What are you creating right now?

A traditional :30 second spot for an advertising campaign? A social media strategy for your company? A mobile news site? An attention grabbing electronic curriculum for your classroom? The next water cooler buzz generating indie movie? A thought provoking blog? A new IPTV delivered web series? Mind bending 3D? A viral widget?

Something even more interesting? Very nice.

It sounds like you’re a content developer. And you’re in the right place then, because helping you build, share and monetize compelling, multi-platform content is the primary passion here.

Content Developer is at its best when the focus is on helping you. But seeing as how this is an “About” section, you probably clicked here expecting to learn a bit more about Content Developer and the catalyst behind the company.

In that spirit, here’s a quick bio -

My name is David Cummings, Founder and Chief Collaborator of Content Developer. I grew up all over the world as an army brat, landed in Texas and began my professional life with a plan to study Computer Science. Then I took an elective broadcasting course in college and next thing I know I had a new major and a new job at a local radio station.

Pursuing a R T F degree felt to me like a colossal waste of time once you’ve already landed that first gig, so I shifted my major to Business and continued to develop my tech skills on my own while spending the next few years working in a variety of so called creative positions for traditional radio and television stations in several progressively larger media markets. The best part about these assignments was the opportunity to work with a diverse mix of exceptionally imaginative people. Some industry awards and recognition picked up for a number of commercials I wrote and produced along the way were largely due to those relationships and the talent they brought to the table.

Time passed and when a station I was Production Director at was sold, I saw it as an opportunity to return to school for an advanced degree. After earning an MBA (this is so true) I took a position at a small group of stations where I got the chance to help convert their commercial production and on-air systems from analog to digital and in the process develop a custom software application to power the on-air placement of spots and other digital production elements. We were also one of the first stations in the nation to have a 24-7 internet stream of our programming available on our website via AudioNet. It seems kinda quaint now, but these were pioneering projects in the mid 90’s and they helped provide the sparks for planting my own entrepreneurial flag.

I got incorporated in 1995 to handle the part-time consulting work that began to come my way, and in another bit of good fortune the three areas I’d been working in and studying - business, computers, media - continued to rapidly converge. By late 1998 I had enough consulting work to quit the day job and strike out on my own full time. Since then, I’ve devoted the better part of the last decade building a full service New Media consulting network focused on helping companies successfully navigate that convergence of media and technology.

During this part of the journey I’ve enjoyed working with a colorful spectrum of companies, from very large media companies (the names of which may grace your cable or phone bill depending on where you live), to a forward thinking regional hospital, to video/film production companies and advertising agencies hungry for new ideas, to some innovative local mom and pop shops — all of which have brought their own rewards and learning opportunities.

I’ve also been blessed to be surrounded with an amazing circle of talent, and with their support and inspiration Content Developer is currently focused on:

* Using original multi-platform content to build brands.
* Developing best practices for leveraging aggregated content.
* Advocating the use of SEO, social media techniques and an open source philosophy to better share information on health care breakthroughs.
* Organic SEM.
* Screenwriting and Indie Filmmaking
* How to use SMS as an open source content distribution platform.
* Web development using XHTML, CSS, AJAX, FLASH, PHP & MySQL
* Web server administration on FreeBSD, Solaris and Linux operating systems.
* Installing and customizing open source publishing platforms like Wordpress and Drupal.
* Producing audio/video content for web, mobile and traditional distribution.
* Citizen Journalism

It’s no wonder organizations of all types continue to seek out help in these areas as the revolution known as the democracy of distribution disrupts so much, in so many industries.

My own company included.

You see a couple years ago as it became readily apparent that the need for an established distribution middleman was rapidly evaporating from many digital media based business models, I sensed an opportunity - and more importantly, an authentic internal desire - to transition a portion of my business from delivering consulting services to building assets.

A move from process to product if you will.

As this transformation continues to evolve and mutate, it never stops raising the question -

What is the most effective strategy for building digital media assets that will generate longterm value for your stakeholders?

Or, to ask it without all the buzzword bingo -

How can you earn a living creating original content that you believe in, that you have some ownership of, that you have a passion to share?

Exploring the answers to that question and sharing the knowledge acquired along the way pretty much defines the mission of Content Developer.

Before you go - something for you to think about. Here’s a map I’ve been sketching out of the ecosystem that surrounds the development of digital media and how all the components involved interact on the journey from concept to consumer.

click image for larger version

No doubt it’s still a work in progress, and your input is welcome. Still, I wanted to share this view from 30,000 feet with you here because it helps tell the story of what being a Content Developer is all about, while also offering a reminder that creating a meaningful user experience is central to everything we do.

Thanks for visiting.

DC

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