Rizzn
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins (born January 9, 1979) is a web personality and pioneer of podcasting known mostly for his involvement in three projects: RantMedia, BlipMedia, and his personal blog rizzn.com. A vocal presence on the internet with posts in blogs and usenet dating back to 1997 with strong emphasis on politics, religion, and technology. In 2005 he made official his libertarian affiliations by going to work for the candidate for Texas Legislature T. Evan Fisher as his campaign manager.
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[edit] Ventures
[edit] RantMedia
For several years he also co-hosted the Mark and Darrell Show with long-time friend Darrell Thomas. The Mark and Darrell Show originally (c. 2002) was distributed nationally from friend to friend by way of CD-R, until it was picked up on Cam-Mafia Radio (which later became AKARadio) in early 2003. A short time later, Art "Smokehouse" Lindsey, III (program director for RantRadio) picked up the show for RantRadio. Towards the end of the run of the Mark and Darrell Show, Mark started up a one person conservative talk show named I'm Right. In early 2005, Smokehouse joined the show and it was renamed to Out in Right Field. The show is currently on hiatus.
[edit] BlipMedia
Hopkins is a founding partner of the Blip Group Ltd Co, the partnership behind the BlipMedia.org project. BlipMedia’s stated objective is to create a viable business model that will sustain the growth of independent media without compromising it’s integrity. Mark was integral in pushing for this agenda at the company’s formation, his passion for it stemming from his involvement with a number of popular underground free media projects like RantRadio and a wide variety of ‘zines and group blogging projects.
[edit] Rizzn. Com
He currently maintains a blog chronicling his personal and professional life as well as commenting and journaling current events in politics that surround him. His blog dates back to 1998.
2004 marked a move from pure journalistic analysis to becoming a primary source with the coverage of the 2004 Fashion Week Miami events, the 2004 Presidential Debates and the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards. In 2005, Hopkins, in his coverage of the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, caught on video events surrounding the Marion "Suge" Knight's shooting at Kanye West's record release party for his album "Late Registration."
In September 2005, fashion model Kate Moss was caught by paparazzi allegedly doing cocaine in a UK nightclub. The Sunday Mirror, (a UK tabloid), published the pictures on their front page. Almost immediately, both Gawker and Rizzn.com published the photographs on their respective sites. Following legal threats from the Mirror, Gawker took down their photographs, while Rizzn.com left them up. There has been no pending legal action towards Rizzn.com or Mark Hopkins since then.
Beginning in August 2005, Christopher Walken was the subject of a hoax Presidential campaign. A website, walken2008.com, presented numerous politically-charged quotes from Walken, which his publicist, as interviewed by Hopkins on rizzn.com, dismissed as "100% not true." The Urban Legends Reference Pages list the site as a fake [1]. This hoax was perpetrated by the Internet message board General Mayhem.[citation needed] The story was a very popular blogging topic before it was revealed as a hoax, and reached all the way up to number one on the Technorati top ten searches.
[edit] Other ventures
Since 1996, Mark has put out 10 CDs through a number of different labels under the moniker DJ Rizzn or sometimes DJ Riz. The CDs are generally varying types of 'techno'.
Additionally, he is the current Chief Information Officer for the American Association for Consumer Services.
His website lists that he's contracted himself out to portal software company 5Tribes, Inc. as a systems engineer as of December of 2005.
[edit] Professional history
He has pulled himself up by his bootstraps in the tech world, starting as far back as age 15, where he started a local area e-publication, which led him to assist in the foundation of the first internet provider in East Texas. During the time he worked with Internet Tyler, they were purchased by a TCA Cable. They employed his skills to roll out the first proprietary cable modem system in the Midwest. Shortly thereafter, Cox Communications purchased TCA Cable, and that infrastructure Hopkins helped put together is the foundation of Cox’s internet division.
After his tenure at Cox, Hopkins moved to greener pastures in the Dallas area. It was there he contracted for Apple Computer, Satima Design, Group M7 Design, Microsoft, and NinjaCo Media before he settled in with a permanent gig as a software analyst for CompUSA, part of a twenty person team who administered the point of sales machines for the company.
After a year of learning the corporate structure of big business with CompUSA, he received an offer to come program and project manage for Nokia’s internet marketing group. Graciously accepting, Hopkins was involved with three major product launches, most notable of the three being the Ringtone Project, the first attempt to create structure where ringtones could be freely transferred from computers to mobile phones and back. Upon completion of the project, the Director of North American Operations declared Hopkins “...instrumental in his support and research of the project..” and that “..without his work and effort, downloadable ringtones would not be possible.”
Shortly thereafter, Hopkins was laid off, along with 500 other of his co-workers in what since became known as the beginnings of the end of the ‘tech bubble.’ It was then he changed his focus from corporate America to start-ups. Using the knowledge gained in the corporate world helped him advise others in avoiding the pitfalls common to any business, and his credentials combined with his skillset made him an attractive asset.
Even with all that, the start-up world can be volatile, and it wasn’t until 2003 that he found a company who’s personalities and goals meshed evenly with his own. In November of 2003 he joined the AACS team in a business and technical advisory role. It wasn’t long before the company’s founders were spending late night brainstorming sessions with Hopkins, envisioning ways to expand the business technologically speaking. The BlipMedia project is a direct result of the brainstorming and subsequent experimentation in new media and new technology by the AACS crew.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- BlipMedia - The largest podcast host on the net.
- The American Association for Consumer Services - Mortgage assistance company in which Mark is an executive.
- rizzn.com - Rizzn's blog (1998-Current).
- RantRadio - The oldest streaming radio station on the net.
- Out in Right Field - Mark's most recent radio show.
- Rizzn@diaryland - Mark's old web diary (1999-2001).
