I’ve never been particularly good at describing myself, in fact I find descriptions unnecessary in most cases. At school this was the thing I most hated; I’ve always been more interested in narration, telling the facts rather than dressing up the story with endless descriptions. Perhaps that’s the reason I’ve never managed to finish a novel; they say that all journalists end up writing one. And this is what I want to get into, journalism, which is why I’m studying at the University of the Basque Country. It’s close to home, why travel if you don’t have to?

But forgive my manners, I haven’t introduced myself yet. My name is Álvaro Bohórquez, although perhaps better known in Web circles as blogdebori (Spanish).

I’m currently immersed in a new project, called Indian Red Netgames &LAI S.L., aimed at creating games and apps, initially for iPhone. This is my new discovery and current occupation, while I’m studying. With Web 2.0 issues as they are, I have become the community manager at Indian Red. For the moment, I’m running the company’s Twitter and Facebook presence, along with the first project, iOSO, our first game. It’s straightforward, yet enjoyable at the same time, I spend much of the day on Twitter. I’m hooked on a 140-character lifestyle, in fact I think I’m going to apply this parameter to everything I say. This is an obsession that has led me to my first job on the Web.

How does a student of journalism become a community manager?
The work of a community manager is not that far removed from the work of a typical communication department, so anyone who has a general idea of how information flows work already has something in their favor. In fact running a corporate blog should be their responsibility anyway. This is where being able to write well and generate good posts comes into play. The work of a community manager is not so different from that of a journalist working in the communication department of a company.

What I most like about this profession is the craic, the great atmosphere between the people that work in it. Going from one event to another, meeting new people that can really contribute to your work is a real bonus, in contrast to staying in the office all day running your social networks. These ‘real’ events are a great meeting place for Internet professionals, and it’s another way of working, because despite what you might think, the time is not wasted, quite the opposite.

How did you get to know the Panda team?
As I’m from Bilbao it would practically be a crime not to know about Panda Security, perhaps the most famous Bilbao company in the world, even more so than Athletic Club, and that’s saying something. My experience with computers has always gone hand-in-hand with Panda’s antivirus, at least in the beginning. I remember my first computer, running under Windows 95, with the ‘Panda bear’ installed and protecting me from viruses.

Some years later, after some time in the wilderness, changing operating systems, trying different antiviruses and other such stuff, I have succumbed to Panda Cloud Antivirus, a free antivirus, fast and light, it works perfectly without slowing down my computer.

The contact with the Panda team was by chance over Twitter. I tend to put all users located in “Bilbao” or “Vizcaya” or simply “Euskadi” as followers, so when I come across people from Panda I can’t help but follow them. After that, everything was based on a warm, friendly relation across this social network, which is what it’s all about.

What caught your attention during your visit to PandaLabs?

The visit to PandaLabs was genuinely rewarding, I’d never been in a lab like this, and I was impressed. The fact that 99% of the viruses are detected automatically and the remaining 1% are processed by technicians says a lot about the extent of Panda’s databases. The idea I had was that IT labs were like in the films, loads of pale geeks, obsessed with their computers. The visit to PandaLabs made it clear that they are just normal people, with a very rewarding job.

I can say now, to quote Iker Casillas, that “I feel safe”.

How did you end up writing this blog?
I heard about the blog, I enjoy writing and I’m from Bilbao, it’s a question of symbiosis.

Moreover, Panda Security has a clear commitment to Communication 2.0, so I hope to continue collaborating with my articles and my presence at events about social networks, etc.

So, let’s talk, tell me about your experiences with 2.0 tools 🙂