This publication is for creators who live digitally.

Membership | Values and ethics | Publisher bio | Consulting

Welcome to the newest iteration of The Content Technologist. This member-supported resource is designed to help content creators use digital tools and algorithms more fluently.

As a member of The Content Technologist, you can expect:

  • A weekly newsletter sent on Thursdays, featuring an essay, a review, and links of the week (free members receive this newsletter once a month)
  • Access to all content on The Content Technologist website (about 30% of the website content is gated for members)
  • Invites to quarterly digital events beginning in January 2021
  • Discounts on courses beginning in January 2021

I'm also adding occasional guides to all website content and outside resources, beginning with a guide to all the SEO essays and reviews that have appeared in the newsletter, logically organized, and a list of all my favorite newsletters.

At the moment, The Content Technologist covers primarily what would traditionally be called "writing" – text and images on a screen in web or email. In the future I'd like to include more information on audio, video and content moderation. (If this interests you, please drop me a line.)

The first 1,000 founding members of this publication will receive paid membership free forever. An extremely limited number of spots are left, so become a member today.

The Content Technologist covers the concepts, tools and platforms we use to make things. Areas of interest include but are not limited to:

I also review software that does all of the above, or more simply: content technology.

The Content Technologist publishes weekly on Thursdays, whenever I happen to finish it. My name is Deborah Carver and I live in Minneapolis, MN. For the moment, I'm the narrator of this adventure.

Reviews are published with a system of icons, which are illustrated by Will Dinski Art + Design.

I've been publishing online since 1997, first my own work and then, finally, in a stroke of luck, I got paid to pull the strings behind others'. I learned html and css until I didn't have to know how to code to make the things I wanted to make. I've worked with a lotta software.

My first job in publishing was filing analog images at a tiny historical image agency. I later scanned those images into a database (what we'd call a Digital Asset Manager) and added metadata so they'd later be searchable. I had no idea what I was doing.

I have since worked for big media companies, tiny media companies, tiny media companies operated by global media companies, a media company you could call medium-sized, and a digital marketing agency. I even had a couple client-side temp gigs. Gradually I've figured a few things out and picked up a trick or two.

I review software. If you think one woman reviewing software after a few years of experience is journalism, then cool for you! I don't earn money directly from my reviews, but this publication is also the content marketing for my consulting business.  

Right now The Content Technologist is focused on non-audio content. I hope that changes, but in the meantime I'm a huge fan of Hot Pod.

I also do not cover the entertainment industry, traditional ad industry, or the so-called streaming wars outside of "whoa check out this cool thing someone made." Again, I hope that changes. In the meantime, both entertainment and tech industry pubs are closely covering Netflix & their ilk.

There are other publications that cover ad tech. Unless they're content-driven (some new spin on Native Advertising), I'm not interested in ad tech.

And dear readers, you should know – I do like media company gossip. I'm not so interested in the individuals, although there are a few I very much admire and follow. But I'm watching the corporate structures and business models for media companies shift very closely.

If you are new to The Content Technologist, here are a few posts to get you started:

Got something to say? I'd love to hear it.

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