Online Community Manager: Yes, It's Really A Job January 28, 2009

Dawn Foster (@geekygirldawn) of the Portland tech community will be giving a talk about online community managers.

Description: Online community managers are being hired in more and more companies and organizations. In this presentation, Dawn will talk about how communities are managed and why companies need community management. I'll also provide some specific job requirements and skills that community managers need in order to be successful.

Bio: Dawn Foster is a Consultant, Community Manager, Event Organizer, Blogger, Podcaster, Vegan, and Technology Enthusiast

Dawn provides consulting services for companies wanting to engage with online communities through various social media technologies including discussion forums, blogs, wikis, podcasts, and more. She is also the community evangelist for Shizzow, a new Portland startup. She has more than 13 years of experience in technology and software with expertise in open source software, web 2.0, social media, blogging, and community building.

Dawn is the author of the Fast Wonder Blog and also blogs on GigaOm's WebWorkerDaily. She is an organizer for the Portland BarCamp event and helps organize Ignite Portland. She is a co-founder and board member of Legion of Tech. She helped organize the first Corvallis BarCamp.

Dawn holds an MBA from Ashland University and a bachelor's degree in computer science from Kent State University. Previously, she worked at Jive Software, Compiere, Intel, and a Midwestern manufacturing company in positions ranging from Unix system administrator to market researcher to community manager to open source strategist.