Dime Q&A: Everything You Wanted To Know About @jose3030

If you’re on Twitter, chances are you probably follow @jose3030 or have seen his name retweeted somewhere. When it comes to sports, he’s definitely one of my favorite people to follow because his timeline is filled with instant replays from games in progress, screenshots of priceless moments, stats and overall witty comments. Several well-known blogs, influential people in the sports world and celebrities often post his content and communicate with him about sports and sometimes music. And don’t try to create a fake Twitter account and pose as a celebrity, because he’ll be the first person to call you out.

I’ve probably been following him for about a year, and although I’ve communicated with him on and off of the Twitter platform, up until two weeks ago I knew very little about his background. (I guess you’re in the same boat.) Recently, we were able to speak with Jose and find out his story:

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Dime: So what is your everyday job?
jose3030: I’m an IT Systems Administrator. I can’t really speak too much on it but I’ve made a career out of it.

Dime: When did you start getting into digital media?
jose3030: I’ve been involved in digital media for at least 10 years or so. One of the first times I ever dealt with digital media was back in the day when the Chappelle’s Show was on. I used to have my own server, so instead of posting on YouTube or anything like that, I would serve these videos out to people and it got so big that Dave Chappelle himself was providing links to people and actually watching the links himself in promotion to his show in like 2004.

Even back before then, 1997, I had my own website and wrote down all the lyrics to Wyclef‘s “The Carnival” and then put all the music up there in RealPlayer 2.0, so you can imagine how long ago that was. I put all the music up so people could click the link and download. Unfortunately back then people couldn’t stream things. The lyrics weren’t even in the album booklet or anything, so I basically wrote them down myself. That was really my first access to the Internet and to the public.

Now I use my website and YouTube page to post the videos I rip.

Dime: Have you always been a huge sports fan?
jose3030: I’ve been a sports fan all my life. I moved to this country from the Dominican Republic when I was six and obviously I didn’t know the language so I had to learn the language first. By 10 years old, I knew the language as best I could because I would watch basketball on NBC and I would follow baseball. I grew up in Boston so I would watch all of the Boston teams. Was never a big football or hockey guy, so basketball and baseball were my two main sports – but I definitely know more about basketball.

Dime: How long have you been involved in digital media in the realm of sports?
jose3030: I’ve been into it for a long time but I wasn’t like one of the first people on Twitter or anything like that. I started off doing it for myself and my friends while chatting online. I got on Twitter about two and a half years ago and that’s when I really started taking it seriously. It was global at that point and it got so big that I have a lot of respected people that follow me on there, listen to what I say and use the links for their blogs so it gives me good exposure.

Dime: How do you rip videos so fast?
jose3030: I have a really fast computer and I have a really fast Internet connection. (laughs) I have a HDTV tuner board and whatever I’m watching I’m always recording it. In IT, you usually can’t copy a file that’s still being written to, so basically I have to stop the recording and take whatever I’ve recorded, quickly put that video in a program called Sony Vegas, take the file that I want, create another file and that file goes on the Internet. Sometimes when there’s no action going on between plays, I take little snippets and merge two different clips together to make the replay look like it looks on TV.

I can only watch one thing at a time, so usually I look for the game that people are most interested in – and obviously the nationally televised games are at the top of the list. I’ll jump around from channel to channel during commercials and things like that.

Dime: Have people reached out to you about helping them with their digital presence?
jose3030: A lot of organizations have approached me in order for me to be exclusive with them and I reject them all because I think information should be open, free and available to whoever wants to see it. I shouldn’t have to go to your site to see my video. A lot of respected organizations and blogs have used my videos to make their sites better.

Dime: What organizations have reached out to you?
jose3030: I can’t really comment on the names, but I can say different organizations have reached out to me to be exclusive essentially. I would say four or five different blogs that pretty much anytime they post something it goes viral, just to give you an idea.

You’re giving the stuff away you’re not getting paid for, but it’s everywhere, so what’s the problem with that? And in an essence it inspires other people to do the same thing. A lot of people have reached out to me from different blogs that want to do similar things and I’ve helped them out. I’m not trying to be exclusive or “The Guy” because I can only do one thing at a time, that’s my limitation. If you have other people doing other games it helps everyone.

Dime: What’s the biggest response you’ve gotten from something you’ve posted?
jose3030: Kobe Bryant calling the ref a slur. I want to make sure I say this since a couple people have accused me of getting Kobe fined. That was not my intent. Two or three people sent me messages that basically said “thanks for getting Kobe fined,” and I said that wasn’t my intent, not even what I posted it for. On the video I put something like “Kobe gets technical foul and is not happy,” and then TMZ put it on their site with my watermark at like 10 or 11 in the morning. There’s a lot of people that follow me that have blogs and a lot of reach, and nobody had put anything involving any gay slurs that I knew about. Within an hour TMZ put their own video up without any watermarks, and after it got a lot of traction, blogs saw it and put it up, and they put up my original video because you can’t embed their video.

The second one that has gotten the most traction is when Kobe avoided LeBron in the All-Star Game and dunked the ball while LeBron was trying to block it from behind. After the dunk, Kobe slapped him on the butt on the way back down the court. That one got something like a million or two million views.

Dime: What do you want to get out of your digital presence?
jose3030: Ultimately the league and sports in general is moving towards instant results and “Hey, I just saw this and I want to see it again” type of deal. I want to be one of the guys that starts the whole process. They don’t have to be near a TV, they can look at it on their iPhone or BlackBerry. It keeps people in-tune without actually having to be there, sitting and watching the TV.

I just do it as a hobby because I have my own career, so I don’t have to do this. It’s possible that I may eventually hand over the keys to somebody else. I just want people to be able to get information they wouldn’t be able to get any other way.

Dime: Who’s the biggest celebrity that has retweeted or reposted your content?
jose3030: I was browsing through a forum about a year ago and people were posting Photoshops of Kobe Bryant after those pictures of him came out of him wearing white looking like a Jedi or something. I posted some pictures on my TwitPics, and before you know it, Ashton Kutcher was like, “Jose, these pictures are hilarious,” and he posted the TwitPic link to Twitter. He’s the biggest one.

Questlove is a good friend and he’s retweeted a lot of things I’ve done. Not really on sports tips, but mostly on music tips. I try to promote music through late-night TV performances and really anything music related on TV.

Dime: Who’s your favorite NBA team and player?
jose3030: My favorite team is the Boston Celtics. I don’t really have a favorite player. If I were to say favorite Celtic I’d say Paul Pierce, but he needs to stop flopping so much (laughs).

Dime: Who do you think is going to win the title this year?
jose3030: I think the Lakers will pull it out in the Western Conference. In the Eastern Conference, Chicago Bulls. I know I’m a Celtics fan, but the Bulls just really put everything together this year. The MVP is definitely Derrick Rose. Between the Lakers and the Bulls I think the Bulls might pull it out.

Follow Jon on Twitter at @jonithom.

Follow Dime on Twitter at @DimeMag.

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