Paul Jacobson

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Resumé

Introduction

I am a bringer of happiness, writer, and coder. I have more than 10 years’ experience writing, and providing support in technical industries. As a writer, I have written about complex themes in plain terms that audiences understand.

I also use Python for a range of workflow automation and efficiency tasks in my day to day work.

My LinkedIn Profile

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Happiness Engineer, Automattic

February 2018 to present

I am part of an incredible team of support professionals who strive to engineer happiness for our WordPress.com users, worldwide. I provide support for a range of WordPress.com services and solutions to our customers.

I empower our customers by identifying challenges they face when using our products, helping them resolve these challenges in order to better achieve their goals, and provide technical support by email and live chat to customers who use our WordPress.com, WooCommerce, and Jetpack products. This includes –

  • advice about our solutions that best fit their requirements and goals, helping our customers better achieve their goals;
  • assistance with Custom CSS code to address specific styling requirements;
  • investigating technical issues, troubleshooting them using our available error logs, testing solutions for these issues, and reporting issues to our developers and product teams using internal blogs and on GitHub (here are public examples of issues that I have created); and
  • contributing to internal data analysis projects using SQL and Google Sheets by reviewing available data, interpreting the data, and reporting on the data.

Front-End Development Experience

Web Developer

October 2017 to December 2017

I spent much of the first half of 2017 learning front-end, web development. I have gained limited experience with the core front-end languages, namely HTML, CSS (including Flexbox and CSS Grid) and JavaScript.

In addition, I have limited experience using development tools such as, such as Git, npm, gulp, and grunt, typically from the command line.

Additional technical skills include –

Content Marketing Experience

Marketing Strategist and Writer

December 2004 to February 2018

I offer various writing and editing services to businesses, focusing on communicating complex themes in plain language.

Inbound Marketing Specialist, InboundJunction

September 2016 to March 2017

My role as Inbound Marketing Specialist was split between content writing and content strategy.

  • As a content writer, I showcased our client’s innovations and unique value propositions in a variety of major digital publications.
  • In addition I collaborated with our account managers and content team to develop effective content strategies for our clients.
  • These strategies included identifying appropriate publications to pitch and how best to communicate our clients’ messages.

Content Marketing Specialist, Imonomy Interactive

January 2015 to August 2016

I wrote copy that converted site visitors into leads for our sales teams.

  • Writing, proofreading and editing blog posts, white papers and short form text for the purpose of expanding awareness and informing potential customers.
  • Contributing to the development and execution of our content strategy.
  • Project managing company exhibitions and attendance at industry events.
  • Using SEO optimization and PPC campaigns for lead generation.

Director and Marketing Lead, Web•Tech•Law Proprietary (Limited) (South Africa)

March 2012 to January 2016

I founded and ran a specialist legal risk advisory service specializing in digital media risks. One of my functions was content marketing for this niche service.

  • Developing a marketing strategy for a niche legal services business and executing that strategy through a combination of inbound content marketing and social media marketing.
  • Marketing this niche business primarily through original articles which explained complex technical and legal themes for business readers and consumers.
  • Speaking frequently at conferences about legal issues, typically where relevant to marketing and advertising.

One of the key features of my work as a lawyer was being extensively involved in writing highly technical documents (in other words, contracts and similar legal documents) where there was little tolerance for errors.

This precise writing, coupled with a strong emphasis on expressing complex themes in plain language, gave me a powerful foundation for many forms of technical writing.

Legal and Policy Development Experience

Independent adjudicator, Wireless Applications Service Providers’ Association (South Africa)

December 2008 – Present

I adjudicate consumer complaints against mobile service providers (“WASPs”) who are WASPA members and are active in South Africa. I also act as an appeals panelist for adjudications which service providers appeal.

Director and Marketing Lead, Web•Tech•Law Proprietary (Limited) (South Africa)

March 2012 to Present

I founded and ran a specialist legal risk advisory service specializing in digital media risks. Aside from my marketing function (described above), I provided niche legal consulting services to my clients. My work included:

  • Analyzing and consulting to clients on Internet and digital risks; and
  • Writing, negotiating and reviewing various types of contracts with emphasis on contracts written for Web use.

Sub-committee member, StanSA/SC 71 L Information Technology: Document Description and Processing Languages (South Africa)

July 2007 – November 2008

I represented The African Commons Project on this sub-committee of SA Standards (a division of the South African Bureau of Standards). The sub-committee reviews and makes recommendations on candidates for certification as standards (whether that be locally or internationally) and discusses related topics. The focus of the sub-committee is on document descriptions and processing languages.

The sub-committee recently considered and voted against certification of Microsoft’s Office Open XML document format at ISO (the international standards body) and subsequently was involved in submitting an appeal to certification of OOXML by ISO pursuant to a fast track process that led to the format’s certification.

Council member, The Open Knowledge Definition Project Advisory Council

February 2008 – September 2008

The Advisory Council was created in the Autumn of 2007 as the body formally responsible for maintaining and developing the Definitions and associated material found on this site. Its basic goal is to take forward the ‘Open Definition’ work for the general benefit of the open knowledge community. You can find out more information about the project at http://opendefinition.org/

General Counsel and Company Secretary, iCommons Limited

January 2008 – August 2008

As iCommons’ General Counsel and Company Secretary I advised the Executive Director and the Board on a range of legal, regulatory and policy issues. iCommons is an organisation with a broad vision to develop a united global commons front by collaborating with open education, access to knowledge, free software, open access publishing and free culture communities around the world.

My work with iCommons and the broader Creative Commons movement sparked my passion for open software and blending open content licenses with commercial legal frameworks as well as the underlying open culture that drives innovation through transparency and a sharing economy.

Part-time Lecturer, University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

February 2006 – November 2006

I lectured to first year students on Roman law and to intermediate students on the law of Civil Procedure. Besides preparing and presenting lectures I was also required to mark exam papers and assignments.

Principal Attorney, Jacobson Attorneys (South Africa)

August 2005 – October 2013

I left Werksmans Attorneys to start Jacobson Attorneys which began as a general law firm and evolved into a business/commercial law firm. I created a new media focus area in 2007 and became South Africa’s first specialist social media lawyer.

I am admitted attorney at the High Court of South Africa with extensive experience in commercial legal work (including commercial agreements, legal drafting, vetting commercial contracts and providing general legal assistance to small, medium and large businesses).

Attorney, Werksmans Attorneys (South Africa)

January 1999 – July 2005

I began my career at Werksmans Attorneys as a Candidate Attorney in the firm’s litigation department. I progressed to Professional Assistant (admitted attorney) in March 2001 when I was admitted as an attorney of the High Court of South Africa and, ultimately, to Senior Associate in March 2003.

I focused on litigation, specifically long-term insurance litigation and unlawful competition.

Education, University of the Witwatersrand

I live in Modi’in, Israel with my family.