Edward Vielmetti — The Vacuum Group

Owner, The Vacuum Group

About The Vacuum Group

The Vacuum Group is a one-person LLC with colleagues in Ann Arbor and around the world. I make connections and get things done.

I have talent for identifying a need, forming a group to meet it, finding leaders and giving them the tools they need to organize online and offline.

Learn more about The Vacuum Group.

Biography

My interest in networks started in about 1985 when I first got a job working on keeping e-mail flowing on the Michigan campus, and later when I was working closely with the NSFNET deployment that was headquartered here.

I honed my appreciation for and gut understanding of network dynamics working at MSEN, the first commercial Internet Service Provider based in Michigan. The subject of a 1993 story in Forbes Magazine, MSEN was a pioneer in bringing network access to individuals and companies not otherwise affiliated with Federally sponsored research. A case study of the MSEN experience was published in Arnold Kling′s book ″Under the Radar″.

I spent more than three years at Cisco Systems, where I stitched together a career combining a lot of experience with computer networks with a deep interest and practical background in building social networks.

Experience

University of Michigan, School of Information, March 2006 - Present

Research Associate

I am a Research Associate for the Community Information Corps at the University of Michigan School of Information.

The University of Michigan School of Information has been a leader in ensuring that innovations in information science and technology are brought to bear in service of the public good. The Community Information Corps (CIC) is at the heart of that effort. CIC serves as focal point for students, faculty, alumni and community members from across disciplines to explore the changing role of information and technology in civil society.

• From March to December 2006 I also served as Program Manager for this Kellogg Foundation funded project.

• At present I have no active research projects underway, but I continue to work with students in the Community Informatics curriculum at SI, and assist the school in recruiting external speakers for their speaker series and in connecting students in the concentration to the community.

• See more details at http://cic.si.umich.edu

Ann Arbor District Library, May 2005 - Present

Technology Advisory Board Member

• Provide feedback on product development at the Ann Arbor District Library. Evaluate technologies, prepare use cases, do usability analysis, assist in protocol and API design, seek out patrons to assist in development of applications, and organize a periodic event (Library Camp) to bring patron feedback on emerging technology to the Assistant Director and the Director and the staff.

Cisco Alumni Association, April 2001 - Present

Executive Director

The Cisco Alumni Association is an unincorporated association of former employees of Cisco Systems, Inc (CSCO).

• As Executive Director and founder of this group, I recruit new members, occasionally helped by Cisco's perpetual restructuring and reorganization.

• The group was formed in April 2001 when Cisco did its first large public layoff of 8500 people at the end of the dot-com boom. Its membership now numbers approximately 750 (Jan 2008).

The Vacuum Group LLC

Owner

• Organizing the Cisco Alumni Association on the day of an 8000-person layoff. Find us on LinkedIn and Yahoo Groups.

• Building a podcast for non-profit client Assistive Media from existing audio content. Find it on iTunes.

• Producing ″Warren Easton in Exile″, a weblog to reconnect students displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

• Producing an electronic coursepack in social network analysis for Wayne Baker′s class at the Ross School of Business.

• Evangelism of a new online public access catalog and weblog at the Ann Arbor District Library.

• Perpetual search for an experimentation with tools that change the way communities and people communicate.

Pure Visibility

Director of Social Media and Chief Economist, January 2008 - April 2008

• Edward M. Vielmetti was the Director of Social Media at Pure Visibility. He started in November 2006 as a full time employee and has been involved in many aspects of the company, including Google Adwords campaign management, Google Analytics, social media, corporate strategy, process engineering and recruiting.

Director of Social Media, November 2006 - January 2008

• I′m doing web and blog analytics, social media, and Adwords account management.

• Tools used include Google Adwords, Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, MyBlogLog, 103bees,

• Pure Visibility is an internet marketing company based in Ann Arbor, MI. It is based in Ann Arbor, MI and located in the First National Bank building at 201 S. Main St.

Socialtext, January 2003 - July 2005

Founder, VP Customer Service

I am a founder of the company. We started after a few rounds of email spun off into a long phone calls, and the itch to build tools was compelling enough to start business planning. We didn′t all meet until later.

As VP Customer Service, I brought my experiences of working with a distributed team. We pushed the envelope in an intense initial phase of working together without the luxury of funding.

Some projects:

• Visualizing workspace collaboration using Valdis Krebs′s Inflow for social network analysis.

• Producing ″Eventspace″ conference wikis, updating live from a remote site connected by audio to build a tangible record of the event.

• Writing extensive operations docs and tools for wiki systems administration.

• Making the customer deliriously happy.

• I decided to leave Socialtext after the birth of my son and after the company decided that for its next round of growth that it needed to relocate its management team to California.

Arbor Networks, August 2001 - October 2002

Consultant and Technical Marketing Manager

• Managed technology integration of Arbor′s product line with hardware from Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks as part of a business development organization, leading up to a successful Series B round.

Cisco Systems, February 1998 - April 2001

Consulting Engineer, Office of the CTO

• Corporate consulting focused on network security and integrity. Worked with product development and with key customers on development of product features and requirements. Advised business development on technical aspects of acquisition and investment plans.

First Virtual Holdings, September 1995 - December 1997

Assistant Director of Research

• First Virtual Holdings had the first Internet-based electronic money transfer and payments system, long before people were buying things en masse on the Internet. I was employee number 20 and did a variety of things, including running a distributed team providing customer service to tens of thousands of customers, day to day management of a software development and systems test team, and integration of a Unix payments and accounting system with a remote job entry system.

MSEN, February 1991 - February 1995

Founder, VP Research

• Founder and VP Research at this pioneering internet service provider in Michigan. Bootstrapped this ISP by building out a statewide data network, beta tested all kinds of early dialup access equipment, and hosted early (Gopher based) internet applications like the Online Career Center jobs database.

OTA Limited Partnership, 1989 - 1991

Systems Administrator

University of Michigan, 1987 - 1989

Systems Research Programmer

Systems administrator for the campus-wide email gateway from Unix to the Michigan Terminal System, with responsibilities that included Usenet News and domain name servers.

After that, ran a network of Sun and Dec workstations for the Math and Statistics departments in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts.

• Good place to learn what it takes to keep big systems running!

• I was on duty when the Morris Worm hit and got my 15 minutes of fame on television then.

Education

University of Michigan, 1982 - 1998

Bachelor of Arts in Economics

• University of Michigan Men′s Glee Club, Student Conferencing Project, Slater Scholar, Branstrom Book Prize Award, James B. Angell Scholar, Inter-Cooperative Council, College Bowl

Northern Michigan University, 1981 - 1984

Mathematics

• I took mathematics classes (3 semesters of calculus and linear algebra) while I was in high school, and had 2 credits of Latin over a summer.

Marquette Senior High School

1978 - 1982