Are you new to Twitter and/or the blogosphere? Trying to find the most influential thought-leaders in the space?  Before the advent of web 2.0 and social media, it was easy: follow the leaders like Bersin (Josh Bersin’s blog & Twitter and Madeline Laurano’s blog & Twitter), Aberdeen (Mollie Lombardi on Twitter), Forrester and Gartner (Jim Holincheck and Thomas Otter on Twitter).

2.  iCIMS: Okay, blatant self-promotion here. But you should become an iCIMS Facebook fan, follow us on Twitter and read our iBlog.

3.  ERE: ERE’s online community contains thousands of pages of content relating to recruiting, and continues to drive traffic from over 58,000 loyal members. Having established a strong brand associated with the cutting edge of the recruiting industry, the website continues to add new content and functionality regularly. I scour my ERE Daily newsletter, so I recommend signing up for it. Follow some of the ERE guys on Twitter, too: ERE on Twitter, Todd Raphael , Scott Baxt and David Manaster.

4.  Laurie Ruettimann: Listed as one of the Top 5 career advice websites by CareerBuilder and CNN, Laurie is a full-time Human Resources speaker and writer who advocates for a common sense approach to traditional employment practices. She's the gal behind Punk Rock HR, @lruettimann and @punkrockhr. As talented and busy as she is, she still finds the time to be personable and kind.

5.  Recruiting Blogs:  Mmm, so between the time I started writing this blog and now, Recruiting Blogs actually acquired Punk Rock HR. So 4 and 5 might be a combo. But check them out on Twitter. You should especially follow John Sumser’s Top 100 influencers project, and also connect with Jason Davis. This is another newsletter that I look forward to every day.

6.  William Tincup: This guy is pretty outrageous, but is a brilliant and effective marketer. If you are selling software or service solutions anywhere in the employee life cycle from hire to retire – you should know his company. Starr Tincup has helped more than 150 clients in the human capital space innovate marketing.  Check out their Blog or follow them on Twitter @starrtincup (bio: human capital marketing rockstar.) You can also get his most recent book for free (and free=awesome).

7.  Fistful of Talent: A well-known and even more well-respected blog that covers an extremely wide berth of HR topics in a fun yet informative style. Some of their superstars include Jessica Lee, Kris Dunn and Jason Seiden. Also, put faces to the names by watching their installments of FOTV, where the FOT team tackles pertinent issues in a really engaging video format.

8.  Glen Cathey. This man is passionate (read: obsessed) with how to more effectively mine human capital data. He's the man behind the Boolean Black Belt blog and you can also follow him on Twitter. He recently reached out to iCIMS regarding a search feature within our system. It got a lot of great dialogue going and we took him up on some of his suggestions to better serve our clients.

9.  Recruiter Earth.  Check out the Recruiter Earth online community. (You can also connect with Chris LaVoie on twitter.) They come up with approximately 6000 new, creative and effective ideas a day. Also, I don't know how they do it, but they may have THE most active and engaged online community. Chris, are you bribing all these people? ;)

10.  Penelope Trunk's blog gives readers advice at the intersection of life and work. You can also follow her on twitter. She's an outstanding writer and doesn't hold anything back. Some of her content may be controversial, but she backs it so strongly with irrefutable evidence that sometimes you just can't help but be amazed, and then agree.  

11.  iCIMS…? Become a Facebook friend, follow us on Twitter and read our iBlog.

And then to rattle off a few more:

1.   Naomi Bloom

2.   Sarah White

3.   Recruiting Animal

4.   Steve Boese

5.   Cheezhead, of course

6.   Sharlyn Lauby

7.   Lance Haun

8.   Renegade HR

9.   HRM Today

10.   Did I mention iCIMS? Become a Facebook friend, follow us on Twitter and read our iBlog. Ok, ok, enough.

Well, the hyper-linking of all these resources is killing me, so I'm going to call it quits here. Who did I miss? Whose advice do you follow religiously? Which person or group do you consider an authority in the HR space?

Come support iCIMS as we defend our two-time crown in the

HRchitect is a leader in HR systems consulting and dedicated to educating customers on the many choices available in the puzzling world of HR technology. This 90-minute webinar will feature 5-6 top vendors from the Talent Acquisition space. Register for the webinar and vote for iCIMS as your favorite Talent Acquisition solution!

The pageant will have a few different sections. Here is a quick breakdown of what you'll see from each pageant competitor:

Evening gown – Each vendor will come out in their best ‘outfit’ – corporate overview, history, specific identity, financial viability, marquee clients, leadership team, etc. This will be their grand entrance!

Swimsuit – Here the vendors will show some skin– usability, configurability, etc.  

Talent – This portion will cover functionality, technology/integration, global ability, etc.  

Interview – This will be the Q & A section from the audience. 

The Beauty Pageant is taking place this Friday, August 21st from 12-1:30 pm EST, so take a minute, register here, and help iCIMS win our THIRD consecutive crown!

If I had a nickel for every time I came across someone talking about “the cloud” lately, I’d be a rich, rich woman.

If I had a nickel for every person who could accurately define what exactly it means to be “in the cloud,” I’d be broke.

In spite of what a hot topic the cloud is, especially in light of its implications as seen in the recent break-in of confidential Twitter accounts, it seems that there is little industry consensus on what exactly it means to be in the cloud. Pair that with some preexisting confusion over what is true Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), and you find us all in a hot mess.

I’m going to break down my opinion of what it truly means to be Software-as-a-Service and what it means to be “in the cloud.” And just for some perspective, I’ll throw in where iCIMS as a talent management solution falls. Feel free to correct me if you think I’m wrong.

Buzzwords

Cloud computing is the most recent buzzword, but this isn’t the first time an innovative method has had the industry buzzing. Back in the day, ASP (application service provider) was the hot topic. An ASP is a company that provides software in an on-demand SaaS method.

After ASP, the buzz turned to Software-as-a-Service, which is a method to deliver software (typically web-based software).

Thus, the progression went ASP --> SaaS --> cloud computing.

Where does iCIMS fall? We are an ASP and we offer a SaaS Talent Platform.

SaaS

I can’t speak for other organizations, but I can explain what it means that the iCIMS Talent Platform is SaaS. iCIMS owns a couple dozen servers on which we host our clients’ highly confidential or sensitive material, like EEO data, personal information, etc. These servers are very much a physical entity and they’re stored in AT&T data centers in NJ.

All other client information, such as their graphics, style sheets (aka static information) is hosted on the 15,000 servers we have access to through our partnership with Akamai Technologies. We do not own 15,000 servers, Akamai does, but we use them.

Therefore, highly private information is safely stored with us on those iCIMS' owned servers which is obviously a huge plus.  And because Akamai hosts all static information on their 15,000 servers that are all over the world, this ensures that those static elements of the Talent Platform will be as fast as possible.

The cloud

Instead of buying, maintaining, repairing and being in charge of those servers we own to store clients’ information, we could essentially rent the servers from a vendor; this is what it means to be in the cloud. 

Just as iCIMS clients don’t have to install or host their own Talent Platform, but we do that for them in the Software-as-a-Service model, these cloud vendors would be hardware-as-a-service. We’d no longer have to purchase dozens of expensive servers. Instead, we’d simply use a vendor’s hardware and put all data there, and we’d pay them a monthly fee to ensure that they had someone maintaining the servers. 

The advantage to this is that it would cure the problems experienced through the SaaS model. We wouldn’t have the physical responsibility of purchasing/maintaining/repairing servers.

The downside? Well, no one’s all that clear on the issue yet because this is unexplored territory. That is precisely why, as appealing and exciting as going to the cloud might seem, organizations must proceed with caution.

What do you think? Do you agree with my assessment of SaaS and the cloud or is your definition different? Let's get some dialogue going on this.

Yes, we would jump, too.

All the cool kids are doing it- blogging, that is. And now iCIMS is jumping on the proverbial bandwagon. You might wonder, Why are you guys starting a blog?  The answer is, we just want to chat!

Really, we’re hoping this blog can be one of many tools in the tool kit. We have a lot of interesting information about trends within the HR industry, recent developments, best practices, where we see the space going- and we want to share that with you. But we also know that you have a lot of great information at your fingertips, too. We’re hoping this can be the place for that sharing of information, swapping of resources and become a conversation starter.

 So who should be bothered to read this blog? Are you a recruiter? Then you’ll benefit from reading. Hiring manager? You can follow, too. Any kind of HR professional? Yup, this is the place for you.

Of course, that’s not to say if you’re a sales exec, PR pro or just happened to stumble upon iBlog that you shouldn’t follow. All are welcome.

Like I said, we’re going to touch upon anything and everything HR related. We’ll have posts about employee engagement and retention, the rise of video interviews, leveraging social media for HR initiatives-- you name it and we’ll be blogging about it. Not only will our topics be all over the place, but so will our bloggers. That way you won’t get sick of me! We’ll have everyone from the iCIMS intern to the iCIMS CEO blogging.  Not to mention we’ll take into account any feedback you have: suggest a topic you’d be interested in seeing, and we’ll be more than happy to blog about it.

Speaking of feedback, please give us some! Leave comments below, email me, share our posts with friends, disagree with our opinions. Any and all feedback is not only encouraged, but greatly appreciated. Digg it, tweet it, share it!

So, what do you think so far of our iBlog? What should our next posts be about? Do you hate our color scheme? Mi blog es su blog, so help us make it a good one!