Career search | Wednesday, December 5th, 2012

I'm a tech, new media and web person with 10+ years of development and project management experience. I'm in pursuit of new opportunities in web content development, social media marketing strategy or interactive project management, in the Montreal, QC area or elsewhere (I'm currently based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan).

Things I know:

  • Web content development, writing for the web, technical writing
  • HTML5, CSS, mobile web development, some other programming languages
  • Content management systems (Drupal, Wordpress, Joomla, SiteCore)
  • Social media strategy, crisis management, community gardening
  • Linux, Windows & Apple hardware, servers and software, Office Suites, Photoshop, InDesign, Gimp, Premiere
  • Wired & wireless networking, network security, penetration testing, system hardening
  • Photography
  • Bartending

Things I am:

  • Fully bilingual French/English (Federal Gov't testing level "E"), conversant in Spanish.
  • Punctual
  • Hardworking
  • A strong leader
  • Creative
  • Adept at finding solutions to complex content and media issues
  • Autonomous and independent
  • Skilled at explaining technical concepts in layman's terms

People & places I've worked for / at:

  • Parks Canada Agency (Saskatoon, SK)
  • My own consulting firm (Montreal, QC)
  • MeasurementLab / New America Foundation (Google, Inc. -supported project) (Washington, DC)
  • World Association of Young Scientists (UNESCO - supported project) (Paris, FR & Budapest, HU)
  • Acorn Active Media Foundation (Urbana, IL)
  • McGill University Health Centre (Montreal, QC)
  • Hôpital Ste-Justine (Montreal, QC)
  • Groupe Uni-Spec (Saguenay, QC)
  • Colubris Networks (Laval, QC)

Things I've learned:

  • Park & Historic Site interpretation, Web & PDF Accessibility (Parks Canada workshops)
  • Navigating the murky N.G.O, funding and non-profit waters (various)
  • Working in the medical field (MUHC / Ste-Justine)
  • Dealing with strict governmental standards and policies on web and social media (Parks Canada Agency)
  • Some engineering, marketing, accounting & management (Concordia University)
  • Pure & Applied Science (CÉGEP Vanier College)

Ways to get in touch with me:

  1. My View Steven Mansour's profile on LinkedIn
  2. Email at myfirstname [at] thisdomain [dot] com
  3. Skype at stevenmansour
  4. Gtalk at firstname.lastname [at] gmail [dot] com
  5. MSN Mess at steven350 [at] hotmail

Me!

Electronic Cocaine | Monday, July 9th, 2012

“The computer is electronic cocaine for many people,” says Whybrow. “Our brains are wired for finding immediate reward. With technology, novelty is the reward. You essentially become addicted to novelty.”

Source.

Hello again, old friend. | Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

Well, that certainly took a while.

The update to Drupal 7 was quite the pain, but seems to be mostly working now. The theme is still busted and most other things are not working, but hopefully I can be back up and running within a week or two. In the meantime, I post tidbits to a Google+ account. We'll see how long that lasts.

Catalog Living | Friday, November 12th, 2010

Tacky, arranged furniture catalog photos are great targets for snippyness. Billed as "A look into the exciting lives of the people who live in your catalogs" Catalog Living adds always-hilarious captions to the already-humorous photos we find in our furniture catalogs:

Tisn’t quite the season…

Embarrassed by their premature arrival, Gary & Elaine’s decorative Christmas trees made their way upstairs to hide for another month.

This message was sent from me to you. | Thursday, November 4th, 2010

I'll admit it - I haven't lived a perfect life. I've said some things I may regret, and remained quiet at times when I should've spoken up. I've made some wrong decisions, some missteps, and in hindsight, haven't always handled things the way I should've. Hell, just a few weeks ago I 'accidentally' took a liberal bite out of a cashiers' lunch at a local food market, mistaking it for a free sample. I once wore this sweater to a blind date:

ugly sweater

That's mustard yellow. It was definitely purchased at either Kmart or Zellers, probably on sale, and - if memory serves - is possibly one half of a two-piece jogging outfit.

For all my lapses in judgement, however severe they may have been, there is one thing I've been steadfast about, never compromised or wavered on:

I HAVE NEVER SIGNED AN EMAIL WITH THE NAME OF THE DEVICE USED TO WRITE IT.

Well, not willfully, at least.

Google Buzz Class Action Settlement | Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

An email received from Google to my [deprecated] Gmail address:

Google rarely contacts Gmail users via email, but we are making an exception to let you know that we've reached a settlement in a lawsuit regarding Google Buzz (http://buzz.google.com), a service we launched within Gmail in February of this year.

Shortly after its launch, we heard from a number of people who were concerned about privacy. In addition, we were sued by a group of Buzz users and recently reached a settlement in this case.

The settlement acknowledges that we quickly changed the service to address users' concerns. In addition, Google has committed $8.5 million to an independent fund, most of which will support organizations promoting privacy education and policy on the web. We will also do more to educate people about privacy controls specific to Buzz. The more people know about privacy online, the better their online experience will be.

Just to be clear, this is not a settlement in which people who use Gmail can file to receive compensation. Everyone in the U.S. who uses Gmail is included in the settlement, unless you personally decide to opt out before December 6, 2010. The Court will consider final approval of the agreement on January 31, 2011. This email is a summary of the settlement, and more detailed information and instructions approved by the court, including instructions about how to opt out, object, or comment, are available at http://www.BuzzClassAction.com.

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