David Williams
(He/Him)
New South Wales
As seen in:
iTWire,
Medium,
Oracle,
ZDNet,
British GQ,
The Health Pulse,
The Tennessean,
City A.M.,
EIN News,
Greensboro News & Record,
Roanoke Times
and
Covers:
Enterprise technology, software development, databases, cloud computing, data, analytics, AI, ML, smartphones, tablets, servers
IT executive | author | world traveller | team builder | management consulting | quality information services
More: muckrack.com/davidmwilliams
Interview
What was your first job as a journalist?
My first published story was on natural language parsing (as we call it now) for the Commodore 64 computer.
Have you ever used a typewriter?
Yes, I used a typewriter during the 1980s and part of the 1990s.
How is social media changing news?
It accelerates the time for the news to be known, along with multiple confirming accounts and supporting videos.
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
Sarah Jane Smith.
What does it mean to be a journalist?
To distil meaningful, insightful information concisely and succinctly, yet providing detail that people want to know.
What's the funniest news-related #hashtag you've seen?
#RIMJob for BlackBerry handheld software developer roles at Research In Motion.
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
I prefer an email, with the pitch giving me a clear idea of the 'so what' factor - i.e. why is this interesting?
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
Chrome, Ulysses, Grammarly, and sometimes Microsoft Word.
What's your favorite social network?
Twitter
Who do you wish followed you?
Anna Kendrick
Why did you become a journalist?
I had a love of words and a passion for explaining things. It simply came naturally. I was first published while still in high school.
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
I did not, though my brother and I made our own comics if that counts :D
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
I received 1m page hits from SlashDot on my first ever iTWire story about top open source applications.
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Communication involves two parties: one to utter, the other to receive and understand. Unless understanding happened, communication did not.
When's the best time to pitch you?
Around the middle of the day when I've dealt with the flood of overnight and early morning emails.
What's the best pitch you ever got?
"There's this new thing Microsoft is doing called .NET. Can we get you in front of the developers in Seattle to explain it to you?"
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
It was a salesperson who phoned and went on and on about how their software was SaaS but at no time explaining what the software actually did.
What's your favorite drink?
Pepsi Max
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
At a tablet or smartphone :(
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
Lots; I am always reading.
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
That any old computer hobbyist is a "computer expert".
Would you like to take the Muck Rack Interview?
Create a Muck Rack profile.