Vancouver Crowd Putting the Social in Social Media
 This article originally appeared in 24hrs Vancouver on August 27, 2008. |
The new world of blogging, Twittering, Facebook etc is called social media. It’s about interacting with other people, building and sharing experiences and ideas and working together to create new ones. In this case, the medium truly is the message, and Vancouver’s social media fans really like to emphasize the social part.
DotComPho is one of the longest running events on the social media calendar, as creator John Chow estimates he’s been meeting with colleagues as part of a weekly ritual since 2001.
“I’ve been going for weekly Pho noodles for as long as I can remember,” he says. “And always told anyone who wish to meet up to come out for a bowl.”
Every Saturday the invitation is open to join John and friends, usually in Richmond at Pho Lan.
Michael Kwan, is one of the DotComPho regulars and appreciates the chance to meet people while doing a job that usually requires a lot of alone time.
“I work from home as a freelance writer, so I don’t get the same kind of office co-worker camaraderie that you would experience at a conventional job,” says Kwan
Raul Pachecois the organizer of the monthly Vancouver Bloggers Meetup. He’s only really been active on the local scene in the past year, but finds the social part of social media crucial to becoming a better blogger.
“Meeting people in person gives me a sense of who the blogger behind the blog is,” says Raul. “Moreover, it has helped me with my own blog, as most of the people I have met are very immersed in Vancouver’s tech scene, and they are very knowledgeable and willing to help.”
“We may not all belong to the same corporation, per se, but it’s almost like we are co-workers striving toward the same common goals,” agrees Kwan.
Every week could easily be filled with 3 or more camps, meetups, or impromptu gatherings created on Twitter called tweetups.
One such tweetup happened earlier this month, when Jordan Behan invited all his Twitter followers to join him for lunch the next day in Gastown. Sure, some of those who came along were colleagues, but some were total strangers who only knew Jordan through the web, like Karen Hamilton.
At first, Karen was a little nervous about walking up to people she had only ever followed online, and had never really “met”
“Everyone was so open and friendly,” Karen writes at tinybites.ca. “I’ll try not to be quite so timid for [the next] one!”
And that’s the message the local scene would like to spread. Whether you’re a blogstar, or just starting out, it’s called social media for a reason, get out and be sociable!
Flickr image by Michael Kwan
24hrs Blogosphere Buzz: 08.27.08
| This article originally appeared in 24hrs Vancouver on August 27, 2008. |
Want to know more about these events before you dive in? Visit DotComPho.com, where videos of the lunches are cut together highlighting the best parts of the conversation along with a featured Gadget of the Week. The Vancouver Bloggers Meetup schedule can be found at blog.meetup.com/30.
Next weekend sees MobileCampVancouver2 landing at Workspace. Those who are passionate about their pocket communication tools will be gathering together for an ad-hoc discussion about unlocking the potential of a mobile life. “Topics may include - but are not limited to - mobile gaming, entrepreneurship, social mobility and presence, mobile storytelling, the importance of open standards, protocols, and platforms, and mobility on other continents.”
Now all the options are out there for those needing a new phone. The Blackberry Bold has arrived to rival the iPhone. For those a little more buttoned up, the Bold is a nice upgrade for the Blackberry with a bigger screen, and more multimedia. Whichever smart phone you’re thinking about adding to your mobile arsenal, if it’s on the Rogers network, you’ll want to get it this week. The limited time offering of 6Gb of data for $30 / month expires at the end of this weekend.
Jordan and his wife Alex, celebrated their 4th anniversary this week. Like any couple, they have their own language – like using the word Nubnoo instead of I Love You. As an anniversary present to his wife, Jordan created nubnoo.com, a site devoted to love letters from twitter. When using twitter, just tag your 140 character love letter with #nubnoo to have it appear on the page.
So we got next, Vancouver is now on the clock as we count down to 2010. One of the cool toys those in the suites at GM Place Canada Hockey Place will get to play with will be the ability to order from concessions and souvenir stands without standing in line. Nortel Networks, is embarking on a 3 yr Unified Communications plan that will eventually let fans choose the replays they want to see on their personal mobile device from their seat.
Dream Big
| This article originally appeared in 24hrs Vancouver on August 20, 2008. |
Dreams. We all have them.
Your dream might be Heli Hiking, or a South American Extravaganza, maybe even attending the Gold Medal Hockey Games at the 2010 Olympics.
Dawn Bowles’ dream was to get a new road bike.
24hrs Blogosphere Buzz: 2008.08.20
| This article originally appeared in 24hrs Vancouver on Augsut 20, 2008. |
You may have heard of Brendan Baker, a local guy who was using the web to try and crowdsource $90 000 to fulfill his dream of attending Oxford for an MBA in social entrepreneurship. Instead of using a DreamBank to reach out to family and friends, he created 3bucksforbrendan.com where he hoped to get $3 from 30 000 different people. sadly the deadline for school has passed with just over $11 000 raised towards the total.
Many dreams have come true in Beijing over the past week and a half, the first of them for Carol Huynh from Hazelton. She won Canada’s first gold medal of the games in wrestling, and the praise has been flowing to her website from across the country ever since. Share your thoughts at
There will be a longer lineup than normal at the border this weekend as the local blogosphere packs up its MacBooks to head to Seattle for Gnomedex. The tech conference promises to “become the crossroads between producers and observers, between users and developers.” In plain English, that means many people will be discussing, blogging, podcasting and new media and how to make it better. Keynoters this year include notorious author Sarah Lacy.
Big box movie theatres are no longer all about movies. Already you can go to them to watch pay-per-view hockey games or wrestling events, and this weekend saw the launch of a program that will have buddies renting out the big screens for a little Xbox 360 action. The CBC is reporting you, and up to 11 buddies, can reserve a 2 hour window for a screen, mostly in the mornings, for $179. You can bring your own games, or choose from the theatre’s library.
Do you think you spend a little bit too much time pointing and clicking? Then visit the center for Internet Addiction Recovery. Seriously, such a place exists – except to learn about it you need to be online. They have a little quiz, you can answer some questions about your usage and it will tell you whether or not you have a problem. Actually you could substitute the word “internet” for “alcohol, “drugs,” or “gambling” and get an equally valuable result.
Olympic Coverage From the Streets of Beijing
| This article originally appeared in 24hrs Vancouver on August 13, 2008. |
Citizen journalism; it’s you and me with a web camera, or a cell phone and an internet connection immediately posting what we see online. When you bring citizen journalism to a place like Beijing and the Summer Olympics, things can get interesting.
NBC and the CBC alone have paid nearly $1B for the rights to broadcast this summer’s games from Beijing, but if you connect with the people on the streets, and the athletes in the village, a raw and authentic story gets told.
24hrs Blogosphere Buzz 2008.08.13
| This article originally appeared in 24hrs Vancouver on August 13, 2008. |
The highlights of the Olympics will eventually make their way to YouTube on the Official YouTube Summer Games Channel with content from official partners The New York Times, Reuters, Associated Press and assorted European broadcasters. The clips come up at least 24hrs after the event, but they are online andwill offer a different perspective when seen from different countries.
Future Shop has redesigned its Park Royal store with a greater focus on education. Future Shop VP Todd Empey admits they may have borrowed some ideas from Apple where learning how to best use technology is just as valuable as selling the goods. The Future Shop store is the first in Canada to feature The Connected Home hub in the center complete with experts to show you how technology connects throughout your home.
Congratulations to Maura Rodgers and Danny Robinson. The Vancouver techstars were married in Victoria on the weekend. Colleague Jordan Behan tweets: “There was a great crowd that didn’t let a little rain ruin a good time. “ Before building a new life together, the two founded Strutta.com, a friendly website celebrating the competitive spirit.
VancouverIsAwesome.com has launched a new initiative called Hood Wars. Site contributors will be responsible for convincing readers their neighborhood is the best in the city. First up is Jeff Choy to prop up Hastings-Sunrise. Jeff loves having Highway 1 in the heart of his hood. “I kinda like the idea of having your own exit. It’s like like in 8 mile; but not really,” he writes.
Another startup has joined the Techcouver map. AdHack launched into Beta last week and is a place for users to create fresh and new advertising creative. The site acts like an eBay for ads, where creators and advertisers can connect on some new ideas. For example, you might have a better idea than the Mr. Muffin commercial that pops on seemingly every 10 minutes during Olympic coverage.
Facebooking Your High School Reunion
| This article originally appeared in 24hrs Vancouver on August 6, 2008. |
Kris Lee missed her 10-year high school reunion. She graduated in 1988 as part of one of the largest classes in the province, nearly 1000 students from Centennial in Coquitlam. She didn’t get a notice about the reunion until a friend drove past the school and saw the billboard outside when it was already too late.
Now, as plans for her 20th reunion get put in motion, Kris won’t be missing it – she’s helping to organize it, and with the help from a little tool called Facebook, hopefully no names will be left off the invite list.
Halo to the Pro
| This article originally appeared in 24hrs Vancouver on July 30, 2008. |
Becoming a pro is a childhood dream, but in 2008 kids aren’t just dreaming of becoming pro athletes, they’re dreaming of becoming pro gamers.
Nelson Triana is the leader of The Amp Energy Pro Team, North of 49, a professional gaming team that is crossing the country searching for a 4th member to join them on the Major League Gaming circuit.
24hrs Blogosphere Buzz: 2008.07.30
The Amp Your Game Tour won’t just be a pro gaming search, there will be over 80 consoles set up across all gaming platforms loaded with the latest games. The gaming search starts tomorrow with the four finalists announced Sunday afternoon.
If gaming’s not your thing, maybe you can be the next great texting star. LG will be setting up shop in Metrotown for the LG Canadian Texting Campionships on Friday from 11-12:30. $25 000 is on the line.
There’s a new search engine in town. Cuil (pronounced cool), was launched earlier this week by a team mostly of ex-Google employees. Cuil claims to index more pages than any other search engine, and promises not to store records of your search activity.
There will be a full solar eclipse on Friday, but unless you’re in the far north eastern part of Canada, near Greenland, you won’t be seeing much – so tune in online. NASA will have a live webcast as the total eclipse moves across China starting 330a PDT on Friday.
Scrabulous is dead, long live scrabulous. The popular Facebook application, which is an unauthorized version of Scrabble, was slapped with a lawsuit by Hasbro last week. This week Facebook has pulled the plug. “Scrabulous is disabled for U.S. and Canadian users until further notice,” a notice online reads. You can still get your triple word score on at scrabulous.com
Head in the Clouds
| This article originally appeared in 24hrs Vancouver on July 23, 2008. |
It’s going to be another gorgeous day. We’re right in the middle of the best stretch of weather for the summer, yet the forecast online is for clouds – and this is a good thing.
Cloud computing is what the digerati have been on about for a while, and with the introduction of Apple’s Mobile Me application this month, the notion of cloud computing is about to go mainstream.
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