I haven’t written any articles for OutsideInKorea in a good long while. Rather than offer the usual excuses, let me point you to my new project, one that has taken up much of my time in recent months, and something I’m pretty excited about: jobsee.kr.

What’s it all about?

The Korean English-language ‘blogosphere’ (I know, don’t hit me) has exploded in recent years, and there are people out there writing their hearts out, which is wonderful, and as it should be. I’ve been in Korea and writing online about it since the late 1990’s, and at my own domains (including this one) for almost 10 years, and because of the nature of the beast, most of the weblogs have come and gone over that long stretch of days. There are a few sites that have been around for the long haul and are still thriving — Robert Koehler’s site being the canonical example — and of course on the non-weblog end of things there is Dave Sperling’s venerable Eslcafe.com, which I’m pretty sure was there, and looking much the same, when I first came to Korea back in 1996.

There are a number of job-board sites catering to the foreigner-in-Korea market that have sprung up over the years, as well. Some have gained traction, some have not, but none have shifted Dave’s site from its position at the top of the job-listing heap. One thing that seems to be almost universally true is that the job listing sites tend to be useability nightmares, or sport design aesthetics from the 1990’s, or both. Nothing much has changed, for a long long time. The emphasis has shifted firmly to recruiting companies that use their own sites to promote their job openings, but cross-post to the more popular job listing sites.

There are a plethora of bog-standard PHPBB bulletin boards out there, as well, there are groups on the social networking platforms like Facebook, and there is a floating community of sorts in the comment threads on many of the larger K-blogs. To be honest, I don’t really know what’s happening out there on the weblogs these days, because every time I’ve dipped a toe into the blogstream in the last few years, it’s come back blistered and discoloured from the level of vitriol and shoutiness and resentment percolating there.

So I had a think. I’m no designer, but I knows what I likes, and I like building sites (my network of personal sites, community sites and sites built for other people is unfeasibly large and still growing), and having spent years a) in Korea, b) in software and web design and c) in the ESL industry, I figured, hell, maybe I could do something that would fill what seemed to be to be a gaping niche.

That niche would be: a site for job-seekers, for those interested in coming to Korea, a site includes a more modern take on web-based community than the same old bulletin-board model, a site that is interactive, pleasant to look at and use, and that includes useful information and tools for the Korean expat community. And that’s kind of fun, into the bargain.

Here’s what I came up with.

I’m getting close to launch now, still second-guessing my design decisions, hammering bugs out of the woodwork, thinking about how to try and ramp it up into a vibrant and active community, and trying to plan administrative ways to make it something that’s not just another wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Little joke there, but you know what I mean. There are a lot of expats in Korea these days who are not into the whole negativity vibe that seems to grip the community, lots of long-termers and short-termers alike, and a whole generation of younger types who expect their online tools to be a little less, well, like using digital stone knives and bearskins.

So, for launch, which is coming relatively soon unless I decide on yet another tear-down-and-redesign, the site will include:

Jobs listings

Jobs listings are the core of the utility of the site, I think, and for at least a month or two after launch, I plan to make them absolutely free to employers. Little touches like Google maps showing you where the job is located, granular built-in search tools, filters and views to help jobseekers find exactly what they’re looking for, and a back-end Dashboard for employers to manage the job listings they’ve posted in the past are all part of the mix. I think it’s pretty sweet.

Resume posting

Jobseekers can post their resumes for employers to browse, tag them and categorize them so they’re easily found, and sit back and (hopefully) let the job offers roll in. Posting your resume to the site will always be free.

Live FAQ

I get a lot of questions about working and living in Korea on the various community sites I frequent (Metafilter, in particular) and via email. People want to know how things work: they need useful info before deciding to leave home, and after they arrive in Korea. That need was one of the reasons I started OutsideinKorea, but I eventually decided that the blog format wasn’t really the best way to help people out. The Jobseekr FAQ subsite is, I think. FAQs are organized by topic, and every topic has a textbox at the bottom where visitors can ask questions they might have, and I and my crack team of SuperExpats will do their best to answer. As soon as we have an answer, it’ll appear on the site, along with the question.

Community

Community is another centerpiece of the site. It’s a new take on web community, focused on individuals and ways for them to get together into groups around interests or locations, plan events out in the real world, and stay as private or as public as they wish to be. Forums are, of course, baked-in, and tied to groups, public, private or hidden from community view. It’s really a great piece of software, and I hope that people will enjoy using it. Think of it as a kind of Facebook for our community — you can even use your Facebook login to create an account there with Facebook Connect!

Another major part of the whole is that anyone who registers an account in the community — as well as being able to dive right in and start interacting with people and joining or creating groups and starting or participating in forum threads — can create, in a few clicks, their very own hosted Wordpress weblog, at http://jobsee.kr/community/whatevertheywant

Weblogs are a dime a dozen these days, of course, but with tight integration to the community, and the ability to create group weblogs tied to the Groups that users can create within the community — well, if it takes off, I’m excited to see what people do with the tools I’m providing.

Thus endeth the promotional post. I hope anyone who happens by OutsideinKorea or is still subscribed to the RSS feed will go and check out the new site. Like I said, it’s going to be launching soon in all its glory, but the community subsite is ready to rock, and I’d love to see people join up and start kicking the tires.

Welcome to the next generation. I hope it kicks some butt.