Building Something Big in a Small Town
I was born in Victoria, on Vancouver Island, in British Columbia. I grew up here. Nearly everyone I know, love and care about either lives here, or did at some point. And I love this place more than anywhere in the universe. It’s important to note that Victoria isn’t a very big city. Compared to many metropolitan areas in North America, and certainly the world, it’s downright tiny. Despite this “small city” upbringing, my whole life has been full of big ideas. Whether it was starting my first business when I was 13 (from the trailer park where I lived with my big sister), running for City Council when I …
WordCamp Victoria 2012
I have had the absolute pleasure of hosting WordCamp Victoria for the last 3 years, and we are set to have another one on January 14th, 2012. Unlike the last 2, I am going to speak at this one. My topic is Social Comment Systems: Integration and Comparisons. To make it easier for people to comment on your blog, there have been numerous social integrations in the past few years. The goal is to make it easier for people to authenticate themselves, and make it easier to login. So, rather than creating an account at every blog you post a comment on, you can login using Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo!, Google, …
A Subjot about Heello … Well, it's better than TwitPic!
You probably heard the news that on the very same day that Twitter started hosting images directly on Twitter.com, the makers of the popular Twitter picture sharing tool TwitPic also coincidentally launched their new Twitter-like service, called Heello. It had been rumoured for awhile, but we can presume the launch had something to do with Twitter’s new feature. It looks like a misspelled “Hello,” but if you pronounce it like they say it’s pronounced, it sounds like a place in Hawaii. Being an easily distracted social media addict, I naturally jumped right in. Hot on the heels of Google+, though, this is getting to be a bit much. Initially, I like …
Population of Facebook Now Exceeds Population of G7
Mashable has declared the population of Facebook – measured in users who have logged in at least once in the last 30 days – is now 750 million. Much has been made of looking at Facebook as though it was a country, so you could compare it with others to see which countries have the largest population. So I thought it was notable that this latest figure exceeds the population of the entire G7 – the (misnomer) Group of 7 most industrialized nations (notwithstanding the latest economic wreckage) – France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, United States and Canada. The population of the G7 is 744,342,375, according to Wikipedia. Of …
Thugs, Cheerleaders or Citizen Journalists?
The wounds are still fresh in the minds, and on the streets, of Vancouver. We are angry, frustrated, and embarrassed about what some people made of the beautiful city of Vancouver on June 15th. As people around the world fight for freedom, and against tyranny, we smash cars and windows, ostensibly, because of a hockey game. Much of the outrage heard on talk radio, the blogosphere, and social media itself, is about the so-called cheerleaders who stayed when the police asked everyone to leave. They kept their cell phones running, taking photos and videos, and posting them. In social media circles, this could be called live-blogging. So, did their presence …
Canadian Election Choices … in song.
Stephen Harper Michael Ignatieff Jack Layton Elizabeth May Gilles Duceppe
LinkedIn Answers
So at Eat. Drink. Tweet. in Penticton this past weekend, I taught a session on LinkedIn. As mentioned in my previous post, I built a Canadian Wine Group on LinkedIn, and it now has 26 members. (One of the things I’ve been working on–quite passively–for the past few years is a wine site. Our company owns Corks.ca, and it’s on rendition 3, but I’m planning rendition 4 in Fall, along the same business model of Foodie.ca, which has been wildly successful so far.) At the conference, I had all of 70 seconds left to talk about LinkedIn Answers (my session went on a bit long). But pre-conference, I posed a question about …
LinkedIn or Bust … uh, literally.
I’m putting the finishing touches on my presentation for Eat. Drink. Tweet. in Penticton, British Columbia. It’s all about LinkedIn. For those of you who follow my blog regularly (thanks, Mom), you’ll remember that I rated LinkedIn #2 overall, and Twitter #1. In the next rendition of my Top Social Media List, I’m certain these will reverse. Why? Twitter is great, and I love it to bits, but the reality is there’s more money to be made building a serious business network. And that’s what LinkedIn does the best. BONUS: Canadian Wine LinkedIn Group The Answers app is the best ever, hands down. Forget about Quora, and Yahoo! Answers is …
Campin'
I wrapped up the one-day WordCamp Victoria 2011 on Saturday, January 22nd. And, without pause, tickets went on sale for Social Media Camp 2011 – with a goal of putting on an absolute top-notch, world-class Social Media event right here in Victoria. If you were at the last Social Media Camp, the next one will be even better! And longer, with two full days of speakers, networking, workshops and more! When I got into the tech business 20 years ago, I honestly never thought I’d be organizing events like this. It’s a lot of hard work, but I really do love it! This past one was the third WordCamp I …
Learn WordPress, Support A Great Cause
We are launching a new WordPress User Group in Victoria. If you are even half as excited about WordPress as I am, please join! In conjunction with the upcoming WordCamp Victoria on January 22nd, I am presenting an Introduction to WordPress workshop for our inaugural meeting. The meeting fee is $20, to be split with the new group, and The Cridge Transition House for Women, an important local charity in Victoria. So, if you want to support a great cause and learn WordPress all at the same time, this event is for you!
