Fade to Play

Last Thursday I attended Democamp Vancouver 04 at Workspace. It was the third one I attended and the event was well attended by local participants.The night began with Battledecks as Linda Bustos (above) beat Jordan Behan.

1. 2 people from the crowd are chosen (by elimination or volunteering or voting…) and go head-to-head in DemoCamp‘s installment of BATTLEDECKS
2. Each contender is given a 6-to-8 page Keynote Presentation on the spot and will present their fabulous, ground-breaking, earth-shattering, mind-blowing business/project/idea/nonsense to the crowd, inspiring us all on whatever it is they are revealing.
3. Think: “Gesture. Flow. Credibility. Jargon.” It will really help.
4. Winner will be professed by crowd applause and cheering.

Next there were four people/teams that spoke about their demo for 4-6 minutes:

• James Sherrit as CEO, discussed the mission of Ad-Hack
• Tom Kingston spoke about financial models for start-ups from VanFM
• Chris Sel and Brenda Mclaren of Nethooks, spoke about their social network site for students, alumni, and young professionals
• Amy Walkerof Momentum spoke about the magazine for urban bikers.

Afterwards we attended an after-party at Flux where we socialised and had food/drinks.

Good times for all.


There are flickr photos here:


Relevance: Opportunity to network and keep up to date on interesting people and ideas within Vancouver.

About a week ago Facebook launched a new service called Facebook Pages. You can read further information from their blog on this. Basically businesses, celebrities, teams, services, etc., anyone that wants can create a page.

We noticed people wanted to connect with their favorite music, restaurants, and brands; but there was no good place for these types of affiliations to exist. Now, there is a place for them and you can become a fan of whatever pages you choose in order to interact with your passions in new ways. You can post reviews for a local restaurant, buy tickets to a new movie, or be the first to get a heads up about new promotions.

I see a need for this type of service. I was at an Internet conference last month and someone gave a passionate speech on why their dog should be able to have a Facebook profile, but that it is currently forbidden. Facebook now has a place for her dog.

In addition, there are well known personalities that have reached the 5000 friend limit of Facebook, and have spoke out through their blog on the need for change. Facebook has a place for his fans/friends now.

To date I have joined a number of Facebook Pages such as Bryght and Static Photography that personal friends have created. I haven’t felt overwhelmed by updates nor have I noticed the ads anymore than before. I haven’t felt the need to create a Facebook fan page, but it would be a good way to deal with friendship requests from complete strangers that I get.

For those that have created Pages, what is your opinion and why did you do it? Has anyone has problems with the ads feature?

Relevance: This is a significant change for Facebook. How will their users respond?

I have been using a new mobile social networking site for the last few days. Basically you take your mobile phone and call in and describe what you are doing. Automatically it is posted on your page. In addition, you can use your phone to take photos or create a video and they can be uploaded directly to your site.

It is fun and I think I will be using it daily for the immediate future. I like how easy it is to share what I am doing with the Internet.

I’ve been uttering.

Relevance: I haven’t used many mobile social networking sites. My phone doesn’t have any video capacities so I was using my Canon SD400 point and shoot. I want to experience how I can use mobile technology to create a holistic experience about my life that I can then instantly share.

Yesterday I attended our campus Remembrance Day ceremony.

My flickr pictures of the event are here. It is important to remember those that sacrificed their lives for our freedom.

As many of my friends are active users of digital media or emerging technology, I hope that you will all consider coming to Northern Voice 2008. It started in 2005 and I attended last year and the year before.

It gets better each year, the organisers are a creative bunch and it is a great place to network and meet cool Vancouver people that are involved in a variety of cool meetup sessions such as Democamp, Launch Party, and Barcamp. We get attendees from the States and across Canada so mark the dates now.

Northern Voice is a two-day, non-profit personal blogging and social media conference that’s being held at the Forestry Sciences Centre, 2424 Main Mall, UBC main campus, Vancouver, Canada on February 22-23, 2008.

And although it is a weblog conference, the range of topics may involve anything that webloggers are interested in… that is, just about anything. Previous years have had plenty of geekery mixed with panels on how blogging interacts with family life, education, travel, photography, community building and establishing professional profiles. Speakers range from the big names at the top of the Technorati rankings to first-time presenters with a passion to share.

Cool hosts: Darren Barefoot, Kris Krüg, Brian Lamb, Cyprien Lomas, Boris Mann, Dale McGladdery, Lori Pike, James Sherret, Travis Smith, Julie Szabo, Roland Tanglao, Lauren Wood.

Call for speakers (this means you) is here.

Ideas on interesting keynotes/topics/discussion speakers, submit here.

Facebook event is here:

It will be alot of fun and I look forward to chilling with my Vangroovy friends, The City people, and maybe even some intraweb people IRL for the first time.