Web 2.0 @ Work: Creating a professional profile

Posted on June 22nd, 2008 by Sacha Chua

Do you have a professional website, or do you just leave your professional profile up to random Internet search results or sparse corporate directory listings?

Although we have a terrific centralized corporate directory at IBM, I’ve found it very useful to also have a simple professional profile with a short biography, my contact information, and links to the other services I use on the intranet and on the Internet. Having one site that brings all of these things together makes it easier for me to help people get to know who I am, what I’m passionate about, and where they can find out more about me. I include this URL in my e-mail signature and in my presentations so that people can find me easily.

I use WordPress as a content management system so that I can quickly add links and pages without editing HTML. On my internal site, I use the Blueprint theme for WordPress. It’s clean and easy to read, and it fits with Big Blue’s color scheme. The front page explains who I am, what I do, and what my team does. It also links to places where people can check out my bookmarks, download my latest presentations, and so on.

To set up something like it:

Download and install WordPress.
Download and unpack the Blueprint theme to your wp-content/themes/ directory.
Choose the Blueprint theme from the WordPress administration interface.
Create a page called “About”. Fill it in with details about yourself.
Set the About page as your site’s front page in the Settings – Reading menu.
Create links to your profiles on other services and other related websites.

More posts about: networking, Uncategorized, web2.0 // 4 Comments »

Short URL: http://sachachua.com/blog/p/4930

Pingback: Identité en ligne : se créer un profil pro | simon robic
http://sachachua.com Sacha Chua

Hello Sacha.
Very impressed by your about-me presentation on slideshare. Then directed to your professional website.

Very good job.

At first I thought your site is also on Drupal. and was happy to see the friendfeed add-in the right.

Nopes, then I realised, you are on WordPress. Actually, I have had recommendations to switch to wordpress for my personal website.

I would be pleased if you could had a look at it and drop some advise, if possible

thanks and best regards,

http://ashesh.ramjeeawon.info
- http://sachachua.com Sacha Chua
  
  =) Glad you liked the presentation!
  
  I like Drupal for community websites and content management systems. WordPress is easy for getting a blog up and running, though, and there are probably more blog-related plugins for WordPress. The WP interface is also somewhat easier for blogging. I know people who are very happy with their Drupal sites, though, so you can definitely use that to blog instead. It all depends on what you enjoy, I guess!
- http://sachachua.com Sacha Chua
  
  I’m glad to see you have a site! =) I hope you mention it in your e-mail signature – great way to connect with people.
  
  The key thing that would make a difference for you, I think, is if you went out there and read and wrote as much as you could. Read good bloggers and good writers so that you can learn more about how to express yourself, and write so that you get into the habit of writing.
  
  I’d probably move the login form down unless you really have people logging in, as most people probably won’t use it. I’d also suggest replacing your Flash home page with the latest posts from your blog, as the links to the different parts of your site are already available through the header. Text is more readable when you use short lines instead of long, so you might want to think about making your content area narrower and then either leaving the rest of the space as whitespace or putting in a sidebar.
  
  … but that’s just my opinion. =) Look around and you’ll figure out which sites you like, which sites you don’t like, and what the differences are. Good luck and have fun!
  
  A personal site is a fantastic tool for anyone, but especially for students. Keep adding good material to it, and it’ll really help you.

On This Day...

2012: Still working on that shift from services to products — I’ve been in business for four months, hooray! Consulting is going well. I want to learn how to build products, [...]
2011: Portal 2 and teachable moments in argument — Portal 2 became an obsession in our household after W- shared with us the Youtube clips of the ending songs, [...]
2010: Seven Tips for Short Talks — Regina Zaliznyak asked me to put together a presentation to help IBM’s Extreme Blue interns give better 4-minute pitches to [...]
2009: Cultivating enthusiasm — W- turned to J- and asked, “So, why don’t you want to go to summer camp?” “The first reason is that [...]
2009: Log your accomplishments — If you’ve ever wondered where the day went, or where the week went, or where the month or year went, [...]
2009: Weekly review: Week ending June 21, 2009 — From last week’s plans Social Recruiting Summit Taking the Stage: The Power of Voice Develop Drupal system – Transition2 Got the forums to [...]
2008: Trudge, trudge, trudge — Oh no, I’ve hit the slump. I spent some time working on the Wicked Cool Emacs today. Spam filtering – not [...]
2008: Weekly review: Week ending June 22, 2008 — More Drupal work! This week, I wrapped up the first phase of my project at work. I’m starting to feel [...]
2005: Geeks and soft stuff — Kathy Sierra (Creating Passionate Users) was surprised to find that geeks are very interested in learning about “soft” topics like community. I’m [...]
2005: Information Design — While reading about presentation skills, I stumbled across a page entitled “So where are all the Information Designers?”. I found [...]
2005: Good presentation tips — Five Rules for Better PowerPoint Presentations (from Working Smart) is a great post on presentation skills. Here are his five [...]
2004: Potato surprise — The potato surprise mentioned yesterday was actually pretty okay, although I think I should’ve left it in the micro for a minute [...]
2004: Tickle Super-IQ test — 131? Hmm. I wonder what questions I got wrong… <muses> The way you think about things makes you a Creative Theorist. [...]
2004: Knoppix: The Easiest Way to Get Started with Linux — (Description of talk I’ll deliver at the Philippine Open Source Conference on 2004.08.17 from 15:00 to 17:00) Want to try out Linux without [...]
2003: Look into literate programming — Literate programming principles might be the thing I need to make HTML sites with code in them.

sacha chua living an awesome life