I've added a "re-tweet" link to my blog posts to encourage twitter users to share my posts with their followers. When you click the link next to a post below, it should take you to the web-based interface to twitter and pre-populate your tweet with "RT @daveatkins Am I Tweet-Worthy http://bit.ly/xbc6" or whatever the post title is. Read further down the page to see the individual posts and possibly re-tweet them.

The purpose of this is two-fold. One is to virally publicize my blog by making it easy to re-tweet. I do not blast twitter with every blog post I do and really, I don't know if some of these are truly "tweet-worthy." But if they are, I'd like to make it easy for followers to help publicize my site.

Secondly, I want people to follow me. When you retweet the post, it may encourage others to follow me for all the great content I have planned in the future :)

Now, to make this post itself valuable and not just the self-promotion vehicle it is, here is how I did this so you, fellow blogger, can do the same--if you think it will help your blog.

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Update 2/20/09: The policy I purchased, after the long analysis below, turns out to not satisfy the minimum requirements of Massachusetts law. It fails to provide insurance adequate for an individual to avoid paying the penalties Massachusetts imposes on individuals who fail to purchase health insurance. If you are willing to pay those penalties, you might still elect to purchase such a plan.

I have canceled the policy. I am pursuing MSP still but may end up opting out of COBRA now so I can opt-in again in March when the Federal benefit kicks in.

Update 2/19/09: It now appears the benefits provided under the stimulus bill ARE NOT retroactive. This means if you start COBRA coverage on 3/1/09, no problem, you should only have to pay 35%. But if you already paid the full rate for January and February, you are stuck. If you were laid off on 12/31/08, your option to sign up for COBRA expires on 3/1/09, but this bill is supposed to extend your eligibility period. However, the big question is whether, if I elect coverage on 3/1/09, I will pay 35% of March or if I will also be on the hook for $2600 for January and February. It would seem ridiculous to have to pay for coverage I did not use.

Update 2/16/09: The Economic Stimulus Package signed by President Obama includes provisions for the Federal Government to pay 65% of COBRA. This benefit is available for individuals who make up to $125,000/year and families at $250,000. That means, for most unemployed persons with higher base incomes, if they are not eligible for Massachusetts' 80% coverage, they will be eligible for the Federal subsidy which is better than any private insurance option.

The discussion below remains relevant for the self-employed, but if you can get COBRA under these terms, you are probably better off doing so.

Text of original post follows...

The most disturbing aspect of being laid off is losing health insurance. I found a solution for my family, and while it is not necessarily for everyone, I wanted to describe it here and help educate others facing similar choices.

Federal law allows you to continue participation in the group coverage you had while employed through COBRA, but:

• It's expensive. Like ridiculously expensive. Do you realize what health insurance is costing your employer? Well, prepare for a rude awakening when you find that to continue the economy/value plan your employer was purchasing to keep costs down will cost over $1300/month to insure your family.
• If your company goes under, COBRA stops. Yes. If your layoff is a prelude to the company being dissolved, you should realize that when that does happen, you will lose your health insurance.

When you are laid off, you have some breathing room because you have 60 days to elect COBRA, then another 45 days to make the first payment. But this is not helpful, because you will spend those 60 days in an uninsured mindset, especially if you have a family.

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I am featured in a story today in the Christian Science Monitor, Blogs: An Effective Job-Hunting Tool?, but after describing my efforts positively, the article quotes one naysayer in particular who does not understand the context of my efforts:

Not everyone shares his enthusiasm. "Blogging and Internet searching for jobs is worthless," says Drew Stevens, a business growth consultant in St. Louis. "Almost 65 percent of positions are discovered from your network and peer group."

I wrote about how my blogging has greatly expanded my personal network and increased my influence even before I was laid off, but it is worth re-iterating here how social media is a complement to offline activities. I have difficulty finding the time to keep my blogging up because I am so busy with other efforts that have been generated from the relationships I have developed and strengthened through social media.

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Update:
You can now view:

• Dave Atkins interview with Tory Johnson on ABC NOW
• Susan Kang Nam talks about Salty Legs Job Club with Tory Johnson
• Madeline Laurano talks about finding her new job

Staring into a television camera for a remote interview was a surreal experience. I felt spontaneity and improvisation that is challenging to describe. I suspect, for celebrities, the feeling changes, and it becomes like just another conversation. Those who have never done it probably think it sounds terrifying. There is fear, but not terror. For me, I felt the sensation of being completely and utterly "on," with no safety net, no ability to control or plan, and an almost detached sense of hearing myself respond in the moment.

In that moment, I found my instinct and preparation ruled the day. There is not time to consider 5 seconds ago and no time to plan the next 5 seconds. There is faith that who I am will show and hope that what I've told myself is truth will reveal. But there is no analysis, there is only the moment...a moment that goes on for several minutes and then is gone.

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This economic downturn is different from 2002, especially in the tech/internet space because of how people are responding to it. I was speaking with a reporter from TheStreet.com yesterday who was interviewing me about my layoff situation, and it struck me that perhaps my outlook is not uniquely optimistic, but shared by many others. I'm sure there is plenty of negativity to come and that we are only beginning to experience the disruption, but I know my response has been fundamentally different.

In 2002, the website everyone I knew was following was F*ckedCompany.com. Every day, that website published "insider stories" about the unbelievably idiotic things that were going on in companies. It also served as a bellwether of discontent and early warning of impending layoffs. Companies lived in fear: "I hope we don't end up on that site!" Employees could not wait to post their stories of incompetent managers, wasteful company largess, and the doom and gloom stories of dotcom bust and failure.

I visited that site just now and, "Pud" reports, the site is "sorta [F'd]." Good. Who's got time for that kind of self-pitying crap now? I'm sure it's out there, but it is not what I'm seeing.

In 2008 I see people of all ages networking like crazy, emphasizing their positive aspects, working together to help each other, and being optimistic about the future. Maybe it is driven by Millennial enthusiasm and entrepreneurship, but I see it from my generation (X) as well as we go to networking events, join career clubs, and use social media to connect and learn.

It is early in my own quest and I'm still finishing out my time at work until the official layoff happens. But it feels like a much better world than the last time around. I tell people I see massive disruption...whole industries may be lost and millions will lose the jobs they have today. But this is the moment of change. Books like Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat described how things were going to change and Nicolas Taleb's The Black Swan warned us that the future would be unpredictable. There will not be a gradual change, an evolution in the way we live and work...instead change is coming in waves we cannot control, but must struggle to navigate as best we can. There is no time to spend worrying or wishing about what might have been. We must embrace the future and make it ours. That is what I see happening.

I can imagine fewer more terrifying social experiments than what I signed up for last night. Blitz Time is a service for "speed networking" that sets participants up in a series of short, one-on-one phone calls with other people. Surprisingly, once I began, it was not nearly as scary as it was fun. That is saying a lot for me, a guy who is afraid to order pizza on the phone...

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Towns, cities, developers, business leaders and activists should seize the communication opportunities available in social media to collaboratively and cooperatively plan their economic futures.

I recently blogged about how Boston World Partnerships is developing a social media approach to facilitate connections between "movers and shakers" in Boston and globally promote the city. I subsequently chatted with Eric Schoenfeld and got a better sense of how they are in the process of preparing to launch what will be a resource and affinity network--like an alumni network for the city. It could connect all those who identify with the creative and intellectual "gravitas" that is Boston in a way that fosters collaboration and cooperation. I see this project as a way to address the criticisms and comparisons of the culture of the past--most notably the Saxenian appraisal of why Silicon Valley beat Boston in the 90s race to be a technology capital.

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Today, the city of Boston will announce a website that is described by the Boston Globe as a "Facebook-like social networking website." That description fails on so many levels to communicate the value of what the city is doing.

Boston World Partnerships is the non-profit created by Mayor Menino to promote economic development in the city of Boston. The concept is so much more than a website...it's how we use modern communication technology to market our talent and facilitate development. It's part of the answer to the question I was asked by a Selectman in Westwood as how a blog could play a role in a policy debate other than allowing residents to "vent."

Social networking is about using technology-enhanced media to connect people and ideas and start constructive conversations. Of course it's also about connecting with all your friends from college, but in the business and political context, we can use blogs, wikis, twitter, facebook, and even myspace to give more people more opportunity to participate. It's not just about people venting or individual citizens complaining--it is about finding, connecting, and leveraging the human capital of our communities. The Boston World Partnerships site is clearly at the business and professional end of this spectrum:

Mission: Boston World Partnerships informs business leaders worldwide about the competitive advantages that Boston offers, and connects them with the resources they need to locate and grow here. We also work to strengthen the general business climate and to help existing Boston businesses achieve sustainable success.

It is admitedly a long stretch to go from my small town blog and experiments on twitter to something of this magnitude, but the principles are all there. Use social media marketing to market a city. Connect the "movers and shakers"--whether they be individuals, entrepreneurs, non-profits, activists or whatever. There is no need to be held back due to hierarchical planning and bureacracy when we can connect the people who know how to get things done and support their efforts with an infrastructure that takes advantage of the latest technical and media innovations. This is the future--not just future technology, but the future of applying business and marketing principles to public and social policy.

As gas prices skyrocket, Americans will abandon the suburbs and embrace urban living. That's the wishful thinking I detect when urbanists seize upon the findings in a CEOs for Cities study that claims to find and prove a causal link between rising gas prices and the collapse of the housing market bubble.

The study is intriguing; it uses data on gas prices and the timing of the housing bubble collapse, along with location specific analysis of real estate trends to explain the housing bubble NOT in terms of lending practices, but instead due to a fundamental shift in economics caused by rising fuel prices.
The study is principally talking about exurbs--and situations like the one in the New York Times article where a double-income couple chose to buy a McMansion an hour from their jobs. Perhaps those people, if they were looking to buy that house today, would think twice, factoring in the commute cost.

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