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Jon Kolbe of Boca Raton, Florida is a father of two and has been without a job for seven months.  He’s applied for hundreds of jobs and the only good lead he found was… from someone on Twitter.

Kolbe (@jonkolbe) is an architectural project manager and was laid off from his job in December.  He’s gotten desperate enough to find work that he’s offering a prize: find Jon Kolbe a job and he’ll give you a brand new, high-def camcorder.   What Jon has found is that the atmosphere on Twitter and other social networks is more neighborly than the bland, empty job boards and people are more willing to talk and help.

In his quest, Kolbe saw a tweet from another Boca resident, Toby Srebnik (@fsutoby) (who incidentally did not offer me a free Dunkin Donuts card to insert his name) who’d mentioned he’d seen some old Chamber friends at the Boca Beach Club.  Jon sent him a response and asked if he knew anyone he could talk to directly at the Chamber, as he’d just applied there.

Turns out, Srebnik knew someone and referred Kolbe, who scored an interview.  Only his second interview since December.

While he doesn’t know if he got the job yet, Kolbe admits that he’s one of thousands of people (mostly in tech fields) now who’re using social networks like Twitter to promote themselves for a new job.  Srebnik says that often the community created by Twitter users can mean you’re helping people you don’t even know and others are helping you and don’t even know who you are.

New tools like TwitterJobSearch.com have popped up to sort through the tags and information to sort through job search and availability tweets.  Companies are beginning to catch on to this, with Best Buy suggesting at least 250 Twitter followers be a requirement for their new social media job.  Some freelance sites are requiring the same sort of thing (Facebook, Twitter, etc. friends and followers as part of the job requirements) for job applicants.

Some have really taken the social media idea to heart and, like Kolbe, are becoming marketing gurus in their own right.  Starting with simple sites like Facebook, LinedIn and Twitter, he created profiles of himself specifically to job search.  Then, digging through Monster, CareerBuilder and others, he build resumes on each job search site.

Those did little and as time went on, Kolbe realized that he was just doing what everyone else was doing.  In the mean time, he’d created JonKolbe.com and gotten a new email address: hireme@jonkolbe.com.  He throws in $2 Dunkin Donuts gift cards with resumes, hoping to entice recruiters to give them just a little extra attention.

“I think the longest I’ve ever been out of a job is two weeks,” he said.  After a couple of months of the extras weren’t paying off, he began to get a little worried.  While those early moves were somewhat innovative, they weren’t as effective as he’d hoped.

In March, he began the contest: Help Jon Kolbe Find a Job.  The winner gets a Flip Mino HD camera.

It may be paying off, as interest level in his job search skyrocketed after the announcement.  In my mind, at the very least, Jon is being creative and innovative in his use of new technology.  That alone should put him above most others who apply for any job Jon Kolbe has put in for.

Source information from Mami-Herald and Bridget Carey.

As Twitter continues to gain in popularity, so do the number and types of applications for it. There are literally thousands of websites and stand-alone apps for Twitter. From your desktop, phone, mobile, and more, you can get to your tweets.

Some apps enhance how we interact with Twitter, some make it easier to access Twitter from remote locations, others allow you to expand your tweets to include photos and compress URLs for sharing. Now, there are a number of apps for sharing video too. While there isn’t exactly a YouTwitter yet, but…you guessed it, there is a TweetTube.

Here are our favorites for tweeting videos to your followers.

Tweettube – This one is kind of cool, but limited. Mostly, it’s a way to share YouTube links, but it allows Mac OS X users to directly record and host web cam videos up to 25 seconds long. It also allows multiple photo uploads via web or email.

Twitc – This isn’t really a video hosting service so much as it is a file hosting service for Twitter. You can host just about anything here: files, video, pictures, etc. You can import video links from YouTube, Hulu, and direct URLs to files as well.

TwitLENS – Handling both images and video, TwitLENS allows multiple uploads at once, up to 50mb per file, mobile uploads, and even anonymous uploading. It uses Twitter’s Oauth for secure logins and you can tag photos/videos with usernames (so you can make a square on someone and put @thisdude, like Facebook tagging). Tagged people get auto-tweets to link to the media.

TwitVid.io – For basic video sharing beyond YouTube links, TwitVid.io has it. In fact, it’s second only to yfrog for simplicity. You can upload video via the Web, email, and they’re working on a web cam direct app. Video pages feature a list of tweets referring to the vid and videos you find surfing through the site can be retweeted right there. Login is using your Twitter credentials, of course.

Yfrog – Also a picture sharing app, yfrog has one thing that no one else does: total simplicity. We’ve mentioned it before, as a photo sharing app, but it also allows video uploads for sharing. Made by ImageShack, it’s the least cluttered of the apps we look at here. Yfrog is integrated into both TweetDeck desktop and iPhone apps.

There are plenty of other apps for video sharing, of course, but these are the top pics for us. Why? Well, each has something to offer that others don’t.

For pure video/photo sharing, you can’t really beat yfrog for its speed and simple approach. TwitVid.io is right behind it in that regard and ads a couple of extras that you don’t get through yfrog. In fact, TwitVid.io probably has the best user interface for social networking of all the apps we looked at here.

For pure versatility, it doesn’t get much better than Twitc, though. For fast, multiple uploads and tons of interaction, TwitLENS has a lot of cool stuff too. Finally, Tweettube is the least favorite for us, but for some reason has a strong, core following that love it.

Overall, each of us here at Rev2 have a different favorite because we each use Twitter a little differently. How about you? What’s your favorite video sharing service for Twitter and why?

You can follow us on Twitter @rev2

Very often, small teams of developers and designers don’t really require a project management app. Many services like BOX.net and Sharefile.com become the method of choice for sharing files with the team and clients. These services work well, but are lacking a few key elements.

MyDataNest.com seeks to remedy that by offering a few extras that the others don’t have. The ability to discuss the data through comment threads is a start, but the real meat is in the integration of several popular APIs like Zoho, Scribd, Picnik and more.

A simple online “office suite” makes uploading or downloading files quick and easy to understand. Built-in FTP, so no extra software or know-how is needed, makes it simple to point clients to the data without having to spend a lot of time training them in how to get it.

As a backup tool, MyDataNest is mediocre at best, with a lot of other services being definitely better. As a data sharing app, though, MyDataNest is up there as one of the better options. Especially when comparing free-to-use apps.

MyDataNest has free accounts that offer 2GB of space and file sizes up to 50MB. These free accounts also include 3 collaboration folders (separate “accounts” for access) and up to 20GB in monthly transfers. That’s pretty good for free.

Pricing plans for more serious users start at $7.95/month and the $49.95/month plan gets you unlimited everything. So whatever your enterprise needs, you can probably find it at MyDataNest.

Of course, when you’re getting to those larger levels of data collaboration, you’re probably stepping into the realm of project management and heavier collaboration, for which MyDataNest is not prepared to assist.

Still, for the small team of developers and designers that don’t really need PM tools, the tools at MyDataNest are probably more than adequate.

If you’ve got a pet, specifically a dog, you’re probably a little worried about what to do if something happens or tired of sitting on hold or making a guess when those little injuries come up. Maybe your dog got a bee sting and is itching too much, or maybe she got in a fight and has a swollen cheek.

Well, a trip to the vet can cost $100 just to walk in the door. Often, the problems are minor and easily taken care of yourself, if you just know how.

The idea behind the PetMD iPhone app “First Aid & Emergencies for Dogs” is to provide basic first aid information for your pets. It shows you how to do everything from treating minor scrapes and cuts to giving mouth-to-snout (doggy CPR).

Most of the time, the advice that PetMD gives boils down to “take your pet to the vet ASAP.” However, it’s the things it shows you to do to stabilize your pet before you go to the veterinary that could save your best friend’s life. Some minor things don’t require a vet and there’s no reason to spend money on one if you don’t need to.

The app is only $1.99, but has mixed reviews from those who’ve downloaded it so far from iTunes. At the time of this writing, three people have given it five stars, one gave it three, and four gave it only one.

My guess, from the comments they left, is that some were expecting a little much from this than is reasonable for an app of this nature. After all, PetMD isn’t a full-on veterinarian, it’s just a little iPhone app to show you how to take care of your pet’s simple first aid needs. No application can teach you to become a vet.

I found it to be useful for the simple things, as I’ve said, and worth the couple of bucks to buy and download it. The information is simple, has easy step-by-steps (where appropriate) to show you how to do it, and always ends with the caveat that you should take your pet to a vet if the situation is serious.

The app has a clean face that’s easy to use and understand and definitely built for the iPhone’s interface. This is a good compadre to the PetMD Pet Services Finder (free download) as well.

As long as you’re at iTunes to download PetMD First Aid and Emergencies for Dogs, you might as well grab Dog Whistler too. It’s free and fun and might be a great training tool supplement.

Freelance nation piggybacks profiles with leading social networking platform

There comes a point in life when you own one too many keys, and may get mistaken for a weighed-down, off-duty custodian minus the mop. The same is growing true of virtual online keys – the dozens of account handles, logins and passwords we repeat, recycle, tweak, and ultimately confuse and forget.

Thankfully, Vois and Facebook have linked together to sync up and streamline their accounts. Facebook members can now use the Facebook Connect utility to hook up with Vois.com (Virtual Outsourcing is Social), the world’s freshest freelance professional marketplace, without cycling through yet another registration process.

What this means is that Facebook members don’t have to create a separate account for Vois, a publicly-traded, social commerce Web company that combines the power of social networking with an online marketplace for on-demand services.

Instead, Web-savvy professionals can connect using existing Facebook profile information, friends and privacy preferences, and log into Vois.com without wasting extra keystrokes. To make this happen, Facebook members simply click the “Facebook Connect” prompt displayed on the Vois website. Whammy, it’s that easy.

Once connected, Facebook members can then share information and actions on Vois with their friends on Facebook via Facebook-fed stories and status updates.

“Facebook Connect integration was a natural fit for Vois, as Facebook users represent themselves with their real names and real identities, which is ideally the cornerstone of Vois.com’s social commerce network,” said Gary J. Schultheis, Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of Vois. “With Facebook Connect, users can bring their real information with them to Vois, including the basic profile information, profile picture, name, friends, photos, events, groups and more.”

The convergence of Vois and Facebook is about more than convenience and a few saved keystrokes; it’s about leveraging the well-built content and connections from one popular networking platform and using it to get a step ahead in another.

Personal tutors for students in school, whether it be a high school or a university, are expensive. While sometimes necessary, when the question the student has is just about a single lesson or a simple subject, paying for the services of a standard tutor seems a little out of range. Teachers can’t always be available and parents don’t always know the answer either.

This is where StudyLance.com comes into the picture. The site is a simple interface where students can network with tutors on different subjects. Qualified tutors can answer questions, give explanations, point the student towards more information, and more.

Think of StudyLance as a sort of Ask.com for students where qualified tutors will see the questions and give answers and information to help them.

Of course, to stay in business, StudyLance has to have an income stream. In order to view the entire answer given to their question, students must pay. In most cases, it’s just a few bucks and definitely affordable. The tutors, of course, get a piece of this for their troubles as well.

Registration is free for both students and tutors, but tutors will need to go through a verification process if they wish to be accepted and have their answers be more highly considered by the students viewing them. Since students can pick and choose which answers they pay for (based on previews), the more qualified a tutor appears, the more likely his or her answer will be chosen.

Students can also rate the tutors’ responses for quality, which ads to the tutor’s reputation.

Overall, this is a great, free-market answer to schooling. With growing classrooms and less one-on-one interaction between students and their teachers, tutors and personal coaches are becoming more and more needed. StudyLance gives the two a chance to come together and interact in an open market of information.

Definitely worth a try if you’re a student struggling with a class or a parent that needs to help your child through a particularly rough course.