Fade to Play

Are you excited? If not, you should be because Barcamp Vancouver 2008 is coming. Surprisingly, with tons of social media press, people seems to lose out every year when it sells out. You don’t want to miss out this year because it is going to be unbelievable and everyone will be there.

So, take out your sharpie and mark your calendar for Sept 26-27th. Then signup. It’s free.

It looks like this year Rebecca Bollwitt will be running WordCamp with Duane Storey.


What is Barcamp?

BarCamp is an ad-hoc un-conference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees.

All attendees are encouraged to give a demo, a session, a presentation, or help with one. All attendees are expected to be participants. All presentations are scheduled the day they happen. Prepare in advance, but come early to get a slot on the wall.

Presenters are responsible for making sure that notes/slides/audio/video of their presentations are published on the web for the benefit of all and those who can’t be present.

Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join.

So, mark your calendar for Barcamp Vancouver 2008 from Friday September 26th 5pm - Saturday September 27h 5pm. Will there be s’mores? Should you bring a tent? Will you meet fun people that become friends for life? Well, I don’t know the answer to the first 2 questions, but the third is a definite yes!

I attended Barcamp Vancouver 07 for the first time last year and met alot of new people for the first time. I remember sitting on the couch meeting someone named Linda Bustos, talking about Malta with Darren Barefoot, and chatting about tagging with Todd Sieling. I was totally nervous giving a presentation as Kris Krüg played on a skateboard. As has become a tradition as I’ve attended events around campus, I took a picture with Rebecca. Good memories. It was also the first time using my Digital Rebel XTi.

I remember the Friday night as I arrived at the Alibi Room all existed to try out my new camera. I got ready to take a photo of Kris Krüg and I could figure out why I couldn’t zoom with my camera. That’s when he said “Phillip, it’s a fixed lens, you got to step back”. Hopefully I’ve improved since that night.

Darren Barefoot - Barcamp Vancouver 07



Roland Tanglao & Kris Krüg - Barcamp Vancouver 07



Me presenting - Barcamp Vancouver 07

Linda Bustos - Barcamp Vancouver 07

Relevance: Barcamp is about family, community, and sharing what you love to do in your life with friends.

Jeff Young ~ Flickr photo courtesy of John Biehler

Third Tuesday Vancouver organised by Monica Hamburg and Tanya Davis (aka NetChick) will be taking place tonight at Republic (one of my favourite clubs in Vancouver).

Republic

THIRD TUESDAY VANCOUVER is a free monthly meetup for Vancouver area communications and marketing folks interested in learning/sharing more about the practical applications of social media in society, organizations, business and government.

Third Tuesday meetups typically include a guest speaker who talks with the group about different social media technologies and trends and how these things apply to communication and community building. We encourage group discussion and learning, and we do this by keeping our meetups very casual and open, but focused as well, so that our members walk away with new insights and actionable ideas for their businesses.

Today the speaker will be Jeff Young. He will discuss Intellectual Property Law in Social Media. It is the second half of his presentation from last Winter in which he will focus on trademarks, rights of privacy, and intellectual property law.

Jeff received his Bachelor of Law degree from UBC, where he also studied Commerce, before beginning his 18 year legal career which started in corporate and real estate law and ultimately focused on intellectual property and entertainment, particularly in film/TV and music. Jeff currently teaches Film Law and New Media Law in the School of Business / New Media Dept. at BCIT. Jeff is also a music composer, producer and supervisor with credits on numerous recordings including projects delivered to Warner, Universal, CBC, CTV, NBC, Global and the Knowledge Network.

Relevance: It will be a fun and informative event. You should be there, if you are interested in social media!

DreamBank Home Page


Yesterday I attended the startup launch party for DreamBank. According to the website:

DreamBank.org is about helping dreams come true and doing it in a way that helps the planet and important social causes. Instead of giving gifts that, although appreciated may not really be wanted, with DreamBank you contribute to someone’s dream. As well as helping fulfill a dream, your contribution helps spare the planet some of the nasty side effects of manufacturing and packaging unused gifts. Plus your gift automatically generates funds that are given to important social causes.

There is a social networking aspect to DreamBank as members can create profile, add friends, and share dreams. The look and feel of the There is an excellent resource page with links to information, the blog, and FAQ. here. You can also follow DreamBank on twitter.


Rebecca Bollwitt DreamBank Profile Page


I was fortunate to video interview Dawn Bowles, the Founder and CEO of DreamBank and was able to gain an insight into what DreamBank is about, its objective, and how the idea came to be.
Dawn Bowles - Founder & CEO, DreamBank


Some of the invited guests:


Darren Barefoot & Julia Szabo - Capulet Communications



Linda Roger & Julie Selby



Julie Szabo & Monica Hamburg


Rebecca Bollwitt - Miss 604


Erica Cardenas & Jessica Phillips


Chris Lemay & John Lyotier

Todd Sieling - Corvus Consulting

All my photos are available on Flickr here.

Relevance: It will be fun to watch as people achieve their dreams though sharing in DreamBank.

Maggie Mason - Mightygirl.com @ VIDFEST

On Friday May 23rd at the Creative Exchange Conference as part of the Vancouver International Digital Festival (VIDFEST 2008), I attended the Content.com: The Care and Feeding of Audiences session in which Heather Armstrong of Dooce.com and Maggie Mason of Mightygirl.com & Mightygoods.com, also author of No One Cares What You Had For Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog spoke.

Heather Armstrong - Dooce.com @ VIDFEST

I enjoyed the format they used for the session as they sat down in two chairs across from each other while displaying blog posts and comments on the screen behind them. Over the hour they talked about how they got into blogging, how it affects their lives, and discussed fan behaviour (the good and the bad). It was a fun session and I look forward to seeing them again.

Heather Armstrong, Phillip Jeffrey, & Maggie Mason

My photos of the Creative Exchange Conference are on Flickr here.


My photos of the VIDFEST 2008 Conference are available here.

Relevance: Always like to hear about the experiences of blogging from other bloggers that love what they do.

I have had problems embedding YouTube videos into my blog as it would mess with the architecture of my existing entry as well as previous posts. That’s why I was happy to discover a WordPress plugin called WP YouTube 2 by Jens Törnell that I have been reliably using this year without problems (e.g. Launch Party Vancouver 4 videos)

WP YouTube is a free Wordpress plugin that makes your YouTube videos easier to publish. You don’t need to make the effort to paste the whole embed-code. All you need the video ID, the rest is handled by WP YouTube.

WP YouTube Profile

After downloading the plugin, a YouTube Profiles link will appear on the Dashboard page. Clicking it will reveal the WP YouTube - Profile editor page. A new profile can be created by clicking the “Create New Profile” button. One can either create individual tags such as “hellotree_LPV4″ or “inhabitstreet_LPV4″ or one tag can be used for multiple purposes such as “LPV4″ for Launch Party Vancouver 4.

WP Profile Editor

Then simply save the profile, copy and paste the portion containing the tag name (see arrow above) and place it in your blog entry with the correct YouTube id which is retrieved from the YouTube video URL (e.g. TykaAFJscDc is the YouTube id for the inhabit street YouTube video)

inhabit street YouTube URL

You then are good to go. Below is what your readers will see.

Daniel Flippance - inhabit street

Relevance: Any easy way to embed YouTube videos using a WordPress plugin. Awesome Jens!

| View | Upload your own

On June 13, 2008 I was a guest lecturer in a course called Internet Technologies 1 at the Vancouver Film School. It was at the request of the lecturer, Kris Krüg and I welcomed the opportunity. For the 3 hour class, I interacted with the students in a group discussion environment as I talked about my knowledge in the area of games, social media, and photography and their influence and interrelationship in my everyday life.

As I had been on a 13 hour bus trip from Banff, Alberta the day before for BANFF, I wrote key points I wanted to address on my blackberry (while viewing the spectacular scenery). I then used my notes to complement my slides on Keynote created at home the night before. I found it challenging to create slides on the Greyhound, so I decided to wait until I could use my desk at home.

Relevance: I was really nervous Thursday, but I am glad I spoke in class. It was a good confidence builder and I look forward to my next speaking engagement.

On May 21st I attended Launch Party Vancouver 4 at Republic. I have enjoyed each of the previous 3 and found it a great opportunity to network and learn about cool tech stuff happening within the Vancouver social and digital media scene and to a great extent British Columbia. I highly recommend attending Launch Party Vancouver 5.

The Sponsors:
Peer 1 , Sun Vancouver, Techvibes, Scott Dunlop from Davis LLP, Layer 7, and Strutta.

Republic staff

Danita Harty & Ben Z Cooper - Fundfindr

Daniel Flippance - inhabit street

Maura Rogers - Strutta, Phillip Jeffrey, and Robin Leskiw

Aaron Hilton - CellMap

Rebecca Bollwitt - Miss 604

Greg Bell & Derek Kehler (ScrnShots) & Greg Andrews

Demos:
There were 7 demos featured at LPV4: HelloTree Vivity Labs, Strutta, inhabit street, fundfindr, CellMap, ScrnShots. I decided to interview each to find out more about their product.

Inhabit street is a Vancouver based company which is focused on providing an online community for apartment residents (e.g. condos, townhouses as well) to get to know each other.

Daniel Flippance - inhabit street

Strutta is a Vancouver based company that provides the ability for participants to compete with video against others around the world.

Jordan Behan - Strutta

HelloTree is a collaborative geology site that provides a fun way to create a family tree.


HelloTree

Fundfindr is a Vancouver-based company that matches entrepreneurs with investors and collaborations through interviews and broadcast means so that they can grow their venture.


Danita Harty - Fundfindr

CellMap provides functionality on cell phones to enable people, places, and events to be connected via interactive maps.

Aaron Hilton - CellMap

ScrnShots allows members to upload, tag, and share their screenshots.

Derek Kehler - ScrnShots

Fit Brains is a product from Vivity Labs that features fun and engaging games in an online environment which exercise key cognitive areas of one’s brain.

Michael Cole - Vivity Labs

Jordan Behan of Strutta has created a Flickr group pool that has been used to share photos of the different Launch Party Vancouver events. In addition, you can read Miss 604 for her analysis of the night.

Relevance: the Launch Party Vancouver events are excellent opportunities to learn, network, and socialise.

On May 14, I was one of the speakers for a workshop organised by the International Internet Marketing Association. It was a fun event and I was able to learn a little bit about how businesses are using Facebook for advertising, brand marketing, and networking. I am really glad I was able to be a part of this event. There were about 70 people in attendance and the questions during our presentations and the subsequent panel were beneficial in helping each of us better understand some of the needs and objectives of business people.

One lesson to take from the workshop is that businesses are using Facebook to find information about potential hires especially questionable photographs or content on one’s profile page. For example, having a status update message about getting drunk every night could get your name removed from a short list against equally qualified candidates. Some people were also surprised at the amount of time and effort that is necessary to maintain a Facebook presence (e.g. updating a company page, responding to wall messages, or organising events).

Regarding one’s profile page, my advice would be to keep your profile friends-only (maybe even only be searchable by friends) and to create friends lists where you can hide and share personal content based on the closeness of your friendship. I am very careful about who I add as friends and even more careful about who sees my full profile.

My presentation was divided into 3 sections that I perceived to be of most relevance to the Internet Marketing audience. I first focused on how Facebook can be used as a networking tool to enhance real world meetings and potential connections made at events and conferences. I then discussed how Facebook can be used to create a brand identity and the importance of understanding the privacy filtering available. I used the book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by Erving Goffman as example of how you want to create a persona through Facebook — “I’m who Facebook says I am”. I closed with examples of how Facebook can be used as an information management tool and the importance of the News Feed feature to share and gather information of specific relevance to one’s work interests.

Both Maureen McCartney of Citizens Bank of Canada and Michael Fergusson of Kinzin had excellent presentations of their case studies. Unfortunately I was unable to take notes as I focused on running through my own talk.

| View | Upload your own

Relevance: A useful opportunity to find out how business people are using Facebook and have an informative discussion of its value as a marketing, communication, and organisational tool.

Shortly after SXSW I was contacted by Kate Imbach who coordinates the developer program at Skyhook Wireless as a Location Awareness Marketing Manager the Director of Marketing and Developer Programs. She wanted to tell me about their current applications in the emerging area of location-based technology on-campus. As someone living on a college campus, I was interested in learning more about this and discussing with her possible applications for benefiting the lives of students on campus. I decided to interview her via Skype on March 28th and she was happy to oblige. I have been using the service since late March and I will also provide further analysis on my demoing of their product.

What is Loki?
Loki works with any wifi-enabled device in order to provide precise location positioning which can be shared. Loki uses the Skyhook Wireless’ Positioning System (WPS), a software-only location-based system to accomplish this task.

There is worldwide coverage for the service available in about 8500 cities/towns at the time of my interview. The skyhook reference database is continually being updated as drivers/walkers map the location of Wi-Fi access points (also called war-driving). The signal is picked up based on the mac address of the Wi-Fi enable device being used.

Relevance for Campuses
There are a number of possible applications for campuses such as campus security, location-based games, or integrated into a campus transportation system.

I was interested in how this system might be integrated into my own campus such as our shuttle bus system. I know that sometimes the bus just doesn’t show up on the route and having a way to let people along the route know its present location might be useful.

A White Paper report which described results by Skyhook and independent third parties conducted a series of performance field tests comparing the WPS capacity against GPS. One of the key findings within what they described as an Urban Canyon (a downtown area with buildings averaging more than 6 stories) found median accuracy to be 20-30 meters and availability to be 97% indoors and 98.8% outdoors.

Demoing Loki
In order to demo Loki, I went to their download page for firefox mac users from their webpage. Once downloaded and activated, an icon appeared to the left of the URL location on the toolbar. Pressing the Loki icon will activate my location. I have always found it to be very precise as shown by the example when I typed in Vancouver Art Gallery instead.

There is also a location feature called my.loki which I have yet to try. According to the website:

MyLoki location-enables social networking. As you travel around MyLoki can automatically let your friends know where you are using your favorite platform — Facebook, RSS Feeds, badges for your blog or even Jaiku. You can pick and choose how and where you want your location displayed.

There are a couple of posts on the topic of location awareness that I have read recently. The first is by Chris Messina and the second is by Todd Sieling regarding location and identity.

Relevance: Location awareness applications are becoming more commonplace whether automatically or manually shared as more people desire to let their friends know where they are. What are the implications for society as we continue to share where we are and what we are doing?

Next week will be a busy week for Darren. Two days before his appearance at a panel discussing online media relations at Covergence 2008, he will be the guest speaker for Third Tuesday and his presentation is entitled: Getting the attention of the web influencers.

As more marketers become aware of them, the web’s new influencers have been as difficult to contact as journalists. The demand for their attention is as high, and their inbox is as full as the average reporter’s.

How do you cut through the noise and get a popular blogger’s attention? You have to be creative, authentic and tenacious. Darren will present a case study of a recent marketing campaign for a BC startup, where a little ingenuity helped grab the attention of some prominent bloggers.

Should be a great event and Darren is a dynamic and knowledgeable speaker.

Make sure you RSVP as it will sell out.

When: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 at 7:00 PM
Where: Century House Restaurant & Bar
Facebook event

Relevance: An opportunity to socialise with marketing people and listen to a Social Media expert.