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I completely forgot to post this.  It was a great night and I can't wait to do it again.  Thanks to Tim and Angela for having Dear Diary play.  Check out the video for a sample of what you missed.

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Where'd you go?

As with most blogs, I have not been doing a very good job lately.  But unlike those who just loose interest in writing about things that spark curiosity, I have a good excuse.

I got a job.  And a pretty darn good one too.

You see, that's where all my writing has gone.  As the first Social Media Copywriter for Sonic Boom Creative Media (the digital arm of National Public Relations), I've been working really hard to develop online content for Ford Canada's new blog, aptly titled "The Ford Blog".  

It's been a crazy few months, but I think the live product is awesome.  We've been able to develop some really cool stories that you won't see any other car companies doing, talking to owners from all over the country about why they chose the car they did.  

I've also been lucky enough to join a team with some pretty awesome folk, like Mark McKay, Sean Caruthers, Helen Karrandjas-Moore, and Rannie Turingan (aka Photojunkie).

So if you get a chance, head on over and check it out!  It's a labour of love and I'm really proud of all the work our team has been able to pull off!

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“I took this a nanosecond before Slorach belly flopped into the dirt. It was a beautiful bail.” - Page 9 of Journal #8 (April 29th, 2003 - June 3rd, 2005)

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Torche have been one of my favorite bands for the last two years running (thanks Leland).  With "Kicking" - the first single off the forth-coming Harmonicraft dropping April 24th - the band continues it's sonic piledriver of somehow-happy-somehow-heavy goodness that garnered Meanderthal so much success..

Download it for free on their site.  You'd be a fool not to.

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Homeless Guy: Hey, what's the difference between Sudbury and Yogurt?

Me: ?

Homeless Guy: Yogurt has more active culture!

Me: *high fives Homeless Guy*

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Is this thing on?

Sorry sorry.  In midst of all my doing nothing, I sort of forgot this bad boy was here.  Bad excuse, right?

Anyway, I plan to get back to adding cool stuff for you to make fun of very shortly.

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Another great video by The Temper Trap.  Love the kids!

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Great new video from The Reason, off the forthcoming Fools.

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allforyourmind:

a small sneak peek  to tempt you to come see my board (and me!) at Another Disposable Artshow 52 McCaul st. Toronto on Saturday, May 8.

Amazing artwork from Juliana Neufeld, who's also the artist for the new You Call Yourselves Soldiers' EP, Transparencies.

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“He’s absolutely right. Vancouver is Canada’s team, and I say that Montreal is Quebec’s team.”

Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe responds to reporters after Federal Heritage Minister calls Vancouver "Canada's Team" in the NHL playoffs.

Read more

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(via juliasegal)

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Social Media Will Save the Environment?!

[Below is an edited version of an editorial from January 2009 I wrote as a guest contributor for Great Lakes Town Hall. Part of a five-part series on helping small environmental groups embrace the future of social media]

We are all users of social media. The term refers to websites and technology that are based on user participation and user-generated content. Most online newspapers list "most popular" or "most commented" stories. Sites like Facebook, Digg, and NowPublic allow users to contribute, edit and comment on submitted stories, all for free. As a result, environmental issues are getting attention at a grassroots level. As citizens bypass the filters of major media and connect on personal issues, social media presents environmental organizations with an unprecedented opportunity to reach out the community and build support.

Social media has the ability to take your idea and share it with millions of people instantly. It allows your members to participate in the conversation. It leverages on the human need to belong and feel valued.

Most importantly, social media allows charities and not-for-profits to listen to what people are saying, understand them better, and connect in a meaningful way. As a result, social media can be an invaluable tool to take people who follow your stories and make them subscribers to your ideas.

Social media is all about building together. There are three tools that are easy to use and important to building a new social media presence: a blog, a Facebook page, and Twitter. While what might still qualify as a "blog" is debatable, it should still be the central hub for communicating all of your activity (the "kitchen at the social media party"). This is where your readers can learn all about you and what you do. You give them the inside story from a human perspective, and that makes them want to come back. It also shows readers where they can go to learn more, subscribe to things like newsletters and podcasts, and how they can connect with you on other social media sites.

Most groups are already familiar with Facebook. Here are some helpful tips I picked up that may help you maximize your presence:

Create a Facebook Page, not a Group.  Studies have shown they are better for maintaining long-term relationships.

Create an RSS feed on your Facebook Page the aggregates the content from your website updates.

Don’t be boring – create a short bio that engages people.

Reach out and connect with organizations and related groups that do similar work.  Don’t compete!

Twitter is the newest tool on the block, and has already attracted millions of users.  The concept: use 140 words or less to update your followers on your current activities.  Take advantage of Twitter’s ability to fire off quick snippets of info and interact with followers. Twitter automatically sends out a “tweet” with every new entry we post to our website, and we also post personal updates throughout the day.  As a result, you'll been able to connect with a whole new group of people from all over the world that share your goals and interests.  In my opinion, Twitter-style updates are the future of social media communications.

Another big question surrounds using the granddaddy of all social media site: Myspace.  While many suggest not to use Myspace unless your organization targets a very young demographic, I don’t totally agree. The use of Myspace has declined in favour of Facebook in Canada, but it remains very popular in the US.  It can still be a free and easy way to promote your cause, and connect with members and groups that still use the service.  If you podcast, Myspace is still a great place to post up samples and links in its huge database of music.

I’ll leave you with this example: Barack Obama was elected in large part through effectively harnessing the power of social media.  His team used the Internet, email, websites, twitter, Facebook and other applications to foster massive grassroots support. By interacting with voters on a personal level, he inspired them to help identity the issues and shape the language of his campaign.  His supporters in turn used their own access to social media to spread Obama’s message and grow support at a level anyone could identify with.  This network of individuals, all sharing the same common ideals, led to his landslide victory.

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iPhone OS 4.0: The 7 Ring Circus

Images courtesy gdgt.com

Apple has just finished pulling the proverbial curtain back on the forthcoming update to the operating software for the iPhone.  Revealed just moments ago to developers and media, the new brains of the phone includes 1500 new features - most of which you'll never notice.

As part of the show, Steve Jobs and company centered the unveiling around seven "tentpole" features.  Just like a network TV lineup, "tentpole" refers to a main feature that supports all the smaller ones under it's loving embrace.

Here's a rundown of the seven big new features you'll see on the phone this summer, and my brief opinion on them.

1. Multitasking

Multitasking is probably one of the biggest gripes people have had with the iPhone, and probably the biggest announcement of the day (and the longest editorial from yours truly, I'm sorry!). To the layman, multitasking is the ability to move from one app to another without the first one closing, forcing you to load it again, find where you left of, etc.  Well no more.

With just a double-tap on the home key, you'll be able to bring up an icon list of apps currently running (like a second dock) and switch between them.  The Pandora demo was a great example.  Right now, if you were to navigate away from the streaming music app, it would shut down and kill your music.  Now, you are free to move about into other apps, while Pandora continues to run in the background.  Some neat tweaks also allow you to access it from the lock screen, much like the iPod. Too bad Pandora doesn't work in Canada, but you get the idea.

Multitasking will be a huge improvement on how you use your phone.  For me, there's quite a bit I don't do on my iPhone because I don't like the idea of constantly having to switch in and out of apps to maintain their usefulness.  Imagine having Skype running in the background. Or your favorite twitter app.  Or directions. This will be a big revolution in the way we use the phone, and the way developers build apps going forward.  It may not look like a big change visually, but once people start to realize how their phone now behaves a lot more like their computer, they'll love it.

Two quick notes on multitasking: Location Services and Notifications.  Location services are built into a lot of apps already (you've seen the "X app would like to use your current location" box I'm sure), but this will take it to a whole new level.

Apps that can constantly run can also constantly track you.  For navigation and social networking apps, this can be great.  For example: turn by turn directions can pop up even if you're doing something else, and social networking apps can alert you if someone you know just showed up in your area.  

I'm glad to see Apple is also addressing the potential privacy issues by letting you visually see if an app is tracking you in the background with an icon on the top menu bar.  But remember, some location services will use GPS, and some will use cellphone tracking.  I'm not clear if the cellphone services will use your data plan to keep up to date, but it may be worth checking out.

Notifications - those little blue boxes telling you something life-changing is happening - are going to show up a lot more often now as developers harness the ability to make apps work in the background while you do something else, or even lock your phone and put it away.  Again, I think people will have to start paying attention to the dirty details of which apps they are going to let push info.  Remember, a lot of those notifications require the phone to communicate with Apple, which uses data. Keep an eye on those data plans!

2. Folders

Working off the general lust iPhone users have for buying apps (over 1 Billion so far), Apple has created a new system for organizing them on your homescreens.  By dragging apps over one another you can create a folder to hold them all.  The folders open up with just a click, allowing you to get at the apps inside.

Personally, I don't dig this one.  If there's one thing I've always loved about using Apple products, it's been the ease at which I can access things I want straight away.  The last thing I want to do is click deeper (read: more) to get at the app I want.  I'd rather swipe through a page then have to open another one. Or use the universal search that was introduced in the last big release.  The ability to add a folder to the dock is not bad, but if it's designed to hold common apps in one place, it's really just for games.

Which makes sense, as it's really a way for Apple to sell more apps.  The new folder system allows you to bump your current app capacity from 180 to 2,160.

3. Mail

Nothing earth shattering here, but high on the usefulness scale.  First up, the unified inbox.  If you are like me, you've probably overcome this issue by having all your various email accounts automatically forward messages to just one, and have that one play with your iPhone.  Useful for reading, but not for replying.  Any responses will go out from your default account, and you probably don't want your personal email replying to your business mail, or vice versa.  Among other advantages I won't go into, you'll have the ability to load up all your accounts in one inbox and reply properly using the right one.

Also included is the wonderful "organize messages by thread".  If you haven't used a feature like this yet, you're missing out.  Keeping messages based on the same subject together is a godsend.  Unless your have fifty conversations with the subject line "Hey". Then you're on your own.

4. iBooks

Whatever.  Books you buy on your iPad or iphone will now remember where you left off.

Ever try reading anything longer than a post on a website, or an email from your mom, on your phone?   It sucks.  Reading books on your iPhone will be difficult on your face, your neck, your shoulders, and your battery life.  This is just another cash grab, and I'm sure people will lap it up.  After all, iPad owners have already coughed up the cash for 600,000 iBooks in a little less than a week.

5. Enterprise

This one is aimed at big companies that use iPhones for employees; and to show Blackberry companies you can do the same things, possibly more, if you get your employees the phone your know they want.

It's a bunch of jargon that I'm sure IT peeps are loving, but one thing did stick out to me: mobile app management.  What it means is a company can push an app out to all company iPhones automatically.  I can see how this would remove tonnes of headaches at trying to get each person to either install it themselves (yeah right!), or have to go desk to desk as an IT professional and do it yourself.  

6. Game Centre

Apple just put Microsoft and Sony on notice: they are here to play.  The new Games Centre, or "Social Gaming Network" incorporates some of the features that make Xbox and PSN networks so popular: matchmaking and achievements.

image courtsey engadget

Now I don't play a lot of games on my iPhone (and then only the free ones), but I can see how this is really going to encourage people to buy more.  Like Xbox Live, the ability to gain achievements and then compare it with your buddies is a serious addiction.  As well, the ability to be matched in online games with people of a similar skill level (how that is determined is yet to be seen) is another plus that will get people playing more, and encouraging their friends with iPhones to get on board.  This is a major leap forward for gaming on the device, and it will only get better as developers find more ways to encourage gamers to get their friends in on the action.

7.  iAd

There will be about a thousand long-form articles on this shortly, all written by people with much more insight and experience in marketing and advertising then I.  So I'll be brief.  Basically iAds will allow advertisers and developers to work together to embed ads into every part of your iPhone experience.  It will allow for interactive advertising on a level that will be indistinguishable from full-blown app or website experiences. Sure, there are already dedicated movie or TV show apps that are little more than ads now, but this will be much more seamless, or nefarious, depending on who you ask.

A few other notes:

The update is meant for the latest versions of the iPhone (3GS) and iTouch.  Older models will end up with a handicapped verision of the update.

Some of the new features, like multitasking, are going to drain your battery faster.  How much remains to be seen.

The update should drop some time in June.

Ipads will be getting the update by August-ish

For more in-depth coverage, head over to GDGT or Engadget to recap their live-blog of the whole announcement.

UPADTE:  Here's a couple of minor (but cool) features I missed above:

Spell checker

Tap to focus on video recordings

Bluetooth keyboard support

User defined wallpaper

Playlists

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This is Chance.  She's pretty awesome.  She's 12, and a little rickety on her legs these days.  She doesn't like the stairs in my building so much, but sucks it up in order to get outside to do her business.  She's also currently homeless.

You see, Chance's folks have left the country, and she was staying with Curtis Townson at his apartment on Lisgar and Queen for the week.  That is until a careless smoker in the basement apartment managed to burn the whole thing down Saturday morning.  Chance managed to make it out and was found by a police officer staying running in front of a streetcar on Dundas.

Chance is now staying with me for the week.  She's a little shaken up, but she's OK.

However, Curtis, his Girlfriend Ashley and her two children are not.  Homeless and without renters insurance, they need your help.

The young family has lost everything.  All their furniture, toys, electronic equipment for work, but most importantly all their clothes and shoes.  These kids need donations now, either in person with extra stuff, or with a small monetary donation.

Curtis' sister Sarah has set up a ChipIn website for those who can spare a bit of money to help.  Amazingly, they have already received over $1600 in just a day.  Amazing for sure, but anyone who has kids knows this is just a drop in the bucket.

If you can help, please do!

Happy Update:  Chance now back home in the country, and Curtis and Ashley have found a new place in the neighbourhood.  Through friends, family and even a school bake-sale, the family has raised almost enough to replace what they lost in the fire!

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Two great things at once: Southern Souls and Bahamas.  If you haven't done so, check out the Southern Souls' (aka Mitch Fillion) website: amazing video of intimate performances from some of Southern Ontario's great indie acts.