I’m still used to having my username assigned. 

Gen Today is used to generating their own username.

THIS IS KEY.

If you’re a corporation – you’re used to on-boarding people (Spellchecker wanted the hyphen, I’ve never seen it in real life) and part of that process is generating a user ID that more than likely permeates through the organization.  Sometimes two or three or a dozen.  You expect people to have this as their primary, most of their waking life identity.  Their identity is key to their day job, and anything they do outside of that MUST be separate.

If you’re an independent you expect to have control over your ID and anything that may be pre-generated becomes a task and something that you’re just going to have to deal with, but like waste disposal, do it as quickly and efficiently as you can to get back to the real stuff.  If you don’t have this – unfortunately you don’t really succeed as an independent, you end up on someone’s staff.

If you’re of my generation – your “True Name” may be  something supplemented an alias you don’t hang your hat on in public.  It’s your RPG/Shadow/Ghost name.  “Mr Slippery” isn’t a name for someone that has an office address.  Something you say what you think with (hopefully) little hope of reprisal.  If you don’t have one then traditionally you may have been a “Lurker.”  Someone that hears much, says little and stays in the wings of the theater. 

But that’s changing.  More startup companies and business are identifying either both online and offline as the same thing, or identifying with their online identity first.  You can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your given name, so to some extent that’s not as surprising as it might be. 

I find this VERY interesting. 

http://iasaopenspace.eventbrite.com/

http://www.shapeways.com/blog/archives/357-Stratasys-and-HP-join-forces-to-make-3D-printers.html

So it comes as no shock the post Catrina Fake (co-Founder of Flickr) just made about the challenges of finding the right people.  But her take is somewhat different than many of the staffers I’ve talked to.  Her view is that finding good engineers isn’t as hard as some might claim, but it’s the finding of the cross disciplined engineer that’s the difficult task.

So for those of you out there looking to make a move, check out the things that she mentioned and consider adding something besides that next level of recursive optimizations to your resume.  Check out a user group on a subject you’re not familiar with.  Try out a role you haven’t done before.  Take on a task that you have been avoiding because it’s just “not in my job description.”  It might just pay off – with both better job offers and a better understanding of the whole software/tech industry.

So what is it?  All you need to do is write up a article for Code Project targeted for a Windows 7 client project that you have done.  It’s that simple.  The details are at http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9702416 – but it’s a great chance to get your name out as someone who’s up on the platform, a credit for your articles list, and a chance to win a really great laptop.  And when you submit your article, leave a comment with a link to it, I’d love to see what everyone is doing!

http://forums.zune.net/513727/ShowPost.aspx

You can find his relaunch show at http://edge.technet.com/Media/TechNet-Radio-Community-Corner-with-John-Weston-Episode-1/ and keep an eye out for follow up shows at http://blogs.technet.com/jweston/default.aspx

http://archreactor.org/

Looks like their first meeting is next week.

http://www.sharepointhillbilly.com/archive/2009/08/07/getting-your-feet-wet-writing-code-for-sharepoint-ndash-part.aspx