Dave Taylor

Author of more than 20 Books, Professional Bloggers, Movies Critic and A Strategic Marketing Consultant

Video Interview

Audio

Coming Soon

Bio

Whether the task is helping your company learn how to grow through savvy use of business blogging and associated social networks and new media, making a formal presentation to a packed auditorium of professionals on any of a variety of business or technical topics, leading a class of adult learners, or writing a business or technical book for neophytes, Intuitive Systems founder Dave Taylor’s central focus remains the same: to explain complex concepts and technologies in a way that lets you gain insight into the subject.

My primary focus is to continue my work as a strategic marketing consultant with client companies, helping them understand the opportunities (and risks) associated with online social networks. While most of my clients are smaller startups, I also enjoy working with larger companies that have the budget to do wonderful things but lack the chutzpah to jump in and get wet. In addition, I have dozens of speaking enagements already booked, including keynote speeches and workshops at major industry conferences, and am always interested in opportunities to spread the gospel, as it were.

My primary publishing venues are online, which should be no surprise. The flagship blog is my popular Ask Dave Taylor! blog, a free tech support and business discussion Q&A site with topics ranging from Windows troubleshooting, Facebook tips and tricks, getting the most out of your iPhone, iPad or other gadgets to job interview techniques and reviews of tech gadgets and gizmos.

If you’re a parent like I am, you’ll also be interested in my GoFatherhood site. Discussions on the site range from discipline to dealing with bullies, learning styles and paying allowance, to why you shouldn’t cheat on your spouse and the dangers of cyber-romances. If it involves the journey of parenting, divorce or post-divorce parenting, I’ve probably written about it at some point! Pop over to the site and find out why it’s cool — and often darn tough — to be a father in this modern world. I’ll give you a clue, though: parenting isn’t something that your nanny or full-time babysitter can offer because you’re too busy working…

Into movies or curious about the business of film production and distribution? Then you won’t want to miss my film blog: Dave On Film. In addition to reviewing new blockbuster movies, I also occasionally write about film theory and industry news too.

Book-wise, my most recently published works are The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Growing Your Business with Google (from Penguin), which offers every entrepreneur and business person hundreds of great ideas on how to increase your presence online, Learning Unix for Mac OS X (from O’Reilly Media), a great and blessedly succinct guide to getting started with the Unix inside your Mac, and Wicked Cool Shell Scripts (from NoStarch Press), 101 fun and informative shell scripts for Unix, Linux and Mac OS X systems.

If you’re part of the world of academia, you might find me guest lecturing at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Regis University, and the University of Denver, Daniels School of Business.

Looking to connect with me on a social network or two? You can find my outposts in the wilderness at DaveTaylorOnline.com.

I’m a storyteller, whether through the written word, video, on stage as a public speaker, or as a teacher and educator. Every company, every product has a story. Are you telling yours?

I help companies realize the potential of reimagining their business, reinventing their company, and embracing the potential of Internet-based Web, social media and other forms of two way communication to establish themselves as thought leaders and experts in their industry.

Specialties: Extensive experience in technical and management issues, ranging from academic experience – with an MS Education and an MBA – to startup work – I’ve founded, grown and sold three startups – to writing and public speaking. I have a wide range of talents and can work equally well with a small group of top-level executives in a strategic planning meeting or running a technical or marcom workshop for 500 people. I am an excellent communicator, top-notch speaker and great writer.

Ask Dave Taylor is primarily written by Dave Taylor, but the staff includes a variety of other people, including Gareth and Ashley Taylor. Gareth focuses on gaming and high performance laptops while Ashley is a photographer and deals with photo software, hardware and accessories. Additional contributors include Gary Moskoff, Steve Loyola, Klaus Holzapfel, Paul M. Bowers and Thomas and Deb Frey.

The company is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado.

Now, who’s this Dave guy anyway?

Thanks for asking! Let’s see… I’ve been in the computer industry since 1980, believe it or not, and have been online since before the beginning of the Internet. Some say that it wasn’t Al Gore but me who actually invented the Internet, but between Bob Metcalfe, Vint Cerf, Jon Postel, Tim Berners-Lee and many others, we all contributed – big steps or little – to the amazing tool it is today.

I have a number of academic credentials if that’s interesting to you, including a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from the University of California, San Diego, a Master’s in Education from Purdue University, and a Master’s in Business Administration from University of Baltimore, Merrick School of Business. I generally skip the alphabet soup after my name, though.

On the business side, I have created and launched four Internet related startups, the first of which was The Internet Mall. The original one. Long since vanished into obscurity, of course, but I was definitely part of the dot-com bubble and in addition to my own startups I served on the board of a number of different small companies (and continue to do so today) and have worked with various investment and venture capital firms as a due diligence analyst and even an entrepreneur in residence.

In parallel, I learned to write, and write I did. Twenty books. Thousands of magazine and newspaper articles. Today I continue to write both online and off, including being published in the Boulder Daily Camera, the Boulder Weekly, Linux Journal, and Colorado Business Magazine. No books in the pipeline, though, but I write forewords for a few books a year still: if you’re looking for someone to write your foreword, drop me a note!

I’m a frequent – and award-winning – public speaker who goes to a lot of trade and professional conferences every year. I’ve run large conferences, I’ve given dozens of keynote talks, moderated panels, argued on panels, and done just about every other job necessary to keep a conference running smoothly. I teach at a variety of colleges and private institutions, and in addition to helping run two weekly podcasts I also used to co-host an AM-radio phone-in computer show on AM760 here in Colorado.

I now split my time between free tech support here on AskDaveTaylor, fatherhood and parenting discussions on the popular GoFatherhood and film reviews on DaveOnFilm.com site. Along with a zillion other things.

Looking to find me in your favorite social network? The best bet is to start with my cheatsheet page at DaveTaylorOnline.com, or just pop directly to my Google Plus account.

Interview Questions

How did you start in the technology world?
Can you take us through the 4 startups that you were involved in?•Why do you make products reviews?
What helps you drive more traffic to your sites?
What’s your trick for blogging consistently and efficiently?
How to get contributors for a blog?
How many staff members are working with you on your blogs and what exactly they are doing?
Your top 3 blogging hacks, plugins or tools?•How do you monetize your blog?
You write for The Boulder Daily Camera& Linux Journal, and How to be columnistsfor such publications?
When you decided to start critiquing movies?
And how amateurs movies critics can pitch such publications?
Your top 3 movies?
Why you started writing about your experience as single dad and your divorce and started gofatherhood.com
What did you learn from your divorce?
What’s the most difficult thing that you face as single dad? In terms of raising kids?
Publishing or Self-publishing?
How do you leverage your writing, do you combine blog posts into books or the opposite?
How do you write efficiently?
How do you structure the process of writing a new book?
Who’s the best editor that you have ever worked with?
Who’s the best agent that you have ever worked with?
Share with us some of the tools or software that make you more efficient?
What’s your daily life and work routine looks like?
Whatare your other hobbies?
Who are your top 3 mentors?
What are the Top 3 apps that you use on your smart phone?
What are the habitsthat you are trying to develop to stay efficient?
What do you do to change your mood when you are depressed?
What’s the best advice that you ever received?
What’s your favorite quote?
If you have the chance, what would you say to advice your younger self?
What are your top 3 favorite books?
What makesyou really happy?
How people can contact you?