Brain Album

Edmonton New Media Roundup 28

It’s about time I got around to writing about MediaCamp, which brought more than 80 people to the World Trade Centre on Feb. 4 to explore the intersection of journalism and technology. I’m still thinking about that intersection, and the other roads that feed into it.

For a recap of what we did and learned, check out the amazing on-the-fly summaries put together by the MediaCamp newsroom. Huge thanks to my co-chair, Mack Male, and the organizing committee: Jeff Samsonow, Owen Brierley, Brittney Le Blanc and Tamara Stecyk, with assistance from Bruce Winter, Sylvia Schneider, Kerry Powell and Chandra Lye.

What follows are my thoughts alone, as the committee hasn’t had a chance to meet yet to discuss the event and our next steps.

Our mission for MediaCamp was to get storytellers and coders together to see how they could help each other do what they do. Did we succeed? Sort of. Because it was programmed instead of being an unconference, we were able to gear the agenda towards teaching tech skills to journos and story skills to devs. The storytellers greatly outnumbered the coders, however.

Part of this may have been timing. Startup Hackathon and Global Game Jam took place the weekend before. I suspect, however, that a lot of the people we were trying to attract just didn’t see what was in it for them. I wonder if it would be easier to go where the techs are instead of trying to lure them over to hang out with the word-mongers.

Startup Edmonton’s recent announcements may provide such an opportunity. I’m intrigued by the courses and workshops that are starting in April. Most are aimed at those who have built something cool and need help to make a business out of it, but some look applicable to working journalists and communicators of all stripes.

Startup Edmonton has also launched Startup Support Communities, an effort to kickstart “local connections and conversations around creative and startup culture here in Edmonton.” And the new space in the Mercer Warehouse aims to be a place to get designers, developers and entrepreneurs together to see what emerges from the collision of their worlds.

I’d like the journalism world to get in on that collision. I don’t know what that looks like yet, or if Startup Edmonton is interested, but I’m keen on anything we can do to infuse the spirit of entrepreneurial thinking into those who spend their days finding stuff out and telling people about it. As Jeff Jarvis suggests, it’s the only practical way to keep journalism happening as the old business models crumble.

Anyway, I’ll keep thinking about that. Stay tuned for more on what MediaCamp plans to do next.

Not that you’d know it if you’ve been waiting for an update, but I have been consuming as much Edmonton new media as usual lately. I just haven’t sat myself down to write about it. Which is a problem, because then it piles up, and the thought of catching up becomes daunting. So here I am, catching up. Consider this one big ICYMI.

— Jen Banks has been writing up a storm on Tech Mommy. She has just the right mix for me: a eulogy for a dead computer on the tech side, a harrowing tale of childbirth on the mommy side.

— I’m way late on this one, but Linda Hoang’s feature story on Edmonton’s Awesome Foundation is definitely worth a read. When she covers something, she covers the heck out of it. The next pitch party is March 29. By the way, Awesome grant recipient Words with Friends holds its fifth event on Feb. 23 at Bohemia.

— Paul Matwychuk and Heather Noel have replaced DVD Afternoon with a new show call Trash, Art and the Movies. Not only have they changed the format in a way that makes it more accessible to the likes of me, but they’ve also brought in Erin Fraser, who has her hand in all kinds of interesting stuff, including Metro Cinema, Graphic Content and Sequential Tart. The first episode was lots of fun, and I’m looking forward to more.

— Speaking of comic books and podcasts, I’m listening for the first time to Podcast! The Comics, which is part of the Comics! The Blog juggernaut fashioned by Brandon Schatz and James Leask. As I have said before, I’m more an admirer of people who like comics than a reader of comics themselves, but it seems to me this is quite an impressive effort.

— In other podcast-related news, Jay n’ J have a new feature called Jay vs J, in which the two movie buffs debate the merits of a film and ask you to vote. Very slick. Lots of fun episodes lately, too, whether it’s the “sliders” or the most recent full episode with Aaron Clifford. (Also, Aaron, who was awesome at MediaCamp, is making me want to try Pinterest. Aarrgh, no time! And yet…)

(Addendum: Unbeknownst to me when I wrote this post, James Leask is the guest on the actual most recent Jay n’ J podcast. Spooky. Plus he likes The Princess Bride, which is my favourite movie, so obviously, this is a must listen, even though I will never ever watch Ghost Rider.) 

— The Unknown Studio is back on track after illness and busyness got in the way of regular podcasting. In the spirit of ICYMI, do listen to the small but mighty Flu Episode to hear Alex Abboud talk about being the Edmonton Journal’s first blogger-in-residence. In my admittedly biased estimation, Alex has been hitting it out of the park, both on his own blog and at The Journal, where he consults, blogs and observes under the aegis of the media lab that I co-ordinate.

OK, way too long, and still too much to say. I should blog more often — then I wouldn’t get so pent up. Comment, tweet or Google+ at me if you like.

(Thanks to Mack Male for the photo, which comes from his Flickr stream under a Creative Commons licence.)

Edmonton New Media Roundup 27

It seems an awful lot of people are interested in learning how to do new things this year, and a lot of them are journalists and/or bloggers, judging from my Twitter stream.

For example, tens of thousands of people — including me! — have signed up for Code Year 2012, which is Code Academy’s super-enticing way to make it fun and easy to learn the basics of JavaScript and other stuff that we word people never imagined wanting to learn. You get a lesson a week by email.

I don’t think it will turn me into Lisa Williams, and I’m going to have to improve my time management skills to work the lessons into my life, but I’m excited for the opportunity. So is Sheri at This Bird’s Day. So could you be.

Speaking of opportunities to learn new skills, MediaCamp Edmonton is set for Feb. 4 at the World Trade Centre on Jasper Avenue. Tickets will be on sale at yeglive.ca very soon. (Update: Are on sale now!) The idea is to get storytellers and coders together to see how they can help each other.

Among the speakers are SEO/analytics expert Dana DiTomaso, Edmonton Journal publisher John Connolly, developer Aaron Clifford, data journalist Lucas Timmons, designer Tanya Camp, social media strategist Jay Palter, data miner Mack Male, radio/web wunderkind Brittney Le Blanc, Storifyer extraordinaire Tamara Stecyk and Edmonton’s own Dumbledore of code, Owen Brierley. And me. So come!

(Addendum: Todd Babiak of Story Engine will also be joining us, to talk about how developers can get their story out. For more on MediaCamp, see Jeff Samsonow’s post, or listen to his dulcet tones on the latest Unknown Studio podcast.)

MediaCamp is just one of many cool and useful events coming up. To wit:

— Jan. 18: DemoCamp 17: Developers show their stuff at the Telus Centre at the University of Alberta
— Jan. 19: Girl Geek Dinner, Season 2, Episode 5: No speaker this time, just a chance to get together and geek out at Brewsters Oliver Square.
— Jan. 27: Social Media Breakfast: Walter Schwabe of fusedlogic will be speaking at this edition of the monthly event. Ticket details to come, so watch the #smbyeg hashtag for details.
— Jan. 27-29: Startup Hackathon and Global Game Jam: A 54-hour marathon to make apps and games.
— Feb. 2: Pecha Kucha Night 12: A night of short, sharp talks at the Metro Cinema (Garneau Theatre).
— Feb. 8: TEDxEdmonton Salon Series #1: A live speaker event on the theme of “Rethinking Open Source Culture.”
— March 8-10: BlogWest 2012: A conference that aims to get bloggers and brands together, organized by Felicia Dewar.
— May 4-5: iMedia, a social media conference organized by Carol McBee.

And that’s just a bit of what’s going on. Keep an eye on ShareEdmonton’s calendar for more.

Here are a few more things I noticed this month:

— Avenue Edmonton started a petition to get the city to build a monument to SCTV, which was made here in the early 1980s. David Staples and Colby Cosh liked the idea; Mike Otto did not. Much back-and-forthing ensued on Twitter. As many have pointed out, there’s a bit of a generational divide here. If you (like me) grew up with the show, it’s monumental. If you didn’t, chances are you’d rather see the time and energy spent elsewhere.

— While we’re talking about monuments, the prolific Paula Kirman had a nice post earlier this month on the homeless memorial sculpture on 99th Street.

— If you’re looking for a primer on FourSquare, its uses and abuses, Jerry Aulenbach has you covered.

— Lowetide has migrated his widely read Oilers blog to a new site.

— Alex Abboud is in the middle of a thoughtful series of blog posts on Jasper Avenue. Here’s the preamble and here’s a rumination on what’s good about 104th Street. (Mack has a post on 104th, too.)

— In Roundup 26, I admitted my dearth of knowledge when it comes to food blogs. Luckily, Sharon Yeo publishes regular Food Notes as part of her encyclopedic Only Here for the Food.

— In other food news, Jennifer Cockrall-King gave a great talk at The ARTery on Jan. 12 about her new book, Food and the City, which comes out next month.

— She spoke a TripLit, a fun and well-attended literary event put on by three authors: Jocelyn Brown, the new writer-in-residence at the Edmonton Public Library; Lynn Coady, co-founder of Eighteen Bridges magazine; and Marina Endicott, founder along with Coady of the Literary Saloon. I learned a lot that night.

By the way, I’m giving a workshop called Social Media for Writers through MacEwan Writing Works on Feb. 11. I have started compiling a Twitter list of authors who use Twitter effectively. Many are local but there are a few others sprinkled in there. I’d love to hear your suggestions for worthy additions. Comment, tweet or Google+ at me.

Edmonton New Media Roundup 25

I’ve been doing this, that and the other thing, so this time around I’m heading straight into cool stuff I’ve come across in the past little while:

— It was nice to see the edmontonian’s YouTube channel come to life again with A Close Shave, a trailer for Marty Chan’s latest children’s book. I have it on good authority that that thing above Miles Cruz’s lip is not Jeff Samsonow’s real Movember moustache, although he did sprout hair for prostate cancer research, along with seemingly half of the Edmonton twitterverse.

— The Charrette, the urban planning and design blog kept by Scott Lilwall, Mike Otto and a cast of perspicacious contributors, just celebrated its first birthday. I can’t overstate how much I admire this blog. It’s such a perceptive conversation about what our city looks like, or should look like, and it’s a sandbox for playing around with new storytelling techniques, such as the Austerity Bot or the masterful live-tweeting and Storifying of city council’s budget hearings. I wish you many more birthdays, fellas.

— A few blog posts emanating from the intersection of parenthood and technology caught my eye. Jen Banks has two: One offers a cautionary tale about hard lessons learned while switching web hosting for Mom Nation; the other is a provocative prediction on Tech Mommy positing that Facebook will go the way of MySpace in five years. Both are worth a read.

On the dad side of things, Francois Bourdeau launched a new blog called überdad with a post on why he wants his kids to learn to code, which in turn prompted Jay Palter to take it further on his home made dad blog. I don’t know if their kids are too old for this book, but maybe it’s a start.

— I love both opera and trains, so I was sorry to miss Mercury Opera’s performance in the Bay LRT station on Nov. 25. Luckily, Mack Male’s blog post offers the next best thing, with a lovely writeup, pictures and video. Speaking of Mack, he’s conducting a survey on the meaning of #yeg that you should fill out when you have a minute.

— While we’re handing out homework, why don’t you head on over to Mashable’s awards page and vote for Edmonton’s own Empire Avenue as best up-and-coming social media service? And have you considered applying for the Edmonton Journal’s blogger-in-residence program? And do you want to enter a contest cooked up by my students at MacEwan? And are you planning to come to MediaCamp?

— One more question: Are you following Colby Cosh on Twitter? Back in our university days, Colby and I were so far apart on the political spectrum, we could barely see each other. Now that he represents Edmonton and Alberta to the rest of Canada via Maclean’s, I still disagree with him a fair bit, but I do find him entertaining and intelligent. As this piece on the Raymond Comets shows, he writes like a dream.

— I got behind on my podcast listening, but thanks to having to clean up my house for Christmas and company, I’m all caught up. The Unknown Studio’s live interview with Joe Wos of the Toonseum, recorded at the Pure Speculation festival, is delightful listening. If you can’t get enough of The Muppets, among other movie matters, tune in to both Jay n’ J and DVD Afternoon (in which Paul Matwychuk takes a swing at The Rainbow Connection. I still like him, despite that.)

As well, Jay n’ J squeezed in a slider episode with Trent Wilkie on Metro Shorts, a series of short films at the Metro Cinema presented by Trent’s Mostly Water Theatre. He also has a cameo in A Close Shave that really did make me laugh out loud.

Well, we seem to have come full circle, so that will do for now. You’ll find more media stuff in Mastermaq’s Media Monday. Comments are welcome here, on Twitter and on Google+.

(That’s a screen capture from A Close Shave up top. Nice shooting, Sally Poulsen.)

Edmonton New Media Roundup 21

The story of the week was the downtown arena project. I wish I had been free on Friday to Storify the reaction to city council’s decision to buy the land amid news of the negotiations between the city and the Katz Group with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman in New York.
 
The volume of tweets on #yegarena and #yegcc was overwhelming, as Mack Male shows in this post summarizing the day and the Twitter reaction. Word clouds have had a bit of a bad rap lately, but to me, the clouds in this post and the post setting up Friday’s events do a pretty good job of letting us see what was said.
 
As Mack notes, Mike Otto of The Charrette also did a nifty little bit of data journalism on opinions expressed about the arena proposal in calls to 311, the city’s information line. (Speaking of The Charrette, Otto’s partner-in-awesome Scott Lilwall recently launched a semi-regular feature called Ask the Charrette, an invitation to ask them anything about urban planning. In this city, at this time, there are a lot of questions that need answering, so have at it.)

For a more elegiac take on the debate, see Zoe Todd’s post on how the arena narrative clashes with her own feelings about the story of this city. The post itself was already a worthy read. Then Journal sports columnist John MacKinnon made a rather rude comment, to which Zoe responded thoughtfully and with class. The ensuing back-and-forth is revealing and also worth your time.

This is a neverending story. If I’m missing something good on the arena issue, let me know in the comments. Now, what else?

— Besides being another great get-together and a chance to show off my dino-loving daughter, this month’s Girl Geek Dinner introduced us to an inspiring young University of Alberta paleontologist named Victoria Arbour. If you like dinosaurs, I encourage you to read Victoria’s blog. You can also follow the U of A’s Dino Lab on Facebook. The next Girl Geek Dinner will be held Nov. 17 at D’Lish Urban Kitchen and Wine Bar.

— YegNews has officially shut down after four months of operation. I was skeptical about its editorial and business model from the get-go, and its challenges were all the more difficult to surmount when Scott McKeen departed in July. But I also applaud anyone who tries anything new and hard. Alain Saffel deserves credit for that. Failure is a gift, as long as we learn from it.

— Jay Runham of the Jay n’ J movies podcast was kind enough to take me out to see Page One: Inside the New York Times, which I had been dying to see. We recorded a “slider” episode of Jay n’ J (sans J, aka Jordan Blackburn, who was out of town). The movie’s brief appearance in Edmonton is over now, but have a listen to see if you’d like to rent it or see it on Netflix. It was such a delight to meet Jay in real life. Next up, I believe, is a full episode on Footloose, featuring woman-about-town Brittney Le Blanc.

— The Conservative leadership vote and Premier Alison Redford’s cabinet-making have provided plenty of fodder for Dave Cournoyer on daveberta.ca. With Redford in charge, a provincial election won’t happen until spring, but nominations are well underway. Here’s Dave’s running list of who’s running.

— Efforts to organize MediaCamp Edmonton 2 are in full flight now. We’ve changed the date to Feb. 4 (instead of Jan. 28) so as not to conflict with the next Startup Weekend and Global Game Jam. MediaCamp aims to bring storytellers and developers together to see how we can help each other do what we do. Watch the website for details in the coming weeks. We’re using the hashtag #yegmediacamp on Twitter to seek input and share links. If you’re interested in coming, please fill out this survey so we can try to make it all you want it to be. If you’re interested in sponsoring or volunteering, email me at karen@unlandmedia.com.

There’s always so much more to say, and yet, that feels like enough. Feel free to add more in the comments, on Twitter or on Google+. More media news can be found on Mack’s Media Monday.

(Speaking on Mack, that’s his photo up top, taken in May 2010 at an open house on the Edmonton Arena District.)

Edmonton New Media Roundup 16

I’m going to blame the tardiness of this week’s roundup on my grief over the retirement of the edmontonian. It may not be an entirely accurate excuse — I was busy getting ready to teach and finishing off a super-cool project I’ll tell you about one of these days — but it is completely true that I am choked to lose one of my favourite blogs.

Many others share my sadness. Jeff Samsonow and Sally Poulsen have made a tremendous impression on this city, and the response to their decision to move on surprised even them, they told Mack Male in this interview. Mack’s was one of many fine tribute posts (Gregg Beever had another good one and so did Adam Rozenhart of the Unknown Studio).

So I thought I’d do something a little bit different. Here’s a Storify curating the best of the Twitter reaction, and Sally and Jeff’s reaction to the reaction, starting with their announcement on Aug. 29 and ending with their inspiring final post on Sept. 9.

Judging from the reaction, one of the most beloved services offered by the edmontonian was the daily headlines roundup. If you are clever, well-read, super-focused on local news and thinking “I’d love to blog, but what should I write about?”, do this. An audience is poised to gobble your words.

OK, what else has been going on?

— The Unknown Studio is about to get going again in earnest, and you are invited to join the audio fun. You have until Sept. 30 to pitch a segment for the podcast. This is a great opportunity for anyone eager to break in to podcasting, as this one already has a considerable audience.

— Speaking of podcasts, I am so happy that research for this post led me to subscribe to DVD Afternoon. It is such an enjoyable listen. Co-host Paul Matwychuk has launched a new Tumblr for movie nerds: The Cinematic Jokebook, a compendium of clips of movie characters telling jokes. If you know of such a joke, Paul wants to hear from you.

— Also on the movie podcast front, Jay n’ J have started doing “sliders” — mini-episodes the slide in between their big monthly podcasts. Here’s the latest.

— In awwww news, tech mommy and SEO ninja Jen Banks shared some awesome news on Mom Nation.

(Addendum: Modern Mama Musings asked Albertans to vote on their favourite mama blog, and Edmonton’s City and Baby won. Congrats!)

— Plans are underway for another MediaCamp Edmonton. We are aiming to have it on Jan. 28. If you would like to be in on the organizing but you aren’t on the MediaCamp Google Group, email me at karen(at)unlandmedia.com. We’ll be meeting again on Sept. 19 before splitting off into committees; stay tuned for details.

— Meshwest is coming to Edmonton on Oct. 4, and tickets are on sale now. It’s pricy, but I got a lot out of the Calgary event and I bet this one will be good, too. Plus it will bring Mathew Ingram here, which is always a good thing.

— The formidable Dana DiTomaso is offering a seminar on social media for business at Guru Digital Arts College on Sept. 20. I learn two or three new things every time I talk to Dana, as I did at Edmonton’s first Women in Wireless event, a nice little get-together put on by Lisa Hagen.

— Dana is one half of the dynamic duo behind Edmonton Girl Geek Dinners, the other half being my favourite unicornologist, Brittney Le Blanc. The next dinner, on Sept. 15, features Karin Weekes of BioWare. If I could go, I would, so if you can go, you should.

— And finally, speaking of things you should go to, Pecha Kucha Night 11 is on Sept. 14. It’s at Myer Horowitz Theatre at the University of Alberta, which is a big venue, so there are still tickets available. The speakers list is full of cool and crazy stuff. If you stay until the end, you will see me give a talk called What Journalism Needs Now. If you can’t come, it will be livestreamed on edmontonjournal.com. And it will be all over Twitter at #PKN11.

When I started doing this new media roundup, I aimed to have a new post every Monday. I’m going to keep with the regularity, but my new publication date will be Fridays. So I’ll see you then. If I’m missing something, comment, tweet or Google+ at me. You can always get more media news in Mack Male’s Media Monday.

(If you want a T-shirt like the one you see up top, it’s not too late to buy merchandise from the edmontonian, a bargain at twice the price.)

Edmonton New Media Roundup 15

It’s back-to-school season in our house. The kids return to class on Thursday, Trustee Spencer’s meetings have resumed, and I am preparing to teach (!) reporting and news production in the journalism diploma program at Grant MacEwan University. So I’m in an education frame of mind for this week’s roundup.
 
In many ways, the Internet has disrupted education as much as it has disrupted journalism. As with journalism, there are some in education who resist the change, pine for the good old days and are certain things are going to hell. And then there are people like George Couros, who embrace change and see all the good that can come of it.
 
I haven’t met George, but I’m a fan of his Twitter feed and find myself increasingly drawn to his blog as I work on turning myself into an educator. He is a principal in Stony Plain and now holds a newly created position as division principal in charge of innovative teaching and learning in the Parkland School Division, which covers several communities west of Edmonton.

George has exactly the attitude I want to see in anyone involved in teaching. He considers it part of his job to turn students into “strong Digital Citizens,” and he models that behaviour by being one himself. He also created Connected Principals, a group blog where school administrators from all over share what they’ve learned. From where I sit, Parkland is pretty lucky to have him.

What networked teachers inspire you? Let me know in the comments, on Twitter or on Google+.

Rounding up some other new media stuff from the past week:

— Speaking of networked education, registration is now open for EdCamp Edmonton, a one-day unconference on learning. It will be held Nov. 5 at Lillian Osborne High School. I’m planning to be there.

— Which reminds me, plans are underway for another MediaCamp Edmonton. The first one was held in May 2010, and it felt like a success, but then life got in the way of working on the next one. Efforts are now resurrected. An organizational meeting will be held at Guru Digital Arts College at 6:30 p.m. tonight (Aug. 29). Minutes will be posted here.

— My own education efforts this fall will be centred on guiding students through the production of West Edmonton Local. MacEwan grad Mathew White has done a bang-up job keeping the site going through the summer, and he’ll be helping me and Lucas Timmons turn it back into a learning experience for the next group of MacEwan journalism students. If you have any suggestions for improvement, let us know.

— In other news, Andy Grabia has launched a new photo project called My Edmonton, documenting the beautiful buildings in our city. As Andy points out, there is a lot of talk about how ugly our architecture is, and while much of that criticism is deserved, it obscures the fact that we have lovely and striking architecture here as well. He’s looking for suggestions, so be sure to chime in.

(Addendum: Also on the theme of beautiful things about Edmonton, see Sharon Yeo’s post on Edmonton Transit’s historical tour.)

— Speaking of Andy, a fierce opponent of the proposal to build a new arena for the Oilers downtown, the discussion continues in Edmonton’s blogosphere in light of the city’s new proposal to fund the arena through an expanded community revitalization levy. Of note are Alex Abboud’s call for downtown development with or without the CRL, Ryan Batty’s skeptical look at CRLs, and Mack Male’s coverage of the proposal to expand the CRL boundary. For more commentary and links to what mainstream media and others are saying about the arena, keep an eye on the edmontonian.

(Addendum 2: Looks like the edmontonian is hanging up its cleats. Nooooo!)

For more on media new and old, check out Mack’s Media Monday.

(Image of George Couros courtesy Kevin Jarrett, taken Jan. 30, 2011)