlightened but perplexed, Eric Small

An old favorite. Something of a Pick Me Up tune, and a bit of a theme song the last couple months as we worked to wrap up the project at work for our 3/11 launch date.

East Bound and Down from YouTube

Your Sing-Along buddy, Eric Small

* WPG2 CANNOT LOCATE GALLERY2 ITEM ID 3083 *For anyone confused, yes indeed, I’ve worked on TWO sites that just re-launched. My own (the one you’re looking at now) and my employer’s, Citysearch.com. The image to your left is what my old site used to look like. I think it looks much better today. It’s definitely a lot easier to manage.

-Yours in fresh new website digs, Eric Small

Among the things keeping me busy of late (ok, the last year plus) has been the total re-architecting, re-design, and re-launch of my company’s front door website at http://citysearch.com. My part of the job entailed helping define the content layout and functioning of what we call the Business Profile Page (BPP for short), as well as all of the back-end and front-end tools for our users. Among the components receiving the most press is the implementation of Facebook Connect as part of our social strategy. So far, it’s going great and I’m enjoying my time (or at least my product’s time) in the limelight.

I’d love to hear from any of you readers that have comments on the new site — especially as pertains to my parts! And if you haven’t already, sign up, Connect with your Facebook username/password, and write a review or two (or more!). Bartonville needs some user review love for sure at http://national.citysearch.com/guide/bartonville-il (a hint at our overall hyper-local architecture … so cool Bartonville has a page, eh?).

Yours in Web Development bliss, Eric Small

Work sometimes has some good perks. Among the most recent was the opportunity to attend the facebook f8 developers conference in San Francisco. It involved two extremely early mornings (at least for me) but I actually learned a lot (a rarity for a conference) and had fun meeting people and watching my boss give a presentation. Unfortunately I didn’t get to take much “me” time because of the shortness of the trip, but all in all it was good.

- Workin’ and a Travellin’, Eric Small

The ongoing series of photo archive commentary

* WPG2 CANNOT LOCATE GALLERY2 ITEM ID 2689 * This photo was taken by my good friend and former manager Drew back some time in the late 90s (I’d guess). After my experience with Adbot (see the Wikipedia article mentioned in the last few posts), I found myself working at what was at the time named Diamond Technology Partners. By the time I left I had made some great friends in the small group I worked in. You can see Drew, Kim, Tom, and myself in the picture on the computer.

In front you can see Webtiki, Web goddess. She was a hilarious gift during the White Elephant Christmas gift exchange, which Drew ended up with in the end. She ultimately became our symbol of hope during large projects. To have Webtiki at your desk was an honor.

- Former Diamond web-mate, Eric Small

Have I mentioned that I began a new group on the LinkedIn web site? No, no…of course I haven’t. It’s named GLBT Professionals (and Friends) and its specifically for, well, anyone. Anyone that has stepped out of the 1940’s and embraced that gays and their kin are welcome members in society. Here’s the description:

This group is for members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered (GLBT) community and anyone who supports non-discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation. Or support hiring of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons for workplace diversity and community unity.

If you’re interested, just make sure you have a LinkedIn profile (a good idea anyway), and go to the link http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/136406/707BE82B3560 to find the group. If you want, you can give me a heads up so that I can pre-approve you, but I’ve been checking for new member requests daily anyway.

So, I’d love to have you! Please come on in and join the group.

- Your GLBT friend and group leader, Eric Small