Jeff Barr FAQ

Welcome to the one and only Jeff Barr FAQ!

Before you send me any email, please take a minute or two to read this FAQ.

Using the FAQ

What’s a FAQ? A FAQ is a list of Frequently Asked Questions, along with the answers to the questions.

Why do you think you need a FAQ? Because I get a lot of email and I cannot seem to keep up with it no matter how hard I try. There are lots of you, and just one of me.

How do I use this FAQ? *Read the questions until you find yours. Read the answer and follow the directions.

What if my question isn’t in the FAQ? Read all the way to the bottom and you’ll find my email address.

Jeff Barr, Man, Myth, Legend

Ok, who the heck are you and why do you get so much email? During the day I am the Chief Web Services Evangelist at Amazon.com . I spend a lot of time on the road speaking to audiences comprised of entrepreneurs and software developers. I am also the originator and developer of Syndic8.com, Headline Viewer, and the Text On a Prim. I write this blog and I’ve been in the software industry forever. Add these all up and I can’t go out in public without a phalanx of bodyguards.

Are you the Jeff Barr? Well, I am certainly one of them. Another Jeff Barr sells real estate in Canada, and another one writes books about golf. It appears that the search engines think I am the most popular Jeff Barr around.

Can I hire you? Heh, fat chance. Lots of people have tried to do this and so far none have succeeded. I’ve got a really, really fun and impactful job at Amazon and you’d have to convince me that the one you are offering would be substantially more fun and with even more potential impact.

So you are independently wealthy then, and we can’t just throw tons of cash, perks, and stock options at you? Go ahead, make my day.

Is it true that you followed Bill Gates to a McDonald’s and talked to him? Yes.

Are you related to Roseanne? No.

Are you related to Bill? No.

Do you have a sister named Candy? No.

Will you connect with me on LinkedIn? Sure, if we actually know each other from a face to face encounter or an extended email conversation. Here’s my LinkedIn Profile.

Amazon

Will you hire me to work at Amazon? Go to the Amazon Jobs or AWS Jobs page and find something interesting. If I know you (if you sat in the audience at one of my talks this probably doesn’t count) send me your resume and the number(s) of the job(s) that you find most interesting and that you are best qualified to interview for.

Can I interview you for my blog / newspaper / magazine / movie? If you want to talk to me about something related to my job, you need to go through the Amazon Media / Industry Analyst page. My peeps are standing by 24×7 just waiting for your inquiry. If you want to talk about something else, just drop me an email.

I ordered a sweater from Amazon and I don’t like the way it fits. Can you help? No, sorry. Log in to your Amazon account and click on “Your Account.”

Can you come speak to my user group, conference, or company about the Amazon Web Services? Yes! I’ve got a whole team of evangelists just standing by and ready to talk to your group sometime soon. Send an email to our team address (evangelists @ amazon.com) and tell me all about the event — when, where, how many people, what kind of topic, what type of pizza you will serve, and so forth.

Can you give me Jeff Bezos’ email address? No, I don’t hand out any email addresses, and I don’t usually have the time to forward mail for other people either. You might try LinkedIn.

How Do I Sell My Stuff on Amazon? Check out Amazon Services Business Solutions to learn about our WebStore, Fulfillment by Amazon, and Pro Merchant programs.

Can you Recommend a Book for Me? Sure. Before one of my first presentations I searched the Amazon catalog for a very unique, yet tasteful book to use as an example of the diversity of our product line (this was before the invention of the term Long Tail). After searching high and low, I came up with Knitting with Dog Hair. This book wasn’t sufficiently obscure; my friend Joyce Park was in the audience and she exclaimed “I have that book.”

Jeff Barr’s Blog

What’s the point of your blog? I like to find stuff, organize it, share it, and squirrel it away for later. I also like to write. The blog is a perfect outlet for all of these needs.

Can you blog about my product / service? If I already know you and your product or service, asking nicely will probably do it. If you are in PR and want to be my “drive by friend,” you will have to try a lot harder. At the very least, take the time to decide if your offering would be of interest to me and to my audience of people who are presumably somewhat similar to me.

Syndic8 and RSS

Are you the developer of Syndic8? Yes, I started building Syndic8 in August of 2001 and developed it on a part-time basis until the fall of 2013 when I shut it down.

Was this a business, a hobby, a charity, or what? Well, it is a self-supporting business. Using a combination of text links, banner ads, featured feeds and Google AdSense, Syndic8 earns enough to pay for its hosting fees (and then a little more) every month.

So, how can I advertise on Syndic8? The site is defunct; you can’t.

I want to acquire Syndic8 and make you a dot-com millionaire. Would you be find this interesting? Uh, yeah.

I have a link exchange on my little unknown site. Can you link to me from your front page? Not for free.

Second Life

What’s your Second Life name? I am the one and only Jeffronius Batra in Second Life.

Why do you like Second Life so much? It is cool, it could have been the future, and it is a great communication tool. It is a development platform and all sorts of cool and interesting people hang out there.

What’s Your Email Address?

What’s your work email address? jbarr@amazon.com – Inquiries related to AWS, conferences appearances, and so forth.

What’s your personal email address? jeff@vertexdev.com – Inquiries related to Syndic8, Second Life, and other random things.