Let's just say this: Jon Gordon is a proven visionary. In 1996, the Internet's Pleistocene Era, he persuaded Minnesota Public Radio bosses to let him do a daily tech segment that regular listeners now know as "Future Tense." For good measure, he convinced them that he should do it from California, when that state still resembled the land of milk and honey.

Now, Gordon is really going to have to prove his ability to see over the horizon: he's just been promoted to MPR's social media editor, with responsibilities for MPRNewsQ's mobile strategy. It's a new position that starts May 3, one that will force him to move from the California bureau (his Alameda garage) back to St. Paul.

The job — which came together in just two weeks, he says — "is, in a sense, making MPR content more discussable on social networks."

That means Facebook, and Twitter, and text messages on your phone, etc.

"This has always been a struggle for public radio," he adds. "How do you get people to discuss online, things that they hear on the radio? How do you make radio content more retweetable? How do you make MPR News a topic of discussion."

An aside: I've always felt one thing holding MPR back is timely transcriptions of radio content; it's difficult to listen to — and then retweet — an entire interview segment, for example. It would also be great if we could more quickly get clips, but all this requires labor and MPR's newsroom still isn't as big as, say, the Pioneer Press'. Radio is still the dog that wags the tail, and the net-side return-on-investment likely isn't that powerful yet.

These are interesting problems, one that Gordon (Twitter handle: @jongordon) says he's now thinking about constantly, but with no firm answers at the moment. "There aren't many (media) people who have this job; there's a social media editor at the New York Times and the Austin American Statesmen, and I think it's a matter of figuring it out as you go," he says. "That's something 'Future Tense' has really been about; I'm used to that level of uncertainty."

One asset is that many MPR newsies have taken to social media quite well. While the much-hyped Twitter is not as powerful as Facebook, MPR reporters such as Tom Scheck, Bob Collins, Tom Weber are as much a part of that space as folks from the bigger dailies and more popular TV stations. (Gordon recalls Collins as a former editor who, in the pre-"Future Tense" era, would send him "into the heart of tornadoes in my Mazda 323 with my little babies at home.")

While Gordon will mostly be handling stuff within NewsQ's purview — taking the lead on the Facebook fan page, handling MPR's main Twitter account, and helping staffers — he also gets to work with the very tech-savvy Julia Schrenkler, who he says will handle The Current, Classical and the broader MPR.org domain.

Gordon is also pleased that "Future Tense" will live on. John Moe, who hosted the late American Public Media program "Weekend America," will take over. Says Gordon, "I'm not sure it will be called 'Future Tense,' but they'll be doing a radio tech segment, and I'm glad because it sounds like they'll be investing more in it. I'm really happy I created something that's holding on."