Bridging Media: Miss 604 & Robert Ouimet Capture It All

Posted by on March 31, 2008 3 comments

xposted from Bridging Media

Vera's Burger Shack Caters to Bridging MediaIt’s the day after Bridging Media both Erica and I are thrilled how it all came together and that the day was received so well. About 150 people turned out, a mix of digital media professionals, Producers, Broadcasters and a few newbies as well. While my photos are coming soon (Flickr Tag “bridgingmedia” please), and more posts to be written on the summary and the all important future growth this beast, you can listen to all of the sessions, courtesy of Robert Ouimet, and can read the Live Blog of all four sessions from Rebecca Bollwitt – thank you for putting in the time, energy and efforts capturing the day. (And thanks to John as well, for snapping some pics!)

There were a LOT of people who helped out to pull this off. Sponsors, organizers, speakers, participants, attendees, all of those people that just randomly stepped in to help out where needs: Thanks to ALL of you!

post to facebook add to del.icio.us Digg it add to ma.gnolia Stumble It! seed the vine

Kinzin’s These Are My Kids Adds Flickr Into The Mix!

Posted by on February 28, 2008 No comments

tamk flickrYou ask and you shall receive :)

These Are My Kids launched about a month ago, and there isn’t a day that goes by when the team on the back end of things, the crafty Kinzin coders, are not looking for more ways to improve the application for you.

Kinzin is all about connecting family and friends. And not just online, which is why this latest application was created in such a way that you, the content creator in your family, will be able to subscribe your grandmother to your social network via the post! And people like her, who don’t have a computer or who would rather not play online (or Facebook as well), can be a part of your virtual network.

Some of the more savvy users who use and love These Are My Kids were looking forward to a Flickr upload feature inside the app. So Kinzin has gone and made that possible for you! You can now browse your photos from Flickr, your Facebook albums or your own computer. You can bring all of your Flickr Sets right into the application, and they will remain there, adding to your bank of photos to choose from when uploading an image into your kids’ pages. When you create more sets in your Flickr profile, you can refresh your Flickr sets in These Are My Kids with a click of a button.

This was a pretty vital step and one that was intended from the onset in building this application. For people like me, I have been using Flickr for a few years and have almost 100 sets and 4000 photos, so this feature was one that I am very happy to be able to use. (I use Capo as my kid. No, he doesn’t wear a “jacket” when we go out, and no, he does not have rhinestones on his collar – it’s just fun to play in the space with the latest on what this dog is up to because I, too, want a history of my dog’s life.)

These Are My Kids is the tool that makes capturing your kids’ lives and recording their history a snap. Kinzin’s goal has always been to enable the user to do this with great ease and in a seamless process. By tapping into networks like Flickr and Facebook, Kinzin makes life a little easier and saves you a little time, something the Kinzin family knows we all need a little more of!

Masters of Digital Media: Right Here In Vancouver

Posted by on February 21, 2008 2 comments

MDM at EAIf you haven’t heard already, there happens to be this school over here on the Great Northern Way Campus that’s making some rather large waves, to say the very least. I am fortunate enough to be a small part of it. I’ve been at the school for a few months now, brought on board working with the students and faculty of the Masters of Digital Media program – a top drawer digital media grad program – to implement a social media strategy for the school’s online presence. Fun stuff. Plus, everybody here at the school are wonderful people to work with: smart, savvy, fun, creative, and let’s face it: the future.

Just to give you a brief sense of the kind of work and events happening at the school, I’ll highlight this week for starters.

Alan LevineAlan Levine is in town for Northern Voice, and today he paid the school a visit to talk about web technologies and Second Life – it was a fun hour. The NMC, New Media Consortium, pretty much sums up what a lot of us are trying to do: “The NMC stimulates and furthers the exploration and use of new media and technologies for learning and creative expression.” – couldn’t have written it better myself.

One of the school’s students, Mike Cornford, is down at the GDC (Gaming Developers Conference) in San Francisco, blogging up a storm! One of our goals at the school was to have the blog for the site up and running so that we could have first-hand reporting from the conference. Mike has never blogged a day in his life until now: and he is GREAT at it (and, big surprise, loves it) – please read the GDC through his eyes and ears, and words. It’s truly refreshing.

shortlisted for a WebbyAnd in fine social media way – get those who are online, offline. Some of the students at MDM are heading to Northern Voice – so look for them, say hello and ask them to tell you all about what is happening at the school. You’ll be both impressed and proud. Lest we forget: Vancouver’s Centre of Digital Media is THE only place on the planet to attain a Masters in Digital Media.

Bridging Media: Where Broadcasting and Digital Media Converge

Posted by on February 19, 2008 1 comment

centre for digital media“Help me help you.”

Bridging Media is a new event that Erica Hargreave and I are organizing for March 29th, 2008.

To register, please visit the Bridging Media event page – we have a limited space for numbers, so head on over there and stick your name up.

What is Bridging Media?

In a nutshell, over the past 6 months, Erica and I, along with Kris Krug and Boris Mann, have had numerous conversations and brainstorming sessions around the continuing disconnect and gap between the broadcast and digital media worlds. This is an area in which Achilles Media has been involved for a number of years, as nextMEDIA has had huge success in Banff and is the sister conference to the Banff TV Festival. So we reached out to Mark Greenspan at Achilles and he was more than happy to get behind this event here in Vancouver as a “friend of the event”. Mark also suggested we use this event as a platform to help shape ideas and Banff’s pitching competitions – he’s absolutely right.

The Centre For Digital Media has also come on board as a major sponsor as the host of the event. They have graciously offered their amazing space “The Hanger” to house our inaugural event.

We’ve just begun the plight to take this idea and make it into a bit of a beast (we hope). So far we have had a pretty tremendous and supportive response. We are on the hunt for sponsorships, will be shaping and finalizing the speakers list over the coming weeks – and we always welcome more people-power – Gregg Scott just stepped up to create our logo – thank-you Greg!

Sign up for Bridging Media now!

Tech Week in Vancouver: Oh, You, Too, Should Really Be Here

Posted by on February 19, 2008 No comments

If you’re not already.

This week in Vancouver, er, Techcouver, is pretty jam-packed. All great stuff, some of which is already happening as I type. (As I relish in the only “free” time this the week (NOT complaining), with my wine, meat and our Canucks.)

Get your stamina and come out to each and all and support this unbelievable tech town. Or, you can read about them. At least pick one of the freebies! And if that’s not enough, there is PLENTY more up and coming in the weeks and months to follow…

  • Third Tuesday Vancouver – doh! you missed it. Check in for next month – always valuable
  • QuickLearn, also happening right now, but you’ll hear more about this, and so you should!
  • CaseCamp at the new lamplighter: Cinci from EATcomm has given new life to this marketing beast
  • Northern Voice Opening Party! – deserves it’s own bullet point
  • MooseCamp: step one on NV
  • Northern Voice: in its’ 4th year and sold out for the 4th consecutive! Don’t miss it, online, if that’s all you’ve got.

Have You Signed Up For DemoCamp05 Yet?

Posted by on January 31, 2008 2 comments

pointing handI write that title, and then I think, “What a sec, have I?”.

Boris and I are gearing up for DemoCamp FIVE!, “Wild and Woolly 2008”, held next Thursday night, Feb. 7th at the ol’ traditional, WorkSpace. (Thank you Bill and Dane!)

Battledecks will be back, oh but of course. Linda Bustos has already submitted one deck and we’re just waiting to hear back from a “potential”. Any volunteers to get up there, loosen up your Thursday evening and get into an impromptu 3 minute very fun, very funny presentation battle? Drop a note.

CALLING ALL DEMOERS!

If you are planning to demo, head over and throw your name down on the wiki, and don’t forget to add youself to the Facebook event page as well. I think Boris has likely been busy drumming up folks to demo from his perch at Web Directions North. Please, step up – we know there’s a TON happening in this town – we would all like to hear about it and support it!

Kinzin TV

Posted by on January 30, 2008 3 comments

cbcBig day across the airwaves for Kinzin. Tonight, the CBC is airing a story about online privacy and security in the wake of the MySpace breach. Michael Fergusson is featured in the story with his take on social networking and the privacy issue, and speaks in reference to Kinzin’s latest application These Are My Kids. Catch the story airing on CBC local Vancouver news tonight at 6pm. (Thanks to Tod for sending them this way!)

lab logoSticking with TV Fame, Episode 140 of The Lab With Leo Laporte airs today on G4 Tech TV in Canada (The How-To Channel in Australia). Michael does a segment with Leo, talking about designing and building applications in the era of social networking. That interview will be made available on The Lab website after it airs on television.
xposted from blog.kinzin.com

From “Launch” to “Garage”, techy event speaking.

Posted by on January 28, 2008 2 comments

Kinzin The Kinzin team spent the better part of their Friday evening at Launch Party Vancouver 03, showing off the application These Are My Kids. If you haven’t read or heard what this latest app is all about, please read more here.

It was a fantastic evening, to say the least. Michael, Frank, Julie and Paul held court all night to the many new fans wanting to find out more, take a look at the interface and have a spin for themselves. We are extremely grateful for the interest and enthusiasm for These Are My Kids from those of you who attended, and we very much appreciate the time that each person gave to learn more about it. It is an incredibly rewarding feeling to have such a great tech community come to such an event and to support the work that is being produced. It was inspiring and exciting.

A quick, but very necessary thank-you to the organizers of LPV: Maura, Danny, Dimitri; and to the sponsors as well: Sun Microsystems, Strutta, Techvibes, Layer7, QC Docs and Growthworks. This event is a treat. Looking forward to the next.

And onto the next…

Monday night, Michael Fergusson will be at the Vancouver Facebook Garage Event at the Vancouver Film School. There may just be a little room left on the event page, so add your name and come check out Vancouver’s newest and hottest Facebook applications. There are amazing things happening in this city, and this event shows off the best of what’s being developed for Facebook, and beyond…

And if you can’t make it out, just follow along on Miss 604’s live blogging rendition, and watch the night unfold before your very own monitor-watching, live-streaming eyes. :)

xposted from blog.kinzin.com

The Happiest Frog: BC’s Green Directory

Posted by on January 24, 2008 No comments

happy frog I just joined another social network, shocking, I know, but this one is different and even a little extra special.

Happyfrog.ca is a Vancouver-born network that is starting to nurture their sustainable community through conversations, knowledge-sharing and every day practical tips, with a focus on green and healthy living.

My first go at the community was, in a word, really fun. And that’s not just because that’s what their logo tells me to do. The next word I’d use to describe my inaugural experience: useful. Practical is another. HappyFrog.ca truly is a user-generated space online, with its’ members providing the knowledge that the rest of us benefit from. It’s not too long before you can’t help but give a review or cast a vote. And why not? You’re directly contributing to your community. Reviewing a yoga studio, a physiotherapist or a park not only helps other consumers, but also provides small businesses and green organizations with feedback, promotion, and no doubt helps them generate more ideas to better serve the community.

The topic directory has pretty much listings on everything from eco travel to naturopaths to restaurants to spas. It’s all there. And rated by all of us. So it’s real.

Be sure to visit “Ask the frog” – this is a fantastic feature. It’s the site’s community Q&A – “dark greenies” can share tips with “light greenies”. (And then we all get beamed up by Scottie.) It’s pretty cool – users can throw any question out to the masses and get thoughtful responses from random users, so you’re meeting and conversing with other people using the site as well. You can also post events, add your blog to the blogroll, and what’s even better, small businesses and organizations can post their logos, business ideas and descriptions and promote themselves to the site – at zero cost.

It’d be great to get more people on the site, contributing to a greener, sustainable community by being a member and help direct the rest of the community to a healthier Vancouver: Go Green, Frogs!

All You Parents Out There! Check Out Kinzin’s Latest Application: “These Are My Kids”

Posted by on January 20, 2008 1 comment

These Are My Kids Beta

Kinzin’s newest application, “These Are My Kids”, is ready. Almost. The latest app from Kinzin is currently in the Beta phase, soon to make the leap to full launch. The app is quite stunning as-is in every way, in design and technology – it’s easy, efficient, creative, useful, private and fun – but we’d like to perfect it, so we need your help and your feedback.

A Little Bit About The Application “These Are My Kids”:

In a few points, or less, here’s what the app is all about:

  • Resolves all of your photo headaches and problems of multiple publishing networks and accounts – it’s an all-in-one!
  • Easy access to your personal photos by invite only – no sign-ups, no accounts, no hassle for the end user (your defined friends)
  • It’s Private – Only those friends explicitly invited to view your photo books will be able to see your content
  • You’re creating beautiful photographic books of your children’s lives to keep forever (soon to be available to print as well!)
  • Photos and Comments are delivered to all of your loved ones with the greatest ease, inside of outside of Facebook, and even in the mail (coming soon!)

Add “These Are My Kids” here and let us know what you think! You can comment within the application (there is a prompt along the top of the app), or join the Beta Testers Group for the app and comment in the Discussion Board.