Blog it forward – Richard Lin

Who doesn’t love online chain letters, you know like the ones where if you don’t pass it on you could be haunted by a ghost for the rest of your life.  All joking aside, the Blog it Forward challenge is a great way to get involved with the community and have fun in the process. Moshe Naveh who is part of the collaboration team passed along the”Blog it Forward” challenge to me, and I’ll look forward getting my hands dirty with the blogging process. Also, if you haven’t followed the Blog it Forward Chain please do!

If you haven’t seen my work, I did a little something about topic leaders back in September.

My current title is: Gamification and Communities Intern, and I am working specifically with our Gamification project and community management on SCN.

Just to give a little taste of my life. I recently got hitched to my beautiful wife 11 months ago, and loving every second of it. Also, I am a recent graduate of the University of California, Davis, majoring in Communications and Economics. Go Aggies! On my free time I am a gym rat, and if you’re at the Palo Alto office you’ll see me at the gym almost every lunch.

Without further ado, I present my take on the questions presented:

What was your dream job as a kid?

Growing up, I would watch a lot of action movies with my parents. One night, I had the chance to watch Top Gun and was hooked ever since. It was after watching Top Gun that I wanted to be a jet fighter pilot. I thought for the most part, that there was glory awaiting me if I could be a jet fighter and blow up bad guys. Little did I know that the movies never truly portrayed reality. I found out later that explosions in the movies are a lot less glorious in real life. Thus, my dream was shattered and I grew out of that phase, and decided to pursue the dream of being a CEO of a startup (a story that can come at a later time).

What is your favorite place in the world?

I wish I could say, however, I have never really traveled outside of the states. The only place I have gone to is the motherland (Taiwan), and that has been an enjoyable experience. I would love to travel the world and visit the likes of Europe, Canada (heard they have funny bacon, Jason Cao) , all of Asia, and maybe Australia. Funny, if you look very closely, I didn’t actually answer the question.

What was the most fun project you ever participated in and why?

The most fun project I had to work on is building a startup that I am involved in called Coursegain (currently in alpha phase). Coursegain is a Learning Management System that is built in the cloud and with web 2.0 designs. Our team consists of 6 people including myself, who have worked at companies like Linkedin, Netapp, Samsung, and SAP :). The reason I find this project fun, is because it allows me to work with a stellar team and build a product that could very possibly be a game changer in the industry.

In keeping the BIF going, I am asking the following questions:

What is the fondest memory you’ve had as a child?

If you could do anything without consequences, what would you do?

What is the one thing you could not live without?

I choose you:

Ajay Maheshwari (you’re the MoM, so I figured you’d be a good BiF candidate )

Bhanu Kumar (you have Russel from “UP” as your avatar – respect)

Eduardo Rezende (time to kick off the Spanish BiF!)

Now go out there and put out your Blog it Forward challenge, because you know if you don’t you might be haunted by a ghost for the rest of your life