Josh Shear « Hire Vine – Jobs for Thought Leaders

Joshua N. (Josh) Shear
mail@joshshear.com * 413.977.1029

Expertise
Operating Systems: Windows XP, 2000, Vista; Mac OS X; Legacy Mac OS
Software: Microsoft Office/Open Office; Dreamweaver/Home Site; Flash; Fireworks; Photoshop/Image Ready; WordPress; Movable Type; Blogger; Soundslides; Audacity; Quark XPress
Languages: HTML, CSS
Social Networking: Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Reddit, Google, iMeem, others.

Related Experience
Syracuse Online LLC, Producer, Sept. 2005-Sept. 2008; Project Coordinator, Sept.2008-present
• Online news, sports and information Web site. Continuously updating large, newspaper-affiliated Web site with breaking news, sports, features. Site-wide maintenance, including updating in HTML and CSS and via content management systems, proofreading.
• In-house blogging expert, responsible for maintaining sole-authored sports blog; overseeing and troubleshooting our roughly 150 blogs; keeping apprised of and disseminating information about blogging best practices.
• In-house search engine optimization (SEO) expert. Advising on article content, keyword placement, page metadata, headings etc. Balancing SEO with usability to create strong content that is both easily found and easy to use.
• In-house Social Media (SM) expert. Responsible for managing the site’s Twitter and Digg presences, and advising the Facebook and Reddit presences. Testing new platforms to determine their usefulness to the site and newsroom.
• High School Sports: Site’s expert on a company-wide integrated dynamic high school sports platform, including assisting in the development of the system and bringing together site, corporate, newspapers and community users (both admin and front-end).

Freelance Work
• Proofreading scholarly papers across various fields, including education, economics and communications.
• Web site creation and maintenance using HTML, CSS, Blogger, WordPress and Movable Type. Ask for samples.

Syracuse University, Various positions, 2003-2005
• Department of Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises, Whitman School of Management: Web site maintenance and creation, minor technical support, computer support at conferences.
• Military Visual Journalism Program, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications: Teaching assistant, classes in Interactive Project Development (HTML, Flash, Director)
• Center for Digital Literacy, joint program of S.I. Newhouse School for Public Communications, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Policy, and School of Information Studies: Grant writing, planning and leading 2004 Summer Institute on the Internet and Democracy.

Reminder Publications, Various positions, September, 2000 – August, 2003
• Family-owned publishing group printing a series of non-daily newspapers.
• Editor, The Journal/Bravo: Overseeing bi-weekly arts publication, responsible for filling news hole, assigning and editing freelance stories within a budget. Writing ~100 column inches per issue, plus photos. Laying out publication in Quark XPress.
• Staff writer, The Chicopee Herald, The Reminder, The Reminder MetroWest, all newsweeklies. Responsible for producing ~200 column inches of editorial copy, plus photos, per week, with some stories running in multiple publications. Beats included the towns of Granby, South Hadley, Holyoke and Chicopee, Mass., bike paths, local music scene, combined sewer overflows. Some stories were also versioned for Prime, a monthly magazine geared at readers 50-plus.

Interests, Awards & Organizations
• 40 Under 40 recipient, 2008: 40 Under 40 honors young professionals who have a great impact on their communities.
• CNY SPaRC: Incoming executive board member (secretary) for January 2010; Board advisor: Marketing coordinator, January 2008-December 2009. The Syracuse Professional and Recreation Club brings together young professionals (median age ~35) together for social, networking, sporting and volunteer events. Redesigned the group’s website first in Blogger then in WordPress.
• 40 Below: Active on the Civic Engagement task force. 40 Below targets young professionals with an eye toward maintaining the population in and helping them improve Central New York.
• Interests: Volunteerism; corporate and government responsibility; sustainable workforces, government, transportation and living; photography; recreational sports (tennis, softball, basketball, others).

Education
• Masters coursework, Media Studies, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University. Coursework included communications theory studies, qualitative and quantitative research, theory building. Focus on newspaper ownership with a quantitative approach. [Note: Coursework completed; thesis not defended. Contact me for more information.]
• Bachelor of Arts, English/Communications, Western New England College. Editor, The Westerner, the school’s student newspaper, September, 1999-May, 2000.