social media technology - digital culture - @kempedmonds vancouver

Understanding Social Networks: Delivery

2010-03-10T07:05:00.000-08:00

The three major social networks or as a Pakistani gentleman who repurposed my presentation calls them "The Three Amigos" Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter should be considered the essential social networks for most users. Niche Social Networks are a different beast altogether. I want to discuss the differences in 'Delivery' for the Three Amigos.

Linking together different social media profiles is all the rage these days and it does save time, but it may do damage to people's networks that they may not consider. Consider how you felt the last time you read something you didn't understand. This may be how your network on LinkedIn or Facebook feel seeing RT, @ or # in a message you post. They may not understand what it is.

Today we are talking delivery. Twitter is different from Facebook and LinkedIn in that it has symbols and key strings you wouldn't normally see when using the other networks. If you are someone who has only heard of Twitter but hasn't come to understand these words and symbols it can be challenging to understand and off putting. Remember what it was like the last time you read something that you didn't understand completely.

I recently linked my Youtube with Twitter and Facebook. The problem was when I favourited things or added videos to a playlist I do it a whole bunch at once flooding the stream. Once I saw it I changed the settings which had a lot of good options, like it would only update my networks when i uploaded a new video. Let's look at a few examples of messages across social networks.

This is an example of what a Facebook post looks like from April Smith. Notice the logo and the meta description pulled from the page automatically by Facebook. April has also posted this to the DNC Fan Page wall by using Facebook's mention function neither the graphic, the meta description nor the mention appear when cross posting as below:

I don't mean to call out my friend Jeremy Lim he is a busy professional in high demand so I understand him using cross posting to save time and get out his message but one just has to read the comments section of his post to understand the reaction of users who didn't know what a hashtag (#) was.

This post could have appeared on Facebook in this way:

The big difference about the social networks is the different audiences. We can't treat them all the same. On Twitter the hashtags become links to searches about the topic (EX). This is what Jeremy's post looked like on Twitter:

On Twitter the message looks perfect and fits in the Twitter ecosystem, but on Facebook it looks out of place and makes at least one person feel like they 'haven't learned the tricks'. Jeremy reveals that in fact he is cross posting to almost a dozen different social networking sites with the same message. I believe doing so is taking a risk.

Lastly, one of my favourite independent local marketing people, Rosa Meyers. Rosa cross posts from Twitter to LinkedIn. Rosa is starting out in marketing and LinkedIn is one the best places for her to find and connect with current and future clients some of whom may have never seen an RT or a # because they don't use Twitter. This is what her cross posted tweet looked like on LinkedIn:

Cross posting from Twitter to LinkedIn is a problem due to the differences in frequency for people using each platform as well. The biggest risk here is that the audience and potential audience on LinkedIn don't appreciate the 'cryptic' and very frequent updates as much as the audience on Twitter does. We only get one chance to make a first impression and when someone sees a status update on LinkedIn that they don't understand they may be less likely to connect with us.

In conclusion, as more and more people start using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn it's important that they feel like these ecosystems are easy to understand and I believe cross posting makes that more difficult. This post started out as one but will now be made into two: Delivery and Frequency, which I will cover in a later post.

For people who talk regularly these different messages are not a problem, they talk about it and someone learns something. It's when you don't speak to someone who only sees you on LinkedIn or Facebook, that the sight of these characters and symbols, which they don't understand, can put them off of communications and as the poster we may never know as they hide our updates on Facebook or LinkedIn. What are your thoughts on cross posting? What social networks do you use? Do you notice these differences in symbols and language? What are your feelings about it?

VANOC's greatest oversight at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics

2010-03-05T11:57:00.000-08:00

Rick Hansen and Wayne Gretzky

I had a lovely dinner last night with a few good friends and of course we discussed the Olympics. Everyone had a great time, a really great time. It was how a certain part of the opening ceremonies played out and how most of us didn't even notice that was offputting. It comes not from a technical glitch, but from what happened after the torch was lit and what it meant in the lives of those who lit the torch inside BC Place. It was no fault of the two individuals involved but an oversight by the planning group.

By: David Byrd

Rick Hansen and Wayne Gretzky are both national heros, without a doubt. Does anyone remember how Rick Hansen ended up in a wheel chair? "He was paralyzed at the age of 15 from being in the back of a pickup truck when it crashed into another car." -Wikipedia. So there's Rick Hansen inside BC Place where he finished his 26-month trek of over 40,000 km through 34 countries almost 23 years before and he sits there as Wayne jumps into the back of a pickup truck to take the torch down to the cauldron in Coal Harbour and light it.

The parallel of being in the back of a pickup truck while Rick's message is to always wear a seat belt, don't drink and drive and be safe while driving seemed to me to be the largest oversight of VANOC and no one noticed.What do you think of this? What was the greatest oversight in your opinion?

Crowd Sourced Olympic Montage Videos UPDATED

2010-03-02T11:00:00.000-08:00

I have been troubled about what to write about the Olympics while basking in the short afterglow. I have a few things planned for next week in terms of intellectual discussion and the Olympic movement in general but this week I thought I would leave it to the people who created loved and enjoyed the Olympics to it's fullest. Under each video is a short description of and link to the creator.

Stephen Brunt of the Globe and Mail created this tear jerker of a photo essay of the games.

John Biehler a local citizen journalist and all-round awesome guy made this.

This video was created by AHA MEDIA's Richard Czaban. AHA MEDIA is about exploring mobile media production through New Media cameras. For a better quality version of this video, contact April Smith on Twitter or Facebook.

A tribute to the Canadian Gold Medal hockey team! Lyrics by Ray Blackmore & Produced by Kevin Lambert

This video was taken from inside Yaletown LiveCity as Canada wins Ice Hockey Gold. Wow.

This video was posted on Vancity Buzz and is a static video shot of downtown with audio as Canada wins Gold in Men's Ice Hockey. The sound you are hearing in this video is mostly from the LiveCity Yaletown venue in the lower middle of the shot. Check out the video above to experience the noise from inside the venue.

This is the promo video made pre-games but still inspires.

Free Toolkit for Small Business Online

2010-02-23T13:17:00.000-08:00

Free tools are vital to the success of any small business. The current growth in free applications and software continues to benefit all businesses. Choosing a few of these tools was a real challenge. These applications assist small business owners with common issues such as web publishing, storage, document creation and editing, communications, marketing and scheduling.

Wordpress and Blogger are the top two online blogging tools which can also be used to create and manage fully funcitoning websites rather easily. If you are looking for an external solution your costs will increase exponentially. Use Google to find great walk-throughs for these free straightforward website solutions.

Dropbox is a storage system (2GB free) for storing files across multiple computers with ease. It allows the user to drop a file in to an internet folder which can be accessed by other computers or even your iPhone/ Blackberry. Dropbox also allows you to invite people to view private files or host files in a public folder accessible to anyone who knows the address. This is great for working with clients or transferring files among a group of people.

Google Docs is a free, web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation and form application offered by Google. Google Docs allows free storage of up to 1GB of data. Google Docs is also a collaborative tool for editing in real time. Documents can be shared, opened, and edited by multiple users at the same time.

Open Office is an offline alternative to Google Docs or Microsoft Office. It is available for Mac OS X, Windows, Linux and most other operating systems. Open Office is free to download and easy to install.

Hootsuite allows a user to measure, monitor and post to social media like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn all from one easy to use dashboard. There is a learning curve when using this incredible free dashboard so watch the short tutorial videos. Social media can be utilized to enhance customer engagement and communications, both internally and externally.

Mail Chimp allows the user to send out 3000 electronic mail outs per month or free for up to 500 subscribers. For a small business an email list is essential but keeping those people engaged and up-to-date with your business is even more important.

Doodle is an easy to use scheduling software. It's great for scheduling meetings. It's hard to explain how easy it makes things until you try it so just click the link above and test out Doodle.

It is important to consider free tools when managing your business.

Originally published in the Vancouver Board of Trade's Sounding Board Magazine.

The Olympic Torch Relay hits its Target

2010-02-15T15:24:00.001-08:00

I woke up last Thursday at 5:30 to get picked up and driven out to Port Moody City Hall. It was still dark when we jumped into a pickup with Serge who had been on the road with the torch all the way across Canada keeping the fleet of vehicles going. The energy of the people in the streets was amazing.

Serge wrote a great blog post about the trip with him. The torch made me remember what it was like to be a kid. To believe in something that can unify and excite us all. They were up before the sun and it was wet and cold but they were smiling.

I quickly got over to Willingdon Avenue in Burnaby outside BCIT to tak pics of the torch relay from the street. Thousands of people took to the street to greet the flame as it ran past BCIT. Check out this for more.

It's all about the children and they loved the whole event. In these next few photos elementary school kids stood in a long line to touch a torch after the relay ran by them. Luckily we had a few torch bearers on hand to ensure that everyone got to touch the magic.

The last stop for me on my Torch Relay day was to see my cousin carry the torch past her school.
You can see all 200 of the photos I took of the torch relay February 11th on Flickr.

The Chevrolet Volt with Jason Baker

2010-02-10T01:14:00.000-08:00

After testing driving the Chevy Volt we made this short 60 second video to highlight the most important features:

Full electric up to 64km
Gasoline engine kicks in after 64km
Chargeable on a standard outlet
A full charge takes 3-8 hours
Sport mode

The journey of the Chevrolet Volt has been long and arduous. I remember hearing whispers of its development about 5 years ago. It was a near mythical vehicle (left). Now the real deal (right) is en route and this November you can have one. You can own a piece of the future. I am not kidding. The fact that it can go 64km, the average daily commute of 75% Americans, on a single charge using absolutely no gasoline says more than anything else. To see all the rest of the amazing stats you can skip to the end where the wikipedia reference does the job. Driving it was pretty similar to driving a very nice new virtually noise free electric vehicle. So, like nothing any consumer has had the luxury to enjoy yet. Please enjoy this guest post from Jason Baker on the Volt.

GUEST POST - JASON BAKER
With having been given the chance to drive the amazingly quiet Chevrolet Volt yesterday, I look forward to the future of electric cars and hydrogen fuel cell technology. I don’t consider myself to be a car enthusiast by any means, but as a citizen of Surrey where we heavily rely on cars to get around, I look forward to the anticipation of one day owning a Chevrolet Volt or at least an electric car. For a vehicle that has been the buzz of the automobile industry as the ‘car of the future’, it truly does deliver as a point A to point B car. At least for me it beats the low riding vibration 20-year-old Mazda stick-shift truck that I drive around with a large turning radius.

As much as I enjoyed the unbelievably smooth and quiet ride that the Chevrolet Volt comes with, I can’t help but think about our future as a society with electric cars. Although GM has spent years on sustainable technology that many residents of Vancouver would endorse, our public infrastructure is years away from supporting such a paradigm shift in the automobile. The Chevrolet Volt is a garage only vehicle with the need to continually plug in to either a 240V or 120V battery. I say continually because most people like myself, continually plug-in laptops instead of draining them out.

In general, society has focused more on the economical and sustainable benefits that vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt bring, but what about the things we haven’t thought about. For instance how do we take long road trips with the use of the electric battery? Have we thought about where we can plug-in at a hotel? How do we ensure that thief’s don’t walk off with a charging unit that costs $200-$500? Below is a short list of community infrastructure problems related to the innovation of electric cars:

A shortage of public charging stations
Building public charging stations into existing infrastructure
The debate of who is financially responsible for charging stations on private property
The security of your charging unit when left in an underground or outdoor parking lot
Street parking and secure in ground charging units
Developing rural areas at the same pace as urban areas to support the electric car

The majority of these issues are currently in debate amongst experts, companies, and governments around the world. However, they are not a major topic of discussion because the electric car is not here yet. It’s our nature that we react to what is needed. In BC, our infrastructure has never been “plan for what we will need.”

The Chevrolet Volt is an innovative vehicle and the new standard for electric cars. But its benefits develop the problems for infrastructure and safety. In addition to the charging stations, the vehicle is so quiet that pedestrians can’t tell a car is coming. In fact, when we pressed the ignition button, no one knew that the vehicle’s engine had started up. It was that quiet!

As a marketing professional, the current theme of “reset” with regards to changing our industry standards and habits also applies to society as a whole. We are in a complete reset, and this includes changing our infrastructure from catching up with old technology to planning with new technology for new sustainable infrastructure. This is why the automobile industry needs to put more pressure on governments because this is going to be the future, and we need to plan for it.

So as we listen to the build up hype of the Chevrolet Volt and future electric cars, just be cognoscente of the infrastructure issues that make this car feasible for the average consumer. This car should be more than a Point A to Point B vehicle, but it won’t be unless the infrastructure is built at hotels or other public parking spaces. But I am all for sustainable cars, just plan for it and don’t wait until the market is already here.

And we'll finish off with some information from wikipedia and the standard test drive & car show videos.

The Chevrolet Volt is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle to be produced by the Chevrolet General Motors and expected to be launched in November 2010 as a 2011 model. Its retail price has yet to be announced by General Motors, but is estimated to be near $40,000 USD.^[4] which would give a net price of about $32,500 after the $7,500 US Federal tax credit. The automaker has kept the Volt on or ahead of schedule, despite GM's Chapter 11 reorganization.^[5] The Volt's propulsion system will be based on GM's new Voltec (formerly known as E-Flex) electric automobile platform, which differs significantly from GM's earlier BAS Hybrid and Two-Mode Hybrid systems. The first pre-production test car based on the full Volt design was built in June 2009 in Warren, Michigan^[6] and by October 2009, 80 Volts had been built and are being tested under various conditions.^[7]

For up to the first 40 miles (64 km), the Volt is powered by electrical energy stored in its on-boardlithium-ion batteries which are charged by connection to an electrical power outlet. The Volt's 16 kWh (8.0 kWh usable) lithium-ion battery pack can be fully charged SAE J1772^[8] compliant charging cord. Charge by plugging the car into a 120-240VAC residential electrical outlet using the provided harging station will be required.^[9] Unlike most current commercially available hybrid electric vehicles, the actual propulsion of the Volt is accomplished exclusively by the electric motor.

Right side: the gasoline-powered engine used as generator to recharge the batteries. Left side: the electric-powered engine used for traction.

-Thanks Wikipedia.

A typical test drive video

The classic car television show talks about the volt.

Athletes experience Social Media confusion at The 'Twitter' Olympics #TNMH

2010-02-06T15:27:00.000-08:00

I recently read an article in Wired on athlete confusion around social media publishing policies. One skier told he 35,000 Twitter followers that "because of the Olympic rules (blackout period). I will not be able to post any updates from now until March 3rd. Sorry, it bums me out too!" The update was also posted to her Facebook, showing some savvy, nice one.

Apparently, the move was made based on a faulty understanding of the International Olympic Committee’s rules on blogging and social networking. There is no Olympic rule that sets up a blackout period for athletes according to Bob Condron, the Director of Media Services for the United States Olympic Committee. “Athletes are free to blog during the Games. Twitter is just a blog that’s written 140 characters at a time. You can’t act as a journalist if you aren’t,” says Condron. “You need to do things in a first person way.”

Speedskater Nick Pearson posted on Twitter, “Due to Olympic regulations I can no longer post pics on Twitter through the Olympics.” On the left is a photo he took from his room in the athlete's village. IOC guidelines state that athletes may post photos of themselves as long as they don’t show any of the actual sporting action during the Games. On the right is a picture of the Olympic speed skating oval he took Feb 4th accompianed by this twitter post, "After all has been cleared up, pictures are a go!!!! Just nothing from the competitions or the opening ceromies." Both of the photos are linked to the originals so if one disappears we can guess what may have happened.

The IOC's concerns are about the very expensive exclusive advertising and broadcast sponsorship deals. Many of these athletes are sponsored by companies other than Olympic sponsors and photos of them in the Olympic venues or spirit may be considered 'offside'. For athletes with no major outside sponsor obligations these worries around twitter pictures and Facebook posts seem like a bit of joke for good reason, they are. No one can stop the wave of social media and this Olympics will confirm it.

Expect heavy social media activity among athletes in Vancouver. These are going to be the Twitter Olympics. On The Georgia Straight's website I found this list of about 50 Canadian athletes who tweet which stands in contrast to the situation with described in Wired. At least their article forced the US Olympic committee to clarify the situation for the athletes. The US Olympic Twitter page's recent tweets are a great example of dealing with the problem and some of the limitations of Twitter to serve customers.

Streets of Plenty: The Vancouver Story of Addiction

2010-02-04T23:57:00.000-08:00

This documentary is something everyone should see. Not for the faint of heart.

Social Media for Entrepreneurs

2010-02-02T17:10:00.000-08:00

Social Media Primer for High School Students

2010-01-26T09:48:00.000-08:00

This presentation was originally delivered to St. George's students on January 22nd, 2010.

Julien Smith talks in Vancouver

2010-01-19T23:27:00.000-08:00

This is a 50 Minute talk given by Trust Agents co-author Julien Smith. Recorded by Justin Carlson at Vancouver's Third Tuesday, January 19th.

Social Media Crash Course for Meeting Professionals

2010-01-14T10:07:00.000-08:00

This presentation was originally given as a roundtable talk to the Meeting Professionals International BC Chapter January 14, 2010.

View more presentations from Kemp Edmonds.

An Interview with Richard Loat @Mozy19

2010-01-07T14:00:00.001-08:00

If you are a Canucks fan and haven't heard of Richard Loat (Mozy19) you most certainly will recognize him from the "We Are All Canucks" ad campaign.

The Digital Culture Shift - Education

2010-01-02T20:55:00.000-08:00

ENTER FULL SCREEN FOR BEST EXPERIENCE

Seth Godin's New Free eBook

2009-12-21T19:29:00.000-08:00

Find the original document for download here.

TED Talks: Reddit, Seth Godin & Malcom Gladwell

2009-12-18T12:00:00.000-08:00

Marketing & Porting iPhone Apps

2009-12-13T13:07:00.000-08:00

Marketing iPhone Apps
NOTE: best to take this slidedeck to full screen.

Scott Michaels, is a man who knows his craft. As the VP of Marketing for Atimi, possibly the largest custom App house around, he has learned to stay ahead, to be nimble and to work with companies whose wealth of knowledge, experience and success enhances and enables his products' successes. The "Technical Pedigree" section of the companies website is an amazing thing to see. The slidedeck above is about Marketing iPhone Apps while the one embedded below is about Porting Apps from one platform to another an essential strategy for the future success of any growing application development outfit. Keep watching this blog hopefully for a future interview with Scott Michaels subscribe by email on the right or by RSS on the right below.

NOTE: best viewed in full screenPorting: Lessons from the Trenches

Mini Documentaries I made 2 years ago

2009-12-11T14:27:00.000-08:00

6 Steps to Launch your Digital Identity

2009-12-07T13:40:00.000-08:00

This course will lay out from the start what is required to be successful in your own right using 'new tools' (social networking and social media) to fulfill your own goals. This course is about helping students to achieve what they are looking for from social networking and media. The course will be held at BCIT's Burnaby campus just east of Vancouver. See the course outline here. If you have any questions about the course contact me directly by email here.

This course will not be exclusively focused on business, personal or professional. The purpose is to lay out the benefits and uses of the tools and let students pursue their own goals with ongoing support and education. Within the class we will be creating a microcosm of what happens on social networks among the larger population and encouraging students to pursue that larger network from the start.

This course has come about as a result of my work in the Social Media realm dating back to 2008. I have been avidly reading everything I can get my hands on including more than a dozen books on the subject and it's related trends. Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody is a great general look at 'the movement' and what it can achieve, for a more Twitter focused book pick up Shel Israel's Twitterville.

When deciding on a single book to use as a supplement to the course I wanted to find something that taught me things and made the path to achieve a strong presence in the new social media realm easy for anyone. For those reasons I have chosen Chris Brogan and Julien Smith's 'guidebook' Trust Agents.The book speaks to the business or professional user but it's lessons and tasks will help anyone looking to establish their digital identity.

A few weeks back I was speaking with a collegue who wanted to start building their professional presence online and these were the first 6 steps I gave him. These steps can be used or substituted for things you have already completed.

6 Steps to launch your digital identity

Choose a name for your new digital identity. For the most success in a professional or business sense use your real name if possible (See Glenn Hilton). If you wish to remain anonymous use a nickname that describes in some way what you are trying to achieve (See Atomic Poet).
Register for a Gmail account with "YourDigitalIdentity@gmail.com" if available. This will be the email you will use to sign up for everything else.
Go to Twitter and sign up with the username "YourDigitalIdentity".
Go to LinkedIn and start your LinkedIn Account. Use your real name. (See mine)
Go to Go Daddy or any other low cost domain registrar and register the domain www.YourDigitalIdentity.com
Go to Blogger or Wordpress and setup a blog. Make a few simple posts or even just titles. No one will find your blog until you want them to.

Do these things when you have time, a Saturday morning or need a short break from your work (not while at work though). Don't feel like you have to do them all at once. "Baby steps" as Richard Dreyfus' character famously explained to Bill Murray's in What about Bob?.

It's not a mountain if you climb it one step at a time. -Kemp Edmonds

How social media provides access to traditional media

2009-11-30T15:00:00.000-08:00

No matter how fast we are going, writing matters more than ever. And editing matters more than writing.
-Kirk Lapointe, Managing Editor, Vancouver Sun.

Last week I attended a "Real Estate Technology Meetup" in Vancouver hosted by Stephen Jagger and Ubertor. Normally this event is more focused on Real Estate but this time the event went in another direction, which greatly pleased me and brought me out to Ceili's in downtown Vancouver on a rainy Monday night. Despite a leaky roof,which can be seen as rain drops on Stephen's head in the video below, the room was packed and the information was valuable and relevant.

The new personal journalism [for every individual] is search.
-Kirk Lapointe.

The guest speakers were Kirk Lapointe and Gillian Shaw, Technology Writer for the Sun. Their insights into how the media landscape is changing AND how to use it to your advantage were essential for those working in marketing, PR and communications. Kirk opened speaking about how the age of long term job security is on it's way out. The new world for most of the people in the room is now about contracts, projects, personal brand, individual jobs and entrepreneurship. This theme is something that everyone looking for a job or career these days should be paying attention to.

If you are hosting an event consider the meaning and context. They are the key to ensuring sustainability and meaning to your audience. The meaning is what you have to sell now.

-Kirk Lapointe.

Gillian followed up Kirk's talk with great advice about the importance and value of new communities and networking. It's about meeting people 'where they are'. Consider where your audience is and move from there. For the media Twitter is another, more efficient way of email and phone conversations. These days with so much information flying around less is often more effective in communication.

Follow the reporters on Twitter to know what they are writing about and get in there. Timeliness is everything as stories often go from the working stage to print quickly. -Gillian Shaw

You can watch the entire discussion below thanks to Ubertor. The questions at the end are very good.

The Vancouver iPhone Forum Opening

2009-11-24T12:51:00.000-08:00

>>> Skip to the Keynote Speech

Today thanks to organizers and sponsors Bell Canada, CBC, New Media BC, BCIT and many more; experts from all over North America have gathered in Vancouver to share their knowledge and experience with the Vancouver iPhone community. Not only that but thanks to Genius Factor Games Vancouver's first iPhone forum will be attempting a Guinness world record.

"This is a special day in the history of mobile social media. We are attempting a Guinness world record by creating a the world's biggest photo mosaic. Go to http://urthestar2009.com and download the iPhone App to be part of a Guinness world record."

- John Horodyski, Genius Factor Games.

Tuesday November 24th may go down as the day that a new Guinness world record was set at BCIT's downtown campus. It may be the day that a very special iPhone app was born, but it will definitely go down in the history of Vancouver's iPhone application development and business community as the day that the community came of age.

After forging many iPhone apps that are best sellers around the world including "Color Splash" and iFart the Vancouver iPhone Community is having a coming out party of sorts. These apps are part of the history but, it is not these apps that are the future. The future lies in custom applications like Gary Symons' Poddio which allows reporters on-the-go to create, edit and upload audio and video stories directly from the iPhone. The magic of Gary's app really happens on the backend where the edited and normalized audio or video file is uploaded and distributed throughout a news organization network.

CBC currently holds the top two spots in the App Store in Canada for News Apps with the new Hockey Night in Canada application and the CBC radio app, a personal favourite of mine. The CBC Radio app let's you listen to any CBC station from across the country and CBC Radio 1, 2 or 3. Most impressively you can listen to shows you have missed on CBC Radio.

"Today is about leveraging the constant connectivity provided by the iPhone. We have brought experts from all over the US and Canada to bring the most cutting edge ideas and concepts to BCIT around the iPhone and constant connectivity."

-Jonathan Carrigan, CBC

How enterprises are using the iPhone - Keynote

The keynote speaker this morning, Bruce Dagge, iPhone Enterprise Accounts, Canada, Apple, came out right away to say that he didn't come today to talk about corporate email and systems. Today Bruce will be talking about things that you do not see in the app store. He went on to show us many examples of integrating the iPhone with corporate environments and security.

The first example discussed was Disney's use of the iPhone among it's 100,000 employees around the world. Disney has been using PDAs and smartphones sine the early 90s. For Disney the iPhone makes moving and tracking files around the world more simplified and straightforward. Disney is creating custom apps so that customers can watch content where and when they want via the iPhone. The iPhone gives Disney everything they already use and more. It's intuitive and obvious anyone can use and iPhone.

It's a revolutionary mobile phone, right? Or is it a mobile computer cleverly disguised as a phone? Why is iPhone in Business? Why are we gaining momentum? JD Power and Associates gave the iphone the highest consumer rating the last two year's in a row. The user interface makes it flexible and usable.

In the beginning (DEC/07) Forrester said, "The iPhone is not meant for Enterprises". APR/09 Forrester said, "The iphone is for enterprises". They weren't wrong Apple just changed the product to suit the needs of enterprise. Apple listened to it's customers and worked with them to achieve what they wanted.

"Our people decided they wanted iPhone... it wasn't one of those things IT decided for them."

-Senior VP Global Information Systems, Kraft.

The iPhone is a critical part of the new Kraft. The iPhone changes how people work. The pace of change increases with the tools for collaboration. The iPhone made the office wireless. The need for the conventional desk has dissipated at Kraft as all the tools are mobile. The iFood Assistant makes the consumers life easier. Kraft: Allows personal iPhone use.

6 things enterprises are doing with the iPhone:

Lookup and Reference
Field Sales and Service
Business intelligence
Business Process
Collaboration
Training and Communications

Sunbelt Rentals a construction equipment rental company is using the iPhone for sales and by doing so is gaining efficiencies and an advantage over its competitors. TREK Bicycles is using the iPhone to scale out training and communications with customers and dealers through TREK University.

Any online communication has 3 components, creation, distribution, access. Mobility takes this to the next level by allowing one device to do all three of these things. Before Gary Symons became the CEO of Vericorder Technology he was a reporter in radio and television as the mobile guy. He has created an app that allows mobile reporters to record edit and send stories directly from the iPhone.

*He is now doing a live presentation of the app: reporting* It looks like the creation of a podcast. He created a voice memo. Now he is doing a script or 'wrap' to create a full news story. He used to do most of his stories out of his truck which he lived in some of the time when he was a reporter and now he can do the same from his iPhone.

His amazing app, Poddio ($150), allows reporters on the go to create, edit and publish audio files directly from the device, WOW. The file can be instantly uploaded to a Media Asset system and distributed around the world. The app automatically creates a podcast and publishes the story to predetermined media channels. "I set out as a working guy solving problems for working people." The app is soon to be able to do photo and video editing and slideshows complete with audio all done directly from an iPhone.

"There is an Enterprise Developer Program. You will never see these examples on the iPhone but the enterprise support for development and rollout is out there. There is a GREAT opportunity in custom apps."

-Bruce Dagge, Apple Canada.

Answering LinkedIn Q&As helps me write. Example

2009-11-20T07:06:00.000-08:00

How are Universities using social networking media such as LinkedIn, FaceBook and MySpace?

The question really has two parts: How are universities using the tools now and how will they use them in the future?

The most important thing schools need to understand is that these new tools are an opportunity to connect their community in an authentic way.

This is a wholesale cultural shift in the way we gather information, work together and communicate. It is not a marketing movement. Marketing in the social media space in the traditional sense works only for some companies. (See Dell, Japadog, etc.) Most of those sell consumer products.

Education is something very different. It is an experience, a path to a better life and a way to become the professional each individual strives to be. In essence it covers all of the 'Needs' in Maslo's Hierachy of Needs.

LinkedIn:
LinkedIn is mainly used by individuals representing the institutions in their own way. Each staff, faculty and student can provide the school an opportunity to leverage their expertise through their contributions to the LinkedIn community and in turn raise the profile of the school in an authentic way.

At this point schools are using LinkedIn to do research (See Rob Duncan), build professional networks, reconnect with alumni and seek out the top faculty and staff for key positions. I could keep writing because all the time people all over the world are using these new tools in new ways. Follow them on Twitter and stay up to date ;)

Facebook:
Schools use Facebook to communicate with prospective students, current students and alumni. This is the challenge of Facebook for schools. Some schools make different groups and pages to try and manage these elements more independently. It can put a strain on often over utilized marketing and it/web services resources.

Students will make groups of their own and probably already have. The answer from Lisa Enderby, Experiential Learning Consultant at University of Toronto covers this very well. Schools should have a representative there. At BCIT we are using our Facebook Page as a way to communicate with our community in that space, the important thing is understanding who they are, it's different for each school and dynamic.

For us there are is a larger group started by a student before the institution's entry into Facebook. This group caters more to students desire to have more casual and 'unofficial' conversation. We participate in it as individuals and alumnus to clarify questions and provide answers when we have them.

The are many uses for Facebook and there are many larger schools particularly in the United States with enough resources and student participation to create custom apps and student portal integration with Facebook connect, as an option. One US school built it's own custom social networking site for Freshman to connect with great success, above average buy-in and high engagement levels.

Teachers are making groups for specific courses to share current supplemental course material. Some teachers use delicious, some use Twitter. Each tool offers teachers and instructors an easy way to communicate and store ideas with a group. They answer students questions in a forum which is better than in class or via email for a few reasons. Emails are sent to individuals and remain private unless forwarded. They also need to be categorized or sorted to be organized for later access. Teachers use blogs, pages, specific links, discussions and wall posts to save time and turn an answer to a question into information for all students to use, share and converse.

In class some students don't pay attention, some miss class and some just miss what the professor said. A facebook group, twitter page or delicious page is a course blog that doesn't require as much effort and encourages students to become active participants.

Myspace:
MySpace isn't widely used in Canada but has been successful for some large American schools.

Thanks to Rob Duncan for sending me this question through LinkedIn and thanks to Diane McCullough for asking it.

Charlie Cho of the CBC at SFU's Collective Memory Workshop

2009-11-14T14:08:00.001-08:00

<p>&amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&amp;amp;amp;task=viewaltcast&amp;amp;amp;altcast_code=a864987f68" &amp;amp;gt;Charlie Cho of CBC Talks Digital Storytelling&amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;gt;</p>

How does technology create digital culture?

2009-11-07T12:34:00.000-08:00

I was looking through Google Analytics and found that people were landing on my main blog after searching for "how does technology create digital culture". In honor of that fact and to take on the challenge of answering that question here goes nothing...

Technology creates digital culture by allowing people to interact with new people at a comfortable and controllable distance (see twitter). Culture is created by people's desire to interact with new people. Technology makes that more easy in our day to day lives. The key to making the most of technology and digital culture is to build your bridge to the real world. This bridge will enable your online efforts to truly benefit your offline life, mostly by connecting you with like-minded individuals. This is one way in which technology creates digital culture. Let's start a dialogue around what else technology does to create digital culture. Second Life may be the best example of technology creating digital culture. Digital culture is an extension of our offline culture digitized.

The day after I checked Google Analytics a new keyword chain had brought visitors to my blog. This time related to the first question: "define how technology creates a digital culture". Hmmmm, so here is another more specific request around the same question. Technology creates digital culture by providing dynamic publishing opportunities and 24/7/365 broadcast channels. This 'digital culture' is a human extension of our original relationship with tools. Think of the first time a stick or rock was used by a human as a tool to fulfill another purpose. The internet, social media and computers are extensions of our humanity and by that very definition create digital culture by enabling digital culture.

Go to Viral Video Film School. It Rocks

2009-11-02T08:00:00.000-08:00