Bringing in a Ringer - Greetings to Linda

Linda.gooruze.com

Sometimes writing candidly about the company that writes your paycheck (or in Canadian, cheque) can be a dubious arrangement. Additionally when writing about an industry (ecommerce in our case) and trying to be at least sorta objective is hard when you really want to speak frankly about your company’s solution but not look like you are a shill.

I don’t identify myself as a “corporate blogger” but rather a person acting as the inside source on (non-confidential) company info plus general banter about what we are up to and what I am learning as I hang out with co-workers, especially the smart ones ;-).

Jason digs deep into the nuance of ecommerce and Tom kicks down some great developer tips and tricks, however we’ve sought someone to talk about ecommerce trends but someone who is not in the office with us all day. The aim, to defeat the echo chamber and bring in some fresh ideas.

Enter Linda Bustos - she’s in our mix here in VanBC - we hang out at Vancouver’s Barcamp and other ‘geekfests’ - and we read her engaging and enlightening social media blog - Smogger (where she blogs as postergirl). She is also rocking some web development and Internet marketing projects at a Vancouver Web design factory, specializing in Drupal so she gets big techie points.

I find Linda has a particular knack for assembling lists and wrap-ups. Indeed, as a chronic podcaster, I have referenced her podcast directory list many a time. And now she’s diligently (well i assume anyhow) at work on a comprehensive wrap-up report of social shopping / bookmarking sites (like those guys at Jellyfish).

She’ll also be writing some practical informative research pieces for Get Elastic … taking a look at EP - what we do and how we fit into the big picture of the ecommerce space and open source community with the cutting edge techniques rockin’ from the fingers of the diligent developers - usability, testing, design, analysis … that kinda stuff.

The fact that she blogged about Canadian cult legends and erstwhile ambassadors Bob and Doug McKenzie’s upcoming anniversary special scores big hip points too.

So one more ecommerce geek blogger for your money (you’ve mailed in your cheque right?). And remember … this blog takes requests - topics, songs and/or jokes - we’re here all week.