I think that only the people who know me the most (a vast majority of my offline friends and some of my friends online) know that I was bullied when I was a child. That’s the reason why I am trained in martial arts. Not because I liked to kick anybody’s rear end, but because I needed to protect myself.
One day (several months after I had started my martial arts training), a guy who had bullied me for a long while started picking a fight with me (Gustavo was his name), right before school was over. I was faced with the choice I never wanted to face – “do I fight or do I run?” I decided it was time to fight back. I grabbed Gustavo’s arm and applied a judo move on him. I threw him over the top of my shoulder and, strategically, forced him to land with his back towards a trash can. I did this purposefully as I knew that would immobilize him completely. He started crying on the spot and ran away from me as fast as he could.
My classmates were astonished. “How could Raul, the tiny little midget, defend himself now? What happened to him?” From that moment onwards, I never looked back, and never had to face another bully. The word was out: Raul was never going to let anyone else pick on him ever, ever again.
While I know that my family worries a lot about my personal safety (for many reasons, one of them because I have such a public presence online and offline, and also because of the recent strings of assaults in the downtown core), I think it’s important to fight back against bullies. To demonstrate that we will not let aggression take us down.
Coming off a great moment for me professionally and in the world of social media (at Northern Voice), I’d like to take a moment to promote the monthly gathering of awesome people who like to write and put their thoughts out on the cyberspace. Yes, as you all may know, I’m the organizer of the Vancouver Bloggers Meetup. I am trying to keep the momentum going with lots of attendees and great conversations. Since we are just coming off fresh off Northern Voice 2009, we will have LOTS to talk about.
I’d like to invite you to participate. Remember that this meetup is for everyone who blogs, wants to blog, plans to think about blogging, or simply would like to hang out with geeks. Please RSVP on the Meetup.com site. Remember, I do NOT check Facebook or post the information on VBM anywhere else. Looking forward to seeing you there! I still have 3 spots open for 3-5 min talks, so if you are interested in giving a mini-spiel about what you blog about, let me know. John Chow will be coming too and bringing some printed material/swag to give away – thanks John!
Several years ago, someone whom I love VERY MUCH, someone very close to me, experienced a really long period of depression, not surprisingly, after breaking up with his (now long forgotten) ex-girlfriend. He experienced many of the symptoms of severe depression, including suicidal thoughts. Very happily and luckily, he is not only alive and well but he is thriving and full of happiness now. He was able to break through the depression, and I can’t tell you how happy I am he did.
Beyond the fact that Airdrie, Tod, and Isabella (who were the speakers at the Coping Digitally panel) are all very good friends of mine, I have had a brush with depression not only through my shared experiences with several of my friends (including Tris, who is a dear friend), but also through the very common Seasonal Affective Disorder. During periods of rain (not infrequent in Vancouver), I sometimes (not very often) get all down. And, in case you wanted to know, yes – I have been heartbroken and during that time, I really felt very, very depressed. I came out of it quite quickly, though.
One Thursday last year (November of 2008), I recall being awake at 3 am and feeling incredibly down. I was looking at everything from the perspective of someone who had failed at everything. This, coming from someone who actually has had as much success as I have. But the weather, the fact that it was late at night and the feeling of loneliness all worked me up and I felt like crap. I have thanked Lorraine several times for talking me through and help me break out of it that one time and I will thank her again here. I am grateful that whenever I have felt down, I’ve had my friends there to support me and help me through.
It is rare, very rare that I feel down, but when I do, I am always surrounded by loving people who talk me through it. And therefore, I do have a personal stake in making Mental Health Camp a reality. Not only because several people I love are afflicted with mental illnesses, but also because I am a firm believer that we need to break down the stigma. I admire the bravery and strength of people who speak out about their illness, and I want to help many others speak out.
I am not a mental health professional at all (but Isabella is), but I am a very loving individual and I am good at organizing events, so that’s why I’ve decided to help in any way I can. If you want to jot down ideas and thoughts on the Wiki Page (thanks Isabella for initiating it), please feel free to do so.
Isabella‘s idea of Mental Health Camp is to have a very fluid, organic event. My thought is to have a one day (perhaps on a Saturday) event. I am more than happy to speak to people about sponsorship (mostly food and refreshment sponsorships – I already have an idea of where I would like to hold it). I’ll need volunteers to work the door (registration), help with food set up and stuff like that, but I have learned (from my experience at BarCamp) that the best way to do this is to divide the tasks amongst a LOT of people. Contact me over Twitter or leave a comment or send me an email.
The technical details will be handled by Isabella (e.g. which topics, and so on) – there is a very fertile discussion on her blog already, and on the Wiki page. Add your thoughts too. And if you’d like to volunteer to help with organizing, do let me know!
There are a *lot* of things that Anthony Nicalo and I have in common. We both like good food, we had a wonderful upbringing, we both value family and friends, we work hard and we share a passion for making this world a better place. AND, of course, a taste for great wine (actually, bio-dynamic wine).
Anthony, it has been a pleasure getting to know you through the past year, and I look forward to more dinners at Campagnolo (and other places), sharing more thoughts and creating wonderful stuff to advance sustainability in Vancouver and worldwide.
A month after my first liveblog, in February of 2008, I met Rebecca Bollwitt (Miss604), whom as you all know, is a phenomenal liveblogger and has been a role model, a good friend and mentor for a long time now. My second liveblog was a Net Tuesday (where, funny how things go, the central point was Web 2.0 and sustainability, both topics I’m passionate and knowledgeable about). It was actually Rebecca who encouraged me to liveblog that session. One year and lots of social networking events and platforms later, I have accumulated numerous liveblogs (including almost all the sessions of WordCamp Whistler 2009, several of the Vancouver indie/alternative Olympic Games media conglomerate discussions).
Several times, Rebecca has insisted that I don’t have to write word-by-word what people say, and I shouldn’t liveblog out of a sense of duty, only do it if/when I feel like it. I liveblogged a vast majority of the Northern Voice 2009 sessions I attended (I was there both days) largely because I felt it would be important as a contribution to the community at large. Also, I liveblogged several sessions simply because my very close friends were presenting at (including one of the session where Rebecca, Linda, Nadia, Jenn and Monica were in).
I know that Rebecca could very well have pulled off liveblogging her own session, but through time we’ve become very good friends and she knows that, if I am physically able to attend a talk she gives and liveblog it, I will definitely do it (I have done it several times, including both WordCamp Vancouver and Fraser Valley). I like to be there for my friends. And I figured that liveblogging the sessions I attended would be helpful for those people who were not able to make it or couldn’t take notes due to being focused on the talks. Nevertheless (and Rebecca had told me this too), I knew it would be just a matter of time before I got exhausted/sick. Yesterday, I almost had to throw up out of exhaustion. Today, I took a 3 hour nap.
I have several reflective thoughts about Northern Voice, but I can just summarize them as – I had a phenomenal time. Met new people in real life that I had only met on Twitter (and I met Steward Butterfield and Nora Young, both of whom I admire enormously). Had a chance to attend some wonderful sessions. Also, I spoke at MooseCamp about a topic I am passionate and knowledgeable about (social media to raise environmental awareness). I would say that my Northern Voice 2009 mission was, most definitely, accomplished.
Things that I think are emanating gradually from Northern Voice –
– We need more time for each session.
– We need to create/organize a MentalHealthCamp. The topic is too important to have such little amount of time dedicated to it.
– Some people (thank you guys) tweeted that they would have wanted more time for my topic (environment and social media). I’ll pitch that for next year, rest assured.
– Even though these sharing methods evolve organically (video-recording, Qik-streaming and live-blogging), I think next year we might need to split responsibilities and pretty much voluntarily assign ourselves the sessions. Today, between Rebecca and myself, we covered and liveblogged pretty much 66% of Northern Voice sessions (we managed to attend different sessions each time). Tris also liveblogged a lot of sessions (including mine – thanks Tris!)
Thanks to Ianiv who also Qik-streamed, Dale who recorded on video, Derek, Peter, Tyler, Pat and everyone else who took photos all, and to all of the volunteers, organizing committee, sponsors, speakers, attendees.
Raul: I am sitting right in front of Mike Tippet, Kirk Lapointe and Alfred Hermida. Gillian Shaw is moderating.
2:18
Raul: “Relationships-based media – how social media is changing journalism” by Alfred Hermida (UBC Graduate School of journalism).
2:21
Raul: Gillian is presenting the speakers.
Alfred is going to be all academic. Looking at social media through a conceptual framework, a shift from traditional media as a “many to many”. We, the readers can criticize or follow through Twitter. Media has always been social (we’ve always been able to talk about the news). We’ve been able to discuss it, cut out clippings, there’s always a social element AFTER THE FACT.
We have been able to be involved but only AFTER the editors have published the content. We haven’t been able to be involved in the process of journalism. Journalism is based on producing content for consumption. It’s not to produce content for you to mash up and create your own. Social media allows YOU (the audience) to be part of the content creation.
2:22
Raul: Social media is creating a relationship-based journalism. The model (Deuze 2003) – where can we place social media (Deuze, 2003) – the web and its journalism. New Media and Society (5/2003).
Closed journalistic culture vs. open journalistic culture
Concentration on editorial content vs. concentration on public connectivity.
2:23
Raul: Traditional media has focused now on the tension between closed journalistic and open culture vs. public connectivity/editorial content.
2:23
trishussey: Social media vs Journalism is a matrix of connectivity and openness. #northernvoice09
2:23
Raul: We should just use social media (all media is social) – how do people consume media.
2:24
Raul: Mix and match of technologies. It’s a much more mixed up world. Mixes physical and digital sources. We see a lot more of the sharing, more socializing media.
2:24
Raul: In a sense, for journalists, they have NO choice but be part of social media. Closed journalistic practices with a focus on content is no longer the way forward.
2:25
Raul: Now it’s Kirk LaPointe’s turn
2:25
Raul: What do you say in about 6 minutes? A few things, to start – build some sympathy.
2:26
Raul: We are in the industry of creating news. We translate our endeavours through a prism of a business model. How do we improve the metrics of an organization, economically. We tend to figure out the size of the garden and what yield will be there instead of smelling the roses.
2:27
trishussey: RT @hummingbird604: My liveblog of social media and journalism talk #northernvoice09 http://is.gd/knXX
2:27
Raul: That framework holds us back. Also, not understanding the blacktail doesn’t help us. We have seen closely guarded work. We contend with revealing what we are seeking very early on, and quite transparently. We are then sharing the results and we cede control of the work to let them cut, paste, harvest, digg, etc.
2:28
Raul: The link economy that is emerging is finding us new distribution channels that are going to pay us back. The long tail is quite important. Our research shows that 75,000 copies. Our website has 9 million pages. Social media compels us into a different kind of thinking – small and beautiful models.
2:29
Raul: Kirk is now describing how the aggregated map works in your favor because the aggregated network model strengthens the whole end result. Now, all in all, – defy odds to build collegiality. To the point he is supposed to discuss – how are they integrating social media into journalism. How are we integrating ourselves into social media (something very conventional into something cutting-edge)
2:30
Raul: We are still learning, we don’t link enough, we don’t take advantage of the technology yet. Blogging is still one too many. We have about 30 or so people on Twitter. The Sun is doing very well there.
2:30
Raul: What I like is that we are doing some wiki and opening some of our stuff into wikis, and share and collaborate (sharing our research and let people play around it last year).
2:31
Raul: Our Public Sector Database had 9,7 million views. Purpose – point to the future because no one can say you’re wrong yet. We always have been able to check a tip from the public. Clearly, our role has moved from a gate-keeper to an authenticator.
2:32
Raul: We are now being enabled (journalists) as the verificators, authenticators of the information. It’s left to us to let people know what has really happened. We are now curators – tour guides, not really. We are curators – enabling and assembling best pieces for an exhibit. We don’t think about stories right now.
2:34
Raul: Delude yourself that you’ve won yourself friends.
We are developing an approach where we get around and learn about the people who will be sharing the information and data. Build a business model predicated on the fact that sharing all this will enable us to create more value. Television had to figure out that in some cases, people weren’t looking very good in just one camera. So it’s an evolutionary process.
2:35
Raul: We are very much open to more people participating in the process of creating content.
2:36
Raul: Gillian says that there’s room for everyone on the table. Now it’s Michael Tippet’s turn. Nowpublic is in the leading edge about crowdsourcing information.
2:37
Raul: Mike’s talking now about talking about the future of news – we are talking about the future of truth. If you look back historically, there are a number of ways in which we have tried to determine the truth.
2:38
trishussey: Liveblogging, livetweeting, livestreaming like journalist’s notes, but unfiltered. @gillianshaw comments on new reality #northernvoice09
2:38
Raul: We have moved to an empirical world (scientific research). We are now seeing that the supply chain of truth has been re-engineered. NowPublic has been exactly around 4 years (launched here at #northernvoice). When they first started, they wanted to build the world’s largest news stations.
2:38
Raul: Using that model, build your own sense of self and truth. There is a mythology of citizen journalism.
2:39
Raul: The people who are live-tweeting or live-blogging aren’t your trained journalists. They are generally not motivated by journalistic intent – the motive is start a conversation and have a conversation. The control of the network is in the hands of people, it’s not controlled. The news gathering machine is not controlled anymore.
2:40
Raul: 1970s – (circa) – the old supply chain – event – witnesses – some accounts of it – journalists stitch the story together and put it into a news source which is then broadcast back to the audience, having a clear (er) picture.
2:41
Raul: Fast forward to roughly present day – the new supply chain – before the helicopter is launched, the event witnesses are uploading content into Flickr, Twitter, etc. All sorts of platforms. The story is made up in a collective mashup… this changes the structure of the story (no clear begin and end).
2:41
Raul: We now have a global intelligence network where you can find out what’s happening in real time. As a story breaks in this new ecology, event occurs – witness – report – crowd – the event can change in real time.
2:42
brodiedavid: I see a few people video taping at #northernvoice09 – anyone know where videos of sessions will be available for download?
2:43
Raul: As the results were coming in, the whole structure of how the story is being told
– Citizen journalists are for the most part, just citizens – their intentions aren’t journalistic and they are not trained. Their stuff is not actually journalism. It’s a different product – The content is already out there – what information is already out there – Relationship with audience is different – Narrative structure is different
2:45
Raul: There is a pre-supposition that journalists don’t have a bias. Can you talk a little about that
Kirk – I have never written a story about something I don’t feel very strongly about.
2:46
Raul: We think that newspapers are going to have a richer context, more depth. There will be a LOT more commentary and an understanding that people have some kind of a frame in basic events. They take their own opinion on the events .
2:46
Raul: Alfred – evidence-based reporting. As a journalist you can’t know everything (you have a limited time frame) – ask questions – am I missing something?
2:47
Raul: In the old times we could know how to reach you – now there’s 8 million ways to reach you. How do you like to be pitched now? How do you like to receive media releases/news?
Raul: Please note that Ianiv Schweber of NowPublic / Blogaholics is Qik streaming, Thanks to Ianiv!
2:51
trishussey: RT @suewolff: @lblanken loves watching the bridging dynamics get worked out in the WOW guild. #northernvoice09
2:51
trishussey: RT @iancapstick: How wld U lk 2 be pitched? “With a cheque book” says Kirk Lapointe jokes at #northernvoice09 “You will find us. Don’t w …
2:51
Raul: My question – the ethics of journalism and social media
Clay Shirky – yu don’t trust the individual journalist – you’re trusting the brand – the value that that brand has – the fact that that person works for that brand – he/she is having a brand behind him/her (the code of ethics).
As a blogger you live and die by your content – you don’t have a brand – they have no credibility because they do not have that brand and credibility.
2:52
brodiedavid: According to @Hermida main difference between citizen journalists and mainstream is credibility of brands #northernvoice09
2:52
Raul: Kirk –
The academic research – 1/2 news stories contains an error, hasn’t changed. It seems to me where I draw a line – where they are transparent and seem to have an accountability. I don’t want someone who is going to carry on invisible criticism.
2:53
Raul: I want someone who will be willing to be accountable/answerable – that’s where the ethics come into blogging in a big way.
Mike
People have different expectations about when they read content. You’ll make up your own mind about whether it comes from one or another. The stuff that is flawed or erroneous – the onus is on the reader to be ethical. The onus of ethics is NOT on the writer.
2:54
[Comment From Guest] Clay Shirky is right, bloggers build trust with organic networks.
2:54
Raul: RAUL’S POINT – I strongly and respectfully disagree with Alf’s point on being backed up by brands.
2:55
Raul: Alfred Hermida again – You as a teacher/instructor have to be more involved and engaged.
2:55
Raul: Mike – there is a big challenge to the Academy.
2:55
brodiedavid: I agree with @hermida but google rank can impact credibility more than anything for those consuming news online #northernvoice09
2:56
Raul: Facebook has basically removed the communication barriers.
2:56
[Comment From Guest] The reader also has to be critical of all sources, be their own journalists.
2:56
Raul: Pete Quily – commenting for The Vancouver Sun not enabling links. For some reason – you might want to fix it (good point Pete)
2:57
Raul: Kirk – Sometimes journalists can be a bit chauvinistic – we have to be a lot more gracious, simply be out there and acknowledge where the material emanated and go about that and let people know. They are linking now to their competitors.
2:57
[Comment From Guest] @brodie I agree with you about Google rank; also Technorati ranking, number of Twitter followers
2:58
Raul: Mike
The future of news – this is how news will be created. The more we invite people the less they’ll ever want to come back LOL. 🙂
Since you were aware before Facebook – personal
privacy issues – how does it affect what you put out there?
Jenn is very different on Facebook, on Twitter, etc.
Facebook is extremely personal. The population in general shouldn’t have access
to Facebook (there are my friends)
11:43
Nadia – well, those photos WILL be out there. She thinks
that even when you put them out there you have to be aware of the fact that they
can be out there.
There’s a difference – putting those FratBoys pictures
don’t
How do you deal with permanence? (Linda and Rebecca) –
what’s out there?
11:43
Linda made a joke about “broke as a joke” and that’s still Google-able. They get indexed. Facebook doesn’t get into the index.
11:44
Linda doesn’t twitter anything that her 10 yr old wouldn’t see
They are checking their CurseBird scores.
Rebecca (2004-2006) – anything pre-Rebecca Bollwitt you can’t really find.
11:45
Nadia – there are a lot of alias(es) – if you don’t want a representation of you out there, then just be careful.
12:01
You can put a representation of you but nobody needs to
know the gory details.
A discussion on the gender talk. Mostly women used a
handle. “Miss604” for 2 years.
Jenn used to just use “jennmae” – because it was cool,
fun. At no point she thought that she should use her actual name. You could
over-share.
There are lots of things that you don’t realize you are
putting out there.
Monica – how about the online fear about safety
concerns? How much is legitimate, what do you make a concerted effort to
conceal?
Jenn – Location awareness. It only takes ONE person who
figures out where you live and creates an issue. Once the information is there,
it’s out there. It only takes ONE person to make it an issue.
Rebecca – when you go into blogging/a platform – what do
you want to share.
No matter how careful you are, there is always a
controversy – how do we respond to issues/random situations?
Linda – the people who were doing the fake Roxyyo
Rebecca – Duane posted a Google Map of where he is. All
the information he has ever shared, people are really going to find it.
When people friend you/follow you – do you make
exceptions on your social networks?
Nadia – talking about Twitter and Facebook (she was
about to say the ‘b’ word – branding). Even though she has friends who are part
of the industry (a dinner party with, sit down, talk about whatever it is).
Whereas Twitter is a different sort of communication, interaction. She would go
to someone who would provide important, useful information.
Nadia is very careful about Facebook. It’s more PAST
related. There are friends who started there. She pays respect to that part of
her personality.
Linda – different from personal friends and non-personal
friends. Twitter maybe needs to evolve to a place where you can subscribe to
different types of tweets.
What about friends who are/are not on social networks –
do you have concerns about -” hey are you going to blog about this?”
Jenn – people (ex-boyfriends/dates) are scared that
you’re going to blog about it.
—
Rebecca – the balance of how photographs are
viewed/perceived
Linda – the issue of things that are being put out there
– the issue of fake Twitter accounts
Nadia – For a while now, it was only friends, but now we
have to deal with other people who don’t love us – how might you want to
approach that once you deal with this industry.
MORE QUESTIONS
Because your identity is online – mini-celebrity –
you’re out there. People come up to you is like wearing a name tag.
Is it odd-creepy that somebody recites your life.
Nadia – you put it out there because it’s a tool for
conversation. A lot of it happens on DMs. She learned a lot about people when
she went to the Obama Inauguration.
Jenn – she has been noticing that people are noticing
her more. She finds it a little odd – she is not used to it. Now Jenn’s Dad
reads her blog (which is printed). It’s a lot of adjustment to get used to.
People follow you online. You don’t realize how much information you put out
there.
12:02
Pete Quily
What are things you’ve done online that can help.
12:02
Jenn is speaking to how she wanted to change her handles.
12:04
Monique – censorship of your husband/partner/girlfriend/wife.
12:05
I asked a question about blogging and the online and off line relationships.
12:05
Rebecca – weekends are Bollwitt time – she draws lines and separates family time and private life and so on.
12:05
There’s no difference in me, there’s a difference on when I share it.
12:06
Jenn – she has TWO separate sets of friends – and she does have some separation, their friends have no idea.
12:07
Glenn has asked – would you guys change your handles if you were starting off
12:09
Exposure to social media – will it make people be more or less tolerant
Nora Young (Wikipedia entry – CBC site bio), a Canadian broadcaster, writer, blogger and all around awesome and wonderful woman delivered a powerful keynote lecture for all attendees at Northern Voice 2009. I had the pleasure of meeting up with Nora and I also liveblogged her session.
Nora spoke for quite sometime to the notion of a “new ecology of information”. Given my interest in sociology and social media, I poked around a few sites to try and find more information about it. From a sociological and anthropological perspective, Nora’s point of “it’s not what you know but WHO you know” is more and more relevant in our era of networked spaces, where technology becomes an enabler of interaction and relationship creation. As I have mentioned in previous posts, my use of Twitter is primarily to stay in touch with my friends and create new friendships.
I would have never dreamed of staying in touch with, say, Nora (who lives in Toronto) or Nancy White and Chris Heuer (both of whom live in the US) if it weren’t for Twitter. I have a lot of wonderful individuals (including these three social media awesome folks) with whom I would NOT be able to keep in touch if it weren’t for Twitter, or more broadly, for social networking tools.
While doing some research on the concept of a new ecology of information (and given that my background is in environmental studies) I looked for works that examined the production of what I call the networked production of social relationships – using social networking sites as mediating spaces that build bridges amongst individuals at the nodes of the network.
In my search I came across the Creative-Commons licensed book by Professor Yochai Benkler at the Harvard Berkman Centre for Internet and Society (I tell you, I am going to end up doing a post-doc there or something – I keep feeling drawn to it!), The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. Of particular relevance to the concept of a new ecology of information I think is Chapter 10 (PDF link) Social Ties: Networking Together.
The fact that we can now share in the production of information (as very aptly indicated by the participants in the social media and citizen journalism panel) means that the way in which our online behavior shapes the content we produce/remix/cut-and-paste is also mediated by our online and off-line interactions. Bernardo Huberman‘s book (The Laws of the Web) also speaks to the concept of ecology of information.
Attending Nora’s keynote made me me feel again as though I might have a chance to undertake some research in internet and society. I have the training to try and examine social media from an academic analytical lens (I’ve got training in sociology and anthropology so that helps, and I’m a blogger too). Thank you Nora for stirring my thoughts and making me sit and reflect on the idea that yes, social media is there to help solve problems and make the world a better place.
Northern Voice 2009 – Nora Young on Buried Hatchets and Better Tomorrows
LeftCoastMama: Nora Young’s key note is starting. 🙂 #northernvoice
9:21
Raul: Nora will talk a little bit about the experience with her show, Spark. It’s sort of a case study of what’s going on more broadly on what’s going – a new ecology of information that affects any content creator (blogger, journalist, or anyone who wants to engage in the conversation). We all need to do a bit of a rethink of what our vision and our passion is.
9:22
Raul: Nora will play archival audio. I can’t record it on the liveblog.
9:22
moneycoach: Is Northern Voice (keynotes?) being livecast? ustream etc? Would love to watch from yellowknife #northernvoice09
9:22
[Comment From Michael Allison] Nora is playing archival audio of how to use a telephone.
9:23
Raul: Hard to imagine a time when the telephone wasn’t an obvious technology. When a new communications technology arises, it often changes the culture. With the phone, people talked about what you should say “ahoy” or “what is wanted” before they finally settled on “hello”
9:23
rsodhi: At Northern Voice conference at UBC campus. First keynote with Nora Young has just started #northernvoice09
scales: Listening to #northernvoice keynote by nora young … It’s a fine sunny day in YVR
9:24
Raul: By way of practical example, Nora talks about how the “hello”‘s work at Spark (a show about technology and culture). Nora and her co-host are both bloggers and podcasters. A while back they came back to get into the dialogue about mainstream media and social media (transparency). They learned to open up the process and looked for ways to mirror them more open leaves, characters of blogs. What would a blog sound like on the radio.
9:25
Raul: People can follow the conversation back through history. They worked to develop an aesthetic of transparency. Not live, and not perfect. What they do is they let some things that normally don’t appear on a broadcast.
9:26
wmrandth: @lblanken I have a pic of teaching dial phone from 1920s – first slide in this preso – http://tinyurl.com/6ov4fn#nv09
9:29
wmrandth: #nv09 nora young on – challenge of translating non-linear conversational reality into the linear format of radio (->with McLuhan “hot”ness?)
9:29
Raul: Challenges to mainstream media. It’s reflecting changes and how people consume information and Nora thinks about this as a new ecology of information. This is where together indie media and how do we think about truth and the responsibilities does this shift place.
1. It’s not what you know but who you know. We live in an era of socialized information, where information is strongly intertwined with our social relationships.
9:31
Raul: On Spark, they often use Twitter to create information medium. It’s mediated through the community. At the same time that they request for information, the socialization of information is being picked up all over social media. The kinds of personal contacts you have in the world has a strong influence on media literacy.
2. Collaborative truth – whether we are talking formally or informally (wiki or social media sites) it’s important but not as important as the collective truth (the aggregation, a sum total of what they choose to say about themselves and what others say about them). When you think about it, it’s a really big change. Some scholars have kind of put this like a McLuhan – the network culture of the web.
9:31
Raul: We are moving from individual perspectives to establishing meaning and collaboration – it’s a shift from oral culture to book culture to web/networked culture. This impacts how we educate each other and impact each other. this new McLuhan ecology of information, highly fluid, affects how we teach our kids about information and so on.
9:32
wmrandth: #nv09 it is a big change, but only compared to recent typographic book world, not a pre-modern village culture -> McL’s global village
9:32
Raul: Where is this information ecology going? Towards the end of information scarcity. “Mobi-quity” – being continually connected in the mobile web. 3 billion cell phones. A lot of people access the web ONLY on their phones.
9:33
Raul: What does that mean for innovations and what blogs look like? It’s a pretty familiar concept. It connects you to a broader technological shift.
9:33
bgilgoff: @gtoews Me too. Had the greatest conference experience at Northern Voice yesterday with twitter open all day.
9:33
Raul: We are starting to see our ability to layer the world around us with the information (mixing online with offline) – building up this kind of internet and things. Digital information is applied to the physical world.
9:34
Raul: So, what happens when you have actual internet connectivity (GPS enabled devices) this means information is everywhere and the web doesn’t need to be global/detached from geography, can be about the local, the hyperlocal.
Raul: The power of number-crunching in the context of local (crime mapping analysis) [there are a number of localized geo-tagged information analyses] – information about their neighbourhood and what’s going around
Gina Trapani – Flickr bike. GPS-cellphone – every minute takes pictures – this reminds me of @rtanglao and his mobile biking.
9:36
[Comment From Michael Allison] Hyperlocal content online takes the happenstance out of living in the city.
9:37
Raul: How do we organize socially? For instance, Toronto has a series of farmer markets on different days of the week. In the summer, Nora’s farmer market was there. There’s tonnes of information about hyperlocal elements. At a deeper level, it’s not just about the technology. All the layers of social organization.
9:37
Raul: Another shift Nora sees:
3.- Sustainability – it is not the end of information scarcity itself. Nora takes the example of “the ability to access all this information to change the way we consume from buying objects to sharing services”
9:38
Do you believe the future is in mobile web? Is Mobile Web 3.0? Yes, I only read on my iPhone/BlackBerry/Android
( 20% )
Not sure
( 20% )
No, I love my desktop/laptop
( 60% )
9:39
Raul: You don’t have to be at home on your home computer .That changes the consumption patterns for how we buy things. Jennifer Vandermeer (green activist and innovation strategist). There’s this gap between how people behave. More than 50% people say they want to buy green, but only 10% actually do buy the greener products. You can bridge the gap if you bring the consumers closer to the product.
9:40
Raul: Our sense of more participatory culture – the fact that people volunteer to do things like blogs, express their interest in green products .Clay Shirky argues that the way participatory culture contributes and how it’s changing the economy is the example of the stock photo industry.
9:40
Raul: Corporations had to pay. Once you have a phenomenon like Flickr (digital photos whose costs are low) the cost for stock photos does no longer exist
9:41
northernvoice: @mirandal I think you mean: Ahoy, Northern Voice!
9:41
Raul: So, this flight of information implies – who the hell has the energy and time to do all of this. People will spend a lot of their own volunteer energy. Simple tools are going to be more important than ever. Elegant mapping and display tools – show information that is easy to navigate.
Caveat – a lot of people don’t have access to basic information and internet. We could still say that…
1.- This new ecology of information is social, fluid, implies that we are just starting to see a big shift in the economy and the culture.
9:42
Raul: Instead of bringing all the students together for a lecture, they decided to flick the classroom. In the class, the students did the homework with the teacher and worked in a more collaborative fashion.
9:43
Raul: Why does it seem natural to have a lecture in the classroom? You had to be in the same room as the teacher. A lot of models are based on scarcity of informations. What are the unquestioned assumptions about how we live with each other. In the Colorado case, the way the teachers made it a conceptual change (an “Ahoy” moment”)
9:44
Raul: What are our own “Ahoy” or “Hello” moments.
Raises the distinct possibility of different information worlds. The people who read different sources of information – who do you know. You are going to get information from people who already think a lot about you.
9:45
Raul: When the world around us is annotated with digital information you can pick and choose.
It also makes us ask questions about how do we create deep meaning, rather than just links, comments, etc.
9:46
Raul: Canadians need a responsible, democratic platform to connect ideas and create a platform to connect with each other (a public broadcaster on social media ground). Whether we are coming from a variety – we all have to wrestle with how do we keep the dialogue alive. A deeper truth – the cultural context isn’t obvious, it’s a site of debate, and it is an important debate to be a part of.
9:46
Raul: There can be no excuse. Balancing collaboration with sustained arguments. It means a commitment to remembering what this fabulous conversation is for, problem solving and making the world a better place.
9:46
Michael Allison: We need a variety of opinions and argument to avoid what is called “Digital Maoism”
9:47
Raul: Nora is taking questions – Tod Maffin is asking now
9:48
Raul: Nora is taking questions – Tod Maffin is asking now
9:50
mastermaq: @trishussey @jeremylatham Northern Voice has always been that way, it’s great.
This is a SlideShare of my talk at Northern Voice 2009’s MooseCamp on February 20th, 2009. If you embed my slides, please remember that the Creative Commons license is Attribution-NonDerivative-ShareAlike. Therefore, I’d appreciate a trackback to this blog post.
Irwin Oostindie is introducing the 55 min long session (I can’t stay for all of it so I’m just going to stay until 1:30pm). He is explaining what the FC program does. The characterization of the Downtown East Side (DTES) – “the four blocks of hell”. This project is about inclusive, social health programmes. Somehow the DTES residents lack impact over the services (public policy, health, poverty alleviation, etc.) – Global TV – how the MSM reconstructed the story of the DTES – “only IV users, drug using population” – ignoring the fact that 80-90% doesn’t fit the demographic representation of the drug user, etc.
FC is a project that includes the resident in the representation of their own life. It’s a deeper window into the neighbourhood, allowing the residents to represent themselves. The objective is to have an infrastructure so that the DTES residents can project their stories in public screens, in public spaces. Train people with the equipment and then push it to screen environments. Those may be places like Robson, Granville, etc.
I am sorry to be missing Tris Hussey’s talk. I’m here at Northern Voice, will be liveblogging Chris’ talk – I know Tris would have liked to be here too, if his session wasn’t concurrent!
As I’ve done other times, I am going to use Cover It Live to liveblog Stewart Butterfield‘s keynot address. Stewart is one of the founders of Flickr, the largest photo sharing website. The liveblog will bring in the Twitter streams (hashtag: #northernvoice09). You can also insert your comments by pressing Play on the liveblog window and typing your name and the comment.
Originally, I had planned to participate in the organizing committee for Northern Voice 2009, and asked if the committee might need some help, but I was told that they didn’t need more people so I refrained from attempting to participate in the committee any further. Then I proposed an individual session and a collective panel (my session on ‘going from online to offline relationships’ and my panel on etiquette in an era of Web 2.0) and both were rejected. I understand the committee had hard choices to make, but my proposals were solid and I strongly believe they were both very different from other talks and very necessary right now.
The above facts would probably be more than enough to demoralize someone who (like me) doesn’t do blogging or social media as part of his/her professional activities (although this is actually going to change, but I won’t disclose anything more until I have formalized this). After all, I’m an academic. Northern Voice is NOT my audience nor it is my demographic. I’m a scholar of environmental issues and public policy, I’m not a tech person. There are other events, like the Western Political Science Association meeting happening in Vancouver in March that would be more up my alley.
However, after feeling demoralized, dejected (AND rejected), I pondered further about whether or not it made sense for me to participate in NV’09. Here are the reasons why I decided to go, despite my VERY tight budget and my initial feelings of rejection.
1. Northern Voice (the conference) is a great event, particularly for bloggers and social media people of all different walks of life. There is a great program with awesome talks and panels, and the organizers made a really conscious effort to try and accomodate as many talks as humanly possible. Just check the awesome 2009 program for Friday and Saturday.
2. It’s my first Northern Voice as the organizer of Vancouver Bloggers Meetup. The mere fact that I’m the local organizer of an event that attempts to create bridges amongst different bloggers makes Northern Voice a relevant conference. It is THE Canadian event for tech/blogging, and I *should* be a part of it.
3. My social media profile and online presence is entirely different from last year’s. Last year, I wasn’t on Twitter. I was blogging on Blogger (Blogspot). I had absolutely no photos on Flickr. This year? I’m definitely *out there*. I am self-hosted, on WordPress.org, I’ve learned to manipulate some of my own CSS. I’m MUCH more technologically savvy. Northern Voice is a common gathering place for us social media folks, and thus, I should go.
4. Many of my friends are presenting at Northern Voice 2009. There is ONE particular panel I absolutely can’t miss, come hell or high water. The participants know which one it is. The rest? There are a LOT of very interesting talks happening. I will try to make it to as many as possible. The problem is, yeah – they are simultaneous. So I will probably miss a lot of talks of close and dear friends of mine. And yeah, why not. I am also pitching a session on how to use social media to increase environmental awareness. So, if some people decide to attend my MooseCamp session, then it’s all good. I’ll be prepared!
5. Many of my friends are part of the organizing committee, or have been in the past. Just because of that, and because I know how much work there’s involved in organizing an event (I did have a small role in BarCamp 2008, you know?) and out of respect for these friends of mine, I want to go.
So there you have it. Those are the reasons why I am going to Northern Voice 2009, the conference. While there, make sure to introduce yourself if we haven’t met. In the tradition of other participations I’ve had in local events and camps, I will NOT bring business cards. I will make sure that you know where to find me.
I am privileged to have a number of nieces and nephews (ranging in age from 1.5 years to almost 18) whom I absolutely adore. One of my nephews needed to be hospitalized at birth for a long period of time (something that had my brother and our family absolutely devastated and worried – he is doing great now, however). Therefore, any cause that involves children, and in particular, children afflicted with any kind of illness and the hospitals that provide their treatment, will definitely move me to action.
Last night, I was invited (along with a group of local social media friends) by Grace Carter and Nadia Nascimento from Invoke and MemeLabs to the launch of the “Chip is Not Dead Yet Memorial Mile“, a wonderful event that will take place on Saturday June 20th, 2009. Chip Wilson, the race founder, has pledged to match donations, raising last year a total of $ 150,000. I had a chance to talk to him briefly yesterday at the Hotel Loden’s penthouse (where the social media launch party was held), Chip is a really nice and approachable guy and he really has a way to convince people to contribute to this very worthy cause.
On Saturday June 20th 2009, West 10th Avenue will be completely closed to traffic and the event starts. All participants will amass at either Discovery Street. for the Pooch, Family, or High Heel waves or Alma and West 10th Avenue for the Timed, Rockstar, Uniform, Bridal, Underwear, High School, or Elite waves where you will summit the hill. Along the way, thousands of excited viewers will cheer you on. Drummers and cheerleaders will also help motivate you, and as you come to the finish, the party starts! As an added bonus, the Live Street Party site at West 10th Avenue between Sasamat and Tolmie will feature live entertainment for kids and adults alike! [Chip Is Not Dead Yet Site]
A couple of weeks ago, Lorraine and I went for dinner to A Taste of India on Robson Street. I was feeling somewhat peckish and ended up having a fairly large dinner. Each one of us ordered a tandoori dish (in my case, chicken $ 15.99) with some rice. We had to order naan on the side, as it doesn’t come included.
I would say that the food was good, although the portions aren’t as big as other places that I’ve tried. Frankly, I am kind of disappointed with the Indian food scene downtown. Although the flavors at A Taste of India were much better, I’m not happy with it. Almost as disappointed as I am with India Bistro. The only Indian food restaurant I trust is Swagaat Tandoori on Davie and Denman. I’m open to other suggestions, though!
Dinner for two comes to about $ 45.00 plus tax and tip. Certainly, not too expensive, but definitely, not impressive.
I have previously written about the topic of how Web 2.0’s premise is that sense of bi-directionality and conversation between content creators and users. Recently, David Grattontweeted this:
I’ve notice that the conversational ‘tone’ of Twitter has nearly collapsed in the last 3 mos. It really is predominantly broadcast now.
David and I continued our conversation back and forth and I mentioned that some people may be afraid of being perceived as noisy and afraid as well of being unfollowed. Tris, and a few others (I am blanking on some people who chimed in) mentioned that they didn’t notice this decline. However, if you check the reply index in the Twitter noise application (FollowCost), my reply index is hovering around 70%.
I do recognize I am noisy. I admit it unashamedly. Mostly I try to provide value, but primarily, I use Twitter to create new friendships and maintain the ones I already have. I use it to keep the conversation going. While I have made a conscious effort to go to DMs when the conversation gets too chatty, I for one don’t plan on reducing my conversation index. Follow me at your own risk. … and remember, Web 2.0 IS predicated on bi-directionality.
We do social media. We tend to socialize a lot with our peers in the community. However, it seems as though we are also over-extended, over-booked, over-stressed, and we seem to get tired all the time. Therefore, I’m going to try to heed my own advice – take care. I’ve seen many of my friends and I have seen myself push the space/time continuum. I try to cram too many events in too little time. It doesn’t always work to my advantage. If you see me tired at an event, remind me that I should take some time off every so often. Thank you 🙂
Steve Jagger gave an awesome talk about how their business went completely virtual, and described the kind of tools they used to do that. Tris did an awesome liveblog, also using Cover It Lie, for Third Tuesday. The core Reachd/Ubertor team is in Vancouver and various other location (DT Vancouver, Burnaby, Whistler, Dominican Republic).
Morning conversations on Google Video Chat. The majority of their businesses is through GChat and GMail. Most companies who have employees elsewhere – you don’t get the emotion behind. Video really allowed them to do that, to bring the . Yammer – they use it to bring Google Video to the next level. It’s like Twitter, a closed conversation with only their team. Even if you have an office, Mailboxes Etc. allows you to have a stable mailing address.
Google’s Grand Central (from Google) – if you can, you should sign up. GotVMail – similar service.
SlimTimer – allows you to track your time. It’s more than just time-sheets, where you are tracking “I was at this meeting for an hour”. You track EVERYTHING. In their business, they do track every single task, trying to automate everything.
Meetup.com– A great one for sales people. They used to have a sales team of about 18 people. They became the educator – they brought speakers to educate the real estate people. When they compare the products, they compare pricing and stuff because they are bringing speakers and allows them to go to a different level.
Business video – Everybody should be shooting video (whatever you’re passionate about, throw the videos, people will embed them). Most of Steve’s speaking engagements come from his videos being watched.
Consultants – Seth Godin (25 guys flew to him) – Shane Gibson – runs a 12 week, 72 hour bootcamp. So Steve and his business partner enrolled in the course, and it was good. They just wanted to get the answers from Shane’s wisdom and insight. After the second day they talked to Shane about whether he would come and help their sales team. Consultants are important, it’s worth it to grab people who knows something about the stuff.
Thank you cards – Write a ‘thank you card’. Be grateful. There are people who actually thank Steve and his company because of their ‘thank you’ cards! They sub-contract the card writing to a woman who makes sure that the card goes out, and it’s something that can be outsourced and/or automate it. People really like thank you cards (shocking!)
Press – It’s good to be in the press. Steve and his company are always looking to be on the press. The fact that you were there, in the press, it’s what matters. The fact is, you are IN the media (it gives you leverage).
Live Chat – it’s pretty much the best thing, ever. If customers need support, they can help solve them. They can find out the browser that the customer is using, etc.
Wiki tools – Works really well if you have everybody trained to find the answers on the Ubertor wiki.
Setting up people or workers so that they can outsource. In this case, they might need to have an office (set up an outsource office for businesses).
They used to use BaseCamp and HighRise – for project management.
– Invoices – FreshBooks
– CRM – You could use HighRise
– Web-based Accounting – Clarity Accounting.
Ubertor and Reachd are more expensive than their competitors, generally speaking. Their advantage is not by price, it’s by service.
Even though I didn’t liveblog the event, I wanted to get this post out on time. Thanks to Steve for a great talk.
My friend Rebecca asked me on Twitter what my thoughts were on the relocation of the Odyssey to Denman Street. I particularly am not affected at all by the relocation. If anything, it only benefits me as this location is MUCH more accessible to me by bus. I have no particular stake on the issue. One thing I *do* have a stake on is the way in which things are discussed and framed, and I’m quite amused by the fact that the opposers are framing their complaint in a way that can be easily dismantled.
On her blog, Rebecca has been receiving numerous comments on both sides of the discussion. Having taken courses in negotiation, mediation and facilitation during my PhD (if anyone is curious to know, these courses taught by Professor Tony Dorcey are really wonderful), and also having done academic research on the topic of facility siting (the theoretical underpinnings of the NIMBY phenomenon), I know very well that these discussions can get really heated, people can get obfuscated and refuse to compromise and therefore I had avoided chiming in on the discussion. Except, well… I couldn’t help myself and I commented on what I saw as holes in the argument proposed by one of the creators of the Facebook group “No to Night Clubs on Denman Street”. I have left the group since a few days ago, and had decided not to discuss the topic despite the fact that at some point, I did want to broadcast my opinion.
Frankly, sometimes I love poking holes in an argument, sometimes I just think it’s not worth my time. And considering how much work I have to do, this is particularly one battle I don’t want to pick. It’s not a battle against anyone in particular, just against the staunch reticence and strong NIMBYism that I’m finding with the relocation of the Odyssey to Denman Street. If I saw both sides speaking out, fine. I’d just let the conversation flow. But really, it does seem as though the only people whose responses I am reading are the people opposed to the relocation of the Odyssey to Denman Street. While I am very interested from the academic side of things on the actual outcome, and the negotiation process, I do think that giving my opinion on the matter will definitely make the waters rather murky. So I’m going to decline on further commenting on the topic.
I *do* know quite a bit about the NIMBYism and feel confident that I could give a lecture on the topic if need be, but it will be completely useless if people use an emotional approach to discussions. No matter how clearly I explain what NIMBY is or how much I try to make my assertions rather objective, there will always be someone who will want to have the last word in the discussion. Unless you find common ground, you will never find a way to compromise and create a framework to reach a viable solution.That’s the whole point behind the famed book “Getting to Yes“, written by Robert Fisher (who is associated with the Harvard Negotiation Project) and William Ury: you can’t negotiate solely based on your emotions.
My suggestion to both opposing sides of the issue? Get a good mediator. Learn to find a middle ground. Read “Getting To Yes”. Find your BATNA (Best Alternative To A Negotiated Agreement). I for one don’t want to get involved. I made four comments on the FB group and I think that’s more than enough, so that’s as far as I’m going to go.
Wherever the Odyssey ends up relocating to, I’m definitely going to try and go to opening night. Now, I’d like to move to other topics.
