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Social media faux pas? The evolution of etiquette, rules and norms in a Web 2.0 world

Raul — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:50:23 +0000

Recently, I was able to listen to Tris Hussey‘s excellent talk at Third Tuesday. While at the event, we discussed the widely publicized case of Raymond Lam having to resign after having photos of him leaked from his personal Facebook account. We discussed the fact that the boundaries between the private and the public are highly blurred now, and that we need to talk about etiquette in social media. I wanted to just use this post to announce that we (and by we I mean, Shane Gibson, Lorraine Murphy and myself) will have this discussion at the next Vancouver Bloggers Meetup. We are hoping to have Colleen Coplick moderate the roundtable.

Yes, everyone, it’s true. I am hijacking my own Meetup in order to continue with a much needed discussion on the rules and etiquette of social media. Here is the abstract of our panel.

Rules, Norms and Web 2.0: Etiquette in an Era of Evolutionary Social [Dis]Organization

Etiquette is frequently seen as a constraining set of behavioral rules, delineating what behaviors are appropriate within a certain social arena and which are not. But in a context of online multiverses, each with its own culture and demographic, what is truly the “right” thing, and how can we know it? Culture clashes and rapid evolution of social norms are ubiquitous in social media: why? What is appropriate etiquette? Is it portable across platforms? What are the ‘right’ kind of rules and norms in an unruly arena such as the online social media world? The participants in this panel will engage in a conversation about what constitutes etiquette, whether or not it relates to a moral imperative, whether it emerges as self-appointed leaders create specific sets of norms and discuss the evolution of etiquette in emergent social media. The implications for codes of behavior and etiquette in Web 2.0 are also discussed.

I’ll announce it on the Vancouver Bloggers Meetup site and on Twitter once I have firmed up a location (which most likely will be the Regis Room at the St. Regis Hotel, downtown, right beside the Granville Street Skytrain station exit on Dunsmuir).

The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging – Book Review

Raul — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 15:22:08 +0000

Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post. (CC) JD Lasica, socialmedia.biz.

At the recent Gastown Dialogues on the Future of the Web, Kevin Grandia gave me a copy of The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging by the Editors of The Huffington Post, and an introduction by Arianna Huffington. A great book indeed.

The guide is an absolutely enjoyable read. But as I told Ianiv and Arieanna, I wish that this book had (a) been written one or two years ago, and (b) I had read it then. I’m going to start with a disclaimer. I’m not a newbie blogger anymore. Admittedly yes, it has taken me a while to get to where I am (I’d say that a solid year – my blog really took off during 2008, I would say). But I no longer need the basic suggestions. At this point in the game, I feel confident enough to help newbie bloggers and/or total strangers to blogging launch their sites. Heck, I do a LOT of my own techie stuff (of course, I am always appreciative of my friends’ help when it comes to CSS editing and issues of website management and maintenance).

I have learned a lot of the stuff that the editors of HuffPost suggest just by virtue of learning by doing, listening to other amazing bloggers speak about what they do and absorbing their best tips. I’ve learned from some of the best social media people in Vancouver, many of them recognized beyond the frontiers of the maple leaf country. So, really – for me, a vast majority of this book’s content was pretty much, a repeat of what I already knew. [UPDATE - At VIFF '09 Bridget mentioned this book and I fully endorse that this book is worth acquiring and reading]

But fear not. Whether you are someone who is just starting to blog or a total blogstar, this book is for you. I couldn’t stop reading it today. I speed-read, as most of you know. Well, I had to stop myself, and read passages again and again so that I could savour again the page I had just read. It was like sipping a good glass of wine. The editors of the HuffPost have done us all a great service by virtue of compiling, distilling and publishing some of the best blog tips out there. Particularly relevant – the whole discussion on the future of traditional (mainstream) media vis-a-vis the rise of new media. I’ve written about the topic here, here, here and here. I’ve also liveblogged other speakers who have discussed the topic (here and here and here)

Would I love to have the HuffPost’s traffic? Maybe, maybe not. But one thing is for sure. I am sure as hell happy to have a copy of the Huffington Post’s Complete Guide to Blogging.

Disclosure – This review wasn’t paid. Nothing I have expressed has been influenced in any way, shape or form by external entities

Sharing your knowledge in open source: SlideShare and Scribd

Raul — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:21:40 +0000

As an academic, I often find myself conflicted on the sharing of my presentations and papers. On the one hand, we are supposed to do research to advance the literature and contribute to the global larger body of knowledge. However, with instances of plagiarism, issues of copyright and the fact that some of us actually make a living out of our knowledge, sometimes it becomes a bit tricky whether we want to share our Power Point slides or our articles/papers.

Before, I would just put up the PDF of a presentation in Power Point or a journal article, assuming this would sort of (kind of) ensure that my work wouldn’t be plagiarized. However, this is never the case, there’s always a way (if a knowledge thief wants to do it). But then, as I got immersed in social media, I discovered two tools that might be already very well known to you (but they weren’t to me): SlideShare and Scribd

SlideShare is, in their own words, a “community to share with the world”. You basically share your slide decks.

SlideShare is the best way to get your slides out there on the web, so your ideas can be found and shared by a wide audience. Do you want to get the word out about your product or service? Do you want your slides to reach people who could not make it to your talk? Are you a teacher looking to share your lesson plans? It only takes a moment – start uploading now, and let your slides do the talking!

For example, I found a presentation on water by Jeff Brenman:

THIRST

View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: design crisis)

Scribd is another publishing platform. In their own words:

With Scribd’s iPaper document reader, anyone can easily upload and immediately share their original works on Scribd.com or any other website. iPaper transforms PDF, Word, PowerPoint and many other file formats into an elegant web display. Your work can be shared with Scribd’s community of passionate readers, and because every word of your document is indexed for search engine optimization, your screenplay, novel or even sheet music and recipes also can be discovered by the world.

I found an interesting paper by the Tyndall Center on governance and climate change.

Conceptualizing climate change governance beyond the international regime: a review of four theoretical app…

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Interdisciplinary Science centre adaptation

I discovered Scribd and SlideShare through various of my friends who have uploaded their presentations from the WordCamp Whistler and Paul Hillsdon’s blog, so hat tips to them.

Now, the question goes to YOU – how do you feel about sharing your presentations or papers?

Countering the uselessness of super-useless superpowers

Raul — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:39:40 +0000

Darren shared the website of SuperUseless SuperPowers on his blog (although neither him nor I remember who shared the actual link to the site – I do remember having seen it on Twitter too) and I got a real chuckle out of it. What I found extremely interesting is that commenters were trying really hard to justify the super-useless super power (hence, rendering it actually useful). See for example the justifications for the super-power of lukewarm touch.

The super power is:

Lukewarm Touch.
An estranged 3rd cousin of the Midas Touch, the Lukewarm Touch allows its hero to touch any temperature liquid and turn it to room temperature. Perhaps somewhat useful if captured by cannabalistic pygmies.

But even funnier are the justifications for the super power (commentaries)

If you’re a parent that has to deal with reheating formula/breastmilk, this super power would actually be killer.

I’ll admit… if I had a superuseless superpower, I’d certainly appreciate feedback on how to make it actually useful!

Complexity, self-organization and social media in 2009

Raul — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 07:29:31 +0000

It’s January 1st, 2009, and many fine folks engaged in the social media world are doing their predictions around what the social media landscape is going to look like. Just off the top of my head I can recall Colleen‘s post, Mhairi‘s post and Michael‘s. Excellent posts, all three and kudos to Colleen, Mhairi and Michael. Honestly, I didn’t want to go and Google the WWW to read more about how social media is going to change in 2009, but I’d recommend you to read these posts from my friends.

Now, back to the topic… There is ONE thing I will tell you, and I’m pretty sure about it – the fluidity of the Internet and social media itself will prevent us from making any accurate predictions of what the social media landscape in 2009 will look like. In other words – if you are making predictions about it, you’re already wrong, even before you start.

There is a whole body of analytical work done around the future (also called Future Studies, or also Futurology). As someone with quantitative training, that’s perhaps one of the things I enjoy the most about mathematical modeling (something I’ve done frequently): some mathematical models allow me to predict future behavior in phenomena. This predictive power increases system stability.

Sadly, the same can’t be done with our good ol’ pal The internet. There is no accurate mathematical (or game-theoretic, or any kind of formal modeling technique) that will tell us what’s going to happen in social media in 2009. Based on our previous experiences in the world of social media (from the various perspectives we have), we can offer trends, suggestions, insights, look for patterns. But seriously, we can’t predict. We can’t make accurate predictions in such a self-organizing, fluid, complex system as the Internet, and more specifically, social media.

Social media is the perfect example of a Complex Adaptive System. It is social (therefore, exhibits network properties), bi-directional (and in the case of connectivity tools like Twitter, multi-directional), multi-scalar (and doesn’t recognize geographical barriers). Moreover, it is complex (as human behavior always is), it is adaptive (as it changes according to responses) and it is systemic.

A while ago, I wrote asking what would Web 3.0 look like. Personally, as someone who doesn’t do social media/tech for a living, I thought that it would include mobile communications. Mhairi mentioned in her post that geo-based tools would stay at the forefront. My sense is that, we won’t exactly know until we’ve seen it. Much as I really dislike that phrase, I think it’s true. We won’t know what 2009′s social media landscape will look like until we are up to our eye-balls in it.

All I’m saying is that, since we can’t predict the Internet and we can’t really predict much about social media, let’s just all enjoy it and take it from there.

For more Complex Adaptive Systems stuff, I’d recommend the website of the Santa Fe Institute.

Help save the Great Bear rainforest

Raul — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:43:31 +0000

Credit: Dru!

Many people have asked me throughout the years if I have ever considered a career in conservation. While my PhD degree is in environmental studies, and you could argue that my work in pollution control would pretty much amount to some form of conservation, I hadn’t been much of a fan. And since forestry isn’t really my area, for a while there I neglected discussing or researching anything that was forest conservation-related. Until I heard of Simon Jackson. I met Simon in person and did a really quick interview for HappyFrog when he was a keynote speaker at EPIC 2008. And then Darren informed me that they (Capulet) were helping Greenpeace, Forest Ethics and Sierra Club BC with their campaign to make the Provincial Government “Keep The Promise”

You might ask why did I bring Simon Jackson into the discussion. Well, here is the thing: the work that Simon has done to protect the Spirit Bear is pretty much in line with the work that the coalition of environmental non-governmental organizations (GP, FE and SCBC) are doing: conserving the forest helps conserve the spirit bear’s habitat.

Credit: Art Catcher

In my research, I’ve written about how ENGOs use various types of strategies to galvanize public opinion (often, through mobilizations). This time, the work that these organizations are doing goes beyond protests and engages in a Web 2.0 kind of mobilizations: writing electronic letters to the Provincial Government.

You, too, can help this worthy cause by sending an email to the Provincial Government (the site is really well designed so all you really have to do is fill out the data form and voila! off you go).

As you can see, environmentalism is not dead, is well alive and kicking! Please contribute with this worthy cause. You can also participate in a photo contest (check links here) and follow their Twitter account (yeah, kinda cute that the Spirit Bear has a Twitter account, hehe – he better follow me back!). Furthermore, you can join the Facebook group (no thanks, I don’t do Facebook, but you can!). EDIT – And you can join the photo contest on Flickr!

In total Web 2.0 fashion, if you need more to be convinced, I invite you to watch this video:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwHofAgCzLI]

I’m in The Georgia Straight!

Raul — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 06:57:34 +0000

I may not be nearly as visible on the web as any of the top 20 most visible Vancouver bloggers, but I will never complain, because I have been fortunate enough to have the mainstream media cover my blogging activities (for example, the 24 hrs coverage of Blogathon and Buzz Bishop’s article where he mentioned my involvement as the organizer of Vancouver Bloggers Meetup). The most recent mainstream media coverage I have received is fresh off the presses, and it’s on The Georgia Straight, one of Vancouver’s (if not THE) most read weekly newspapers.

A few weeks back, Jeffery Simpson asked me if I’d like to be interviewed and I gladly accepted. In case you didn’t know, Jeffery wrote not only one, but two guest blog posts during my Blogathon 2008, and he has done really awesome work with Vancouver MetBlogs, so I was quite honored.

In Jeffery’s article for The Georgia Straight “Vancouver bloggers have their say in cyberspace“, Kate Milberry (a phenomenal analyst of digital activism, based out of Vancouver) is quoted. Kate has done research on the way in which activists use the internet to advance their agendas, and as a scholar of environmental studies, I have analyzed the behavior of environmental non-governmental organizations and their use of the Internet to disseminate information about toxic releases in their neighbourhoods, so in some ways, Kate’s work and mine have some parallels.

Jeffery also interviewed Sean Orr, of Beyond Robson/Morning Brew fame. While I haven’t met Sean in person, I do respect his work and that of many of the Beyond Robson writers (even if sometimes we do have our ideological differences, I think we all respect each other and the role we have in Vancouver’s blogosphere).

I really enjoyed Jeffery’s article and I hope you do too. Thanks for the interview Jeffery!

Beyond national frontiers with Twitter

Raul — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 18:15:17 +0000

Credit: JMilles

Yes I know I tweet. A lot. With over 9,000 tweets since April 2008, I have no clue how I have managed to actually maintain my followers. You are too kind! At any rate, while I was in Mexico I started thinking about following some people there but then I unfollowed them as I figured that I wouldn’t be staying for long and thus it was kind of pointless.

Through my tweeting, I’ve discovered that I now have followers not only from Canada, but also from the US, United Kingdom, Mexico, and that’s kind of neat to me. Because I sincerely think that Twitter should trascend domestic frontiers.

I know that I shouldn’t care about my stats but since I was asked to provide some metrics of traffic, I did a quick Alexa search and found out that about 30% of my traffic comes from the US. Nice! To be quite frank, I didn’t even think anybody read my blog in the US (seeing as the vast majority of my writing is fairly hyper-local, e.g. Vancouver). But I’m glad people do, and I’m glad I am able to provide some content that can have wider appeal.

Credit: justj000lie

On a semi-related tangent, I also have to say that I’m glad that Elizabeth May (leader of the Green Party and candidate to Prime Minister of Canada) is interacting with her followers on Twitter (@elizabethmay). I was very impressed with the way she conducted herself during the debates, and I have several very close friends of mine who are friends with her (or at least know her very well).

The future of the internet – Web 3.0?

Raul — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:11:27 +0000

I seem to have heard this concept in passing (Web 3.0) but I am not exactly sure where I did. Most of my non-geeky friends who now identify me with the Vancouver tech community (something I’m proud of, but most definitely not worthy of the title of geek yet!) have asked me what I understand by Web 2.0 and whether there is such thing as Web 3.0. I’ve answered that I’m not 100% sure, but that I’d ask my friends.

I’ve heard several elements that are supposed to be part of Web 3.0. Unfortunately, I’d lie if I said I do remember exactly who said it but some people have mentioned that perhaps the future of Web 2.0 lies with video (vlogging). Some others have implied that we should look at mobile web 2.0 (e.g. everyone jump on their iPhones or equivalent now). If Web 2.0 was all about dynamic interaction between user and content generator, then maybe Web 3.0 adds a third dimension (mobility).

Obviously, we all go at some point to the Wikipedia page, so the entry for Web 3.0 does mention stuff about mobile web, etc. The question I have now is — what do YOU think or understand by the idea of Web 3.0?

Politics 2.0? Are Canadian politicians using Web 2.0 the right way?

Raul — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:10:57 +0000

While I know that there is already buzz around the town on the use of Twitter (seen a couple of posts by Buzz Bishop and Kate Trgovac, as well as one on The Tyee’s The Hook, led by Monte Paulsen), Facebook and other Web 2.0 applications by Canadian politicians (like Elizabeth May, Stephane Dion and Stephen Harper), I am a bit surprised that almost nobody has (at least from what I’ve been reading on the sphere) touched on the very basic element of Web 2.0 – interactivity and bi-directionality.

Even if I don’t follow everyone who follows me on Twitter, I ALWAYS interact with the people who follow me. I have just briefly seen the Twitter account of Elizabeth May and she is not following anyone and has not interacted with anyone. The opposite attitude was that of the Twitter account of Barack Obama who basically followed everyone who was following, and then some more.

I don’t know Liz May, but some of my very closest friends do, and if any of those would like to relay this message to her and to the rest of the politicos in Canada, please feel free to do so – TALK TO YOUR FOLLOWERS. Yeah, you could argue with me that Obama never did talk to anyone on Twitter, but the point I’m trying to make is that Twitter should not be treated *just* as a news broadcast. If those of us who evangelize about all things Web 2.0 are really interested in harnessing social media for change, we need to explain to the “newbies” that the crux of social media is the bidirectional, interactive conversation that occurs within the realm of blogs, Twitter, vlogs, Facebook, etc.

And yeah, boo for fake Twitter accounts for political figures!

Upcoming environmental events in Vancouver – September 2008

Raul — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 22:00:12 +0000

Two upcoming events are rather relevant to me and both fall on the same day.

Green Drinks Vancouver happens again on the third wednesday of the month (Sep 17th, 2008) at Steamworks.
The Metro Vancouver Sustainability Breakfasts series continues, and this time, they will focus on the discussions we’ve been having on bottled water. I am SO definitely there!

About the Community Sustainability Breakfast [Metro Vancouver's website]:

Sustainability Community Breakfasts – Nature’s Health Drink – Always on Tap
Wednesday, 17 September, 2008
from 7:30 AM to 9:00 AM
British Columbia Institute of Technology
555 Seymour Street, Vancouver

About Green Drinks Vancouver Sep 2008 [Green Drinks Website]

WHEN the next regular Green Drinks is: Every 3rd Wednesday of the month (except in Dec and July) Our next event is on Sept 17th, 2008
WHERE: Steamworks pub at 375 Water Street on the edge of Gastown near Waterfront Station.
Please be aware that due to changing space availability we cannot guarantee we’ll be in the same room each month – if you can’t find us just ask Steamworks staff which room we are in.
TIME:5:45pm-until?

It’s lucky that both of these events fall on the same day, and that I’ll be back in Vancouver by then! And again, I’ve got a full week booked (Brew 2.0, Green Drinks, Launch Party AND a special day!). Can someone please clone me? Thanks.

Blog Action Day 2008 – Poverty

Raul — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:05:34 +0000

Poverty is one of the societal illnesses that occupies my mind on a regular basis. Not because I live a rather frugal life and I’m on a budget. I’m actually talking about REAL poverty.

Photo credit: DTES.people on Flickr.

While I realize that there are many measurements and definitions of poverty, I was kind of shocked to find out that the World Bank doesn’t have specific pages to analyze poverty in North America. Is the belief that poverty does not exist in North America (USA and Canada, as Mexico is included in their Latin America dataset) so prevalent that US and Canada don’t warrant their own country pages?

Anyone who knows me even a little bit and who has taken the time to read the more serious, less fluffy posts in my blog will know that I’m a big fan and promoter of social activism, particularly in issues of homelessness, poverty alleviation, sustainability and HIV prevention/treatment. This time, I’d like to draw your attention to Blog Action Day 2008′s theme – Poverty.

What is Blog Action Day?

Global issues like poverty are extremely complex. There is no simple, clear answer. By asking thousands of different people to give their viewpoints and opinions, Blog Action Day creates an extraordinary lens through which to view these issues. Each blogger brings their own perspective and ideas. Each blogger posts relating to their own blog topic. And each blogger engages their audience differently.[Blog Action Day site, About Page]

Last year, I participated in Blog Action Day 2007, as the topic was sustainability. This year, I am even more motivated to participate given that my readership has increased, I am much more socially connected (through Twitter and many other Web 2.0 methods) and therefore, my blog may be able to make more of a difference.

So, how can you get involved? You can check the Frequently Asked Questions section of their site. In my case, I will be doing 1/4 of a Blogathon (e.g. only 12 posts) but all of them will be focused on issues of poverty. You are more than welcome to guest post if you feel like it, or link to any of my posts should you want to, but more than anything, do something. Get involved.

I don’t think I should try to coerce people into promoting Blog Action Day or doing something about it, but I am passionate about poverty alleviation, so if you could spread the word, that would be super awesome. Even better… if you can engage in doing something to alleviate poverty, that would be even more awesome.

Thank you.

My 1000th post – How Web 2.0 has changed my life

Raul — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 19:36:09 +0000

I was going to make a really big fuss of this, but under the circumstances (my Aunt is in critical condition as I write this) I just decided to skip with the fuss and just get over with it so that if/when I feel like blogging again, I won’t have to keep this stupid placeholder in my head (“oh, I *really* should keep this witty phrase/this important topic for when I write my 1000th“).

Rebecca asked if there would be a party to celebrate my 1000th post. Back then, I answered yes (we were in the midst of Blogathon and we were all cranking out posts like maniacs). Right now, I don’t feel like partying at all. I do, however, have some social and organizational commitments that I will definitely honor, so I am sure I will be seeing some of you there.

But I just wanted to quickly write a post about how Web 2.0 has changed my life and thank all the wonderful people I’ve met through blogging. You all have made a difference and from each and every one of you I have learned something.

Web 2.0 has changed my life in many ways. I’ve become aware of new trends in technology, innovative tools. I have devised ways in which I can apply my PhD training to understanding social media and viceversa – I have begun to harness the power of Web 2.0 in effecting social change in some small way.

From lunches at Salsa and Agave to the wonderful times playing Rock Band to the walks around Trout Lake to squeezing lots of bodies at the Blackwater Cafe to poker nights and lots of Margaritas to taking crazy wicked photos with PhotoBooth to SteakCamp to beer o’clock and BBQs on the roof, to coffee and tea dates and discovering new places, to parties at the homes of dear friends (and getting lost in Burnaby on the way there!), the list of wonderful times I’ve spent with people I have met through my blog is really, really long.

Web 2.0 has changed my life by making of the hummingbird, my own personal brand, a symbol of my personality that has transcended my offline circle of friends to my online sphere. More than anything, Web 2.0 has brought me new friends and I am deeply and truly grateful for that.

Thanks so much to the many people who have enabled me to get to this point. You rock (and you know who you are).

Accepting suggestions for my 1000th post

Raul — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:10:28 +0000

I’ve been polishing the presentation for Fraser Valley WordCamp and in the process, I’ve come to realize that I am REALLY close to 1000 posts on WordPress (I lost 132 posts in the importing process, which was kind of awful, but oh well). Since I’m at 922 (this post included), I have been thinking of organizing a MargaritaCamp + NachoCamp + GinCamp to celebrate my 1000 posts.

At my current writing rate, I estimate that’s going to fall somewhere around the week of Blogathon, so I might have a middle of the week RaulCamp (or simply combine it with the Vancouver Bloggers Meetup!) because, after all, it’s all about me (inside joke, you’ll have to see the t-shirt to know what I’m talking about).

So, I’m opening the floor for suggestions for my 1000th post. I was actually thinking of holding it at a wifi-enabled site (like the Blackwater Cafe) or a bar so that we can celebrate the actual moment of pushing the “Publish” button on my WordPress Dashboard. Any interest in joining for said RaulCamp?

To Tumblr or not to Tumblr? That is the question…

Raul — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:45:45 +0000

You know when you have these seemingly brilliant ideas and someone has already blogged about them? Yeah, that’s the feeling I have when writing about Tumblr. One of the most recent Web 2.0 (highly praised by my blogofriend Heather Watson), I heard about it for the first time at VIDFEST 2008, precisely from Heather (aka Hez). I then discovered that Jarrett also has a Tumblr. Then Dan mentioned he had a Tumblr too.

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Ryan Nadel, who works in the journalism/film/media industry, at a lovely party hosted by Candice Faktor, of OurFaves.com. This small gathering of good friends proved a great laboratory to have actually good conversations, and Ryan and I engaged on a discussion of Tumblr. Ryan does have a Tumblr account, and (to my surprise I might admit) I have found at least two other friends of mine who do.

Remember – I am not in media, nor journalism, nor public relations, nor tech per-se. I am a specialist in environmental studies who loves blogging. So, for me to hear about Tumblr, it was a bit like “this is the new Twitter or the new Plurk“. It would seem to me as though Tumblr.com would be the place where I could synthesize all my online stuff (portfolio) and go from there. My friend Andy calls his Tumblr “his brain dump“.

My question is – is that the direction in which Web 2.0 is going? I am having a hard enough time with FriendFeed, BrightKite, and all that jazz. Not sure about how to feel about Tumblr. Any thoughts? Do I really want to get yet another Web 2.0 application? Particularly, can I hear some thoughts from those of you who actually have Tumblr.com accounts? Thanks.

The CSS customization and going self-hosted “light”

Raul — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:12:40 +0000

My WordPress-ification process has been quite intense, and it’s hard to juggle searching for a job, doing academic work, socializing AND trying to master WordPress. But right now I feel pretty good about it, and wouldn’t go back to the Blogger platform. The last time I posted something on Blogger I was actually kind of weirded out. “WHOA. It’s like I’ve never used this“.

This week (probably Thursday or Friday, as I want to stay away from the computer for a while), I am buying the CSS customization option for WordPress as I want to be able to tinker with the layout and the theme color scheme. Since I’ve been previously known to avoid the WordPress Codex, I figured this time I would follow the rules and go and read the Codex before I ask my friends “how do I go about this…”

Both Rebecca and Andy wrote recently about themes, and Rebecca unveiled her awesome new theme just this week. But to be quite honest, I still had one question in my mind – what IS a theme?

A WordPress Theme is a collection of files that work together to produce a graphical interface with an underlying unifying design for a weblog.[WP Codex-Themes]

Yeah. RIIIIIGHT. The preceding paragraph proceeded to explain what a theme is in WPGeekSpeak. That’s the point where I realized one of the things that I hadn’t done (shame on me) ever – CHECK THE GLOSSARY. So I went to the Codex WordPress lesson semantics. Are themes the same as CSS? I have discovered that no, they’re not. I roamed around the glossary and semantics site for a while, and now I understand that by customizing the CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), I will be able to define colors, layouts, etc. The theme is more overarching, then…

I may request help to customize my CSS, but I also want to learn how to change it myself, because I don’t want to be a fake geek. I like being a true geek, and I like to do my own stunts. I am well aware that asking for help is one of my challenges, but thankfully, being a computer geek is complicated enough that I am always willing to ask someone to give me a hand. So, I hope that soon enough, you’ll see a different color scheme, although it may be a while for a change in theme!

The WordPress Codex – Refusing to read :-)

Raul — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 18:40:58 +0000

Sometimes I wonder if my friends (particularly the new friends I’ve made through blogging) just shake their heads in disbelief. For all my interest in blogging and platforms, and CSS, and themes, and geek-speak, I rarely visit the WordPress Codex. I talk about it. I enjoy having drinks and discussing it. Yet I avoid at all costs reading it. Why? Because I am a hands-on kind of guy.

I read blogs/news/books/journal articles/papers in a large, overview kind of approach, to help me understand the world. But if I want to use a piece of software, or a platform, my brain kind of shuts-off. It took me all of ten minutes to absorb what Rebecca did for my new theme (e.g. changing the header image, which is as far as WordPress.com will let you go). She showed me how to add text on my sidebar. Visually, it was a piece of cake. Andy helped me fix the centering problem I was having with my photos. It took me all of ten minutes to understand what exactly he had done to help me with a theme that overrides the center tags. Piece of cake. Show me once, I can do it myself. Kulpreet has also been always very helpful on Twitter giving me small bits of advice here and there.

However, the problem with me is that I am very visual when it comes to computers. I don’t like having to read to learn how to use a program or a platform. Show me how to do it. Don’t do it for me, let me do it myself. Do it along with me. So, if I could find someone who has digested the WordPress Codex and just sit down with him or her and get a tutorial (or two or three, however many I needed), then I’d be in WordPress bliss. But I am sure I am not going to get that pipe dream, so I am writing this post to encourage those of you who use WordPress and are in what I call the “intermediate” stages of geekification, to check the Codex.

And to my geeky friends whom I frequently ask questions re: WP – apologies in advance, but I’ll still keep asking you random questions about how to do this or that in WordPress. Hope you don’t mind

Thoughts on the re-design of my blog’s theme?

Raul — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 17:14:33 +0000

Dear all,

I have a LOT of posts for your reading entertainment, but at the same time, I also would like to pause for a moment and listen to feedback from all of you, readers, fellow bloggers, random visitors… what do you guys think of my blog’s re-design? Rebecca was kind enough to spend time changing the theme of my site as I told her that I wanted a change (thanks Rebecca!).

Here are the changes if you want them in a summary, point-form (e.g. the elements I told Rebecca that were important to me in the re-design):
- Narrower column for the text. Sometimes I write A LOT, and I don’t even realize it. I think that sometimes, readers may get tired from reading and that might not be a good idea. Yes, I know that content is everything and sometimes I need more space to develop an idea, but I think this looks crisper, cleaner.
- Cleaner layout and top, header-type page alignment. That is, the pages (my “About Me” page and the “Some of my most popular posts” should be on the top, right below the header.
- The header needs to have the hummingbird symbol that Rebecca kindly adapted for me.
- I wanted the header image to look ‘geeky‘ (although this element has already sparked controversy).
- I wanted to include the badge for WordCamp FraserValley 2008 on the side bar.

So, any thoughts on the theme re-design? Suggestions always welcome. Drop a comment. Thanks!

MostlyLisa’s viral video and the rights of online content providers

Raul — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:14:27 +0000

Being the case that I am the son of two lawyers, and one of them is a specialist in intellectual property law and copyright law, I *should* be able to post a really coherent response here. I am just not going to post it at 3:00am, when I am exhausted and haven’t had enough time to digest and reflect on the issue. I am actually going to have to ruminate about it for a while. But since I like to draft some content and then time-stamp it, I’ll just jot down my thoughts and if something better/nicer comes up, I’ll post it.

The gist of the matter can be found on Lisa’s post, as well as a rather lengthy discussion (28 comments by the time I checked). Lisa is a Vancouver blogger whom I know in person, we have hung out a few times, and I really like her sense of humor. So I was a bit baffled when she took flack for a video she did of a private party. However, I can see how things could be complicated.

Quick thoughts…

a). I think the anger of the party organizers came from the video going viral. With my readership, I am really not very worried about whether people are going to see my photos or videos. But when the readership is amplified to the Nth power, THAT’S when things get problematic. WHY? Because the perception of the organizers of the party feel they are no longer in control. When the readership is smaller, you still feel that you can post whatever and get away with it.

b) The other thing that may have upset them as well was the permission issue. I don’t get from Lisa’s post that permissions were clearly given (Lisa says that she didn’t ask, and in this case, the fact that nobody explicitly told her “please don’t film this” doesn’t preclude their right to privacy, in my opinion – it would be worthwhile checking if my Dad agrees with me, and whether Canadian intellectual property law specialists agree as well).

c) I also think that this is a transnational issue. Canada as Lisa was traveling there coming from Canada (from what I remember – and also, being a Canadian blogger), and therefore would have to comply with Canadian laws. And US because she was filming on American soil, and therefore, she would have to comply with US laws. We would need to examine it from the perspective of both countries’ intellectual property law. This is NOT an easy task.

d) My advice in general, and the way I tend to operate is, when in doubt, ask. (Sometimes I don’t, and I get in trouble as well!) There are now photos of me floating around on Flickr and on the internet. I used to have my photos set to “Only my friends” and now many of them are pretty public. Does that make me happy? Not really. But do I think that I’ll be going viral? Not really, either!

The problem with these topics is that Web 2.0 is still evolving, and therefore the public/private boundaries are getting blurred. There is an overload of information and people are not really prepared to deal with the legal implications of online activities simply because this medium is evolving at lightning speed. Heck, I am learning as I type this! The more I read, the more I learn.

Educating oneself is always a really, really good idea. I have thought about this issue for a long time and I have decided that I need to educate myself more about the platform, about Web 2.0, about the way in which social media works. But more than anything, I think we need to educate ourselves on the complexities of human behavior. What seemed to be a really harmless action on the part of Lisa became something she got flack for. Was this flack warranted?… I am not really sure. But one thing does exude from Lisa’s post – she didn’t intend for the silly video to have any negative consequences. Let’s not forget that!

I guess I am in tech!

Raul — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:50:23 +0000

I’m usually reluctant to say that I am in PR (public relations) or in the tech industry, even in social media (Web 2.0) because I still think of myself as an environmental specialist. However, lately, I have been faced with questions from friends that I have made in the blogosphere who have asked me directly “hey Raul, what’s going on in the tech world this week?”

I guess that comes from my recent increased coverage of tech events, including VIDFEST 2008, Cossette Convergence 2008, Launch Party IV. Even the PR events (if you consider Third Tuesday a PR event) have a tekkie component! Thus, I’ve come to accept that yeah, maybe I am in tech.

Moreover, this only comes to confirm what my friend HZ has told me all along: every time I launch a new endeavour, I follow through fully! And again, a substantial hat tip and thanks should be given to ALL MY BLOGOSPHERE friends, but especially Miss604 – Rebecca Bollwitt, for helping me with my blog, for guiding me through a lot of stuff and simply, for her friendship. Thank you Rebecca.

The laptop is pretty much dead – I need a MacBook Pro!

Raul — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:27:11 +0000

A while ago, I wrote about how my laptop (e-machines) was dying. I was going to write to e-machines and say “hey, I’m your poster boy for laptops – I took such good care of mine that it lasted me THREE YEARS!”.

Well, the problem is that the barcode is almost gone so I have no clue of how to contact e-machines and let them know that I need a new laptop (they should have given me a new one since there were more than four physical failures, but whatever – the last one happened pretty much after my Future Shop 3 year warranty expired). And I wouldn’t expect Future Shop to give me a new laptop (though I won’t stop them if they do!).

I was talking to Rebecca about how I really needed a new laptop and how I thought that Apple should send me a new one (or an Apple distributor like MacStation) or some random stranger (like it happened to Mostly Lisa, who got a new Mac Book Air sent by a secret admirer!)

WHY DO I NEED A MacBook Pro?

Well, there are various reasons why I don’t just want a MacBook and I need a MacBook Pro.

- I am a researcher, and a substantial part of my work involves (and will involve even more) mathematical modeling. I need a laptop that can handle a substantial of calculations, and that has strong computing power. Whatever that might be

- I am also interested in urban sustainability, geography and planning. Thus I am bound to use (unavoidably) Geographical Information Systems (GIS). I need a laptop that can handle ArcView swiftly and neatly.

- I plan to do some consulting on the side, which means I need Visio and other neat stuff to draw diagrams. Powerful graphics and beautiful visualizations = MacBook Pro.

- Almost finally, I have a blog whose readership seems to be growing (thank you everyone!). I would like to continue providing good content and to do that, I need a powerful computer. Hello MacBook Pro!

- Last, but not least: my friends are Mac geeks. With very few exceptions, almost all the geeky-friends I have are Mac users. I must assimilate to The Collective. Resistance is futile.

WHY DON’T YOU BUY IT, RAUL?

Good question – and the true and honest answer is – I can’t, right now. My budget is limited (as I am in a job transition). If I had $ 3,300 dollars to spare, I wouldn’t buy myself a new laptop. I would fly to Paris, Rome, Madrid, Ibiza and Prague for a MUCH DESERVED holiday. THEN, and only THEN, I would think about hardware… but I digress, hehehe.

The easy way out would probably be to buy myself a cheap laptop (on my credit card – WHOA – Nancy Zimmerman would probably berate me for increasing my credit card debt!). Or ask e-machines to see if they’d give me a free one (or at least a new one with a substantial discount). But I think I need to move towards Mac. It seems like the sensible option.

So in the next few weeks, I hope you don’t mind but I will be publishing a series of posts basically trying to harness the power of Web 2.0 in a quest for a new (hopefully Mac) laptop. We’ll see if I’m successful. Either that, or I’ll land a dream job with a six-figure income and my first paycheque will go towards a new MacBook Pro. Seriously!

I could start a Facebook petition (but I’m not on Facebook), or implement a “Tip Jar” button on the sidebar. But heck, I haven’t figured out how I want to harness the power of Web 2.0 to get my new laptop. If you have any suggestions, you’re more than welcome to drop me a comment!

Outrageous: Canada’s Copyright Bill C-61 lack of public consultation

Raul — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:25:20 +0000

I am never surprised by government’s lack of public consultation over an issue. Having taught public policy, I am more than aware about how governments maneuver to ensure that their bills and laws are passed with outstanding skill. Dodging bullets from the transparency and accountability social movement is known as one of the master skills of governments at all scales.

In my Twitter feed, I saw today a post on Bill C-61 proposed by Minister of Industry Jim Prentice and the lack of transparency and public consultation that surrounds the bill. I am not unfamiliar with this topic, having live-blogged Michael Geist’s lecture recently. Dr. Geist is an expert in Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa (and an absolute pleasure to talk to, by the way).

He is (and I think, rightfully so) worried about the content and provisions of Bill C-61. Geist furthermore makes a really good point here:

“Because in a country that rightly promotes the importance of education, the Canadian DMCA erects new barriers for teachers, students, and schools at every level who now face the prospect of infringement claims if they want to teach using digital media.“[Michael Geist's column, June 13 2008]

As an educator, a policy analyst, a researcher, an academic AND a blogger, I am worried about a bill that would prevent teachers and students from using digital media to advance the knowledge. In this era of the “new normal” (a term coined by Geist that I have adopted now as a philosophy) we have been adopting new technologies and media at an incredibly fast pace. Just as an example, I have been vlogging more recently, as well as highlighting new music, videos, etc.

What is the future of our rights as users of media and are we really doing what is best for the citizens and residents of Canada? That’s a question I am mulling over right now… what do you think?

Supporting the UBC Farm struggles through Web 2.0

Raul — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:27:55 +0000

At the recent Trout Lake Farmers’ Market, I was chatting with Andrew (who volunteers with the UBC Farm), and he reminded of their continuous struggle to keep the UBC Farm on location (given UBC’s recent increase in real estate development). For obvious reasons, I’ll stay out of the legal discussions but I can totally see the benefit of maintaining the UBC Farm where it is.

So what is the struggle, you ask? I asked Andrew to provide me with materials that explained this in more detail. From their brochure, I have extracted a couple of paragraphs that are relevant:

“- The Vancouver Campus Plan (VCP) is currently undergoing a review process. Campus plans have designated the Farm as ‘future housing reserve’ and downplay the value of the farm by basing their understanding of South Campus on data that predates current Farm operations.

- The UBC Farm is a unique institution necessitating a consultation process that explicitly addresses its potential contributions to regional sustainability and campus life in the future. This has not been possible within consultations designed to plan the entire campus.

- Physical layout options for South Campus will be presented in fall 2008. A final decision will be made by the UBC Board of Governors and then approved by the Metro Vancouver Land Use and Transportation Committee.”

Of course, the best way to make decisions is to be informed, so check these websites and related materials! For more information, you can go to their blog, the UBC Farm website, and the Friends of UBC Farm website.

Blogger Relations – Cossette Convergence – VIDFEST 2008 – Barefoot, Trgovac and Bollwitt

Raul — Thu, 22 May 2008 21:25:34 +0000

I am going to attempt to liveblog Rebecca’s, Kate’s and Darren’s presentation. Check frequently for updates. I may also be live-tweeting.

2.14pm – I have Wi-Fi, have settled in the back and just said hi to Heather Watson (aka Hez) and have introduced myself to Kate Trgovac. Trying to set up for liveblog, I’m a little scattered. Too much socializing too little focus. Sorry if my Tweets are a bit uncoherent. Saw Jenn, Monica, Gus – such a pleasure to see you guys.

UPDATE 2:35pm – Panel is starting with a little bit of context on what a blog is and some stats on blogging. Apparently, female teens are starting blogs earlier than their male counterparts. The moderator is introducing each blogger.

UPDATE 2:40pm – What do you want

- How to manage blogs and relationships with bloggers?
- Relevance of blogs to older audiences?
- The use of micro-blogging and latest trends in blogging
- How bloggers become more recognized in an increasing noisy environment
- Leverage that bloggers can use to promote a new social movement
- How to monetize your blog

UPDATE – 2.41 pm – KATE BEGINS THE PANEL

KATE TRGOVAC
Kate keeps four different blogs (a lot of them, laptop blag reviews).
There is just A relationship – developing relationships with people that are excited about the product
There are 3 reasons why I blog

1. EGO – It is great for me, I blog because I like that people value my opinion. It is really interesting. A lot of bloggers are driven by ego. I did not start to be famous.

* Tip – Flattery works

2. COOL TOYS – My cool toy budget isn’t as big – I started blogging about this and I spend time now with the stuff. Printer, laptop bag. If you have a product, devote some of the media spend budget sending products to the

* Tip – Send the blogger stuff (SWAG)

3. BLOG ABOUT THE ONLINE COMMUNITY – I love blogging to reach out to the community. If you give me stuff that I can give away to my community, all the better!

* Tip – Benefit to my community

WHAT DOESN’T WORK ACCORDING TO KATE

* Target inappropriate – If your stuff is relevant to my blog, then I may actually do it, but if not, then NO.

* Excessive content – Keep it focused. Don’t give me a lot of details!

For most bloggers this is NOT their day job, so as someone who is pitching, you have to plan the campaign so that the bloggers can work and then fit your product into their schedule.

REBECCA BOLLWITT

I got a day job because of my blog.

These are my thoughts (Rebecca’s) – What do I look for when someone is pitching me.

Never do a Dear John kind of contact

Dear YourSite.com or Dear webmaster

Targeting who you’re pitching to.

I’m a married woman, if you send me a press release about a dating site, I may not look at your site or your stuff.

Expect honesty

Listen to your audience, whether the review is good OR bad.

Check your stats

Look for those who you haven’t even talked to yet.

Positive example – Just write a winery review (Osoyoos) and the next day, the winery owners offered wine bottles and offers to come visit and a guided tour.

DARREN BAREFOOT

This has recently been in the news (the issue of bloggers relations).

Chris Anderson – Editor WIRED Magazine – The Long Tail

Last year he wrote a blog post in which he posted a black list of more than 300 PR marketing people who had been spamming him.

Darren used a second example that I completely missed thanks to loss of WiFi

Third example – ELBOWS Music Blogger List

Authenticity and transparency. We are supposed to be more transparent (bloggers)

It’s not the best solution (blogs) but we’re trying.
It is a semi-public communication device.

The web loves vigilante justice. One of several risks.

If you do bloggers relations, if you do it right you’ll be doing well.

Appealing to bloggers’ self-interest.

Terrific book – “Made to Stick” – Maslow’s Pyramid of Needs.

QUESTIONS

How long did it take you to build the readership you have now?

Rebecca – Four years. Putting myself in there. Emphasis on the offline.

Does the mainstream media come to you?

More traffic – little traffic from the mainstream media comes.

Do you find Facebook attractive – as you’re a blogger – do you find that there is any interaction?

Kate – I get a little bit of traffic. Over the long.

Darren – Has done some research – kind of no, Facebook is this place that is somehow silent. Practically speaking – people don’t want to leave Facebook when they’re there.

Other sites do they direct you some traffic?

Darren – That traffic is not particularly sticky. Digg and StumbleUpon.

Kate – Tonnes of traffic through StumbleUpon.

Some sites do seem to work on Facebook

Darren – yeah, some places work, some others don’t

Do you need to post at a certain rate

Rebecca – Posting speeds variable.

On my company site – 3 times a month

On my personal – Up to 6-8 times a day

Weekend goes down – especially when it’s sunny. Then it comes back (the traffic)

Kate – Same phenomenon.

It’s bigger

Darren – Aim to twice a week

I used to blog more (two posts a day) – almost never post on the

Hez – Follow up question – Reblogging – microblogging – is there such a thing as “too much”

Darren – Twitter – define – wee little blogs with 140 characters limit

Kate – Tumblr – similar to Twitter and super simple – it’s life streams, where it aggregates Twitter – Flickr – live streaming into one

There *is* a real risk.

I post my Del.ici.ous bookmarks -

Kate – You can “cheat” and post links but you need to add some content, some find it valuable.

- Also networking capability – you get the feed – there is some amazing content of that.

Rebecca – Delicious – the great thing is that bookmarks are online.

Darren – two more things

a) What are the current and trendy things?

Microblogging is trend 1 and

Live streaming – FriendFeed – assemble all of your streams

FriendFeed can help you personalize.

What do you do with negative feedback and what can you do as a corporation – what does a blogger do with the negative feedback

Rebecca – As a corporation, you can’t ignore the negative stuff. Not everybody is going to like your product. But if you have a corporate blog and you have negative reviews, listen to this. Next blog post – “we listened to what you said and here’s what we suggest you do”

Darren – You got to dive in and not ignore it.

QUESTION – You were early adopter – how do you help the corporate bloggers get recognition

Kate – PetroCanada – they started a blog – gas prices and fuel efficiency
- The way they started out was reaching out to other people in the US
- Who is talking about fuel efficiency and gas prices
- Those blogs are going to be more popular for a while
- Do you need it to discuss the issue on your own terms.

It’s not an overnight thing at al.

Darren – Tenacity and original, valuable content – the blogosphere is a necrochamber – fascinating research every day.

If you are writing a corporate blog – depending on what your blog

MEC – Ethical sourcing blog – their goal is not to be the most popular, their goal is to answer questions – establish expertise around this topic – becoming the most popular.

In blogging, you make money as an exception, not as a rule.

Rebecca – linking back, leaving comments

Darren – this is hard – but voice matters – people want to know (and think they know the people behind the blog) – voice and writing ability can differentiate.

UPDATE 3.23 pm – The problem with trying to liveblog is that speakers talk WAY too fast AND people who are asking questions ask them in a very quiet voice. Speak *slowly* (speakers) and ask questions loudly (participants in the session). Ok thanks

You can be arrogant or funny, but you have to have your own voice.

How to find the best blogs, how to find the highest multiplier effect

Those who are of interest to your client, not so much the big guys.

You want to find the right ones – the ones that are relevant

Thinking about the phrase – building the relationship, then the content

The most popular blogs in the world have these demands to write stuff – you can try to find the blogs that are very, very specific to what YOU are working on

** I couldn’t capture the last comment that Kate made **

LAST QUESTION

Should each one of the experts have a blog or several blogs

Darren – Start with one blog with multiple authors. Some people want to do it because they like it, some see it as an obligation. The really important thing is to highlight INDIVIDUAL authors. Put a photo, put their photo. The readers will get to know them “oh, here is Janice”

Kate – PetroCanada – group blog but very personalized. Provide feeds. Provide an RSS feed for EACH author. So each person can subscribe to whomever.

MODERATOR

What would you guys say if any one of these people wanted to talk to a blog

Kate – Do it in a really small scale. Read their blog.

DaveO – The most awesome blogger in town  – Question to Darren – you have creative ways of pitching – give us some ideas

We never pitch anonymously. Send enticing, fun, intriguing stuff. Be very creative.

Kate – the mail stuff (in printed mail form) – it’s not just mail, it is personalized, relevant and creative.

Would it be fair that people make a more substantial, authentic pitch for a blogger

Darren – Yes, read the bloggers’ blog at least for the duration of the campaign.

Mass marketing continues to die, apparently

Darren – be humble about this – work from the assumption that the influencers, the bloggers online DO NOT NEED YOU. If you work from a position of humility you will be more successful.

Rebecca – Mass marketing – company in Toronto – pitched me before – pitched me again – and then they said “we can’t send you the stuff b/c you participated 6 months ago” – well now Rebecca does NOT want to do it. It’s kind of silly, the strategy of Matchstick – I mean, you CAN’T participate in more than two campaigns a year? Give me a break.

END OF THE LIVEBLOG

Ok, I now need to check where I am headed!

Launch Party Vancouver 4 was outstanding!

Raul — Thu, 22 May 2008 18:43:33 +0000

Despite the fact that I’ve been blogging since April of 2006, I only got really serious after Rebecca gently nudged me towards participating in Blogathon 2007. Nevertheless, it has only been since January of 2008 that I have seriously started to socialize and mingle with the social media folks (that’s why some of you think that I’ve just appeared out of nowhere – but no, I’ve been here all along!). As someone said, “better late than never“, so now I am trying to show up to these events. Naturally, I had been waiting for Launch Party Vancouver 4 with baited breath.

I had heard rave reviews about these parties, particularly from our local blogging powerhouse Rebecca Bollwitt [and my Blogging Jedi Master] (Miss604) and knew that many of my friends would show up, so I couldn’t miss it. Besides, it is a rare occasion that I get to see many of my blogosphere folks two or three times in a row in the same week (I hope they don’t get tired of me by the time Saturday comes, as I was planning to organize a brunch this weekend!).

So what IS Launch Party Vancouver 4? Well, how about I let the organizers tell you?

Launch Party Vancouver is a lively mixer for the city’s brightest entrepreneurs, tech junkies, and bloggers, who are doing it, have done it or want to make their ideas happen here. The goal of the event is to connect BC’s growing community of Internet and new media leaders with investors and other trailblazers across Canada and abroad.

Founded by local entrepreneurs, LPV is not your typical networking event. There are no presentations or panels to be found. But what you will discover are the individuals responsible for making Vancouver one of the greatest start-up cities in Canada. Every event features local, early stage new media companies strutting their stuff and sharing their ideas with the community.

I had the pleasure of (FINALLY!) meeting Jordan Behan and Maura Rodgers, both with Strutta. Surprisingly, I don’t think I had a chance to chat with Danny Robinson, but there will be plenty of opportunities in the near future, I’m sure.

Last night was also the opportunity to meet other great gurus from the social media scene, people I had heard about a lot. Of course, my friends and usual suspects were also there, including Rastin, Ash, Gus, Rebecca, John, Duane, Karen, Colleen, Arieanna and Ianiv, Monica, Jonathon, Jenn, Nadia, Lisa, Phillip, David, Tod. I missed some of the folks who I am sure would have made it if they had been able to, including (but not limited to) Beth, Tanya, Trevor, Tyler and Jeremy.

I only briefly attended the StartUp Career Fair, sponsored by TechVibes, although by the looks of it (and the large number of demos being shown throughout LPV4), I would say it was great.

Had the pleasure of (FINALLY!) meeting Boris Mann, one of the pillars in the local tech community, and someone I had heard about so many times, but never got around meeting (which is kind of unusual as I have become more acquainted with the tech folks recently). Boris introduced me to a really neat application – basically, the general public can text a specific phone number and their message appears on a screen. Kind of Twitter for those who do not have a Twitter account. I find this application fascinating, as it would allow civilians (that’s how I call non-bloggers) to reach you (the blogger) or a large audience without having to Twitter. Oh, the possibilities are limitless!

Boris showing the demo.

Side note – Now I do know the reason why many people have just started to get to know me (and kudos to Rebecca and Karen, as it was through conversations with both of them that I have finally figured it out): I missed Northern Voice 2008 (because of too much work on the massive project!). Had I gone to NV ’08, my life would have been so much easier as I would’ve met a gazillion local bloggers/tech people in the same place. Totally my fault, nobody else’s.

Had a really awesome conversation with Rob Lewis from TechVibes and Steve Jagger from Reachd, basically ranging from tech startups to how I plan to meld my sustainability and environmental studies training with social media.

I had also been wanting to see Rochelle Grayson (Twemes), whom I hadn’t seen since the last Vancouver Tweetup. Always a pleasure, of course (and a privilege considering that this week I get to chat with these folks three times in a row!). Here is Rochelle with Darren Barefoot.

As I was leaving Republic, I was lucky enough to meet Kris Krug, another local blogosphere star and one of the best photographers I know. Kris (or kk+ as I’ve often seen him referred to) was really nice and most definitely would like to chat more in the near future with him, as I have loved his work for a long while. I had to leave the party relatively early because I was exhausted. It’s been a really long couple of days, and the week isn’t even over. I didn’t even make it to Green Drinks! Oh well, next time. LPV4 was a great experience, and look forward to the next one!

UPDATE – Rebecca has a fabulous photo recap post… and yours truly is in there with the blogging Jedi master!

What I’m up to today: LaunchParty, TechVibes job fair, Green Drinks, VIDFEST 2008

Raul — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:33:54 +0000

I am awake at an absurdly early hour, so I might as well just arrange my calendar and try to see if I can squeeze all the events I am supposed to attend this week (and TODAY), along with doing some of my own work, interviewing Al Pasternak (aka Bokashiman) for my blog, attending a very close friend’s PhD defense AND still doing some of my usual socializing. Will I manage to remain sane? We’ll see. I attended two social media events last night: Third Tuesday AND Vancouver MetBlogs drinks at Library Square and I managed to survive, so let’s see if I don’t end up social-media’d out by Saturday night

So… in the interest of keeping myself sane, let’s see what I am up to today.

- Launch Party IV – Republic, 5:30 – 9:00 pm. Can’t wait to meet Maura and Jordan and all the other folks at Strutta.com. Besides, good chance for a beer with Duane, Ianiv and Arieanna, John and Rebecca, Jenn, Nadia, and I’m pretty sure there will be many other of my social media peeps there.

- Green Drinks – Steamworks – 5:45 – 10:00 pm. This is going to be a tough one. I *really* want to go, particularly since I committed myself to be a Green Greeter (one of those folks who will come to you with a name tag and if I see that you are too shy, I’ll come and introduce you to other people I myself may not even know, but still – create social circles on the spot). But, as you will see, I also have other events the same night. You snooze, you lose. I *may* make an appearance, particularly since I’m on the job market in the environmental field, I kind of have to .

- TechVibes Job Fair – Republic 3:00 – 5:00 pm. I also may show up to this, although this seems to be more directed towards web designers, software engineers, etc. But who knows, there might be something for me. And since I’ve already said that my next job will meld social media with sustainability and social change, this may be a good opportunity. More information on the Career Fair and the schedule of speakers is here.

- VIDFEST and VIGS Opening Reception – Vancouver Art Gallery – 6:00 – 8:00 pm. Well, not sure if I’m going to make it to this (I need to talk to the organizers of VIDFEST, on the one hand, and on the other – I am already double-booked). But it would be nice to make an appearance, particularly since Rochelle Grayson is covering VIGS and I’d love to see her.

Ok, after seeing my schedule, it looks as though the majority of my commitments are after 3pm, which gives me a solid morning to do actual work. That’s kind of awesome, come to think about it. Although I have NO clue where I’m going to sneak in a nap, because I mean, being awake at 6.00am after going to bed at 1.30am doesn’t really jive with me.

Third Tuesday Vancouver May 2008: Darren Barefoot

Raul — Sun, 18 May 2008 06:21:15 +0000

The Vancouver social media crowd can hardly wait to hear Darren Barefoot, one of Canada’s blog-fathers speak on May 20th on “Getting the Attention of the Web’s influencers“. This promises to be a really good Third Tuesday (all of the ones I have attended have been simply outstanding, and this one is co-organized as I understand by Monica Hamburg, Tanya Davis and Tod Maffin).

I have heard Darren speak before, at one of the NetTuesday events (which I live-blogged) and I like his work. I comment on his blog frequently and have chatted with him and exchanged emails a couple of times, although I wouldn’t say by any measure that I know him really well. But I do know his work and I really like his Web 2.0 savvy and knowledge. Plus, he has a really particular style of presenting his work. So, it should be interesting to learn more from one of the top bloggers. Besides, it does give me a great opportunity to meet in person other bloggers and readers of my own blog, and hang out with many great friends I’ve made through my blogging.

Miss604.com (Rebecca Bollwitt) will be providing excellent coverage of the event, AND she is also a media partner Rebecca will provide either live-blogging or recapping. Better yet, she will be giving prizes away!!! I haven’t yet decided whether I’ll live-blog or not, but I will also be most definitely posting a recap. Other local bloggers who are disseminating the news about Darren’s next speaking gig include Philip Jeffrey (aka tyfn, from Fade to Play fame), TechVibes and of course the Public Relations Meetup.com site.

When? Tuesday, May 20, 2008, 7:00 PM
Where? Century House Restaurant & Bar
432 Richards Street
Vancouver, BC V6C 3L5
604.633.2700

About 94 people have RSVP’d so I suggest that if you haven’t done your RSVP you do so REALLY SOON. I will be attending, and to make it easy for you to spot me, I’ll be wearing a name tag with my name and my blog’s address No, I haven’t made business cards yet. Not sure if I want to But for sure, if you read my blog and we haven’t met in person, by all means come and say “hi“. I don’t bite (unless asked to, of course, hehehehe).

The intermediaries: Talking geekspeak to non-geeks

Raul — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:00:36 +0000

One of the highlights of this past week was a chance to sit down with Rastin and Teresa. Rastin is a programmer and most definitely, a full-blown geek, he describes himself as a Web Application Architect. We were having a really fun conversation on the geekification process, a conversation that I am sure I have previously had with Rebecca. Sometimes I need stuff to be translated from geek-speak to plain English.

This reminds me from the Fantastic Four movie line (Sue Storm, The Thing and Mr. Fantastic).

Mr. Fantastic - “Ben, we need to analyze how the radiation changed your molecular structure”
The Thing - “Huh?”
Sue Storm – “We need to check you out to know what got zapped”
The Thing – “Ahhh!”

There are a couple of interesting insights I gained from this conversation. First, writing your own HTML is not exactly coding. I want to be able to understand the platform (I use WordPress, which is written in PHP and backed in MySQL). I don’t want to learn PHP, although I do know SQL to some extent. Teresa really wants to learn more programming and coding, and be able to control and manage the content on her blog. And while we are having these exchanges, Rastin indicated that coding and programming was much more than just knowing how to use the tags and HTML. This is most definitely true.

Nowhere did this statement ring more true than at DrupalCamp ’08. I *really* wanted to go, because I want to be able to know all the geeks and coders and social media folks on a first name basis, hang out, share ideas, etc. But the thing is, even if I had had the time to go (which I don’t) it would have been a waste of my time to some extent. Why? Because I am not fully educated yet. I don’t speak geekspeak *just* yet. I’m *learning*, however.

I was very proud of myself when I could start writing my own HTML tags. I was also proud when I bought my own domain and cleaned the URLs (which I wouldn’t have been able to do without JT and the outstanding and patient step-by-step guidance of Rebecca Bollwitt). However, I am not yet fully geekspeak-educated. Why do I think it is important? I’ll tell you why… that’s the second insight I gained from my recent conversation with Rastin and Teresa.

A little bit of background – amongst my academic qualifications, I have the equivalent of an MBA, and I’m also an engineer. The reason why I did the Masters degree that I did is to be able to “speak business to engineers” and viceversa. Well, just the same… there *needs* to be someone to speak geekspeak with the developers AND speek plain-English to non-geeks. That’s why I see the role of people who work in social media AND are good writers/communicators as key. Those of you (and you know who you am referring to) that are able to translate the needs of users into geekspeak AND viceversa, will be VERY successful, that’s my prognosis.

Now, these insights may look insignificant to many of you who have been fully immersed in social media. However, for me, realizing this was a really big deal! It has taken me many months, lots of writing and the help of numerous bloggers to be able to manipulate the platforms (first Blogger now WordPress) to make my blog what it is now. And I’ve also come to the realization that, whether for a career or just to improve my own blogging, I DO want to be able to speak geek. So, the next opportunity I have, I will FOR SURE go to DrupalCamp. Or whatever event where I can learn more about Drupal. And WordPress. And PHP. And MySQL. Geekification, FTW!

The ecological way to blog: Flock Eco-Edition

Raul — Sun, 11 May 2008 20:39:50 +0000

Hat tips to Dr. Beth Snow for recommending Flock. I found out that Flock (an enhanced version of FireFox) has an eco-friendly version, so I’m going to try it. It may be a bit hard to let go of FireFox but I definitely have to try it. It took me a while to abandon IE, but once I adopted FireFox, I never looked back. I’ll keep you posted! Beth also recommended Blog Desk, but I have to go out and I can’t really link to it right now.

Vancouver NetTuesday for May 2008 recap

Raul — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:34:48 +0000

Fresh off of the recent Vancouver NetSquared event (also known as NetTuesday), I just got swamped with work and thus was pretty much unable to write a recap. However, since I have a meeting shortly and I can’t really focus much on work, I figured I might as well write a couple of comments on the meeting.

I had happily volunteered to live-blog the event for Rebecca (on Miss604.com), who couldn’t make it on Tuesday. It was the first time I’ve done a guest live-blog directly on her site, which made me a bit nervous (I feel better if I screw up on my site than on anybody else’s!), but at the same time, I was very excited.

At any rate, the evening, entitled “Welcome to the Widget Revolution” was very entertaining, with two presentations on how non-profits are making use of widgets to advance issues of social justice, sustainability and societal change. The last presentation was actually a demo of SproutBuilder, a great tool-building application.

I have the feeling that some of the participants expected a more geeky/techie kind of talk. The last part definitely was, but the rest was very much about how already built widgets were incorporated into the social media toolkit of a number of non-profits. I think that the message could have been more clearly articulated, although reading again the invite, I have to say that one could have found it from there.

Widgets aren’t just little pieces of portable code. Widgets are about opening up your message to your supporters and the community. Widgets represent a shift towards using online tools, and online thinking, to connect with more people and build deeper relationships with the people you are already connected with.

Vancouver’s 3rd Net Tuesday will explore the stories of nonprofits that are spearheading this revolution as well as demo a new widget platform — Sprout.[Vancouver NetSquared Meetup Site]

I took the liberty of making bold the part where you can read exactly what the event was about, but honestly, I can also understand why it felt as though somehow there was something missing. In the future, I would suggest that the organizers make it a bit clearer. Joe has made a LOT of great choices and put in a lot of hard work, both for speakers AND the sponsors – for example, the food was organic and the cutlery was biodegradable.

Here are some links in case you weren’t there:

Jason Mogus Slideshow: (Click here)

Jason Mogus Video:(Click here)

Scott Nelson Video:(Click here)

It was great as always to see a lot of my fellow Web 2.0 friends, including Nancy Zimmerman, Jonathon Narvey, the always amazing DaveO, Erika Rathje, Nadia Nascimento, Jenn Lowther, and I’m a bit afraid I’ve missed someone, so if I did – sorry! You can always send me an email to reproach me, hehe.