A Big Fat Thank You to Eric Cooper

Thank You Photo by psd

Over the past summer and beyond, Social Actions Labs has launched a number of web applications that have lit up the way we connect to actions across the web. I'd like to formally introduce and extend a *huge* thanks to Eric Cooper for bringing to life a number of these game-changing applications.

I first got connected to Eric via a post on the Strange Records forum from Bernard Dolan (Knowmore.org) - and our first collaboration was on the Knowmore.org Firefox Extension team – where Eric built the Knowmore.org API from scratch in a number of weeks. I would also like to note that Eric lost the latest version of the API on a USB card and then had to build it again from memory and scribbled notes. True story.

Eric and I first met in person when we both flew into the NetSquared Conference in San Jose – where in between sessions Eric launched integration of Knowmore's ratings with Amazon.com. This was unprecedented and has become an integral part to a tool that thousands use to shop with a conscience online. Eric continues to lead development of the Knowmore.org site and represented Knowmore.org at the recent Web 2.0 Expo Non-Profit Pavilion in New York City.

A month or so after N2Y3, I recommended Eric to Peter Deitz for Social Actions Labs' Lead Engineer Position. In the months that followed, (July, August, September) – Eric did a blitzkrieg of development that was truly remarkable and remains an inspiration for building so much with such limited resources.

Most game-changing of Labs' set of applications is the “Related Ways to Take Action” widget – which figures out what your site's about and then shares related actions from 20+ social action sites. Eric built the open source page scan technology, built the actual widget, and made it super simple to grab the code for your site. Try it.

Eric also pioneered the DonorsChoose.org WordPress Plugin (over 300 installs) and the Related Ways to Take Action WordPress Plugin (just launched).

And coming soon from Social Actions – Eric made it super easy to discover actions from any other action. Check out this screenshot from our test environment (note: this is going to change everything).

In addition to Eric's lightening fast and thorough work – he's also awesome to collaborate with and is someone whom I consider a close friend.

Eric, having recently finished his Labs consultancy period, is going on hiatus from Social Actions and is now contracting with Mozilla Support. While this isn't goodbye (Eric's volunteered to volunteer where possible moving forward), I think it's fair to say we're all going to miss Eric...

So, thank you, good sir – Thank you for everything - and I look forward to following (and being part of) your adventures in the future!

Best,

-Joe

Joe Solomon SocialActions.com/Labs, Lead Scientist

Note to all: You can follow Eric on Twitter here!