AOL staff on chopping block: is anyone surprised?

Nope, sure can't say I'm surprised either.

Sarah,

How are you? I'm Frank Ruscica. I'm writing because:

* I have developed a business plan that details how AOL can dramatically increase its ad revenue by establishing a popular online market for customized
education and career services (CECS) (Previous versions of the plan were praised effusively by executives at Microsoft and Amazon.com.)

* I have just applied for Senior Manager positions at AOL that are a good fit for someone with a plan and background like mine

* AOL's job site suggests that an employee referral improves an applicant's chances (Identifiers for the positions are below)

An adaptation of my business plan is online at http://landof.opportunitv.com. The site also contains information about my background.

Here's an overview of the plan:

Information is the lifeblood of any market.

The more popular an online market gets, then, the more opportunities there are to profit from online media (including media that is generated by software, and
media that is created by market participants at a website owned by the market-maker).

Advertisers love media that appeals to the young and upwardly mobile.

The online markets that will create the most lucrative media opportunities, then, are markets that help the young to be upwardly mobile.

The biggest such market will be the market for CECS.

The best way to establish a popular CECS market is to first establish and popularize a transparent online market for the advertisement spaces on
single-creator media (e.g., blogs, podcasts). (A transparent market is one wherein all prices are publicly known.)

The latter market will also help the young to be upwardly mobile.

Both markets, then, will give rise to a lot of media that is very attractive to advertisers.

Better still, the markets will also generate revenue from transactions.

Three keys to popularizing the aforesaid ad-space market are:

* opening the market to all media producers

* augmenting the market's website with features that facilitate the production and distribution of media

* using the site to create branded media that:

* increases awareness of the markets

* showcases participants in the markets

* generates profits

This media can generate significant profits, not least because:

* the nucleus accumbens -- the part of the brain that gives rise to psychological addiction -- is fired by increased prospects of financial gain

* America is ideally suited to gain many good jobs from the growth of the CECS industry

These profits will become increasingly important as sites like Revver.com collapse the ad-sale margins of sites that host user-created media.

Maximizing these profits on a risk-adjusted basis requires:

* managing a portfolio of media properties and making phased investments in production value

* aligning incentives with a broadcast TV network, so shows that prove popular online and/or through video-on-demand can expeditiously gain the broadest
distribution

Time-Warner owns a broadcast TV network, of course.

So AOL is well positioned to establish a popular CECS market.

AOL's first steps toward this end should be to recruit the right lead architects for the most scarce and valuable parts of a '1.0' maker of the aforesaid
ad-space market, which should be hosted at OpportuniTV.com.

The most valuable parts are:

* the sitcom -- Land of OpportuniTV -- that is the optimal centerpiece of the markets-maker's '1.0' media portfolio

* the best software tools for rapidly developing software applications for searching online social/professional networks (e.g., blog networks)

I have developed the premise for Land of OpportuniTV, and the treatment (i.e., detailed outline) of the pilot episode, and both designs are as provably optimal as such designs can be. (My submission to the New York TV Festival's "one-minute pitch" competition is online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMkKa_U14sY.
Details about the pitch competition are online at
http://www.newyorktelevisionfestival.com/)

My colleague David Warren is an ACM Fellow computer scientist who has spent over fifteen years developing the software engine that is the ideal foundation for
the aforesaid search tools.

[/overview]

So if AOL hires me, I will recruit David, and we will be off to the races :-)

As a first step, I applied for three positions:

* Senior Program Manager (Requisition# 59414BR)

* Senior Program Manager (Requisition# 62831BR)

* Senior Business Planning Manager (Requisition# 59317BR)

I don't know how you can recommend me for one or more of these positions, but please let me know if I can help you to do so.

Thanks kindly for any consideration you can extend. Of course, feel free to contact me with any questions, comments, etc.

Best regards,

Frank Ruscica