Butterscotch Sweetens Tech Lessons
Technology, it’s easier than you think.
That’s the tagline for an online show at Butterscotch.com called The Noob. (Noob is short for newbie. A newbie is someone new to a game, technology, website or gadget.)
It’s that kind of simple explanation of tech jargon that The Noob tries to bring to the internet as a means of tearing down the digital divide between people who understand technology and those that want to understand it, but can’t speak the language.
Andy Walker is the Executive Producer of Butterscotch.com, a website that is home to a variety of weekly online shows and hundreds of archived tutorials to help break down the wall. Andy describes the site as “a cross between HGTV and Techtv.”
Andy and many of the Butterscotch team will be famillar to tech enthusiasts as they first got together working on shows like Call For Help and The Lab with Leo on G4TechTV. While they worked on those shows Andy realized “there’s an enormous amount of content designed for the tech enthusiast who considers himself proud to be a geek.”
But the content they produced was always just a little too far ahead of the general public. When it came to launch Butterscotch as a network of online video, Andy realized the best shot at success was to reach the mass market.
“There’s a massive opportunity to step it down and educate people without making any assumptions,” he says. “So we set out to create Butterscotch for the audience that likes tech but finds it too complicated.”
Lee LeFever makes similar videos at Common Craft, a site known for taking tech topics and explaining them “In Plain English.”
“The one problem we’d like to help solve is the problem of understanding - in order for someone to decide if a tool deserves a place in their life, it must be related in a way that maximizes understanding and value,” says Lee.
“Many of the technologies we’ve tackled so far are completely free to use - the biggest barrier (aside from Internet access) is an understanding of why these tools matter and how they could impact someone in a positive way,“ says Lee.
Twitter, Wikis and RSS are popular on Common Craft while Butterscotch’s Facebook for Grownups and Flickr tutorials have been popular.
Both sites keep their videos brief and easily consumable for a generation without a long attention span. Butterscotch goes a step further by breaking down tutorials into 2 min segments covering specific features, so if you understand a little bit of a technology but just want to learn how to maximize it’s usage, you can leap ahead to the best part.
Hollywood Is Taking Over Twitter
Twitter has arrived.
The 3 year old microblogging service that has been the darling of the tech community has gone mainstream. With mentions on CNN and CBC during the respective election campaigns alongside plugs during both The Grammys and The Oscars, there’s no other way to describe it.
I usually start my explanation of Twitter by saying it’s like your Facebook status update. It’s limited to 140 characters, the standard length of an SMS message, but it has evolved far beyond the Facebook-styled update.
Twitter first caught fire 2 years ago during Austin’s South-by-Southwest Interactive conference when the tech crowd used it to keep track of the hot parties and keynotes. Now as smartphones dominate the landscape, web based apps are taking control of Twitter and the activity has grown more than 700% in the past year.
While some may accuse Twitter as yet another way for narcissists to microblog their each and every movements in life, uber blogger Robert Scoble (@scobleizer) describes Twitter as “the worldwide talkshow.”
When something global like the Oscars happens, Twitter becomes a chat room with wild and active conversations between not only regular internet users, but those from Hollywood as well.
Demi Moore (@mrskutcher), P Diddy (@iamdiddy) and Coldplay (@coldplay) are just a few of the household names now taking to Twitter.
“We are taking over our own tabloid media,” wrote Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) on Monday.
Even Jane Fonda (@janefonda) got in on the conversation “Hugh Jackman is so handsome,” she wrote during Sunday’s telecast. “And he sings!! But what about Anne Hathaway–who knew she sang too!!”
John Mayer (@johncmayer) used Twitter from the second row of the Kodak Theatre to tweet joke translations of Penelope Cruz’s speech. “One time I went on a boat and it was really fun. Tomorrow I will wear the new socks that I bought,” he wrote before quickly following up with “hold on, getting told now that I have not translated this correctly.”
Some thought the Oscars were boring, but dialing into the web made it a more three dimensional experience.
“Twitter and Facebook was just alive with all these amazing people putting up funny zingers and one liners,” smiles Steve Pratt (@steveprattca), co-Founder of The Anti-Benjamin Button Club, who was online throughout the show tweeting instant reactions to skits and jokes and speeches and winners as they happened.
Fiona Forbes (@fionaforbes), co-host of Urban Rush quickly follows up: “It made bad tv fun to watch.”
BLOGOSPHERE BUZZ
Another phrase used to describe Twitter is “the real time web.” Before things are indexed in a search engine, people are talking about them on Twitter sharing facts, photos and opinions. When Flight 1549 landed on the Hudson, pictures showed up on Twitter before they were on TV. When the siege in Mumbai happened, hostages were Twittering from their hotel rooms.
Local news outlets are using the power of Twitter to beat their deadlines by posting news stories as they happen. You can follow @24hoursvan to get the latest news headlines from 24hours. Virgin Radio (@virgin953) host Kuljeet Kaila (@kuljeetkaila) uses Twitter to share traffic information and get tips from her listeners.
Many have hailed Barack Obama’s (@barackobama) use of Twitter to mobilize a younger generation to become involved in the process in the US. With that in mind, Canadian pols are taking to the service. As BC heads into a May election, both Gordon Campbell (@g_campbell) and Carole James (@carolejames) are on the service using it to announce appearances.
In response to the online outrage to the changes in Facebook’s Terms of Service the past week, the company has gone to many lengths to make clear you own your stuff. Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly appeared on MSNBC’s press:here to emphatically underline everything you put on Facebook belongs to you and is subject to your own privacy settings.
 This article originally appeared in 24hrs Vancouver on February 25, 2009. |
All Your Facebook Are Belong To Zuck
Be careful with what you put on Facebook.
Even after you hit the delete button on those scathing notes, embarassing photos or drunk texted status updates, they could still come back to haunt you. After all, once you put something on Facebook, you no longer have total control over the material - they now belong to Facebook. Forever.
The fact that Facebook claims control over content posted by users on its site is nothing new, language to that effect has always been in the terms of service (TOS), but this week it was discovered those terms had changed.
Facebook had added a few words here and deleted a few words there changing the TOS to mean they now control all the content you post to or link to the site in perpetuity - even if you delete your account.
Think of it as an online Hotel California, you can check out any time you like, but your data will never leave.
After Monday’s discovery, message boards went wild with discourse and the requisite protest groups sprouted up on Facebook itself.
Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, was forced to take to his blog explaining that the need to take control of the content comes as part of Facebook’s role as conduit between people sharing information online.
“In reality, we wouldn’t share your information in a way you wouldn’t want,” he writes. “The trust you place in us as a safe place to share information is the most important part of what makes Facebook work.”
Leo Laporte is one of the most respected voices of the web and his Facebook status this week simply stated; “Leo Laporte is seriously considering closing his Facebook account due to their new TOS which claims ownership of everything here.”
I haven’t gone that far (yet), but I have stripped my Facebook account down to be little more than a business card for my non-Facebook activities.
Supercereal gives perhaps the most concise view on the whole scandal in a discussion in the comments at The Consumerist: be careful what you post online.
“It comes as a shock to all too many people that (in general) anything you put out there will stay out there. It boggles my mind that people willingly want to post incriminating, embarrassing, and unflattering things to Facebook, in full, public view.”
This is a problem not unique to Facebook, just posting content to a blog or message board or group you need to acknowledge the material could exist on the web forever despite your best efforts to delete it.
The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine let’s you dial up web pages decades old, sure it’s fun to laugh at the gawdy web design of the mid-90s, but tucked amidst the scrolling and blinking banners is content. Content that will live online, forever.
In spy thrillers you’re taught to trust no one, when it comes to putting your content on the web, the opposite is true. You need to trust everyone.
BLOGOSPHERE BUZZ
Sharing via Facebook status updates is nothing new. People announce baby arrivals to their friends via status, and in one case a husband divorced his wife with a simple status line update. “Neil Brady has ended his marriage to Emma Brady” was the message Emma discovered last week in was is being called the first Facebook divorce.
Getting to understand Facebook is not only important for users, it’s important for parents. Stanford University is now offering evening classes for parents to get to know Facebook. Whether or not to friend your children, and how to deal with the potential backlash is just one of the topics tackled.
The sharing is just going to become more prevalent as people live more of their life online. CyberSentinel is a maker of parental control software in the UK and conducted a survey discovering teens spend upwards of 31 hours a week plugged in, more than 9 of that on sites like Facebook.
What do you do when your bike gets stolen? You put up flyers and spread the word in the neighborhood. When you’re Lance Armstrong and your one-of-a-kind time trial bike gets stolen, you take to Twitter and tell the world. “There is only one like it in the world therefore hard to pawn it off,” he wrote.
| This article originally appeared in 24hrs Vancouver on February 18, 2009. |
Its TED Time
If you want to know how to think outside the box, the first thing you need to do is score a ticket to one of the most exclusive boxes in the world - the TED conference.
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design and this week the 25th anniversary will be in Long Beach, California with an invited only delegation of 1000 sitting down to listen to the likes of Bill Gates, Herbie Hancock and the inventor of the web, Tim Berners-Lee.
TED was started in 1984 by architect Richard Saul Wurman with the idea of inviting people to a dream dinner party. Diverse and brilliant minds with passionate and fresh ideas getting together for shared inspiration and insight. Speakers are given 18 minutes to present and are encouraged to “be profound.”
Montreal entrepreneur and journalist, Mitch Joel, made it to TED last year, no small feat on its own. In addition to the $6 000 membership fee, attendees need to be accepted to attend the conference.
“When registration comes up (a year in advance) you fill out an application and it includes references, what your interests are and what you do in your community,” Mitch explains.
It’s quite an exclusive list, that had Mitch sitting between the creator of The Blue Man Group and the inventor of Yahoo!’s Delicious bookmarking software while the “Google Guys”, Larry and Sergey sat a few rows over and Cameron Diaz and Forrest Whittaker were attentively taking notes.
I ask Mitch if TED can be described as a “thinking man’s Oscars,” to which he quickly responded; “I’d say it’s more like the thinking man’s Burning Man, actually.”
“Imagine going to a conference and every single person is introducing themselves and friendly and at the same time is somebody of real significant importance to the point where you feel really inconsequential,” he exclaims.
The pace and energy and enthusiasm during the 4 days of TED is contagious. The TED conference slogan is “ideas worth spreading,” and the ideas are spread beyond the exclusive ears of the attendees.
There are more than 350 TEDTalks from past conferences available online for free, with another one added every business day, and Alex Wolf wants to watch them all as part of her Mission 101, a list of 101 things she’d like to accomplish in 1001 days.
“Watching the TED videos is providing me with a regular feed of inspiration, humour and food for thought,” she says. “All very positive gains!”
The rest of her list has to do with donating of her time, learning about the world and spreading positive energy - exactly the sorts of things TED stands for with the TED Prize. Each year, 3 people are awarded $100 000 to grant a wish to change the world, which they reveal at TED.
You can grab a little of that inspiration for free by checking out some TED talks at Ted.com
| This article originally appeared in 24hrs Vancouver on February 4, 2009. |
MY FAVOURITE TED TALKS
The man responsible for Lost, Mission Impossible 3 and the upcoming Star Trek movie is JJ Abrams. In 2007 Abrams presented a TED talk that revolved around a plain box of magic tricks he bought as a child and never opened. “Mystery is the catalyst for imagination,” he says.
Malcolm Gladwell has written The Tipping Point, Blink and, most recently, The Outliers. All brilliant books that give you insight into how and why we do things and cause you to take pause to try things differently. In 2004 he presented a talk about spaghetti sauce and why we don’t know what we want.
Last year Jennifer 8. Lee presented a talk called “Who was General Tso? And other mysteries of Chinese American Food.” In it she shows that fortune cookies are actually a Japanese invention and Chop Suey is just a fancy way of saying “leftovers.” It’s not profound, but it is a fun romp.
Benjamin Zander loves his classical music. If you’ve been filling your iPod earbuds with more Lil Wayne than Lil Wolfgang (Amadeus Mozart), his 2008 presentation, a favorite of Mitch Joel, will have you marvelling at the skill of one buttock piano playing.
So You Want to Be a Blogger ..
More than 65 000 people in North America have lost their job this week. That’s a lot of people looking when not so many are hiring. So what can you do? Go in to business for yourself, by becoming a blogger.
John Chow has been at it for just over 2 years now, living what he calls “the Dot Com lifestyle,” working just a few hours a day while collecting blog revenues that started at $350 in September 2006 and should push past $400 000 for 2009.
John’s level of success is the exception, not the rule. But not everyone starts a blog to turn it into a huge moneymaker in a year, some create online content only to earn a few extra bucks to splurge on vacation while some try to make a living at it.
Jeremy Wright runs b5 Media, a network of more than 300 blogs across topics from finance and taxes to Angelina and Brad.
“When we launched the company our goal was to provide content in the areas of business, beauty, lifestyle, tech and entertainment,” he says. “We do that via niche blogs. Instead of one big blog we have 20 or 30 individual ones.”
To get started blogging Jeremy believes you don’t necessarily need to understand all the technical aspects of starting one up, you just need to have a topic you understand and are passionate about.
“For us, we look for good writers. We can teach you how to blog, training for us is a big part of what we do, but finding good writers, where they’re passionate, is our biggest challenge,” explains Wright. “We’ve had to teach some of our bloggers how to login to Windows.”
Once you’ve decided to blog, you need to pick an area of expertise. Only one.
“You don’t want to write a blog about politics and ornithology,” he explains. “There might be an audience for that, but you tend to want to focus on one area and do it very well.”
Whether you break out and blog on your own, like John, or join a network like B5, Jeremy insists once you get things up and running, if you want to become your job, you need to treat it as one.
“Too many blogs start out as a hobby, there’s no strategy or thought,” he says. “I think the more planning there is the more likelihood there’s going to be success.”
“And then the flipside of that is setting realistic expectations,” he continues. “Unless you’re really lucky you’re not going to make $1000 or $2000 a month in the first couple months. There is a curve there.”
John Chow agrees.
“I think bloggers should blog for fun and not for profit,” says John. “If you only do it for the money, chances are you will fail.”
BLOGOSPHERE BUZZ
Every week John Chow has an open invitation for anyone to join him and his colleagues for Dot Com Pho, an informal gathering over a bowl of noodles. This weekend, in honour of the Year of the Ox, John will be hosting Dot Com Dim Sum. The location has yet to be announced, but it will be on Saturday over the lunch hour. Follow John on Twitter for details.
Through the last few weeks of 2008, Merlin Mann did a series on how to start create and focus a blog for CBC’s show Spark. From how to get started to choosing a topic to managing expectations and building an audience, it’s a complete step-by-step process (complete with homework) to have you punching out your paragraphs on parakeet breeding, or whichever other topic you’re passionate about.
The internet is all about things for free. Free information, free music, free videos. Everything is free and by giving it away you can actually make money; just ask the cast of Monty Python. Since they’ve opened their entire vault for free in a YouTube channel, sales of their dvds have risen 23 000%.
How much do Brits love Facebook? More than porn. It’s true. “Last week we provided the BBC with some interesting data illustrating how UK Internet visits to Social Networks and Forums have overtaken Adult websites,” says Hitwise. “Social networks overtook last October and have remained ahead since.”
| This article originally appeared in 24hrs Vancouver on January 28, 2009. |
Jobhunting 2.0
The power of your online social network can come flex its muscle during these tough times. Often the phrase “it’s not what you know, but who you know” is towed out when it comes to job hunting, and even though we don’t “know” many of our online friends, they become very valuable tools to the online job search.
JT O’Donnell is a career strategist and told a story on Mashable last week about recommending someone she had never met for a job interview.
“I sent an email to an HR Director introducing a candidate. Seems normal, right? Well, the catch is that I’ve never met the person I referred, or the HR Director - in person, that is. I met them on LinkedIn,” she explains.
“I decided to check my online networking sources and sent an e-mail introduction request on her behalf. I simply explained the reason for my contact, mentioned the candidate’s name and provided a link to her online resume.”
The tools used in the story are key things you can do to expand your network and find a great job says Social Media Evangelist, Monica Hamburg.
“First of all, Google yourself,” she says. “People forget that when you comment on someone’s blog, or post on a message board it’s searchable.” Maintaining your online brand in a world of online networks is key.
If you’re relying on someone you’ve only met online to make an introduction, your behaviour online is how they will judge you and Google is the ultimate decider.
To expand your network of contacts you can join sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn - but be careful what you put out there. From the content of your postings, right down to the type of photos you put in your profile.
“I see that all the time, shirtless dudes or heavily made up and the boob shot,” says Monica. “What are you thinking?”
You may have started on these sites as social places, but when you’re looking for work they become your brand, so be careful what you’re selling.
You can maintain your brand by creating your own blog, a site that can be used as an online resume.
“Put up a page that showcases yourself,” says Monica.
She points to tools like SlideShare or YouTube to create something unique that can be shared across the web easily and spread your network. You could add a line to your email signature with a link to your profile with a request for colleagues and contacts to pass it on.
There are big job search sites too, but Monica doesnt see using those as having much success. “Quite honestly if I was an employer putting an ad on those sites, the amount of crap I’d get - I wouldn’t be able to sit through it.”
Monica says the focus should be on “who you know” and building the relationships before you need them so they’re strong when you do need them.
BLOGOSPHERE BUZZ
If a clash of cultures was the reason you lost your job, make sure it doesn’t happen again by finding a place to work that matches your personality. Monica Hamburg calls Jiibe.com an eHarmony-ish website for finding work. “It allows you to find a job based on the work culture that appeals to you,” Monica explains.
If you’re still not sold on the online networking aspect, many real life meetups in the Vancouver tech, marketing and web community happen frequently. The next will have 5 contestants making elevator pitches from a milk crate at Ideas on Tap tomorrow night at 5p at Yaletown Brewing Company.
The inauguration of Barack Obama yesterday was a technological landmark. The crush of people had cellco’s asking users to switch to text instead of voice to push calls. CNN created a site called The Moment that uses Photosynth to stitch professional and amateur photos together to create a 3D model of the day.
| This article originally appeared in 24hrs Vancouver on January 21, 2009. |
Sweatin’ To Technology
Okay, you were good on your resolutions for the first week of January, but what about the second? Not so much? Time to bring some technology in to your life to get, and keep, you on track for resolution 09.
It’s as simple as getting it done at your desk, kicking the kids off the video game system, or focussing while you’re at the gym.
SlimTree.com has The Broadband Gym, offering more than 100 online instructional exercise videos across a range of disciplines: Yoga, Pilates, cardio and weight training among them, each featuring certified fitness instructors.
“With just an Internet-enabled computer and the motivation, health-seekers can spurn those coffee and cigarette breaks in favor of a quick work out in their office, cubicle, or anywhere else,” said Jas Singh, founder and CEO of Slimtree.com.
The free website offers exercises in 1 to 20 minute routines so you can get it in when you can to help you keep energized and awake through the day.
If you can put down the RockBand and Wii Sports for a few minutes, you might want to try Wii Fit - it actually works. Mom blogger Julie dropped 60 pounds with no exercise regime other than the Wii Fit.
She had a couple kids and kept ballooning up after each pregnancy and finally had enough. After 4 months of Wii’ing it, she had dropped 60 pounds. She created her own routine, used the cute view of her Mii as inspiration and used an interface that was fun to play with her kids.
For those with even more focus and access to a gym, learning how to freshen up your routine and doing it properly can pay off. Vancouver’s GymTechnik is a mobile website accessible by Smart Phones like the Blackberry and iPhone. It syncs your phone with a website where you can load in workouts and watch videos to make sure you’ve got the technique nailed down properly.
“You click start a workout and it shows you all the exercises you’ve got to do,” explains the site’s creator Sharad Mohan. “You can click on instructions for details on how you’ve got to do it and it will show you exactly what you pushed the last time so you know where to start off.”
Right now the site is a menu of exercises you can choose from to build and track your workouts. An upgrade is coming this weekend that will offer custom workouts for everyone from beginners to those looking to build a super-hero physique.
Honestly, though, I like the approach of a gym owner in Montreal: show up 13 times a month and your membership is free. Start skipping and you have to start paying. When gadgets and the web won’t work, maybe the shrinking bank account will.
BLOGOSPHERE BUZZ
Another site to add to your mobile homepage is Fatburgr.com. Yes, there’s no “e” at the end. The site has a running tally of the fat and calorie content of each menu item at all your favourite fast food joints. Subway, McDonalds, Burger King and more are all covered to make sure you’re focussed on your diet and don’t stray.
Music while you workout is a necessity and if you just can’t fnd the right mix on your own, there are some great podcasts offering up fresh tunes each week. I love David Guetta, DJ Tiesto and the PodRunner series. The PodRunner podcast is specifically built for runners and has tempos to match your runs and intervals built in. They’re all free in the Apple iTunes store.
The biggest announcement to come out of the Consumer Electronics Show wasn’t a super thin tv like in year’s past, it was a phone. Palm, the company that started the PDA trend with the Palm Pilot, introduced the Pre. It’s a combination of the best of iPhone and Blackberry features with a touch screen AND a slide out keyboard. Palm is promising a release before summer.
As the career of Britney Spears enters the comeback, or 2.0 phase, she’s looking for someone to handle her Web 2.0 work. The job opening is for someone to “manage a high profile branded online network of digital properties for one of the world’s top celebrities.” In other words, she’s got nannies for the kids, you get to be a nanny for her online brand. Interested? jmn@broadcastingunlimited.com
| This article originally appeared in 24hrs Vancouver on January 14, 2009. |
The Best of 2008
It’s year end countdown time and the best part about tech countdowns is the geeks have figured out ways to leave opinion out of the equation. Never mind the rock critics picking the 10 best albums of the year (all of which you’ve never heard of before), when it comes to the biggest music of 2008, you need look no further than the databases at iTunes and Last.fm.
While Apple won’t release the individual download numbers from the iTunes store this year, they have released:
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their top downloaded tracks:
1. Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love |
and top downloaded albums:
1. Coldplay - Viva La Vida |
But just cause we bought the album or single doesn’t mean we actually listened to it. Last.fm is an online music streaming site that counted active streams throughout the year. These are the most popular tracks that were actually listened to online:
1. Coldplay – Viva La Vida
2. Coldplay – Violet Hill
3. MGMT – Time To Pretend
4. MGMT – Electric Feel
5. Coldplay – Life In Technicolour
Okay, so I guess we can all agree on Coldplay. Sure, we hear the jokes all the time - but the music resonates. We buy it as albums, as singles, and we listen to all of it.
But our lust for Coldplay ends at the music. We’re not digging beyond that for more information on the band. The Google Zeitgeist is a survey revealing the top search terms for a given period. In 2008, ooops, we were obsessed with Britney again.
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top search terms overall: 1. Facebook 2. Youtube 3. Lyrics 4. Weather 5. Games |
top searched celebrities: 1. Britney Spears 2. Jessica Alba 3. Heath Ledger 4. Lindsay Lohan 5. Angelina Jolie |
The killer app for the iPhone this year, was the ability to add applications. In just 6 months, more than 300 million applications have been downloaded.
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The top free iPhone apps: 1. Facebook 2. Google Earth 3. iPint 4. Lightsaber 5. Tap Tap Revenge |
The top paid iPhone apps: 1. Koi Pond 2. Super Monkey Ball 3. Texas Hold’Em 4. Crash Bandicoot 5. Moto Chaser |
| This article originally appeared in 24hrs Vancouver on December 31, 2008. |
Image: Coldplay by Kingpin from Flickr
Boxing Day Moves to the Web
If you’re not looking forward to tomorrow, but rather the day after tomorrow - then you’d better get ready for tonight. Make sense?
The Future Shop Boxing Day Sale doesn’t start on Friday, it starts today - at 5p. Never mind tucking in to a pre-Christmas gathering of nog and nuts, you’d better cozy up to your mouse and get ready for a long night of clicking. Last year I clicked in to the sale to scoop a memory card and iPod shuffle - it took me 5 1/2 hours to complete the transaction - that’s a lot of time to spend away from the family on Christmas Eve.
In spite of the technical failure of last year, Future Shop is going with the same sale strategy this year but has taken some steps to look for a better result. The site will be down for a few hours this afternoon getting ready and then will relaunch at 5p for the clicking and saving.
“We’ve made a significant investment in the site, and our team has spent the last few months upgrading the infrastructure to support the volume of traffic anticipated,” says Cheryl Grant of Future Shop.
The store encourages you to check out the sales flyer ahead of time and “don’t give up.”
For those more content to spend time with family today and tomorrow and head into the “what recession?” crazy sales on Friday, you can plan ahead too. Victoria Potter of DemiCouture.ca has been scanning all her contacts for the best sale information.
She has the Boxing Day sales broken down by store and region, so if you’re hitting up Robson, Granville, Gastown or the malls, she’ll set you up with a plan to attack the lines.
BLOGOSPHERE BUZZ
The true spirit of Christmas is in the giving, and the web can help you do that - even at the last minute.
HomelessPartners.Com has a list of shelters, and Christmas wish lists from people who use those shelters. While you’re running around for your family today, why not pick up work gloves for Ron and drop it off at Cliff Block? He could also use a pair of black sweat pants as he looks for construction work.
Stephen stays at the North Shore Housing Centre and would like a warm jacket and shaving kit.
The HomelessPartners.com website lists more than 100 people looking for humble accessories to help them through life at shelters on the North Shore, Surrey, New West and Vancouver.
Kiva.org can help you provide a Christmas gift that will give for eternity. Never mind the billion dollar bailouts from Washington and Ottawa, Kiva helps real entrepreneurs start real businesses.
For example, Goddey needs $1200 to open a grocery store in Nigeria. You don’t need to loan the entire amount, you just make a $25 donation and Kiva handles the rest gathering micro loans from others.
97% of the loans are repaid, and once it is you can simply reloan it to someone else. It’s a one time gift that can give forever.
There’s another site that can help you discover the spirit of the season, GiveMeaning.com.
There you can choose to buy a physical gift card which will be mailed out, or send an e-Card with a gift code attached (perfect for a last minute Christmas Eve gift). The receiver then takes this code and donates the balance to any of the GiveMeaning.com charities which are meaningful to them.
| This article originally appeared in 24hrs Vancouver on December 24, 2008. |
Spice Up Your Cooking Online
One of the most popular Christmas gifts is the cookbook. But are recipes really that great?
I have dozens on my shelf that I’ve thumbed through and looked at the pictures, but most are intimidating when it comes to methods and technique. And that’s the flaw with cookbooks, according to Joe Girard, CEO of Vancouver’s online instructional cooking site, Rouxbe.com.
“In professional cooking schools they don’t even teach recipes,” explains Joe. “They teach technique and skill and you use recipes to practice your technique and skill.”
Read more
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About cyberbuzz
Hi, I'm Buzz Bishop. I'm a radio host at Virgin Radio Vancouver and have also been the host of cyberbuzz, a one minute daily radio feature about the internet and wired culture, since 1996. I also use this blog to offer commentary on technology trends and the issues around the merging of old and new media. You can find my personal blog at buzzbishop.com
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