Jack O’Lantern’s post-Halloween disposal – Greening your celebrations

Credit: Eric M. Martin

Ok, so Halloween has come and gone, and you went out and had a blast. The little critters (and adults) had an opportunity to dress up and be The Joker, or Batman, or a mummy, or whatever.  Now comes the part that most people forget about (or would prefer to): CLEANING UP.

Since Halloween is such a big celebration in Canada, the United States and many other anglo-saxon countries, numerous Jack O’Lanterns are carved (many as cute as the geeky WordPress one that is shown here – hat tips to Lorraine Murphy aka Raincoaster for linking to this one).

But people tend to forget that they have to dispose of the pumpkin once the Halloween celebrations are over. So, when you think about disposing of your pumpkin, remember that you can

– Compost it – Cut it in very small pieces and throw it in the composting bin.

– Dispose it in the organic section of your trash bin – Don’t forget to separate organics from inorganics!

Given how many households and businesses carve pumpkins, I would appreciate if you thought about the negative environmental consequences of inadequate disposal. Thank you.

Blogging milestones and upcoming events in November

According to my WordPress dashboard, I have written 1,200 posts (one thousand and two hundred) [This doesn’t take into account the 162 posts that WP.com didn’t import] and my awesome readers have left 2,400 comments (e.g. 2 comments per post on average).

I seriously thought of taking a blogging break yesterday. Just ’cause. No particular reason. And THEN I recalled that there is stuff I want to say and get out. Today is the launch of Movember, today is Day of the Dead in Mexico, and today is also the launch of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

Thus, even though I really would like to take a break from writing/blogging, I simply can’t. There are events to cover and highlight, people to interview, political commentary to make, new restaurants to try and birthdays of two of my closest friends to attend. Hope you’re having a great weekend (despite the weather!)

The point of being a friend

The point of being a friend is not to say that you’re a friend. It’s to BE THERE.
The point of being a friend is not to prevent any damage. It’s to help DO DAMAGE CONTROL.
The point of being a friend is not to be dismissive when your friends tell you they need something. It’s to actually DO SOMETHING.
The point of being a friend is not to keep things from each other, it’s to SHARE WITH EACH OTHER.
The point of being a friend is, simply, understand who you are and why you are the way you are and love you regardless. THAT is being a friend.

And TGIF (and Halloween!)

So the First Theorem of Blog Traffic is actually true.

Your traffic will go up on Thursdays.

Credit: Tyler Ingram

Yeah, it did. And so did my Technorati ranking. And no, I really don’t care much about that, but it’s kinda wicked to see that those paradigms hold. Veteran, much more experienced bloggers always tell me that traffic usually goes up on Thursdays. So, it did!

In the mean time, it’s Friday October 31st, it’s going to be Halloween night. What are YOU doing on Halloween Night? Besides, potentially, having a stiff drink after work?

Do tell…

Talk nerdy to me

This is a late night post so forgive if it doesn’t make a lot of sense (no, I did not consume any alcohol tonight – I’m just elated and happy and in a good mood and in a good place). So, I was thinking … I do enjoy talking geeky/nerdy. And I enjoy when people talk nerdy/geeky to me. A few weeks back, Beth Snow and I were having a joking tweeting contest using highly-technical words of our disciplines.

Credit: Filmoculous on Flickr.

I’ve also noticed that when I attend a tech/PR/social media event, I get all giddy at the mention of the words/phrases that most civilian people wouldn’t really “get”. For example, I was having a conversation about the Ormiston Online coverage of Twitter with my good friends B, H and C, all of them who have at least a Masters (and two of them a PhD degree), last week when we were enroute to the Vancouver Public Library, and we were talking about Web 2.0 and Twitter and all that jazz, and it was SO MUCH FUN to describe to them (another brand/type of geek/nerd) what has now become an integral part of my life.

So, yeah – I am a nerd/geek. I love this kind of talk, in any of my realms. Be it environment, public policy, social media, or Heroes, Star Trek, Smallville, superhero-thingies, I DO like it when you talk nerdy to me 😀

EDIT – And the source and inspiration of the “Talk Nerdy to Me” phrase is a T-shirt that I’ve seen on Rebecca‘s blog/Flickr at some point. I *love* that t-shirt!

Declaring Twitter bankruptcy

I know I’ve got more than 10,250 tweets. I know that I tweet (or used to) a lot. But I’ve come to the realization that I can’t really check everything that is going on. I love Twitter, don’t get me wrong. I love it because it has given me a chance to create friendships, establish business relationships, broaden the scope and readership of my blog, amongst many other things.

But I’m going to change my strategy. I can’t read everything backwards, so I’m just going to pick up the conversation where I can, and not try to catch up. I know that to many people, 185 is not a lot to follow (I use Twhirl instead of TweetDeck), but to me, it’s getting to the point where it’s impossible. And if you’ve noticed (if you’re following me), my tweet ratio is coming down. A LOT.

From where I was (and I recognized I was rather noisy) to right now, the number of tweets I send has gone down substantially. Not only because I have way too much on my plate, but also because I can’t function like this. So, I’ll be checking my @ replies but the overall timeline, I’ll just take it from wherever I arrive.

WordCamp Whistler coming up!

This all happened last night after I had gone to sleep, I’m pretty sure, but the best ideas are always those that just organically emerge. Duane thought of organizing a WordCamp Whistler and I’m SO in for that! I am not a winter sports guy, but I definitely love the WordPress platform, I plan to speak at WordCamp Whistler (I already did at WordCamp Fraser Valley) and I’ll help organize in any way I can.

I know that there will be a lot of us involved in organizing it, and I would encourage you to either drop a comment here or at Duane’s blog if you’re interested in attending and/or presenting. Should be a lot of fun! From what I saw on Twitter, Rebecca, Kulpreet, Lorraine, Duane and Colleen have been talking about the organization so far, so why not join us? Leave a comment!

The relevance of the American election for Canada

So I’ve been wondering about this point recently (and I recognize that I haven’t written much political stuff recently, with the exception of my posts asking Canadians for more interest in the Canadian Federal election – is it true that the American election is much more relevant for Canadians than the recent Prime Minister election? I sure would hope not. I understand where people come from when they say this, but truthfully – despite the economic and political (worldwide) power that the United States hold, and its inextricable relationship with Canada, I don’t think that the international arena (and particularly, the elections in ONE country) are supposed to be MORE relevant to its neighbouring country than the election of the one person who is supposed to lead the country.

For example, I can assure you that for Mexicans, the election of President Felipe Calderon and the comings and goings were WAY more important (and are WAY more relevant for Mexican society) than what’s going on in the United States, despite that it is its largest trading partner. I agree, this 2008 presidential election is going to be a watershed moment. This is a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see either the rise of an African American to the Presidency or a woman to the Vice-Presidency (with the chance that potentially, she could become the first female President).

But let’s keep things in perspective. Regardless of who wins the election, Canada will still have to deal with the decisions that the Prime Minister Stephen Harper is going to take, and the domestic political and economic dynamics. Surely, these dynamics will be INFLUENCED but not DICTATED by what is happening in the United States.

Wasting energy in the Richmond ice skating rink

As we were driving back from Richmond, Arieanna, Ianiv and I noticed that the Richmond ice skating facility had all the lights turned on. Surely, the building looks pretty (particularly at night) but I am pretty sure that’s a waste of energy. Despite the wonderful view, I would prefer if they turned off the lights. Just saying. The same could be said for BCIT’s Aerospace Facility (very pretty as well, but very wasteful!)

Have you decided on your Halloween costumes?

I’m not even sure if I’m going to attend any Halloween parties. Yeah, it’s that kind of a week. I’m not feeling 100% well (my stomach is still in pain after 4 days, which is rather unusual and somewhat worrisome) and I’ve got a gazillion things to do. But I’m still wondering if anyone would be willing to reveal what they’re going to wear for Halloween. Deciding on Halloween costumes must be a tough decision, as I see everybody is googling for ideas!

What kind of cuisine are you? (Quiz)

Raincoaster sent me a link to this, and when I did the quiz I ended up VERY puzzled. Why? Because, if you know me well at all, you’ll know that I pretty much NEVER eat Chinese food. Intriguing.

You Are Chinese Food

Exotic yet ordinary. People think they’ve had enough of you, but they’re back for more in an hour.

How about you? What kind of cuisine are you?

Tasting Vancouver Interview

As a personal blogger who happens to love food, I am always intrigued by new sites where restaurants are reviewed. Recently, a Vancouver-based effort has been launched (Tasting Vancouver) so I asked them if they’d answer a few questions and here are their responses 🙂

1.- So TastingVancouver.ca is online now…what IS Tasting Vancouver, in your own words?
Tasting Vancouver is Vancouver’s newest online restaurant guide that set’s itself apart. Offering restaurant profiles with photos, contact information, menus and reviews.

2.- We have a number of online restaurant guides (DineHere.ca, UrbanSpoon, etc.) – how do you plan to distinguish yourselves from the others?
I do yes, but they are either way to big, or way to small… I am focusing on downtown Vancouver and it’s surrounding area’s for the time being. Focusing all our efforts to make the most of the local restaurant scene first before expanding (if we decide too). One thing that we’re going to focus on, is listening to all food lovers and restaurant owners and build a real food social network.

3.- What are your plans for embedding more social media in your site? Maybe create an iPhone app?
That’s funny, because we have already started with a simple iphone application, allowing people to search for their favourite restaurant or cuisine directly from their iphone.

4.- It seems to me that the first focus of Tasting Vancouver is downtown restaurants – What are the most popular so far?
Right now our most popular restaurants are the Water Street Cafe in Gastown, and Yaletown Brewery in Yaletown.

5.- Is the site “a labor of love” or do you plan to make some money with it? (e.g. to support the activities of the site)
I love food, and so for now its a labor of love.

6.- Anything else you’d like to add?
Just pass on the site to all your friends and get them to help build this new online restaurant guide!

So, I’d recommend that you check them online!

The death of environmentalism?

A recent post by Rebecca on “is blogging dead” and a comment by Darren on that particular post (echoed by other commentators) made me remember that I once wrote a post about “The Death of Environmentalism”. Since it never made it past the drafts, I am now I’m resurrecting it in an updated form.

Now, to provide additional context, I just found out via Jonathon Colman from The Nature Conservancy that only 18% of survey respondents (I’m assuming all Americans) strongly believe that climate change is human-caused and harmful.

While I do hold my own opinion on the causes of climate change, that’s irrelevant for this discussion. The thing is that there seems to be a very small proportion of the population who believe in climate change (or at least, so would appear from the data shown). Now, the title of this post is associated with a paper by Schellenberger and Nordhaus titled “The Death of Environmentalism: Global Warming Politics in a Post-Environmental World”.

The gist of this paper (and surprisingly, the evidence presented by The Nature Conservancy) seems to suggest that American environmental NGOs have not had much success with galvanizing public opinion on climate change in the United States. If you read the work of Aaron McCright and Riley Dunlap, they find increased support to the hypothesis that Conservatives have influenced public opinion on climate change (as a non-problem or a non-issue).

McCright, Aaron M., and Riley E. Dunlap. 2003. “Defeating Kyoto: The Conservative Movement’s Impact on U.S. Climate Change Policy.” Social Problems 50(3): 348-373.

But the thing is – regardless of whether it’s the ENGOs fault or the public’s fault (I don’t really want to blame anyone) – one of the main reasons why the Schellenberger and Nordhaus paper was so controversial is because it talked about “environmentalism being dead“. And I’m pretty sure that they intended for the paper to spark controversy (and make environmental NGOs try to work harder at educating the public about the need to adapt to climate change). That’s where I’m bringing the connection.

If you think about it (and as accurately said by the commentators on Rebecca’s site), the best way to spark a discussion about a topic is to say that X or Y is dead. Environmentalism is NOT dead. Much less here in Canada, and in Vancouver. For starters, Greenpeace started here! Environmental NGOs have a place and there is a need for them in the global environmental movement. The thing is, the Schellenberger and Nordhaus paper (as the other post mentioned by Rebecca) did serve to galvanize people, make them react to the issue and write about it.

Now, if we all did that about municipal and provincial politics in Vancouver and British Columbia, if we did that about climate change and other environmental issues in our own turf, THEN I think we would see a revival. And I’m hoping I’m contributing to this debate, and look forward to other’s contributions.

Building connections off and online

While this weekend was probably one of the busiest ones of them all (and I’m still stressed by work that I have to do), I managed to say no to a number of things. However, I had to cave in and have a couple of short breaks in what otherwise was a working weekend.

On Friday, my neighbour and good friend DMcN invited me over for a couple of cocktails (small ones to avoid any kind of hangover) and a nice chat. We hadn’t had a chance to hang out in a long while, so it was nice to just have a nice quiet Friday evening. Then I went to a wine tasting hosted by my good friend JH. Very low key, only a few other very close friends attended (ML, HZ and CS) which was actually really nice. And yes, despite the fact that it was a wine tasting, I did not consume one single drop of alcohol. None. As in, all I had was water (and well, lots of chocolate).

On Saturday, I needed to skip all invites because I had a pressing deadline, but I took a very late night quick break and headed over to Two Parrots, where Colleen had called up for a Tweetup. Normally, TP would never be my hangout of choice, much less on a late Saturday night (Granville Street gets an overwhelmingly high quota of drunken early 20-somethings. Not my idea of fun).

But having a chance to spend time with Gary, Gus, Colleen, Jeremy, John and Rebecca, Airdrie and Kerry Anne, Gregg Scott, Rainer and Michael was simply awesome. Although I am sorry I missed a chance to hang out with many other friends (at the Parade of Lost Souls, at Boneta where Karen celebrated her birthday, So, I headed over there rather late (after every other event was pretty much over).

Gary was kind enough to ensure that I had continuous supply of alcohol (prairie fire, monkeys lunch, blue eyed blonde and melon breeze). The strongest was the prairie fire (tequila and tabasco sauce) but I could handle my alcohol quite ok. Thanks Gary, very much appreciated! Overall, was a great evening, a good couple of hours hanging out with friends. And I held my alcohol extremely well. Four drinks and I didn’t stumble, have slurred speech, nor flirt with anyone.

I’ve been discovering that I have a much better chance of enjoying the time I spend with my friends if I just don’t try to do everything and over commit. I feel really guilty about saying no, but sometimes I can’t do everything. I would have loved to do coffee with Jonathon Narvey, Monica Hamburg, David Drucker and other friends. I would have loved to go to Parade of Lost Souls with Karen Parker, Ianiv and Arieanna, Gus and Russ, Lorraine and Heather, for example, or to Media Democracy Day with Tris, Kate Milberry and others, or to the Health Show with DaveO. But work was calling and I had to live vicariously through their tweets. I went out late at night simply because I was almost done with my work (which I think is what I should do – work, and then do a bit of play).

At any rate, this was a good weekend, albeit a reflective one. I still need to learn to navigate the fine line between extrovert/socializer and introspective/time alone. If anybody has the magic formula, feel free to share 🙂 Hope you had a wonderful weekend too.

Events this weekend (Oct 24-25, 2008)

I am like, five-times-booked this weekend, but I’m going to have to say no to everything. While I am sorry to miss the company of many good friends (and a chance to see important and relevant stuff), I *have* to finish something (I’m on a deadline). So instead of feeling socially guilt-ridden, I’m going to take a shot at saying no. And I know that my friends will understand.

So here is a really quick roundup of the things that are happening this weekend:

– The Vancouver Health and Wellness Show at Canada Place. My loved friends at HappyFrog are doing a lot of media coverage for the show. Tris Hussey already has a post up, and there’ll be more coverage I am sure (DaveO is podcasting live).

– Gus kindly invited me to Sustainability 2008 (which is totally up my alley) but unfortunately, I’ve been ultra busy so I can’t make it either. But they have a totally wicked geo-thermal exchange exhibit today.

– The Parade of Lost Souls. Takes place in Grandview Park, procession starts at 7pm. I think that Lorraine (Raincoaster) and Heather (Hez) will be there, my understanding is that Lorraine will be liveblogging, most likely in the FearlessCity website and Hez will be interviewing participants/covering the event. It’s a wonderful event, check it out. And don’t forget about the Digital Shrine project.

– And of course, today is Media Democracy Day. I know that Ianiv and Arieanna are going, Tris will also attend so check his blog for a post on the topic. If you’re going and are covering the event, ping me and I’ll link you.

On the topic of Media Democracy Day, here is some info on the panel on new media [Info is from the Media Democracy Day website]

3:15 to 4:30 (Alice MacKay)
Panel 3: The Battle for New Media and Open Communication

We stand at a crossroads in the history of communications technology, a moment when traditional media are in disarray, and a new form of communications and organizing — more grassroots and decentralized — is on the rise. The Internet is upsetting conventional wisdom about “mass media” and changing media power in ways never before imagined. But change also raises new threats. Will an open Internet succumb to the same companies that control traditional media? The new challenge for us is to organize around and develop new sets of policies, projects, and tools that will finally give us an advantage in the decades-long struggle against the gatekeepers.
Panelists will discuss the fight for an open Internet, prospects for online/social media, and future challenges.
Panel Chair: Kate Milberry – Media and Technology Commentator
Panelists:
-Leslie Regan Shade – Associate Professor Concordia University, editor of “For Sale to the Highest Bidder: Telecom Policy in Canada.”
-Jeff Davis – Vancouver Open Network Initiative Cooperative (VONIC)
-Mike Tippet – Co-founder of NowPublic
-Robert Scales – CEO of Raincity Studios

UPDATE – Interesting Vancouver happened last night. You can read Rebecca’s liveblog here. Presenters included Tom Williams, Darren Barefoot, James Sherrett, Irwin from FearlessCity. Darren is staying over the weekend as he is also presenting at the Surrey International Writers Festival.

So… sorry for missing all these great events, but if there’s a time when I need to buckle down, this would be it.

Geek as a compliment

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know that I pride myself in doing my own stunts. I write most of my HTML meta-tags by hand, almost never use the visual editor, and I did the whole redirection of my blog URL (hummingbird604.com) and registration all by myself (with the very capable guidance of Rebecca). Heck, I even have the geek-wear to prove it!

A couple of months back, I was talking with someone (can’t recall exactly who it was) and with Rebecca, and I praised said person “you ARE a geek“. Rebecca was very quick to explain “to Raul, that is actually a compliment, so you should take it that way“. It’s true. If I ever tell you that you ARE a geek, I am complimenting you.

The nouns “nerd“, “geek” and “dork” have been ostracized for so long that, for many people, they have negative and derogatory connotations.

Not for me. I am actually proud of my geekification. Before I started using WordPress, and before I started blogging, I knew nothing about RSS feeds, Web 2.0, domain propagation, clean URLs, hashtags, Twitter, and all that jazz. I now feel comfortable even speaking about cloud computing!

(Hat tips to Anthony Nicalo who just tweeted about how he was trying to gain geek credibility – Anthony, I think you’re pretty geeky alright!).

The Parade of Lost Souls and a Digital Shrine

Passing on the information that Raincoaster sent me:

As you may or may not know, the Parade of Lost Souls happens on Saturday, and there’s a project called the Digital Shrine. Here is an explanation provided by Lorraine…

There’s a really creative way for online people to participate in advance and I’m trying to get the word out. Please take a look and pass it along to anyone you think would be interested. This is the first time we’ve done this (as far as I know the first time ANYONE has done this): an interactive, ever-evolving digital shrine to things and people that have passed the barrier of mortality. With my grandmother in the hospital right now, this project has particular resonance for me and there must be many people in a similar situation. Any help you can give us would be appreciated.

Details here

Thanks in advance,
Lorraine

“Because I said so”: Authoritative opinions in a world of authorities

“It must be true because everything on the Internets is true”

I’ve heard this phrase oh-so-many-times. Since I found it on the Internet, it must be true 😉 Well, honestly, I don’t buy into the phrase. Why not? Well, simply because, as some of the early critics of the Net have indicated – ANYONE can post on the Internet.

This is precisely my problem (well, my beef with the Internet). Since ANYONE can post ANYTHING online, it now seems as though EVERYONE is an expert in something. Some people are experts at appearing to be experts at something. This is an issue where not even the academic world is free of criticism. Just because your journal article got published or because you have a PhD, that doesn’t make you an overall expert. True, you may be an expert in one specific area, but some people feel as though they are experts in EVERYTHING.

And truth be told, there are awful articles published in prestigious journals and great articles published in crappy journals. Not even academia escapes this. There is something for everyone. But we (academics) like to believe that peer-review does somehow help us sieve the good from the bad.

I find that the only way I can keep my sanity in this world of authorities is to not trust every authoritative opinion I hear. One of the reasons why I am grateful about my academic training (with its flaws and everything) is because it makes me question everything. I always look at data and say “hmmmm… really?”. I like to analyze what’s beneath the surface, where the truth lies.

How do YOU deal when you need an authoritative opinion and just about everyone you ask feels as though they are an authority in the field?

Vancouver Sales Performance Meetup October 2008

It took me a little while to get my notes out, particularly because I was liveblogging Mhairi Petrovic’s talk at Third Tuesday right after the Vancouver Sales Performance Meetup for October (thankfully, Mhairi’s talk was right around the corner from Ceili’s so I could squeeze both events in the same night).

I was quite impressed by Anthony McAleer’s talk for several reasons, but two main points stuck in my head and I’m putting them into practice here. The first one, to just keep moving, is really important. No matter what you do, even if you feel stuck, just keep moving ahead. Don’t stop. The second one was that you attract the energy you seek, so you have to associate positive energy with you if you want to attract that kind of energy (e.g. if you want to stay positive, be around positive people).

I couldn’t liveblog it, but here are some of my notes.

– You need ACTIVITY (if you’re not going out, meeting people, making sales calls, then you’re not doing anything). Pushing paper is being BUSY but NOT PRODUCTIVE. Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone.

– Engage in NETWORKING. It is about relationships with people so that they trust you. It’s like being an old-school phone operator – buliding connections, generating goodwill. DON’T focus on the money.

In the financial industry there is no differentiation on the basis of product – you differentiate yourself by having a process. In the sales process – it is important to learn how to deal with SAYING NO. When they tell you NO, you haven’t given them enough information to make a YES decision, get across the value of the product.

Key factor contributing to sales – understanding relationships – 75% of sales based on trust/rapport/likability/trustworthiness. People pick very subtle cues. You have to operate from a position of integrity. Do the best for your clients.

CONGRUENCY – The field – we are all connected. We communicate information to everyone – communication at a level that is not so conscious. So you align with your clients – resonance – vibration – communication in your field. So, for wealth, if you want to attract wealthy clients – immerse yourself with high resonance for wealth.

In life you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you believe you deserved. It’s all about INTENTION. Positive thinking is PART but not ALL of it. Learn to speak the language of the universe. Immerse yourself in the feelings of being rich.

VERY IMPORTANT – Communicate your gratitudes. Experience the success of getting the types of clients you know (more specific) – ask the university for the answers – and it does work. It’s having faith that it will work – simple, but not easy. It’s impossible to explain and impossible to deny.

You can find the video here courtesy of Shane Gibson.

Bedouin Soundclash Play Free Concert to Support InSite

I heard about this from both Raincoaster and Hez, so I’m just going to direct you to the FearlessCity blog for information and reproduce their post (with attribution).

WHAT – Bedouin Soundclash Play Free Concert to Support InSite
WHEN – Thursday, October 23rd @ 5:15 pm.
WHERE – 139 East Hastings @ Insite
ADDITIONAL DETAILS – Free food, drinks and free Bedouin Soundclash!! at 6:30 pm. Dress Warmly. We’ll be outside.

AND – speaking of Insite, an interesting post I found on The Globe and Mail.

Toasting to a great beginning of the week!

You may have read that I had a really wonderful weekend. You may also have read (on Twitter) that I have been feeling amazingly positive and energetic and hopeful and lucky. That wasn’t the case last week.

Credit: FreeWine (Flickr)

The reasons behind this mood change are many, but primarily associated with feeling healthy again and having gotten really positive feedback for the really hard work for the project I completed last week. Also, a really positive comment (encouraging me to apply to the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University) also made my day.

I am not going to deny that last week (particularly by the end of it), I felt pretty crappy (emotionally drained and somewhat bummed, and physically exhausted and sick). But one thing I’ve been reminded many, many times is that – the darkest hour is just before dawn.

I found this photograph extremely compelling and descriptive of how I feel. I just need to keep paddling to reach great heights and achieve the successes I feel I deserve because I have worked so hard.

I’m not writing in a self-absorbed attempt to glorify the current state of affairs. I want to just remind myself (and share with the world my joy) because truthfully, I didn’t think I was going to ever get to this point again.

Yes, I am enthusiastic. Yes, I am always thinking in positive ways. But when it’s dark, and rainy, and gloomy, I too feel down, sometimes. I’m grateful that it is not something that happens frequently, but I too sometimes feel as though it’s just me against the world. And then… something happens that just cheers me up. A friend talks to me on GTalk. Another one sends me a direct message on Twitter. Another group of friends force me to go out and enjoy a good meal or a drink and the company of good friends, or just a walk in a park, or watching movies and ordering sushi in.

That point, that precise point, when I have finished each one of those activities, has been a stepping stone for me. At each and every one of those points, I was shown affection, love, genuine care, support and solidarity. And I cherished it. And I relished in it. A smile on my face has been a constant throughout this weekend.

I have great talents (and lets be honest, modesty, really, is not one of them) but even better, I have great people around me. So, on a Monday night, I toast to those of you who keep me sane, who keep me real, who never let my success get to my head, or my difficulties drown me. Thanks, many, many thanks.

It’s going to be a great week.

EDIT – As you can see, I wrote it on Monday and published on Wednesday. I still feel awesome.

What the heck happened this past Canadian Federal Election?

I was reading a tweet by Joe Solomon regarding an upcoming talk he’s giving on the use of internet and social media to help solve the climate change crisis. I won’t get into the details of whether it is solving the climate crisis or at least mitigate some of the effects it will have and adapt to climate change. That’s for another post.

But as I was reading Joe’s tweet and thinking about what we can do, something made me stop in my tracks. You DID have a great tool to vote strategically (VoteForEnvironment.ca). Did people NOT use it? I mean, as you can see from the results of this election, the Conservative government is staying in power and Stephane Dion is stepping down from the Liberal leadership.

If (as argued by many comentators) Harper’s climate policy is less than ideal, and people wanted to vote to achieve environmental goals (using the Vote For Environment strategic voting tool), why didn’t anything happen to shift from one government to the other? I can say that the website VFE was really popular, so clearly people were looking at it. Did nobody take action?

Just puzzled…

5 Things Meme

So I was tagged by Tawcan, and since I hate breaking memes, here it is.

5 things I was doing 10 years ago:

1. Living in England (Manchester).
2. Thinking about doing a PhD in Management or Business Administration.
3. Finishing my MBA/MEng.
4. Living scared of the Moss Side in Manchester (as I lived near Whalley Range).
5. Learning about the Canal District.

5 things on my to do list today:

1. Finish a book chapter (or at least start it).
2. Finish folding laundry.
3. Write a blog post about the Sales Performance Meetup.
4. Transcribe my notes from said Meetup.
5. Buy soda (I’ve run out of Diet Pepsi).

5 snacks I love:

1. Grape Jell-O
2. Tamarind and powdered chile sweets
3. Yoghurt
4. Sushi
5. Soup (of any kind)

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire:

1. Buy several houses
2. Invest the money
3. Donate some money to the BC Cancer Foundation
4. Take a few months off work and go travel
5. Buy new MacBookPro!

5 places I’ve lived (for various lengths of time):

1. Vancouver, BC
2. Mexico City, Mexico
3. Manchester, England
4. Madrid, Spain
5. Paris, France

5 jobs I’ve had:

1. Research assistant (during grad school)
2. Chemical engineer with Coca-Cola
3. Process engineer with BASF
4. Office manager (my Dad’s office and my Mom’s office, both of them)
5. Research manager

5 people I tag:

1. Tyler Ingram
2. Raincoaster
3. Nancy Zimmerman
4. Monica Hamburg
5. Tanya Davis

Being the researcher and the phenomenon – VoterMedia.Org

I was briefly reading a couple of notes by Sean Orr (Beyond Robson) and Rebecca Bollwitt (Miss604 on Radio Zoom) on the work of Dr. Mark Latham, founder of VoterMedia.Org and I thought to myself “hey, I haven’t even talked to Mark yet since I came back“. I probably should do it soon.

I have to admit that when I was nominated to participate in the Vancouver Election Blog Awards, I was pretty flattered. It made me feel as though my content was deemed worthy and relevant (in regards to my coverage of political issues, particularly municipal elections in Vancouver).

Truth be told, as someone who has taught public policy, at some points during the VoterMedia project, I have felt both like the researcher and the phenomenon under study. Given my training and education, I am aware of the behavioral mechanisms that underlie the project itself, encouraging bloggers to create guides to educate the public for a better, more informed decision-making process.

Given that I understand how the project works, the hypothesis would be that if I wanted to be rewarded with a monetary incentive, I would be interested in creating such guides. And truth be told, I *do* like monetary rewards 🙂 But the thing is, my blog is rather personal and while I do have written a fair number of posts on municipal and Canadian politics, and on public policy/water policy as they pertain to Vancouver, I still primarily blog about myself (yeah, you can call me self-absorbed but truth be told, I am not really)

I just want to say that the project has a great underlying platform and it would be great if we (bloggers) kept our readers  well informed, so that they can make choices that they feel are more educated and based on data rather than just purely political affiliation or random voting.

And I know that everyone will want me to link to Kevin Grandia’s Vote for Environment site (a lot of my off-line friends have already emailed me saying “hey Raul, can you link to this?”) so here is the link. The foundation of Vote For Environment is to create patterns of strategic voting (i.e. voting not for whom you are ideologically inclined or whom you’d vote but for whom has more chances of winning).

EDIT – I had written this post weeks ago but somehow kept putting it off and now it’s published. Obviously, Vote For Environment’s focus was the Federal election (and we all know what happened to that). But you could still vote strategically in the provincial by-election and municipal election.

Third Tuesday Vancouver – September 2008 – Mhairi Petrovic

Before coming to Republic, Rebecca and I met briefly at Centro and while we were chatting there, I mentioned that I’d be happy to liveblog this time (as she does most of the liveblogging for Third Tuesday Vancouver). Generally speaking, I liveblog once in a while, and I always do a recap of the meetup. But she is generally a media sponsor, so I thought it’d be nice for her to just deal with the Vancouver Food Bank Drive for a change instead of having to take the donations, AND liveblog.

I do hope that my laptop holds. We are lucky to have Mhairi Petrovic from OutSmarts. She will be talking about Marketing New Media to Traditional Decision Makers: Overcoming the Challenges. And Mhairi is about to start.

UPDATE: 7.24pm Monica is calling everyone to order.

Mhairi nearly had a heart attack 😉 hehehe. What am I going to speak about to a group of social-media-savvy people that they don’t already do know? One of the first jobs that Mhairi had was to be in charge of selling the Internet to their marketing people.

These days over 70% of North American people use the Internet on a regular basis. They are waiting for you to get in touch with you. The Internet is no longer a one-way street, there’s data flowing between people, and businesses can only benefit from tapping into that resource.

Mhairi’s definition of social media – blogs, Web 2.0, etc. As an organization, you can use these technologies to
– build community and loyalty
– more sales, more leads
– build awareness and brands.

Some of the objections to social media…

1.- “We already use social media” Misconception – a website with their email address is social media. Um, no… that’s not the case. These people need to be introduced – take them on a tour. Find blogs that are appropriate to their industry. Take them to meetups with people who use the tools. Show them how to use Google. Once they see the benefits, they’ll be sure to catch on.

2.- Perceived as a tool for only the younger set. This is a misconception. Yeah, MySpace was adopted by young music lovers. The over 35 demographic is the fastest growing sector of the users of Internet. Over 50% of MySpace users and over 40% of Facebook users are over 35%. Social networks for professionals are the fastest growing. Mainly users that are mature professionals looking to use these technologies to extend their networks and build their communities.

3.- This does not apply to me. Technorati and its State of the Blogosphere report stated that they have 133 million blogs in 36 countries. 100 million people on MySpace, 140 million people on Facebook, 20 million photos on Flickr. You have to join in the conversation, before they get left behind.

4.- Social media as simply a flashing fad. No long term/staying power. The case of Friendster is commonly cited as the example of social media being a fad. Well, Mhairi says that really this is one case, but the first blog is dated 1982 so it’s not a flash in the pan. It’s been around for over 25 years and probably here to stay. Facebook and MySpace could evolve and change, of course. They will be here in some shape or another. They will evolve as the technology and capabilities evolve.

If you don’t use them NOW you risk getting left behind.

5.- Transparency and losing control of your brand. Those freak controls that need to control every press release and make sure that what is being said meets the party line. Typical entrepreneurs – they think that social media is too risky. Participation in social media makes them vulnerable, losing control of their brand. But that’s not the case. Mhairi argues that you use social media to GAIN BACK some of that control. Allows you to respond to any negative comments and move the discussion to the corporate blog.

Mhairi is giving examples – a customer that totally disagreed and said “this is a lot of rubbish”. Mhairi went back and wrote back and she backed up her case. This gentleman apologized in the public forum because Mhairi was able to make the contact and establish it and deal with the negativity in the public forum, hoping that the issue goes away.

Microsoft is benefitting from being transparent. They had a really bad image in the 1990s, but it’s being negated by the fact that they had a corporate blog policy that allowed their employees to blog, thus making them more human. These were real organizations. Microsoft was able to shed their “Big Brother” image.

Interestingly, Google is very tough on bloggers, so they might be the next Big Brother in the tech scene. They are not allowed to talk about anything that goes inside the company, you have to be very careful about that (clarified by someone who was an intern there in the summer of 2002).

7.- Privacy. LinkedIn and Facebook have privacy settings. Set appropriate limits both in terms of who to add and what information you put out there. You control the content. Don’t put EVERYTHING if you feel that it may infringe on your privacy. As far as a blog goes, a corporate blog helps establish their expertise, but if you’re uncomfortable with what people are commenting, you can have a blog that has some review of comments before posting to the site.

Use these tools appropriately, understand that you’re in control, and limit your risk by using these technologies in the right way.

Raul (me) comments on the recent launch of The Buzzer Blog (Translink). I actually do feel that it has a very “rigid” and somewhat “corporate” feel.

7.- “Too much fluff”. Mhairi refers a case of Facebook having a lot of fluff. But the sheer volume of people who are using it, shows that there is relevance in having it. There is a lot of fluff in TV but that doesn’t stop companies from spending billions in advertisements in these media. Facebook is the same thing. We should be honing in on that audience. You can’t just let that market go! 🙂 You can benefit from social media if you implement these tools appropriately.

8.- “I don’t have time for social media” Mhairi’s favorite excuse. Allows people to negate doing something that they have to do. You can’t afford to have time to at least consider what your competition is doing with social media and what you can do with social media. If someone traditional (business) tells you that they don’t have time, that’s usually because they feel really scared. To negate this – the traditional approach to marketing – the four Ps and the four C (customer, community, convenience and cost) and the Ps ( ) – You can reach them (customers) more effectively using social media, building community, it’s very convenient as internet access is inexpensive, and it costs really less than a traditional campaign. Time is really no excuse. Make them comfortable.

UPDATE 7.51 PM – If you’re reading this, you can also bid in the silent auction of Canuck ticket’s as well!

QUESTION – Larry Yatkowsky – there is not enough time in the day to move all the process, it cuts into your life so dramatically, I assure you that it takes an extra 60-70 hours a day as a sole proprietor.
Mhairi’s answer – Well, you have to hire someone maybe – or consider doing just a fraction of the whole strategy. Erica Hargreave says that yes, you can do it (she’s done it for over 7 pm). You can use an application for Twitter (Twhirl, TwitterFox) and it helps you save time. Twitter does save a lot of time for Erica, because she learns a lot of things that sometimes ends helping save her time. Because she is a sole proprietor she now is linked to the voice of what’s happening in the rest of the world.

UPDATE 7.53 PM – The wifi just got disconnected, so I’m continuing with the liveblog on BlogDesk.

UPDATE 7.54 PM – Well, apparently the wifi is back. If you don’t read beyond this point, it’s because the wifi is broken again.

Larry mentions that he finds that you cannot do it all. To achieve success you can only do a bit of it. Nadia interjects that social media IS overwhelming. If you can just figure out the one or two things that you can dedicate yourself, do just a couple.

Jeremy Lim mentions the fact that Ping.fm (aggregates all your Web 2.0) and EightHands collects a number of feeds

9.- “The traditional way of doing it is professional”. Social media tends to be seen as “amateurs”. The recent Vancouver Sun/Now Public survey of the 20 Most Visible. “Anyone can be a blogger if they live in Mommy and Daddy’s basement and they don’t need to go to work”. This is the comment of someone who doesn’t really get/understand social media. A number of bloggers make a lot of money. Social media is NOT only for amateurs, it’s not an appropriate comment at all. For people who only do traditional marketing, they should transfer the budget for those projects to social media for one month to see how it effects it.

UPDATE 8.06 PM – There was a really nicely productive discussion that Larry initiated on how to pare down or triage which Web 2.0 services you use.

10.- “Show me the money. Where is the ROI (Return On Investment)”. There is a dearth of information (publicly available – what has been the return on investment in social media?). Wal-Mart episode – got bad marketing. Mazda did a similar thing. Despite their huge presence, they still had to lay off people and cut off costs. Social media-based marketing is not the end and be all, but it is a component that you can use in your marketing arsenal. Traditional marketing campaigns are even harder to measure in terms of ROI.

Mhairi’s main and central example on huge ROI for using social media – a UK company “WigglyWigglers” that engaged in a great social media campaign. This is a gardening company. They have a podcast, YouTube channel, a blog, a newsletter and they use them actively to share information on the worms for gardening. The result for them – they now have over 40,000 podcast subscribers, 43,000 newsletter subscriber, over 800 friends on Facebook, customers in New Zealand and North America, they’ve improved their Google Page Rank massively, online sales 50% of their total sales, and they’ve done this all with a 97% reduction in their advertising costs. That really proves the ROI on these technologies.

Mhairi believes very strongly that traditional marketers can no longer ignore the benefits of social media. All the results attest to the fact that traditional, old-school marketers need to learn some of these tools, and harnessing these tools can only benefit you.

UPDATE 8.14 PM – The liveblog is over.