I wasn’t planning on rushing to read the book Content Rules. The truth is, I wasn’t even planning on buying it right away. My copy came as part of my registration fees for the Social Media Breakfast Ottawa Event featuring one of the book’s co-authors and my friend, C.C. Chapman. I only had it in [...]
Thank you to Mitch Joel and Art & Copy for reminding me about this great ad!
Andrea and I met at a Christmas party. She was on a date she didn’t want to be on (with someone else) and had brought along her friend Kita to make the evening pass a little more easily. I was there with my best-friend and then-roommate/bandmate, Robert Farrell — the party being hosted by long-ago [...]
Facebook and Twitter are not the same. The data prove that. And, there’s a fantastic infographic that helps us understand why and how we should use either service — or both. The data speak to differences in digital culture. By percentages, Twitter is a more efficient platform for spreading information and engaging in conversations with [...]
In an effort to help would-be CreatorCamp organizers (it’s super easy) the CCyow2010 organizing team has prepared a 6-page PDF that includes a behind the scenes look at our planning experiences, tips for organizing your own event, keys to success and the CreatorCamp toolkit. Click here to download the CreatorCamp ebook (PDF). CreatorCamp DIY View [...]
It’s become amazingly easy to audio and video record events. Recognizing this, many events have embraced Creative Commons or a similar principle which allows participants to freely record, excerpt and even publish full recordings of presentations — presenters, of course, must buy in to the model. For the purpose of this post, lets call these [...]
Everything is better when you have a great (name your) system in place! The band OK Go is the king of synthesizing great ideas, great music and great fun — and single-camera shoots to boot!
It’s greeting card season. Which means besides sending cards to clients, family and friends, we’ve all been receiving cards and emails with good wishes, brag rags and in some cases poorly masked pitches to purchase more products or services from companies we’ve already done business with. While it may be too late for some, I [...]
On March 27th, a house, a few away from our own, caught fire. As much as I was caught up in the inferno and stresses that come to mind as a neighbour, parent and homeowner, I was amazed by the systems that took over seemingly automatically and with the greatest ease. While fires (and campfires) [...]
Digital culture is a strange animal for some organizations. In fact, it seems the organizations that struggle most with social networking are hamstrung by digital engagement and relationship building. They fail to realize social etiquette hasn’t changed, just the places where its practiced. That’s why it’s particularly surprising an organization which claims to understand digital [...]
Last week was a bit of turning point for my views and approach to creativity and content creation. Combined with my increased confidence in the kitchen, I found myself inspired me to record a podcast of preparing my family-famous “Stoup” while Andrea accompanied our daughters at their swim lessons. I’d never recorded a show of [...]
It’s hard to describe how a fast-draining battery impacted my productivity and creativity earlier this week. It happened after I upgraded my iPhone to IOS 4.2.1. For the days that followed, my iPhone battery would drain dry in four and a half hours. Inexplicably, my battery seemed to gain life as the week progressed. Frustrated, [...]
Politicians, like anyone, should have the right to decide with whom they engage, to take a break or completely avoid a person who’s crossing a line, knowing the action could cost them a vote. This is particularly true on social networking channels like Twitter anyone in the world has as much access to a politician [...]
In part three of this series, we overcame some usability and technological challenges. The rest of the planning revolved around promotion of the event. Besides blogging and Tweeting about #CCyow2010, we promoted the event through word of mouth. A couple of reminder emails were circulated to registrants. Those emails included a nudge to bring $10 [...]
Calling all creators — anyone who cooks meals, makes quilts, produces videos, paints, writes books, designs spaces, composes music, sculpts, takes pictures, etc… The first ever CreatorCamp, an event that celebrates the creative part of creative pursuits, is taking place in Ottawa tonight. CreatorCamp has one organizing principle… sessions MUST be about creating something (and [...]
I upgraded my iPhone 3GS to IOS 4.2.1 over the weekend. Since then, I’ve noticed my iPhone hasn’t been keeping its charge for very long. In fact, it shut off, twice, over the weekend. I can’t remember the last time my iPhone shut off. I paid close attention yesterday and realized my iPhone barely made [...]
Thanks to Mark Frauenfelder and Boing Boing for introducing me to this video about the creation of Crayola crayons. I think I might pick up a box and a sheet of paper this week. UPDATE: A careful review of the video has revealed the featured brand of crayons is actually Rose Art. They sure looked [...]
This is my feature article, Digitizing the Human Touch, from the December issue of Campaigns and Elections magazine (Canadian edition). In his 1987 song “Straight to My Heart”, Sting laments a coming day when technology will negate the need for human intimacy. It’s a cheery pop tune that considers “a scientific means to bliss will [...]
Wayne Wouters is leading by example. The Clerk of the Privy Council, the senior-most bureaucrat in the Canadian federal public service, wants to renew public service delivery with Web 2.0 playing a significant role. Besides asking each department to file their digital plans with him this coming February, Mr. Wouters has become a Twitter user [...]
In part two of this series, the logo and venue for CreatorCamp Ottawa had been finalized and confirmed. We chose Wiki technology for the site because of the speed at which we could establish the CreatorCamp website and the ability to allow others to contribute. The premise is anyone can edit the page and do [...]
As an election tool, digital really began cutting its teeth during the recent municipal campaigns in Ontario and Alberta. Of course, digital’s been demonstrating its role (in earnest) as a tool for ongoing engagement at all levels of government (with varying degrees of success) for about a year. Now, it enters the arena of provincial [...]
In a 2004 interview on CNN, Bruce Hornsby identified himself as a lover of stories. From my point of view, as someone who rediscovered an appreciation of Bruce’s music and storytelling this past summer, that seems to just scratch the foundation of what he creates and performs. I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never seen Bruce [...]
Two days ago I suggested a variation on the overused Field of Dreams quote, offering “If you’re relevant, they will come.” Providing a destination and a different slant on existing ideas is just the start. There’s more. Most people get excited at this point thinking about the armies of people who will be magnetically attracted [...]
Facebook first learned of my marriage to Andrea this past Sunday. That was the day Andrea finally joined the social networking site. We became fast Facebook friends and made our marriage digitally-official when I updated my relationship status. For all its digital intelligence, Facebook isn’t able to calculate that our soon-to-be 15 year relationship is [...]
Today, December 1, 2010 is the great Canadian National Day of Podcasting — an excuse for Canadian podcasters to shake the dust off their long dormant podcasts for a single day reunion of sorts. Participation rates so far have been great. You can follow which shows have joined the event by following the comments on [...]
