Webslinger

Scary Digital Media Halloween Costume Ideas

2017-10-13T13:13:00.000-04:00

Not sure what to dress up for this year and you love all things digital and spooky?

Here are some digital media themed costume ideas:

Digital Media Pirate
Damned to Roam the Earth Fee
Forum Troll
Weeping Angel Investor
On-the-Internet-No-One-Knows-You're-A-Dog costume
Phantom Power
Mailer Daemon
Frankencode
Cyber Bully
Identity Thief
Spam King
Killer Bug
Social Media Shamer
Internet Vampire
PC Zombie
The Masked Avatar
Monster Mobile Bill
Ghostwriter
The Bat-Mobile
Anonymous Stalker
Severed Hands-Free Device
Photoshopped Picture of Dorian Gray
Black Hat Hacker
Battery Leach
Spider Weaving the Web
Antisocial Networker
Black Screen of Death
System Intruder
Malicious Bot

150 Great Canadian Graphic Books

2017-07-01T22:17:00.001-04:00

It was just a little over a couple years ago that I rediscovered my love of graphic literature - thanks to my local public library and their amazing collection of graphic books. It was the same month that I started rereading graphic books that I signed up for a Goodreads account.

Goodreads provides an excellent web service to keep track of all the books one has read, rate and review them, and (much to my great pleasure) organize books into customized lists!

Toronto Public Libraries puts a maple leaf sticker on Canadian books. They miss a lot, but the stickers make it easy to spot on the shelf Canuck titles. In between signing out mainstream titles by Marvel and DC, I would check out some homegrown works. After reading them I'd add them to Goodreads and my various beloved lists.

I have lists for graphics books by genre, publisher, and target age - as well as for Canadian and local (Toronto) books.

To make it onto my Canadian graphic books list a title must we written and/or illustrated by Canadian or be about a Canadian subject.

Around last summer with Canada's 150 birthday in mind, I decided to make sure I had read 150 Canadian graphic books. Just last night I finished three titles to make it to 150 exactly!

My list of great Canadian graphic book includes:

superhero adventures! - both homegrown heroes (Nelvana of the Northern Lights, Alpha Flight, Captain Canuck) and American heroes written by Canadians
experimental and artsy works - mind-expanding and trippy wonders
famous authors' dabbles - such as by Margaret Atwood, Carol Shields, Cory Doctorow, and Robert Lapage
First Nations collections
bitter-sweet (and at times TMI) memoirs
awesome reads for kids, tweens and teens
funny comics - from "For Better or Worse" to hilarious travelogues by Guy Delisle
webcomics
exciting Canadian history and historical fiction (about Confederation, the Klondike, Glenn Gould, Billy Bishop, Nellie McClung)

Check out my list of 150 Great Canadian Graphic works

I'm still reading more Canadian graphic works. Let me know of anything I should be sure to have on the list for the next Canada Day!

It's Doctor Webslinger Now!

2017-03-17T00:10:00.002-04:00

Around this time last month, I officially and FINALLY completed my PhD. My dissertation was accepted without any revisions needed (something I'm told is rather rare). So I'm now officially Doctor Glen Farrelly - Doctor of Information.

I'm in the process now of searching for a job. I'm interested in positions in both academia and industry. I'd love to work in areas related to digital media design, user experience, and understanding user behaviour. Check out my LinkedIn profile and please let me know of any good jobs!

Completing my doctorate was a long, laborious, and labyrinthine process. To borrow further from Greek mythology - it was a herculean task and at times even sisyphean that would make for a fine Greek comedy and tragedy simultaneously.

In the weeks leading up to my dissertation oral defense and before that with the months of work in researching, writing, and revising of the dissertation, I was engulfed and exhausted. So I have long neglected this blog. Yet, this blog was an important part of my PhD.

As I have blogged about before, this blog and the arrival of Web 2.0 sites such as Delicious, Facebook, and Twitter got me thinking more deeply about the power and possibilities of this new medium. Through blogging I began to research digital media topics and write about them. This and some other events lead me to want to pursue studying these topics at a higher level, so I decided to do a master's degree at Royal Roads.

The blog posts here and as later syndicated by Backbone Magazine helped provide a portfolio of my work as well as opportunity to refine and extend my writing. This helped me get into grad school. Then while at grad school, this blog provided an outlet for my ongoing research as well as a means to help recruit participants for my various studies (interviews on website accessibility adoption, a survey on mobile application usage, user ethnography on Foursquare, and finally my dissertation on locative media).

I've referred to my blog as a "research blog" and several people thought my academic blogging was quite innovative while others thought it was pointless (as only publications in A journals matter to them). I've been surprised by how few scholars have a research blog still today (well, maybe not that surprised considering how busy most academics are).

During my herculean/sisyphean labours my blog was here for me and it played a vital role in that process.

Going forward, however, I'm not sure the role that blogging will play for me. Over the years, I've lost a lot of motivation for creating user generated content - or as one scholar refers to it loser generated content. It's a huge time commitment without any compensation.

Regardless, I'm grateful for the outlet and opportunity that this blog has offerred me. Stay tuned.

Tips To Improve Written Work for Grad Students

2016-11-14T01:30:00.000-05:00

Having worked in post-secondary education for over seven years now, I've become intimately acquainted and vastly disappointed with university students quality of written work. I'm not complaining here about such niceties of writing as avoiding passive voice or not splitting infinitives. Rather, I'm stunned by how many grad students don't achieve the absolute basics, such as putting their name on their work or stapling their paper together.

During one's undergrad courses, students can get by and even excel with bad writing. Yet, writing papers is the bedrock of all graduate degrees in the social sciences, humanities, and even the sciences. Regardless of who is to blame for one's poor written communication skills, at the graduate level it is essential that students take the initiative and master the basics.

Good written communication skills are not only essential to get through grad school, but are also essential for many careers, particularly the kinds that grad students desire. If students think writing papers will end after grad school, they will be stunned by the lifetime of writing reports, minutes, specs, or project documentation that will be in store for them in many careers. So it's worth the time and effort to learn how to do it!

So using my experienced gained from years of grading graduate students' papers, I've collected some tips on how to improve their written assignments. Below are various rules for written work.

Top 6 Overall Rules (and Ways to Get Better Grades)

#1 Use the Academic Style Book for Your Department
All departments, faculties, or fields have a preferred academic style (e.g. APA, Chicago, MLA etc) that offers instructions on how to format papers, writing tips, and referencing rules. If a course syllabus or professor doesn't provide their preferred style ask them. Find the book, buy it, read it, highlight and bookmark it!

At times you will need to deviate from the official style (e.g., APA's rules about headers are absurd), but only do so with a good reason. Get permission from the professor when contemplating a major deviation from the official style.

#2 Follow the Rules for Your Class
Most professors have additional rules about formatting and items to include in assignments (e.g., a title page, end-notes, etc.). This is generally in the syllabus, but if it is not ask the professor for it.

For most academic writing, unless otherwise stated this means:

12 point font size (going down to 10 for tables or diagrams, but no smaller)
Arial or Times New Roman font
1.5 inch margins
Double-spaced (or at the very least 1.5 spaced)
White paper
Letter sized paper
Good quality paper stock - avoid paper that is so thin it is almost onion skin
Proper print quality - smeared ink or feint printing is not okay

As one who loves nature and doesn't want to see trees needlessly killed, I find two-sided printing to be preferable. But I seem to be in a minority about this among academics, so check on this.

#3 Adhere To Assignment Requirements
Read through the assignment instructions provided at least five times. Highlight each passage that suggests you need to do something. Make a checklist out of these highlights and BE SURE to achieve them all. Professors (and in the working world, bosses) know what they are doing when they make assignments (they really do), so give them the benefit of the doubt and make your life easy by following their instructions. Also, don't feel that you can do something similar to the assignment, but not actually meet the assignment requirements. Similar is not okay. Follow the requirements.

If you really want to try something different, it's really easy to ask your professor for clarification or permission first.

Once you have achieved the requirements, going beyond them is almost always a good idea. But this does not mean you can ignore the assignment requirements. I've encountered a lot of brilliant students who thought they could do something else instead of the assignment - but they missed the goals of the assignment (and the importance of developing the skill of following instructions) and got lower grades than their mediocre classmates. If you think professors are inflexible about this, just wait until your boss asks you to do something and you do something else and tell him/her that it's just as good - you'll be lucky if your boss let's you explain your reasoning as you're being escorted out the door.

#4 Use Formal and Informal Styles Appropriately
Recognize that professional, academic, and personal writing are different. They have different purposes and thus different rules.

Granted, although there is a trend towards all three becoming increasingly informal. Still, it always helps to consider your audience and write for them. For example, take something as simple as contractions. If you are writing to impress your boss or professor, it is almost always a good idea to use a more formal tone and formal grammar rules. It's true that contractions are not a big deal any more, but it wasn't that long ago that they were verboten - so do not use them. Did you notice how I combined contractions and full forms in the same sentence above - that's even worse, isn't it?

#5 Read Elements of Style (or a similar book)
This book by Strunk and White was referred to me by a former professor and it remains the best book I've encountered to help one improve their writing. It is a quick and easy read and not a grammarian's impenetrable tome. It's useful to read cover to cover and then refer to it as needed when writing.

For example, most students I have encountered do not know the correct way to use a comma. It's not a big deal, but at the graduate level seemingly small grammar and punctuation rules start to really matter.

#6 Don't Describe, Analyze
In academic writing, you to demonstrate your intellectual abilities as applied to the course material. Unless otherwise instructed, avoid simply describing something and instead show your critical thinking. Strive for the highest level you can achieve with your writing. From lowest to highest:

naming/listing
describing
explaining
critiquing
predicting (if appropriate)

Specific Tips for Written Work

Avoid acronyms and short-forms
Only use them, if you it is a term that repeats a lot in your paper and even then spell it out in full upon first usage and put the short form in parenthesis. For informal writing, you can use acronyms that aren't of crucial importance if the short-form is very well known, such as the CBC or IT Dept, or if it is a common term in your discipline. Even then, it never hurts to write out in full upon first usage.

Avoid long blocks of unbroken text
Remember the grade school rule of one paragraph per topic. Academics of old horrifically violated this rule in the hope that by obfuscating their work they would appear more intelligent. A passage of text that goes on unbroken for a page - or more! - is not intelligent, it's impenetrable. New topic; new paragraph. It's a simple as that.

Vary your sentence length
Those academics of old also erroneously believed that long sentences also reflected the vast complexity of their erudition. Long sentences don't make you seem smarter; they most likely are just run-on sentences that are just grammatically incorrect at best and horrifically impenetrable at worst.

Include a title page
Even if your professor doesn't specifically ask for it in the syllabus or assignment details. Even if a professor says you don't need one, still include one - this applies for academic and professionally writing. For one, appearance is always important and a title page goes a long way towards making your paper look suitably serious. Second, when grading comments are to be provided on your paper, having a title page protects your privacy by shielding other students from seeing your comments and possibly grade.

Use a floating header
Have a header in the top right corner of every page with your name or shortened title. This standard practices in academic writing, and it helps if your pages become separated. I should also add to make sure your name is on your paper as I estimate about five percent of grad students neglect to do what even kindergartners know.

Staple your papers together
You'd be surprised by how many students hand in assignments not bound in any way. Paper clips, folding the corners of pages or use other ineffective binding contraption are not acceptable. Also, use a stapler that actually works properly (they are cheap or easy to borrow). For big reports, this means you need to use a heavy-duty staplers or cerlox binding. Both professors and bosses have A LOT of papers to go through and reports that become separated or are difficult to flip through are more than a little annoyance.

Word limit- make sure to get near it
A former professor gave me a useful target for what is reasonable parameters for too few or too many words - it is okay to be within 10% of the word limit either way. I think this is a great guideline and use it for my writing and grading. You are probably safe if you follow this. Either way, the ultimate goal is to be close to the word limit as possible.

Avoid the universal masculine
It is no longer socially acceptable to use masculine words, such as he, his, or man, to entail all men and women. This has been true since at least the 1980s, so doing so today is really backward and sexist. I actually find more women students are apt to use the universal masculine, perhaps erroneously believing they have license to do so. It is a linguistic form that discriminates against women - there is no reason to use it anymore.

Have an introduction and conclusion
All writing forms, need some sort of introduction and conclusion. These are needed as it is very jarring to just start a document in the middle of a topic or just arbitrarily and abruptly stop. No introduction, is like joining a conversation with friends and you have no idea what they are talking about; it sounds interesting but they just keep going on and ignoring you. No conclusion is similar, your friends just walk away and you never did figure out what was going on properly and where things were left off - how puzzling and rude.

You always have space for these as they can be really short if need demands it. In all reality, the body of your text will have lots of parts that can be condensed, unnecessary words that can be cut, and repetition eliminated - so there is no excuse to not have an intro and conclusion.

This is basic goal of introductions and conclusions do. They serve a much larger purposes that go A LONG way to making your paper more powerful and convincing and helping you get the outcome and grade you want.

Cut the crap and get to the point!
Stay on topic. Don't add filler (in this case, less is more). If you don't need to say it, then don't. I read fiction for flowery descriptions and passages waxing philosophical about tangential matters. Academic and professional writing is a type of persuasive writing that has a goal to clearly state a message and back it up.

Some would disagree with me and I've read some amazing academic papers that blend persuasive writing with narrative and emotional passages more generally seen in fiction. This is likely the hardest type of writing in the world to successfully pull off though.

Don't think that you are fooling anyone with including filler. Yes, it's better than being desperately short on your word count, but your fluff will be spotted.

Presentation quality matters

Appearance matters whether we like it or not. A polished and professional appearance of a documents makes it not only easier and more pleasant to read, but it also lends more credibility to the work. Conversely, if you don't take an assignment seriously enough to take a few seconds to avoid a messy looking paper then it makes the whole work seem lazy and sloppy.

To improve presentation quality:

Include effective headers - try to condense the header into the key terms and essential words only.
Bold all titles and headers. Underlining is generally an obsolete style (due to hypertext).
Headers should never be orphaned on the bottom of the page. They should always be with the text they are referring to so force them onto the next page if needed
Use images wisely - these can really improve the power and appearance of a paper, but make sure that they can be viewed optimally.
Use white space judiciously - not too little and not too much though.
Razzle Dazzle Them - Consider adding an image or design to your title page. Use colour in your diagrams and tables and print in colour. Use really nice paper stock.

FINALLY THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE...

CITE YOUR REFERENCES!!!!

Plagiarism is taken extremely seriously in academia. It is not just academically dishonest, it is illegal (as you have infringed on the intellectual property of others). I've also noticed that more students are paying services to write papers for them.

In our Google and TurnItIn.com world now it is easy to catch. The consequences are dire for students caught doing this - generally a failing grade and possibly expulsion from the university.

I've seen cases where all a student had to do was put their plagiarized passages in quotation marks and cite the reference to go from failing the class to getting a B. So why not try quotation marks instead?!

Learn the rules of your plagiarism, every university has them posted prominently on their website and EVERYONE who works at a university will happily point you in the right direction if you are unsure.

If you feel you are in over your head with a course, have too many competing pressures - talk to the
professor. You'd be surprised how many are willing to cut students some slack or accommodate them somehow. No pressure is worth failing a class, having the academic violation go on your record, and possibly being expelled.

***

It's in one's best interest to follow these tips as grades will rise. It will also help one develop more effective writing skills that will set them apart from most of their fellow future graduates.

4D Cinema Now in Canada!

2016-11-10T00:43:00.003-05:00

This past weekend I went to the cinema see Dr. Strange with my wife and daughter. Nothing strange about that as I love superhero films and we pretty much see ever one at the cinema. The experience was particularly special as it was the first time I have ever seen a feature length film in 4D.

It wasn't special just for us, but rather for Canada - as this is our first 4D cinema in Canada and it opened only a few days ago. The cinema opened with Dr. Strange so we were among the first to view cinematic event. The 4D cinema is at Cineplex Yonge & Dundas - read more about it their website.

4D is a marketing term to entail movies that go beyond just 3D to offer assorted special effects to bring elements of the film into the real world. There is no consistency in how the term is used so it can include many different types of things. It can run the gamut from adding one new sensory experience (such as scent or seat buzzers) to a fully moving ride with multisensory experiences. Here's a great time line of 4D cinema.

Granted, this wasn't our first 4D experience. It seems like most A list amusement parks have them. Walt Disney World and Universal Studios that have made 4D experiences a thrill. My first such one was as a teenager with Muppets (which is the only such show I've seen to combine animatronics and costumed actors in the cinema).

But even Ontario has had some 4D short films at Clifton Hill, Niagara Falls and the dearly-departed Ontario Place in Toronto. Also, a few years ago we saw Spy Kids 4 with scratch-and-sniff cards to add odour experiences at key moments (some more effective than not).

This, however, is the first permanent location to show 4D feature length films in Canada and it's in my hometown!

The ad for the cinema claims that 4D offers the potential for the following real-life sensory experiences:

motion - chairs can vibrate and move up, down, left and right and fairly fast too - but motion seems limited to about 10 cm
seat "ticklers" - that are more like "hitters", they push at your lower back and legs
air - vents near your head blow wind past your ears, apparently the cinema has wind machines too
snow and fog - at the front of cinema only - apparently bubbles too but I didn't experience this
rain - all over cinema and with the Dr. strange quite a bit of it (not soaking but did make my 3D glasses spotty) - there is an off switch for this, but of course no one pushed it
strobe lights - to simulate lightning
scent

All other 4D films I've seen used these effects as a gimmick. Except for Ontario tourism film I saw at Ontario that used it to give film moments a unique sense of place.

Dr. Strange in 4D was definitely gimmicky at times and to such an extent that it was a distraction. But it also advanced my sensory connection to the film and helped draw one into the experience of the character's world or identify with the character.

There's a scene in the film where the lead character was driving really fast on a winding road and then had an accident which was accompanied by corresponding seat motions that really added to my enjoyment of the scene. Fight scenes were similarly enhanced by seat motion and gusts of wind. I also enjoyed a scene on a snow-blown mountain top when actual snow started to fill the theatre.

When it doesn't work is when there is an effect just to do something (presumably so people feel they are getting their money's worth). For instance, the seats moved too much generally as sometimes motion was used when anything on screen movies. Motion works great when it the protagonist is also in motion, but doesn't make sense when an inanimate object is moved.

I think scent would be a great addition - and Dr. Strange had lots of times when it could be used effectively. I've heard that we were supposed to smell incense at the temple Dr. Strange visits, but all I ever smelled throughout the film was Windex. My wife and daughter only ever smelled lemon (but they said they liked it).

My young daughter loved the experience and said there was nothing she disliked. Here's her review:

I really like how the chairs moved and the rain. I liked how during the movie when Dr. Strange was on the mountain there was snow and wind in the cinema. I like 4D because it realty brings a movie to life, as what's happening in the movie is happening in the theatre. Some movies would be good in 4D, but some it wouldn't be quite as good. I think it is better for action movies - Star Wars would be neat. Sometimes it shook you too much or punched you in the back, but that only bothered me the tiniest little bit. But it might bother others. I thought it was really fun and cool!

It is people like my daughter that this type of experience is geared towards. It's possible at some point that 4D effects could be used only to serve the art of filmmaking. Dr. Strange was a good film but it's not high art - films like this are meant to give the audience a good time. And 4D does really enhance that. It's not something I'd want with all my films, but for these blockbuster action and fantasy films, I think it is a really fun addition.

It will be interesting to see how this technology and corresponding use by filmmakers develops.

Toronto team “Kid On The Moon” Wins at Global NASA Space Apps Challenge

2016-05-30T16:33:00.001-04:00

I have been working with Tanya Oleksuik, who works for a local arts organization in my neighbourhood, on my PhD dissertation research on mobile, locative media. Tanya was part of a team at East End Arts that developed an online, participatory oral history and arts project for Toronto's East End (read more about the project on my blog post Inspired By...Map) .

While working with Tanya, I learned about an exciting project she did as part of a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) global challenge "to create mobile apps and technologies that aid in space exploration and help improve life here on Earth". I was thrilled to learn recently that her team had won for their category. It's an amazing accomplishment and showcases the innovation and talent happening in mobile media here in Toronto.

Here is the press release for this project announcing their NASA win:

***

May 28, 2016, Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Toronto team Kid On The Moon is on a mission – to inspire the next generation of space explorers. They were announced this week as the global winner of the NASA Space Apps Challenge for Most Inspirational project.

Over the weekend of April 22–24, 2016, developers, makers, scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs took on NASA-designed challenges, creating a diverse range of solutions. Over 15,000 people worldwide took part in the 5th annual NASA Space Apps Challenge, with over 1,200 projects developed.

A part of NASA's International Space Apps Challenge, the NASA Space Apps Toronto hackathon challenged participants to think critically about technology and its effect on the world around us. The NASA Space Apps Toronto challenge took place at Symbility Intersect, at which the judges awarded Kid On The Moon as one of the winning projects, propelling them into the global competition.

"This event brings together the STEM community in a unique way to collaboratively tackle complex problems," said James Costa, lead organizer of NASA's Space Apps Toronto. "With SpaceX's recent Falcon 9 tests and NASA's ongoing achievement in space exploration, this is a great time to get kids excited and thinking about careers in space again."

Kid On The Moon is an interactive app that is dedicated to inspire children 4-8 years old become passionate about space travel through self-guided exploration of the moon both on and offline.
The Kid On The Moon team members and app creators are: Tanya Oleksuik, Huanning Wang, Allard Schipper, Katrina Shiu, Mohammad Zubayer, Nippun Goyal, James Chiu, and Sophia He. This diverse group brought together their ideas, wide range of skills, and imaginations to create the Kid On The Moon project at the NASA Space Apps Toronto hackathon in response to NASA's "Book It To The Moon" challenge.

"Toronto is a city full of creative people actively contributing to science, technology, and innovations around the world," stated City of Toronto Mayor John Tory. "I'm proud to see a Toronto team recognized by NASA and representing Toronto-made innovation on the global stage."
The winning team members will be invited to attend an upcoming NASA launch at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

The NASA Space Apps Toronto event was supported by Lead Sponsors: City of Toronto, StartUp HERE Toronto, and XE; Host Sponsors: Phuse, Symbility Intersect, and HackerYou; and Community Supporter: Ace Hill.

RELATED LINKS:

Kid On The Moon project page
Kid On The Moon app
Top 25 Space Apps 2016 Global Finalists Announced
NASA Space Apps Toronto
Twitter: @KidOnTheMoonApp #KidOnTheMoon

Inspired By...Map

2016-05-03T19:31:00.000-04:00

As part of my research into how people are using geoweb technologies, I've been interviewing users and developers of digital media applications related to place. While searching for innovative projects along this line, I found out about an arts association near where I live who had created an amazing online community mapping project.

The project, Inspired By...Map, was created by East End Arts as a way to capture the arts and oral histories of the people living and visiting in Toronto's east end. Soliciting contributions from people connected to the neighbourhood, they have created an online, interactive map of people's meaningful places. Through a variety of modalities (images, text, and videos) people's stories and creations are put on the map of Toronto.

I had the chance to ask Tanya Oleksuik and Cindy Rozeboom some questions about their impressive project.

Glen: What motivated you to develop the Inspired By...Map?

Tanya & Cindy:
In 2014, East End Arts was only a year old and developing our organizational sense of self. As a Local Arts Service Organization, we are mandated to provide support for a specific geographic area of Toronto.

We were wondering what, if anything, actually unifies the people within this area, given that the communities are, as with all of Toronto, diverse and constantly changing. Unable to come to any conclusions about who east-enders were, we decided to examine where. If the people are different, but the place is the same – what then? Inspired By was sparked by wondering how the actual physical spaces that we share impact and/or inspire those who pass through them.

Inspired By was made possible by a grant from the Ontario Cultural Development Fund.

Glen: What efforts have you taken to get community involvement in creating the content for Inspired By...Map?

Tanya & Cindy:
We have held both facilitated workshops with community groups, as well as have an ongoing open-call for submissions online.

Community workshops have been led by Community Story Strategies and, so far, have included a job-seeking club at Riverdale Hub, a recycled fashion collective at the Newcomer Women’s Service, a summer camp of children at Community Centre 55, and an open public session that toured the Winter Stations in 2015.

Local kids working on their creations for the Inspired By...Map

Each workshop starts with a group photo-taking walk around an area, followed by a writing session where participants choose one image and react to it – either in writing or verbally.

Glen: What has the response been to the project?

Tanya &; Cindy:
The response has been really positive and heartwarming. Everyone has a personal story behind their favourite spots in the city, and most love to share those stories with others. Each story shared adds a new layer to the map of inspired places.

We held an Inspired By viewing party in 2015 and a room full of people listened, watched, learned, and laughed along with the wide range of stops along the map. With a range of creative expressions in the submissions, the audience was taken through visual, written, and audio stories of reminiscence, longing, love, and joy, all inspired by East End places. The evening continued with the sharing of even more stories, including people adding their own layers of memory, history, and experience to the places marked on the map.

Glen: In terms of the content people have created has there been anything surprising?

Tanya & Cindy:
Interestingly, many of the submissions involve memories – the image of what IS brought back thoughts of what WAS. It is also interesting to see the differences in tone and interpretation of seemingly unrelated objects – an excited child remembering hockey practice with their dad looking at a fence, speculations on social change drawn from a crack in the pavement. It makes one wonder how much we “see” with our eyes, and how much is brought to any picture from our own individual storehouse of experiences and expectations.

People are inspired by so many different and unique things. The stories people share about what makes a place special to them reminds us that inspiration can be found in unexpected places and are beautifully unique in meaning to individuals.

Glen: How do you think this map will have people consider or reconsider Toronto's East End?

Tanya & Cindy:
The map is still a work-in-progress, so it will be interesting to see how neighbourhood changes will be reflected. Someone may have mapped a spot that in a couple years’ time may be transformed into something completely different. The map allows people to mark a place and time and capture a memory or moment.

Glen: Is there anything else you'd like to add or that people should know about this project?

Tanya & Cindy:
We'd love for the map to continue to expand. Anyone who lives, works, and moves through the east end is invited to contribute to the project and help it grow, one place at a time.

***
This project is not only a really interesting and imaginative glimpse into the places and stories of east end Toronto, but also a model for others regardless of their location. This project is a great example of how to use community mapping efforts and geoweb technologies to capture and share something meaningful to people.

Whether you live in Toronto or not, I highly recommend getting inspired by Inspired By...Map.

Transforming Concrete Jungles Into Rainforests Through Mobile Media

2016-04-06T13:57:00.000-04:00

I just found out about an exciting mobile media project occurring this month in New York City in honour of Earth Day. The project, JUNGLE-IZED: A Conversation with Nature, encourages people to use their mobile device to experience the famous Time Square in a new way to encourage people to reflect on global environment issues.

Through audio pieces related to the Amazon rainforest, NYC's concrete jungle is transformed for users. Users walk around several blocks of Times Square with an Android or Apple mobile app and special headphones. Each street near Times Square represents a different time in the daily life of the Amazon.

Along the lines of a Guy Debord détournement, the dramatic and interactive juxtaposition
seeks to help people reconsider their role and consider linkages in the global environment.

The project was developed using Vancouver company Motive's software platform. The Motive software was used to geolocate the audio tracks of the Amazon around Times Square and to indicate the radius that triggers audio files and for fade points.

I had the chance to meet a cofounder of Motive, Ryan Chapman, last year when I was in Vancouver. Motive provides a hosted platform to ease the development of mobile games and locative media apps. Find out more about Motive through my conversation with Ryan.

I'm excited to see this project as it demonstrate how powerful and innovative mobile media can be.

If you're in NYC check it out or read more about the project here.

Locating Overlooked Histories: An Interview with Queerstory Founder

2016-01-05T17:10:00.000-05:00

As part of my doctoral research on locative media and its role in our relationship to our places, I interviewed the founders of the locative media app, Queerstory. Queerstory is Toronto's first LGBTQ geolocative history app and I would argue of the most effective geolocative history apps anywhere.

The Queerstory mobile app points users to nearby points of interest in a map or list based view. How Queerstory differs, however, that rather than just having text descriptions the app includes video oral histories, interviews, and artistic interpretations. Users can also refine the content based on various themes, such as activism, culture, and culture. The app is free and available on Apple, Android, or the mobile web.

I interviewed both of the Queerstory's founders, Michael Alstad and Janet Hethrington on their work with Queerstory and their ideas on the role generally of locative media. As a sneak peek from my research, here are some Q&As from my interview with Michael.

Glen: What motivated you to develop this application?
Michael: Year Zero One (YZO), a media arts organization that curates digital art projects both online and in public space, has been producing locative media projects since 2003 beginning with the pioneering Teletaxi project. We produced a locative history app in 2012 in affiliation with the Textile Museum of Canada called TXTilecity. TXTilecity is a mobile app that leads users on a self-directed tour through sites relevant to Toronto’s garment and fashion industry history through a series of site-specific short video docs and a commissioned media artwork.

With the success of TXTilecity, I was keen of adapting the locative history concept to produce Queerstory – an app and website exploring over a century of Toronto’s LGBT history that was launched to coincide with World Pride in 2014. Toronto is a world leader in progressive LGBT policy and has a rich and diverse queer political, social, and cultural history that is somewhat understated and hidden in comparison to other international centres like New York City where sites like the Stonewall Inn are marked with plaques.

I see the Queerstory app as a digital placemarker that commemorates and preserves queer history. It allows for a more multidimensional and sensory-based experience of lived history as it relates to the urban environment.

Glen: What has the response been from users?
Michael: The response to Queerstory overall has been positive. App users have been impressed by scope and diversity of stories and histories. Some users were intrigued to discover several sites and neigbourhoods not traditionally associated with the gay community and its history.

It was noted the number of overall sites might be too ambitious for one continuous tour and also the amount of video content consumes a lot of data for limited cell plans.

With my personal user experience with Queerstory, I felt the media artworks by Keith Cole and Caitlin Fisher – where the artists led you on their unique individualized tours and interpretations of queer history – I explored and engaged with the physical surroundings and places more.

Glen: How is experiencing a place with your app different than without it?
Michael: I think the process of walking through the city and exploring these sites is an experiential and fun way of discovering and learning about queer history.

Most of the mapped sites in Queerstory could easily be overlooked. For example, the site of the Barracks Bathhouse, a heritage house on Widmer, a narrow street in the entertainment district lined with old Victorian row houses, is a key historic queer space linked to one of the most important events of Canada’s gay liberation movement - the 1981 Toronto bathhouse raids and riots. The mass arrests and ensuing riot are considered to be the Canadian equivalent of the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City.

Also an important place related aspect of Queerstory is the in-situ interviews. We noticed a pattern with our interviewees - that being situated in the sites where the histories occurred triggered their memory with renewed insights and reflection on the events.

I believe that the layering of hidden stories, rare archival material and on-site interviews creates a unique sensory experience of place.

Glen: Mobile media is criticized for distancing people from places. Can you comment on this?
Michael: On one hand, I see mobile media as physically distancing people from one another in public spaces and cafes where individuals are cloistered with their mobile devices, headphones, and laptops. On the other hand, I personally see the value in information layers, alternate narratives, and digital annotations on places are useful and beneficial as long as you’re objective and can filter the info to enhance your personal experience of place.

***

Queerstory was recently recognized for their innovative use of media to document and share Toronto's history by winning an award from Heritage Toronto.

Visit the Queerstory website for more information on the app and their content.

Art of Complaining - Or Try Some Sugar Instead of Just Vinegar

2015-12-30T17:26:00.000-05:00

I know life is unfair and people can be miserable ass hats such that the injustice of life does make one want to complain. Believe me, I am a complainer. My complaining has gotten me some benefits such as rebates and various forms of compensation. So I can appreciate the desire in others to complain about their perceived injustices.

Lately, I've noticed people have no sense of the art and skill of how to complain effectively.

This is even more important as you consider that much of complaining, of a non-personal nature, is done via email. Email is a thin medium, that doesn't have all the features of face-to-face interactions. Thanks to email, it's easier than ever to complain to companies, agencies, institutions, and governments.

Too many people, however, go in with their first message with all guns blaring and throwing vinegar in the eye of their intended target. Their emails are full of accusations blaming the receiver in the harshest terms of malevolent wrongdoing and instantly brandish threats that the sender will seek reprisal to the highest levels. This tactic is a form of intimidation. But when dealing with authority figure or a distant and unresponsive customer service agent, this tactic doesn't tend to get them on your side. Vinegar begets more vinegar. And your offending email can easily disappear or be given a low priority.

You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar is an age-old adage because it states a universal truth. Humans like sweetness. We like to feel appreciated and to be treated well. Threats and rants may work some time, but they cause damage to one's reputation (not to mention psyche) and may result in long-lasting damage. Once you go dark, it is next to impossible to reverse that.

Instead, the first tactic in complaining is to offer sugar. It is surprising how effective a polite inquiry can go towards getting you what you want. So here are my steps to complaining effectively via email or other digital media.

#1 Cool off
We all make mistakes. Most people don't intend to harm others. Don't assume that everyone is out to get you. Give people the benefit of the doubt. So the first step in an email complaint is to thank the person for their time and/or effort. You may not feel very thankful depending on the circumstances of your situation, but give it a try for your first communication. Give people decent human respect until they have proven conclusively that they don't deserve it - and even then sometimes its advantageous to ape respect for undeserving "superiors". Never insult people, directly or indirectly, as this will never help. Keep your communications non-personal and level-headed.

#2 Ask for clarification
Often things can be a misunderstanding or error that can be quickly rectified. A few weeks ago, I purchased something online and when I received it was very poor quality. My first email was polite and expressed how disappointed I was. I was preparing in successive emails to mount an extensive case for why they should accept a return of the item, but upon receiving my first reply I received a full refund and they said for me to keep the item. This has happened to me before.

#3 Provide evidence
Facts sway opinion and get intended results. Your subjective opinion can backfire and come across as a scam or someone trying to get something they don't deserve. (There are people out there trying to pull things so distinguish yourself from them with evidence and logic). Photographs or screen-captures are great sources of evidence.

#4 Declare the stakes for you
The goal is to generate sympathy not come across as a self-righteous ass hat. In a brief and somewhat emotional manner, state why this is an issue for you - what you lost as a result or are not able to do now.

Advanced tactic, if appropriate play the victim card and let them know how you have suffered. When a flight was cancelled at the airport for our trip to Disney World and none to be reschedule my wife was resigned to acceptance. I went up to the company agent without any anger or attitude (as it was most definitely not her fault) and explained how we had booked a special event at Disney World and we would now miss it. I told my daughter to come with me. In the end, the agent was incredibly helpful and really wanted to help us, she spent an hour of her time made numerous calls but got us on another carrier there (we were only 2 people to get a flight).

#5 Declare your desired recourse
At some point (and not too early), you will need to state what form of redress or action you woud like. Don't come across as too demanding or asking for things you aren't really entitled to (e.g full refund or completed overturning a decision as this isn't likely to ever happen). I like to begin by implying what I want. If the idea comes from them, there is a much better chance it will be implemented.

If these initial tactics don't work then try...

#6 state the stakes for the company or organization
Declare what a valuable customer you are, for example. Be careful to not threaten as no one likes to be threatened. Always be polite. But sometimes you have to be very clear at what you will do if the your problem is not addressed.

#7 Escalate with caution
Don't instantly go over someone's head or cc their boss. At some point and times, escalation is the only way to go, so don't be afraid to do this if and when it is necessary. Exhaust the previous tactics first though!

Be transparent when escalating to the people you were previously communicating with. Don't try to vilify the person to their boss as that person still works there and creating an enemy which is never helpful for your immediate or future needs.

Assuming some responsibility for the situation and being contrite can go a long way to avoid making the problem worse and can help you come across as a reasonable person with a just issue. At this point, ask to take your discussions offline (and instead proceed in-person or via telephone) is recommended.

Email has made complaining so much easier and effective than before. But it can definitely backfire if one sends out emotional and hasty emails. I have followed these above steps for years, and I'm still surprised how frequently everything works out very well for me and surprisingly early and without emotional turmoil. For the sake of everyone, give sugar a try!

Digital Advent Calendar for Canadians

2015-12-03T13:26:00.002-05:00

Over the past three days on Facebook, I've noticed friends posting about Harrowsmith Now's online Advent Calendar. I finally had a moment to check it out today and was delighted!

I love the idea of taking the concept of an advent calendar, putting it online, and making it enjoyable for adults. For each day in December, one can click the date to see a new interactive experience with a focus on Canada's winters and the holidays. The online advent calendar is much better than waxy chocolate and is guilt-free and made in Canada.

I won't give away the digital treats that await you, but they are fun and reflect the Canadian pastoral culture that Harrowsmith has famously chronicled since the magazine began in 1976. Harrowsmith closed in 2011, but reformed in 2013 as quarterly magazine and website, Harrowsmith Now.

I wanted to share the calendar as I feel we all could use some holiday cheer right now. As a Canadian digital media aficionado, I wanted to find out more about this project, so I contacted the magazine.

Wayne MacPhail, the magazine's digital brand strategist, agreed to answer my questions. I asked him about their new website, Harrowsmith Now which launched last month. He noted that it "is aimed at millennials who share the same concerns we do about sustainability, a love of the country and an appreciation of handmadegoods." The website includes features, blog posts, and, of course, the advent calendar.

MacPhail says his team was motivated to launch the calendar as a way "to give folks a little taste of the season and the holidays (not just Christian ones) during the month. There's enough bad in the world right now, we need something a bit more uplifting and fun".

He describes the development process:

"I started with a rough mockup in Tumult Hype using an existing advent
calendar as a backdrop. I then shared it with Michelle Lydon, a graphic designer I work with. Michelle developed the circular number motif in Illustrator to match the dimensions of a landscape retina iPad Air 2. I brought those graphic elements into Affinity Designer and broke them into the constituent elements and then built the interactive piece in Tumult Hype (HTML 5). I sourced the content partly from Harrowsmith staff and partly from a call I made to my pals on Facebook."

I've seen the first 3 days of the calendar (December 2nd is particularly wonderful). I asked MacPhail what other types of digital treats await us. He notes, "We've created some little interactive amusements, more video links, recipes, and a few other easter eggs and surprises."

Give it the calendar a try. I can't wait to see what Harrowsmith has in store for the 25th!

I Need Your Help To Understand New Mobile Medium

2015-11-19T13:34:00.000-05:00

Do you upload photos of your location?
Do you share your whereabouts online with friends?
Do you use your mobile device for reviews and directions where to shop or eat?
Do you use an app to uncover history and culture when in a new area?
Can you imagine navigating through the world without your mobile device?

Content on mobile devices targeted to our location (often by GPS) is changing the way we navigate and experience the world. These locative media apps (also known as location-based services) can draw upon our personal experience, histories or cultural associations of physical spaces. It is now easy to share this content and access it in the places where it is relevant.

Such locative media apps are still so new that the ways in which they contribute to our experiences of places is not well understood.

I’m seeking people who use locative media to help learn more about this exciting topic for a researching study I'm conducting at the University of Toronto.

Participation is open to people over 18 years old and who can communicate fluently in English. I’m looking for people using mobile media to engage with their places. This can be writing reviews or geotagging photos, but it can also be people looking up recommendations or history of places near them using their mobile device.

Participants will be interviewed on their usage. Participation can be conducted online, by telephone, or in-person at the University of Toronto.

Participants who complete the study will be given a $25 (Canadian currency) Visa gift card.

Please email me, Glen Farrelly at glen.farrelly @ utoronto.ca if you are interested

*** For more details about the study, please visit my research website:

Dear Facebook Diary

2015-11-10T03:01:00.000-05:00

Earlier this year in March, Facebook launched the On This Day feature that shows a user his or her Facebook content from that same day from years past. Status updates, tagged photos, wall posts from friends, funny drawings, meme videos you commented on, etc. all from years gone by are presented in reverse chronological order for your nostalgic perusal.

You might have noticed this feature via the notifications Facebooks provides to the memories you have waiting to see. If not, you can find the feature is found on your Facebook homepage under the Apps section on the left or by going directly to your On This Day page after logging in.

Facebook only enables one to view the One This Day content one day at a time. I can see the business reasoning behind this decision, as it keeps people (like me) clicking back daily. Also it is more powerful to view past content on the anniversary of its posting than during a binge reminiscence. Still, if one really wants this to take a LONG trip down memory lane they could just pour through their activity log.

The content on one's On This Day page is only available to the user in this format (friends could still access any content you've given them access to via it's original historic placement. But Facebook has a Share button that enables one to repost with or without new commentary. I know I'm not the only one who is using this feature, as I'm seeing this content appearing in my feed with increasing frequency.

Lest we be reminded of anything too painful, Facebook provides settings for us to exclude posts from specific days or people. As always, Facebook also make sit easy to delete any old items one deems too painful or too boring to linger on. (If only Facebook could excise unpleasant memories and people so deftly and dispassionately.)

I was one of the first Facebook users when they opened up to non-students, so I've used it for many years. As an addicted user for most of this time, I consequently have a LOT of prior posts.

Prior to the launch of this feature, however, other than looking at my past photos (as this is how I do my family photo albums now), I have almost never reviewed any of my prior Facebook content. As with my daily conversations offline and on, my words and images passed into the ether never really to be heard from again.

That is until Facebook launched this feature. Since they launched it, I have checked it every day. In a way that I never conceived of before this, it provides a chronicle of my life and times. Posted are my accomplishments and losses, my thoughts on politics and pop culture, new friendships (but not unfriendings), and funny things and family memories. There are photos, videos, links, notes, and rantings by me or others that I reposted. At no time during these years did I think I was saving something for prosperity or archiving my lifestreaming.

Over the years, I have thought of keeping a journal (man's term for diary) and had a few haphazard efforts using Word docs, emails and even a diary mobile app. In the end, these efforts were all quickly abandoned as I ultimately found that I didn't want to rehash my daily events and feelings. I found writing such autobiographical accounts to not only be a chore, but more importantly it dredged up stuff that I was probably best moving past quickly. I have never wanted to reread any of my past journal entries for similar reasons.

Perhaps it was my format and approach to diarying that I felt was de rigueur that provided an uninspiring and restrictive structure. I probably got my sense of what a diary should contain from movies and TV, as in "Dear Diary: Today, I did the following...".

Yet Facebook posts don't have any such constraints and can flow more organically. My posts arise spontaneously based on my responses to events in my life and content I encounter daily. So I might post about a big event - getting an award or milestone anniversary - but also about a new movie or cool website. I tend not to post about the deeply negative and personal parts of my life as I'm private that way. This probably explains why my experience of the On This Day feature is much more positive than others have written about. (See such accounts in The Debrief, TechCrunch, and Globe and Mail. My deeply personal thoughts and internal life are not represented on Facebook as they were in when I did proper diarying, but it was this type of content that was too painful - and dull - to document and relive, so I'm okay with it not be present in my Facebook history.

In the end, what I have are vast and eclectic reflections on almost all the substrate of my life. The diversity of topics of these posting provide a good reflection of the diversity of things in my life. I want to see and be reminded of these things.

So for me Facebook is an easy to keep journal (diary) kept in a less restrictive and more fun manner.

But that's not what makes it really something different. What makes Facebook posts unlike any sort of diary is that posts are read and commented upon by others. Previously diaries only became social media when one's pesky sibling found it and mockingly read aloud the embarrassing bits.

The comments by friends, family, even acquaintances provides the social dimension that is central to almost everyone's life. Hermits aside, we have always shared our experiences and thoughts on our life and times with others, but this was often not documented (especially since letter writing died out). Our old-style diaries might record social interactions - even conversations - with others, but it was always from our own perspective and using our own words. But Facebook in all its seldom editted glory gives people a forum for commentary on our lives. Now these interactions with the many others in our lives are recorded too. (And again, this is a source of contention with some users of this feature.)

Since this feature launched I have rarely missed accessing it, sometimes logging into Facebook just to access this. I have also started posting things mostly for their future historic value to me. My posting volume has gone up considerably as a result. I am worried that I am TMIing my friends.

With this future history posts, I have considered making them private. However, I like the social interactions with friends that my postings solicit, so I have left them open. Still, it is rather sad to post something and then get zero responses or even a minimal-effort required "Like".

I love this feature so much that it leads to a big concern. My prior diaries were completely mine. Even my forays into digital diarying were in non-proprietary formats that could be easily read by other software. But now my diary is owned - at least in part - by a third party. Facebook, I learned in writing this post, does allow one to download the complete records of one's account, but I can't imagine how any other software would be able to present it in a meaningful or usable manner (let me know if there is).

I'm happy to stay with Facebook as I find it an overall great service with an unbeatable price. But as more and more of my life is comprised within Facebook and archived by them too, I worry about what happens when Facebook is no longer around or still offering this type of service. Companies don't last forever, but I want my memories to.

National Girls Learning Code Day

2015-11-07T21:19:00.001-05:00

Today is National Girls Learning Code Day. My young daughter and over 1200 other girls across Canada spent today learning how to code. The goal of the event is to help show girls that coding is accessible, useful, and even fun.

We participated in an event for 8-13 year old girls hosted by Ladies Learning Code and Google at Telus' Toronto headquarters. Volunteers working in a wide range of jobs in digital media spent the day instructing and mentoring our crowd of 60 girls on how to code their own website.

Before attending this event, I figured they'd show us how to use WYSIWYG editors to build a website - but as the name of this event stated, it's definitely code the girls got their hands dirty with today! The instructors taught the basics of HTML and CSS with the help of Mozilla's free online code editor Thimble.

My daughter does have her own blog and YouTube channel, but hasn't actually done any coding before. She loves frontend digital media, but I was worried that the nitty gritty of writing lines of code (and moreover debugging the inevitable problems) was get wearisome for her.

The instructors lead the girls through the basics to get a website up and progressed fast enough to keep interest up. The instructors also shared some great online resources such as a hexadecimal colour picker and CSS code snippets to make customizing the look and feel of the website easier.

There were volunteer mentors on hand to help us out whenever we got stuck. It was great to see so many accomplished women sharing their knowledge and love for tech with girls - they were really helpful and inspirational for my daughter. I wish there were more events like this to connect girls with women working in technology.

Before we attended the event, I talked to my daughter about what she might want to build a website about. One of her ideas was humourous cat videos. As the Internet is powered by cat videos, I figured this was a perfect topic for her first website. The other girls present made websites on hedgehogs, dolls, cookie stores, germs, pet store, toys, fashion, etc. It was great that girls could focus on their interests in a judgement-free zone (note, yes boys do ruin the fun some times).

The goal of this session was to learn a variety of HTML and CSS codes - so the final website is a hodgepodge of hand-coded techniques. Perfect for a collection of Super Silly Cat Videos!

My Own Bat-Mobile

2015-10-31T20:19:00.003-04:00

I saw today some puffy bat stickers from my daughter's collection that I loved, so I put them on my LG mobile device for festive bling.

And voila my very own Bat-Mobile!!

Happy Halloween!

You Can Locate Me at the Canadian Wireless Trade Show

2015-10-28T22:03:00.001-04:00

I'm speaking this week at the Canadian Wireless Trade Show in Toronto. My presentation, called "Positioning the User in Mobile Locative Applications", is at 2:00 pm, October 29th.

Here's what I'll be talking about:

The locative functionality of mobile devices is enabling more people to connect to the spaces in which we live, work, and do business. Based on my doctoral research, I will discuss how people are using location-based services to access geographically relevant content for commerce and pleasure. As this technology continues to evolve, this seminar will help attendees to consider the interplay of technology, people, and place and how this may apply to their organization.

The conference is held at the Toronto Congress Centre.

Even better, there is no admission fee. So track me down there and we can connect about our mutual love of mobile devices.

Update: Here's my slide deck of my presentation.

Unfriending is Unprofessional and Unnecessary

2015-10-01T08:32:00.000-04:00

According to a recent Australian regulatory decision, unfriending a coworker on Facebook can add up to workplace bullying. There were other actions leading up to this, but unfriending was key (see CNET for details).

Just recently, and without provocation, I was similarly bullied!

I noticed this when a friend posted something to Facebook and tagged another person. When I went to go to my "friend's" page, I couldn't access it. I checked my friend list and sure enough I had been unfriended!

I probably have been unfriended by others before. In the early days of social media I, like most people, wantonly sent friend requests to people I barely knew or knew from long, long ago in a galaxy far away. I did end up interacting rather regularly via social media with some of those people, but by and large these very weak ties were not maintained. Of my 200+ friends on Facebook, I probably only interact with less than 30 in a given month. So if people unfriended me over the years, I really didn't notice.

I did notice this person unfriending me, however, as we have had a continual workplace relationship and collegial ties that have persisted for years. I thought we got along really well both offline and online and we never had any incidents. Possibly, this person just accidentally unfriended me or went through some massive friend purge in which I was engulfed. Or maybe I'm just a creep and I don't belong there.

Either way, considering that I must have continual business dealings (albeit limited) with this coworker her action is therefore quite unprofessional.

I wouldn't call it bullying - but it definitely seems mean-spirited, and more importantly it is unnecessary!

I'm going to give this person the benefit of the doubt and assume the unfriending wasn't personal and was possibly an accident. Otherwise unfriending someone is sending a direct and unequivocal message that you refuse to have further interactions with this person. This is not appropriate workplace behaviour. This is only acceptable if it has based on some sort of horrible dealings, which would be better dealt with by talking to your Human Resources department.

Facebook is a dominant form of social interaction (and likely THE dominant form) among friends, family, and coworkers, so closing this off is sending a very strong message of hostility. I don't believe most people realize how powerful a message it is (including digital media experts, as this case may be). I have often heard people talk about unfriending people very casually. We may not like how Facebook and other social networking sites have pervaded the workplace and so many spheres of our life, but we have to find ways to deal with this reality.

Some people choose to avoid social networking sites altogether. This is an effective tactic, but it is a blunt option that blocks one from lots of interactions that could be beneficial to one personally and professionally. Others choose to have multiple accounts or use pseudonyms to keep their lives and people apart - but this becomes unwieldy and too much effort to maintain.

Instead, there is a solution that achieves the same ends, but in a low-key and diplomatic fashion. People just need to take a few minutes to make use of the excellent privacy and group settings that Facebook and similar sites offer. Consequently, there is no point nowadays to unfriending someone (barring heinous acts) ever again.

First, set up various "list" of Facebook friends. I suggest having different lists for close friends, family, coworkers, and acquaintances at the very least. Facebook even has preset lists for some of these. You can then designate what members of a list have access to - as little or as much of your stuff as you decide. You can then target content to list by by type of content (e.g. all photos) or a specific piece of content (e.g. okay, even acquaintances can see this picture of me meeting this big shot). Facebook has a preset list called "Restricted" which only receives access to content you make public.

Then when you post status updates, photos, anything to Facebook it can be easily and quickly targetted to lists. Facebook even remembers your preference and makes that a default.

You can thereby easily and regularly segment portions of your life. Coworkers don't need to see family photos and your close friends don't need to hear about that interesting new article of interest to only those in your esoteric profession.

There is no need therefore to unfriend someone! Instead you can send someone down to restricted purgatory where they receive and can view little or no social media content from you.

And if you don't want to hear from them, you can remove them from your news feed via Facebook's "Unfollow" feature. You still remain "friends" but they are now dead to you in your social media stream. The great thing is that the person will likely not notice any of this and a working (or family) relationship can be peacefully maintained without the person ever knowing any differently.

To successfully pull this off, I recommend posting some stuff for all groups to see. There are many types of posts that you can benefit from more people seeing - such as promotional posts about an event, accomplishment, or company. For this reason, I also recommend making some Facebook posts public.

I am a little shocked that a digital media expert has behaved this way to me and didn't know enough about her field to make astute use of the website. It will be hard for me to not think much less of her personally and professionally as a result.

So learn from her mistake!

And if I am a creep, don't let me know that I don't belong - just make me "Restricted" and I'll never be the wiser.

Blogging @ Home

2015-09-29T22:23:00.000-04:00

Today is the ninth anniversary of me starting this blog and blogging in general. Over the years on the anniversary of my first blog post, I have written a reflexive piece on this blog and my feelings to blogging in general.

The title of my first blog entry ever is Nothing to blog home about as I feared I wouldn't have much to blog about. It turns out I was very wrong on that account.

Webslinger is my first ever blog, but over the years others have come and gone. I had a blog about my daughter's hijinx when she was a toddler; now she is a preteen and we blog together about her artworks. I have public blogs, like this one, and private ones, such as those I set up for clients. I have guest blogged for other blogs and had my blog syndicated by Backbone Magazine. I blog about serious stuff (such as digital media - as what is more important than that) and less serious (but possibly more fun) topics such as my postcard collection. I blog via Blogger, WordPress and have tried others, such as Tumblr and Yahoo 360.

Today, the topic of creating a new blog for one of my current jobs came up and I'm leading the charge for setting up yet another blog that I'll be working on. (I had wanted a Facebook page or static website - but blogging software can be used creatively to achieve both those ends.) This is an interesting coincidence as on the fourth anniversary of me creating my first blog, I created my second one (see post about that) - based on the outcome of a meeting with a client.

Over the years, my interest in blogging and posting frequency has ebbed and flowed and ebbed again. It is hard to maintain interest in something when it takes a lot of time to do and doesn't have immediate (or ever) compensation. But blogging has opened up doors for me and lead to some exciting opportunities. For awhile, I was even making some money selling ads on this blog - although my Google ads have still not resulted in enough money to take my family out for a pizza yet.

There are also ancillary benefits to blogging, such as providing an awesome venting source. For example, it is a continuous pleasure to me to see my post on a horrific customer service experience with Bell Canada continue to get hundreds of views. Blogging has also introduced my research and ideas to more people then traditional academic publishing has ever done and helps my SEO too.

I find I do have a fair amount of things to blog about on my various blogs. I don't really have the time to do it, but I find it useful to post something here or just plain fun to post about my postcard collection that I find time to do it. No doubt, blogging is also a procrastination crux for me and help to alleviate the unending pressures of my PhD process.

The biggest change with my blogging is that I am doing almost all of my blogging at home. Now that I'm working almost entirely remotely in both my studies and employment, I work from my office at home. Although isolated from others, blogging gives me an excellent outlet for sharing my thoughts, experiences, feelings and postcards in a way that continues to be very personally rewarding. So despite all the writers blocks and time-vacuums that hit me, I think Webslinger and other blog team will rage on!

Motive to Make Locative Media Better

2015-09-28T15:26:00.000-04:00

If you've read more than one post here you would quickly come to the the conclusion that I love locative media (a.k.a. location-based services).

However, you'd be a bit wrong. I love the potential of these apps, but too often it is just potential. Existing apps are scratching the surface of possible interactions and experiences that mobile media can facilitate between people and their physical world. To give a cinematic analogy - if locative media were films, it would still be the silent era.

There are a lot of elements that need to be in place to build a killer locative media app. In addition to the standard user experience and technical proficiency factors, locative media developers need to be able to create interactions with a device's geopositioning abilities, incorporate online maps, and access or create a library of geocoded content. In my experience and in talking to developers, they spend a lot of development time working on getting these last elements working.

Having worked in digital media for many years now, I have found that when technical development is difficult or overly laborious, it often results in an organization's energies being focused on that - opposed to front-end elements such as creating an intuitive and pleasing user experience, offering sophisticated narrative or informational structures, promoting organizational or branding goals effectively, or differentiating itself from similar services, among other issues. Alternatively, technical hurdles can scare people off and prevent people from even trying their ideas.

I was contacted this summer by a company, RocketChicken Interactive, that is addressing the challenges locative media developers face. Naturally, my interest was instantly piqued. All the more so when I learned the company is based on Canada. Over the past couple months, I have had the chance to talk to company founder and president Ryan Chapman and senior executive Peter Wittig.

Their company has created several location-based games, such as the popular Code Runner. The game was a hit. But it was during their lengthy development process that the founders realized that there could be an easier way to do this. So they created Motive.

Motive offers a platform service for people to build and launch locative media applications from games to guides - without needing to know much code. This offers organizations the new ability to not only launch products more quickly, but ideally to focus their energies on innovating, differentiating themselves, and making killer new apps.

As Ryan states:

People are reinventing the wheel in the development of locative apps. They are struggling with the same technical obstacles and having to build everything from scratch. Motive gives you the programming mechanics so that you can focus on the story and the user experience. You can create a compelling experience without writing a lot of code.

Through a web-based, authoring tool, Motive allows people to choose the types of interactions desired to build an app. You plug into an existing dataset of geocoded content, such as OpenStreetMaps or Foursquare, or use your own. Then, through Motive's visual interface, you choose from menu items to enable interactions with specific places or types of places in proximity to a user. So one could choose a piece of content to display when a user is near a specific restaurant, any restaurant, or a type of restaurant (Indian vs. Italian). Scenarios can be prioritized with conditional responses added in accordingly. Developers can also choose whether to make their app online or offline (and thereby avoid incurring roaming costs).

Another challenge that Motive addresses for organizations is that it can help reduce the silos between back-end and front-end. Ryan summarizes the problem:

Content producers are still kept at arm's length. For example, it could take a week to update a few words, but with Motive, the writers or graphic designers can work in parallel to the developers. We are injecting content into the pipeline using Motive's tools - content can be updated on the fly and be live instantly.

As with a content management system, Motive can enable one's apps to be updated via their hosted web-based tool. Clients can upload their digital assets (e.g., design elements, images, music, videos) and content and update it as they wish without having to request a programmer to do it for them.

Although Motive was developed based on a location-based game, the notion of interacting with place is not confined to gamers. Museums, historic sites, tourist attractions, theme parks, and schools, among other businesses, may want to offer an app to direct, guide, or encourage play between their customers and their places.

Currently, the service does require some programming effort to launch an application, but Ryan notes,

The vision of Motive is for someone to be able to sit down and launch a locative app without writing a single line of code. If you are creative, then you won't be hamstrung by all that - you don't have to solve the problems over again and over again. Just take this and run with it. With that, I think there will be an explosion of apps.

It is this vision that is so engaging. By opening up the sphere to those otherwise unable to code and overcoming herculean tech hurdles, more people and a more diverse variety of people will be able to try something out. To make this vision more of a reality, the company is working on offering a series of templates targeted to various types of businesses with associated interactions further facilitated.

Through their beta and alpha testing with Motive, Ryan has been surprised by some of the new things people are doing, as their testers have built options into their apps that he hadn't envisioned. The initial crop of locative media apps offered a lot of novelty, but check-ins, friend finding, and place reviews are rather limited forms of interacting with our world. I am excited at the possibility of seeing really sophisticated and innovative projects in this area. As Blogger did for blogs, I think Motive has the possibility to facilitate and spur some amazing developments in the locative media field.

Let's Get Loaded

2015-09-22T23:28:00.004-04:00

I am not afraid to admit I love coupons. I don't understand what people have against them? Who doesn't love having more money or getting stuff for free?!

I'm not talking about your grandma's coupons to save 25 cents. I've gotten coupons to save several dollars, get stuff for free, 2 for 1, etc.

For me, couponing is still largely a print act. I get some direct mail from companies I do business with and some mass mailers that I quickly scan for deals. Occasionally, I check for coupons online but this so seldom nets anything that I don't bother often. So like housewives of old, I merrily clip my coupons and put them in my wallet.

Where they remain abandoned and expired until they pile up en masse and force a purging.

Given that I love saving money and free things, this makes me both mad and sad. For years, I have wondered when the digital revolution will get to coupons to save my day.

Sure there's been forays into digital deals. I've found some online coupons from websites such as Red Flag Deals for e-commerce sites - although these sources have been drying up for me over the years
I have also had a few coupons emailed to me for purchases in bricks and mortar stores with the promise that I just had to show my mobile device to the cashier to redeem. I don't think this ever worked once at any business, but ones that I printed out have generally worked. But, I still had to remember to (try to) redeem them.

So it was with no small excitement today that I eagerly followed up on an email offer from Shoppers Drug Mart to load coupons to my store loyalty card, Optimum.

I love loyalty rewards programs even more than I love coupons. So so showing my loyalty card is something I will not forget to do.

To load coupons to one's Shoppers Optimum card, one has to sign into their website. It was pretty easy to load the coupons even if it did take a few steps (which would be a bit cumbersome on a smartphone). I understand that coupons can't be automatically preloaded onto a card as one does need to be made aware of the promotions. Something to make this process a bit easier would be great - but not an app. I do not want yet another business-specific app to clutter my device and never be used.

I love this idea - no more clipping ever again! However, I still need help when roaming the aisles to remember what amazing offers are awaiting for me one scan away.

Email Etiquette: Things We All Should Know by Now

2015-09-12T00:43:00.004-04:00

Email was invented in the 1970s and ubiquitous by the 1990s. Yet it seems that people still have trouble using it appropriately for professional communications.A few weeks ago, I experienced five breeches of email etiquette within two weeks:

someone refuses to answer my emails after a few weeks (no vacation response either)
someone replied to an email I sent to my supervisor and not me (nor did they cc me)
someone replied to all regarding a matter that only involved two people (causing unnecessary worry and chaos for the others recipients)
someone send me a snarky email chastising me for not doing something that I had already emailed them about to indicate I had completed (prompting the "sorry I missed that one" response)
someone c.c. me on an email without explaining why (so I was left to unravel the mystery)

I've committed some email violations before in my day. But in these cases all these emails I wrote were definitively relevant to the person's job duties and were polite and brief.

I actually thought that after many years of email usage people would be committing email crimes with much less frequency. But email crimes continue to happen far too often.

And, I'm guilty too. The worst email crime I did recently was not checking spell check closely enough and it changed a person (thankfully one with a sense of humour) name to urine.

So since there are still evidently so many criminals here is

Email Law for All Lands

1) Reply to all emails that indicate a reply is needed
With the exception of emails from crazy people, there is no one too great that they can't type even a few words of a reply. I've emailed CEOs, deans, and government officials and received replies - so I refuse to believe that those managing the middle and such are more busy than them. If you are too busy to reply to your emails then you need to delegate or reassign your responsibilities.

Note some slack can be given to really big, big shots. By this I mean at the level of heads of state and Hollywood superstars. But the same excuse is not acceptable for entry level administrators

2) Read up before sending out
It's easy to quickly send an email to follow up on a topic - but don't channel your responsibilities to someone else by not knowing the current status of an issue. Before sending an email, it only takes a few moments to check your prior emails on a topic and familiarize yourself with the status of items before sending an email exposing your ignorance.

3) Watch your tone and take sensitive stuff offline
Email is a lean medium unlike talking in person, so tone or humour can be easily mistaken. Better to compose emails with a neutral tone unless one has an established relationship with a person.

4) Be careful of "reply all", CC, and even more careful of BCC
It's really easy to add that extra person, or two, or three, or ten - but don't! Everyone experiences email overload nowadays so don't compound the problem. Also, never send an email to someone if they don't be to know why they are receiving it. BCC has the same problem, but is even worse as now you've done something secret and sneaky,

Finally, if you are adding someone to an ongoing email thread state this to the email group. Explain to the group and individual why they are being included.

5) Check before you send
Taking at least a few quick moments to reread your email before sending it out can help you avoid the above problems and more. It's a great idea to have spell check set to automatically check emails before sending them, but spell check is not always your friend as my email to "Urine" proved.

There are more email crimes than I have listed here, so feel free to add to the list.

Kids Doodle App

2015-08-30T18:27:00.000-04:00

My young daughter just got her first ever mobile device earlier this month. Any advice on how to manage this is greatly appreciated. So far she's only been using it at home and hasn't connected with any of her friends with it (I wish it could stay this way for a few years.)

We promised her a mobile device for her birthday last month. Many of her classmates already had a device a grade or two before her, so we figured it was time. I got my new smartphone at the same time (a LG G3, which I LOVE) so we got a great deal.

Along with my kid getting the new mobile, we got her some apps. She's particularly fond of playing various games, texting (me and family members only so far) and YouTube. She also loves a digital art app called Kids Doodle.

My daughter wrote a review of Kids Doodle for her own blog, so I wanted to post it here (the picture explains why).

**********

When I got my new smartphone, I wanted to make a nice picture for my dad. My mom found an app for me to make pictures with.

She heard of the app from an online list of best free apps for kids. The app is called Kids Doodle.

The app lets pick colours and effects to make pictures. You can choose different colour backgrounds. You can add in images of fireworks, hearts, bubbles, and stars.

Here's one I made for my dad:

Fatal Error: Neglecting Error Handling

2015-08-29T18:13:00.003-04:00

For a long time, I've heard great things about Airbnb. Friends have recommended it for making travelling to places, such as Europe or New York City, finally affordable and as a good way to meet locals.

I have been eager to try Airbnb, but haven't had the opportunity until earlier this month. I was travelling to Vancouver for a conference and was put off by the B grade hotels in B grade locales charging on average about $300 a night.

Upon checking Airbnb, I was delighted to find a few great listings. I narrowed it down to one that sounded perfect. I was a bit nervous that the place didn't have any feedback from prior guests, but I decided to go ahead and book it. I was excited because not only was I getting a good rate, but it was in a great location.

But due to fatal errors with Airbnb and their partners, I won't get the chance to book any rooms with them any time soon or perhaps ever. Their site has an error that blocks the process of booking and they offer no workaround.

As a former web developer, the issue doesn't seem like a huge problem. Yet it is a necessary step that without completing stops a traveller worst than a wicked case of Montezuma's Revenge.

In brief, the problem is that some Airbnb's room renters require a guest to be authenticated. This process requires uploading a photo of government-issued identification. Suffice to say, my wife and spent over an hour trying every permeation offerred to do this several times and it never worked. Airbnb offers no error message to inform me of any problems on their or my end. I had no idea what was going wrong, instead I'd just be redirected back to where I started with no word from Airbnb on how to proceed. No alternatives are offerred nor is any way to contact customer support. As booking lodgings is often time sensitive, access to very fast, preferably live, customer support is essential - another one of Airbnb's problems. So despite finding a great room, I could not book it.

The problem is so prominent and fatal that it should not have been overlooked by the company. The fact that it was missed speaks to a lack of adequate quality assurance that throws their whole service into disrepute.

I don't mean to pick on Airbnb - but this case is a great example of a company that has done very well developing a great online service, designing an attractive and generally usable website, and achieving a critical mass of users to make the service viable.

They obviously put a lot of very skilled work into all those crucial components of any digital media business. The business analysts, developers, designers and marketers should be proud. But the the company obviously hasn't done an adequate job of error handling and user testing.

Having worked in this field for many years, this is not surprising as testing is often neglected. In the rush to get products live quality assurance testing - let alone user testing - is frequently sacrificed. Sometimes it is not done at all.

Testing is not the most fun part of launching any digital media product (it might actually be the most boring and certainly the least sexy). But neglect it at your peril. All the hard work of launching a great product comes to a grinding halt when a simple bug is overlooked.

****
P.S. I ended up only be able to get an overpriced room in Vancouver's "entertainment district". It turned out to be next to strip clubs and peep shows and be smaller than most hotel bathrooms (and didn't include a bathroom either). Staying at a gleaming new condo in a trendy neighbourhood for less money would have been MUCH PREFERABLE!!!

Digital Help for Visitors to Toronto

2015-07-16T22:46:00.000-04:00

With the Pan Am & Parapan Games officially starting tomorrow, a large number of tourists have already begun arriving in Toronto. As one a specialist in mobile apps with a focus on apps that help people find their way around and learn more about their places, I put together a list of my favourite Toronto mobile websites and apps.

All the the apps and websites below offer crucial information for getting around Toronto and most include geolocative maps that pinpoint your mobile location to offer customized help and directions. There are sources below to help you find your way to and around Toronto whether by public transit, car, foot, or bike. I have also included some of my favourite sources for finding out more about our city - from restaurants and restrooms to history and hijinks.

Note: I have tested all the desktop and mobile websites but not all the apps.

Pan & Parapan Am Games - Official Source

Desktop Website	Mobile App	Mobile Website
Pan Am Games official website is comprehensive and has all info on the games and cultural events. You can also buy tickets and merchandise. (including Pachi stuffies) Key Info: * Sports, schedules, venues, countries participating, events, transportation, and news Pointing Your Way: * Interactive map of sporting & cultural venues * Venue pages have maps and links to directions * Interactive trip planner provides driving or public transit directions	The app appears to have all info and features of desktop website. It has interactive, locative maps of sporting and cultural venues. Available on: Android and Apple.	Mobile website is similar to desktop website and has been mostly optimized for viewing on a mobile. Key info and functionality present, including their trip planner. But no links found to interactive maps - instead links to Travelinx for transit directions.

Transportation

Desktop Website	Mobile App	Mobile Website
Regional Public Transit
Triplinx - combines info on transit systems for Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas - specifically Brampton, Milton, Burlington, Mississauga, Oakville, York Region, and the regional GO Transit services. Key Info: * Schedules by route, fares, maps, and paratransit services Pointing Your Way: * Stop Finder - get nearest transit system by entering address * Interactive Trip Planner - enter address or venue for directions for transit, car, or bike	No app appears to exist (but none needed as mobile website works well - see note to right)	Mobile website is fully optimized. Mobile website has full content and functionality as desktop website.
Toronto Public Transit
Toronto Transit Commission (known as TTC) is Toronto's only public transit system. TTC serves downtown Toronto as well as Scarborough, North York, East York, and Etobicoke. Key Info: * Fares, alerts, schedules, day passes, airport routes, maps,etc. * You can now buy day passes online! Pointing Your Way: * Interactive Trip Planner - enter starting and ending points for routes	TTC's official app just launched this July. TTCconnect is only for buying tickets via Android or Apple I use TTC Tracker. It's easy to use and hasn't let me down. TTC Tracker gives schedules for buses & streetcars (subways come about every 6-8 minutes) by route or stop.	Mobile website is fully optimized. It has all essential info, including maps and interactive Trip Planner.
Airport
Pearson Airport is the airport most visitors to Toronto use. (There's a little airport on Toronto Island mostly for small flights). Pearson is in nearby Mississauga. Key Info: * Arrival and departure updates, parking guide, and free wifi info. Pointing Your Way: * Interactive terminal maps showing gates and showing amenities, food, and services	The app appears to have all info and maps of website. Available on:Android, Apple, and BlackBerry.	Mobile website is fully optimized. It has all essential info, including interactive terminal maps and customized directions to airport.
Parking
Green P Parking is owned by City of Toronto. They provide many of the parking spots here (160 lots containing about 20K spaces). Prices are reasonable (not cheap) and they don't jack up rates during special events (as some lots will). Key Info: * Rates per lot, monthly permits, pay tickets online Pointing Your Way: * Find Parking function map out nearest lots by address, venue, or intersection entered or by browsing a map - sort by distance or price * Each lot has a webpage with its location plotted on Google Maps and rates	The app has same features as desktop website, but with additional functionality of paying via your device, setting expiry reminders, and extending meter time. Note: The app just launched and paying via app is not yet possible at all locations. Available on: Android and Apple	Only partially available via mobile browser. In a near-sighted decision, the mobile website only promotes the app. The helpful info provided on desktop website is not available, nor is their parking finder. But payment functionality is available to members via a browser or text messaging.
Taxis
Gata Hub - Now that Hailo is gone from North America, a local company offers service to hail official taxis via mobiles. Rather than having to know the specific name of a cab company, this service allows you to request a taxi pick-up in Toronto. Note: * I haven't used this service * You can't hail a cab from website	GataHub's app allows one to request a taxi pick-up, estimate a fare, track taxi locations, and get arrival times. Available on: Android and Apple	Mobile website is optimized, but one cannot hail or view taxis from website.
Uber Toronto - links riders with private (unofficial) cars. Taxis in Toronto are regulated but Uber drivers aren't, which can result in cheaper rates than taxis. However, Uber rates can fluctuate based on demand (unlike official Toronto taxis). Note: * I haven't used this service * UberX service is in legal disputes here * You can't hail a cab from website.	Uber's app allows one to estimate a fare, split bills with friends, view driver profiles, pay with your mobile, and order a pick-up even if you don't know your address. Available on: Android, Windows Phone, and Apple	Mobile website is optimized, but one cannot hail or view cars from website. Mobile website does have a Fare Estimator.
Bicycling
BikeShare - Toronto has various bicycles stationed in docks in the downtown of the city to rent for short term travel and return it to any of the stations. Key Info: * Info on signing up, rates, and overall program Pointing Your Way: * Station Map plots the location of bike depots on a map with real-time updates on bikes and docks available Note: * I haven't used this service * There are also a few other places to rent bikes in Toronto, but here's a list.	No official app, but various third party apps - search your app store for "bike share Toronto"	Mobile website is optimized and offers same functionality as desktop website.
Bike Parking - Toronto is not a bike-friendly city in various ways. One way is that there aren't many (official) places to lock them. The City has some bike parking spots, but they are not always easy to find. A Toronto developer has built a service to address this. Key Info: * Find the address of spots or suggest a location for one Pointing Your Way: * Enter an address or browse a map of Toronto to see nearest bike parking spots	No app	Website works well on mobile browser, but it isn't fully optimized. Mobile website appears to have full content and functionality as desktop website.

Services and Amenities

Business Directories
Desktop Website	Mobile App	Mobile Website
Yellow Pages is the leader in local businesses listings across Canada. They have extensive listing for Ontario including Toronto Key Info: * Search for contact information and addresses of a specific business / organization or browse categories via directories. * Filter results by rating, neighbourhood, etc Pointing Your Way: * View businesses by category on a map or view a specific business' address on a map with directions	The app has same features as website, but with additional ability to search for individuals and well as businesses. Works well on my Android. Available On: Android, BlackBerry, Windows, and Apple	Mobile website is fully optimized. It allows one to search for businesses or individuals and view results plotted on a map.
Bathrooms
SitOrSquat Restroom Finder - addresses persistent problems of finding available (let alone decent) washrooms when you need one. Listings aren't the most up-to-date or comprehensive, but if you're a newcomer and you gotta go, it's better than the alternatives! Key Info: * Search for washrooms and filter results by accessibility, changing tables, family bathrooms, * Add a life-saver to the list and rate as good (sit) or bad (squat) and attach a photo (of the washroom, no selfies please) Pointing Your Way: * See the nearest bathroom to you on a map or enter a location	The app has same features as desktop website. Works well on my Android. Available On: Android and Apple	Does not work on mobile browser.
Shopping
Finding your way around Toronto's many malls (we love to shop in climate-controlled comfort here) can be difficult. Rather than download various apps, a leading owner of malls here built one app for all theirs. No website available for content, but here's a useful article of the Top 10 shopping malls in Toronto.	CF SHOP app has directories, maps, events, and promos. They have an interactive map feature "mark your location in the mall, get directions to your favourite store and even pinpoint your parking spot". Note: I haven't tested this. App includes local malls Eaton Centre, Sherway Gardens, Shops at Don Mills, Promenade Centre, Fairview Mall, Markville Shopping Centre and others. Available On: Android and Apple	Mobile website only promotes the app.

City Guides and Tourist Info

Desktop Website	Mobile App	Mobile Website
See Toronto Now is Toronto's official tourist office website with everything visitors needs to know (although the design could be better). It includes info for the Greater Toronto Area. Key Info: * Sites, shopping, events, food, lodging, and promotions * Onscreen and PDF maps Pointing Your Way: * Choose type of attraction or point of interest you are seeking and filter by neighbourhood * Attractions, events, food, and hotel search result pages list address and plot location on a map	The app has all key content of website, but also allows one to find sites by proximity and locative maps. Also gives distance to sites and directions. Available On: Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and Apple	Mobile website is fully optimized. Mobile website has full content and functionality as desktop website.
TripAdvisor - likely the best source of user reviews of hotels, restaurants, and attractions (although some reviews are clearly fake) all ranked by users. Key Info: * User reviews, guides, and a Q&A forum * Search for sights, nature, shopping, hotels, museums, food and drink, etc. Pointing Your Way: * Maps of every location	TripAdvisor's app Toronto City Guide app offers city content from desktop website but works in offline mode. Offers maps, directions, and itineraries. Available On: Android and Apple	Mobile website is fully optimized. Mobile website has full content and functionality as desktop website. It also offers directions to sites from device's location.
Bloor St. Culture Corridor - Bloor Street from Yonge Street to Spadina (comprising neighbourhoods of Yorkville and The Annex) is a main area for museums, shopping, bars, and restaurants. Key Info: * Find out about area stores, cultural sites, restaurants & bars, and hotels with descriptions and contact details * Lists of cultural events Pointing Your Way: * View map of locations by type and click on items to find out more	The app has same features as desktop website. In addition, one can search locations by proximity and view results in a list or by map. Available On: Android and Apple	The mobile website is usable and has all the same info as desktop website, but is not fully optimized and using the full map is difficult but possible (just click on it a few times to view entire map).

Food and Drink

Desktop Website	Mobile App	Mobile Website
Toronto Patio Guide - summers are too brief here, but we make up for it by celebrating the good times with gusto and patios are the best way to do so. Key Info: * Definitive guide with reviews of patios including contact info, opening hours, type of patio (rooftop, side walk, backyard, etc.) * Search for bars, restaurants, or nightclubs by name or location (but not cafes stupidly!) Pointing Your Way: * Find patios on a map or search by neighbourhood	The app has the same features as website, but in addition one can search by proximity, view results in a list or by map, and get a recommendation by shaking your device. Available On: Android and Apple	Mobile website is fully optimized. Mobile website has full content and functionality as desktop website.
Toronto Food Trucks - portable and convenient food and in increasing diversity. Info Available: * Guide of food offerings and truck locations with schedules Pointing Your Way: * View food trucks on a map	The app has the same features as desktop website, but in addition one can view trucks in a list or by map. Available On: Android and Apple	Mobile website is fully optimized. Mobile website has full content and functionality as desktop website.
Foursquare Toronto - It is not as much fun as it used to be, but it does do well in recommending nearby and trending restaurants, clubs, and bars. Foursquare has content on most cities in Ontario. Key Info: * Members see visits and recommendations from friends * Filter results by price, specials, open now, etc. Pointing Your Way: * Search for food, nightlife, shopping, or"fun" and refine search by address, neighbourhood, or your location	The app has same features as desktop website. Works well on my Android. Available On: Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and Apple	Does not allow one to load their website on a mobile.

Historical Information

Desktop Website	Mobile App	Mobile Website
Toronto in Time - offers more than 150 site histories are told through text and images. Key Info: * View items by theme (e.g., sport & leisure, law & order, industry, roots, arts & entertainment, fighting, etc.), neighbourhood, suggested routes * Search sites by keywords (try "Rolling Stones") Pointing Your Way: * See points of interest on a map	The app has same features as desktop website. In addition, one can search locations by proximity and view results in a list or by map. Works well on my Android. Available On: Android and Apple.	Mobile website is not optimized and is so hard to use on a mobile that it is essentially inoperable.
First Story - chronicles history of Toronto's First Nations people. Key Info: * Blog of history and events related to indigenous people in Toronto The website does not offer locative or map features. The app is essential for this.	First Story app let's one view aboriginal history points of interest via map or by proximity. Works well on my Android. Available On: Android and Apple.	Not optimized for mobiles and does not offer mapped content. App is essential.
Queerstory - chronicles history of Toronto's LGBTQ people. Key Info: * Multimedia (text, photos, or videos) histories tied to 37 locations in downtown Toronto. Pointing Your Way: * View location history by category or by map	The app offers same functionality as desktop website. Works well on my Android. Available On: Android and Apple.	Mobile website is optimized. Mobile website has full content and functionality as desktop website.
Findery - offers people's stories and perspectives on their places. Users upload notes and photos about locations. The result is eclectic and personal glimpses into places as other people experience it. Key Info: * Populated by user-generated content so notes are on any and every topic * Add a note about your experience here Pointing Your Way: * View notes by map, satellite, or grid view * Search for notes about or near address, neighbourhood, or business name	The app offers same functionality as desktop website. Works well on my Android. Available On: Android and Apple	Mobile website is optimized, but does not offer mapped content or search function. Get the app!

Did I miss one of your favourites? Please let me know of other great sources.

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Digital Help for Visitors to Toronto

Pan & Parapan Am Games - Official Source

Desktop Website

Mobile App

Mobile Website

Transportation

Desktop Website

Mobile App

Mobile Website

Regional Public Transit

Toronto Public Transit

Airport

Parking

Taxis

Bicycling

Services and Amenities

Business Directories

Desktop Website

Mobile App

Mobile Website

Bathrooms

Shopping

City Guides and Tourist Info

Desktop Website

Mobile App

Mobile Website

Food and Drink

Desktop Website

Mobile App

Mobile Website

Historical Information

Desktop Website

Mobile App

Mobile Website