Professionals share insight about social and interactive media

"Who in here does not have a Facebook?" asked 2000 SHS alumnus Andrew "Bos" Bosworth, who is now director of engineeering at Facebook.

"That's okay, I'm not going to get mad at you," he said to the only person in the audience who had raised her hand.

On Oct. 7, Media Arts Program held its first speaker event this year in the McAfee Center. Called "Social & Interactive Media: A New Revolution," the event featured Bosworth, along with Patrick J. Ferrell, CEO and founder of Zenergo; Jay Berryhill, vice president of Sales and Business Development at Sling Media Inc, which created the Slingbox; and Richard Rothschild, director of IT at TiVo. The event was hosted by Scott Budman, a local NBC reporter and founder of the of the "Tech Now!" television show.

After graduating from Saratoga High, Bosworth graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree in computer science. Bosworth worked briefly at Microsoft and joined Facebook in 2006 , where he wrote code for an integral part of Facebook—the "News Feed, a constantly updating list of stories from people that you are following—and began managing the communication products such as the inbox, chat and groups.

The goal of the event was to talk about the backgrounds of these successful technology leaders and give career advice for anyone interested in media or technology.

"[The event] informed me more about what I would be getting into if I joined the social networking or programming fields," said senior Sebastian Wagner

Bosworth emphasized the importance of social networking in a rapidly changing world where even television is a thing of the past.

"Imagine having a 15-minute window every day which you can't control, during which you get all your information and talk to friends. If you miss that window, you have to wait until tomorrow," said Bosworth. "That's pretty much TV."

Bosworth's main piece of career advice was to take advantage of all the technology available to this generation.

"My advice is to get as technically savvy as possible. This opens up opportunities to cater to the audience, a global audience that's not tied to anything or any specific time, and each person can connect to friends at the click of a button," said Bosworth. "Your content can be everywhere instantly."

According to social studies and MAP teacher Kim Anzalone, 70 people attended the event. Anzalone recommended that students go to future MAP speaker series events for information about break-through innovations in the field of media.

"I thought the event was really interesting because it was about something that was relevant to us," said Wagner. "Facebook and TiVo and social networking is something that most—if not all—of our generation can relate to."
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