IT recruiting in Second Life and Web 2.0 round up

The state of Missouri is taking its IT recruiting efforts to another world – Second Life. The state within the last few weeks has set up a presence in the virtual world aimed at helping to expand its current IT recruiting efforts, said Paul Wright, IT director for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

So far the state, which plans to launch a job fair in Second Life in the coming weeks to feature the state CIO’s avatar strolling the virtual streets, has posted notices about available IT jobs in Second Life and posted slide presentation about the state, Wright said.

“Most of this generation is very big on multiplayer game environments,” Wright said. “A lot of those folks are technically inclined and spend some time out there. Those are the type of folks we are looking to hire here in the state.  We’re asking people to stop in and take a look at what we have.”

So far, the state has had about 12 to 15 people stop by its Second Life set up to inquire about the various job postings for software developers, network administrators, database administrator and help desk jobs, Wright added.

Google adds finance gadgets, releases new API
Google announced this week a new Google Finance Tab on iGoogle, a dashboard of financial gadgets aimed at allowing users to add, customize and share the Google Finance experience, according to Google. Google also announced the release of several new finance gadgets including Top Movers, SnapQuote, Related Companies, Company Overview, MiniChart and Company Sector.

In addition, Google provided access to a new API aimed at making it easier for developers to build a stock market gadget. The gadget API for market data provides a framework so developers can display stock market information from the American, NASDAQ and New York stock exchanges within a gadget on Google’s sites, the company said.

You ask the candidates
TechPresident.com, a site launched earlier this year to record how Web 2.0 technology is affecting the race for the White House, announced a new user-generated presidential debate site this week.

Called 10Questions, the site allows users to submit online video questions targeted to the candidates through MySpace, YouTube, Yahoo and Blip.tv by tagging their video platforms with the word “10Questions.” The site, which TechPresident launched in conjunction with the New York Times and MSNBC, will then show the videos and allow the public to vote for the 10 best submissions.

The top 10 questions will be submitted to the candidates who will then have four weeks to respond to the questions with their own video. After those responses are posted, 10Questions.com users can vote on whether the candidates answered the questions to their satisfaction.

"The Internet offers our democracy the chance to end the era of sound bite TV politics," said Andrew Rasiej, co-founder and publisher, TechPresident, in a statement. "10Questions.com will address the inherent time limitations of traditional television debates and provide voters with more information on each candidate and his or her issues at the start of the 2008 election cycle."

Users can vote on as many videos as they like, but may only submit one video; user submissions are due by November 14. The entire project will be completed on December 31, 2007.