Category Archives: Technology - Page 3

It’s A Good Week For Facebook: ReadWriteWeb

Posted by on July 17, 2007 No comments

I love ReadWriteWeb. And Facebook I quite enjoy. I’d be a fool not to.

This week, one of my favourite techy resources is sharing all that is Facebook: the good, the bad and the ugly in what they are calling Facebook Week. So if you’ve been hard-pressed to just keep up with this mainstream social network and its’ rapid evolution to stardom, follow along with MacManus and his team of writers this week you will very likely get all you need to know (and more) on what is perhaps the most fascinating web company of 2007.

DemoCampVancouver: Due

Posted by on June 27, 2007 2 comments

Next Thursday, July 5th, 5:30pm at WorkSpace.

Come One, Come All.
DemoCampVancouver, The Second One.
Join the event on Facebook too.
What the hell is this about? Read this.
Hope to see you there.

VIDBLOG: The Vancouver International Digital Festival Has A Blog!

Posted by on June 26, 2007 No comments

Check This: VIDBLOG

This year, VIDFEST has been moved from the traditional time slot of mid June, to late September – a strategic move to perhaps free up more summer time for all of those other conferences, and to place the festival leading into the Vancouver International Film Festival, which runs at the end of September and into October.

There are some “in-house” writers contributing regularly on VIDBLOG, but every so often you may see a guest appearance by bloggers, technologists and other industry folks, blogging about anything under the sun. Well, within the realm of technology, the internet, gaming – all things digital media, we’ll say.

VIDFEST is a world premiere event that is organized by New Media BC every year and sponsored and attended by people in the technology sector from around the world.

You can find out what is on the slate for the festival in 2007 on the schedule, and you can also register online (tickets on sale starting in JULY).

Women In Digital Media: New Media BC at Bell Canada

Posted by on May 16, 2007 3 comments

The PanelLast night I sat on a panel for an event organized by New Media BC, in conjunction with Wired Woman and Bell Canada, and was fortunate enough to have 3 brilliant and successful women in the digital media sector in Vancouver sitting next to me: Emma Payne from At Large Media, Kiana Mohseni from EA and Jennifer Ouano of Elastic Entertainment.

We were brought together to speak to a room of about 30, mostly women, and share our professional experiences, our successes and challenges, the trends we’ve observed and to discuss ways in which the technology sector could become more attractive and less of an intimidating space for women.

All of the attendendees participated and generated some good convo, ideas, and inspiration. It was nice to connect with people who’ve “gone before”, who have experienced a ton to share with those who would like to jump into technology and into being a cool geeky woman in technology!

Find out more about these types of professional events through the New Media BC events page and Wired Woman.

VOIP in Bangladesh: Political and Business Corruption – Quelle Surprise.

Posted by on April 12, 2007 No comments

The country has been in a state of emergency for 3 months, politicians are facing corruption charges, and VOIP is technically illegal. And now, there’s a substantial traffic jam, according to the BBC.

Perhaps this is why I have not heard from my brother in some time now… Or why he has not bothered to update his blog in weeks since he returned to his favourite place on the planet, although he has been flickring a wee bit…

Pilot Cole – are you out there?

Facebook: I love it I hate it I love it I hate it

Posted by on April 11, 2007 4 comments

Just few thoughts on Facebook (yawn). If you’re reading this and you do not have an account or know what this is, you’re missing out on a world that is, well, unnecessary I suppose, but happening and expanding without you – how much does that matter to you? (Mom – you’re exempt for not being a part of this: privacy out the window and it was originally set up for students, as the name suggests. You’d loathe it.)

I have not gone onto Facebook and actively searched for anybody, but I do accept those prompts from people whom I have met in person before and confirm him or her as a “friend” online. (Note: I have indeed rejected people that I have never met before who have tried to add me as a friend. This is not something I practice across the board in social networks, just this one.)

Facebook is just one of many social softwares I have played with or participate within, and what I do like about it is this:
1. It’s yet another place to connect online and open up your community, life, profile, whatever – promote you, yourself, your life, profile, whatever.
2. I have reunited (online!) with some wonderful, long-lost people of my past, and it’s not in an in-my-face way either, just a friendly gesture, a hello, which ultimately, is all we have time for anyway.
3. I am entertained. And I laugh. At some of the random thoughts, lines, groups (aka “Bob Cole IS a God” group – that was truly an “I love Facebook” moment).
4. It puts social networking and online communities in the mainstream and introduces those people unaware of this power of online connecting in the forefront – bring it on.

What I do not enjoy so much:
1. The Wall – I don’t need to have conversations with people in public… email still works for me, plus, I get this public conversation desire or fix satisfied through blog comments and flickr.
2. The Time Sucker – not to me, but some of my friends have lost the plot.

And what about being found by the wrong person? Ack! For me, that’s pretty much out the window with this little thing called a search engine. But, it’s interesting to note that all of those blasts-from-the-past are all of sudden finding me via this tool, not Yahoo! or Google. If you’re playing on Facebook, you don’t care who finds you. And if you do care, you’re not on Facebook.

The best way this social network was described, in my opinion, was in an article in The Globe and Mail a few weeks back about “grown-ups” getting their Facebook fix – it was something to the effect of comparing the gossip-esque site to “water cooler talk”.

Most common phrase from the newbies in the initial ‘message sent to you’:
“My friend made me sign up to this”.
Most common phrase from those same people after a few hours/days/weeks/months:
“I am addicted to Facebook!”.

Massive Technology Show 2007 in Vancouver

Posted by on March 30, 2007 No comments

Massive Technology Show 2007I attended The Massive Tech Show this week at Canada Place in Vancouver, where local businesses can explore technology through the various scheduled events at the interactive exhibits and daylong flurry of presentations. It’s a great event where participants can take advantage of the networking opportunities from the businesses involved and the many sponsors in attendance.

There was a tremendous line-up of speakers and keynotes at the conference: Leonard Brody of NowPublic fame, and Kerry Munro, Yahoo! Canada GM, to name a mere two. I was lucky enough to stumble into Captain Ajax himself, in the flesh, upon arrival (many thanks for the ticket!) and sat in on his Blogging For Business presentation. It was excellent – to the point, concise and informative for those people looking to the blogosphere for community outreach but not sure how and what and why it’s important to their business. Andre covered all the bases. Check out some of my flickr photos taken during his presentation, and find his slideshow on his session over at his blog.

I once again enjoyed my small stint of being a Bryght girl, while I briefly relieved Roland of his booth duties so he could grab a quick bite. And then I was relieved shortly after when Scales arrived – I think together we made a quick sale or two!!

As always at these types of events, I met some good people, and it provided the chance to catch up with the old. I’d recommend it to anyone in Vancouver (or use it as your excuse to get here for a day or two!). The sessions and speakers are good people to meet and learn from, but if for nothing else, head there just to wander the floor of the exhibits – lots to see, lots to do, plenty to take in.