Unfortunately this lends itself pretty well towards a somewhat distorted view of the world in which wicked priorities reign supreme.

Gamesradar compiled a frightening list of 15 examples of nerddom gone wrong:

Call of Duty (13069 words) VS World War Two (11844 words)

See what we mean? When the deadliest, costliest war in the history of mankind has been trumped by a videogame franchise about that war, you know something’s off. One involved over 50 countries and took over 70 million lives; the other involves button mashing and tea bagging.

On an encouraging note, we did have to add all the Call of Duty games’ individual pages together to reach the crazy number above. On a discouraging note, we didn’t have to add Call of Duty 4 and its non-WWII setting, which would have brought the total word count to an even crazier 18,927.

Oh, and on a simply ridiculous note? Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare beats “modern warfare“… 5,858 to 2,873.

Also less important than Call of Duty! 
• American Revolutionary War = 8,078

• American Civil War = 11,729

• English Civil War = 8,030

• Napoleonic Wars = 7,951

• Hundred Years’ War = 7,992

• War on Terrorism = 10,674

• War on Drugs = 7,628

• Cold War = 10,117

• “War” = 9,233

It get’s worse though:

Knuckles (7832 words) VS God (3,726 words)

At last, we reach the ultimate showdown. In this corner, we have God, who Wikipedia describes as:

“… the principal or sole deity in religion…”
”…the creator and overseer of the universe…”
”… omnipotent and eternal…”
”… the source of all moral obligation, and the greatest conceivable being existent…”

His opponent? Knuckles of Sonic the Hedgehog fame, who Wikipedia describes as:
“… a red, teenage, anthropomorphic echidna…”
”… the fourth most popular character in the series…”
”… shy around girls…”

This is exactly why I don’t have the slightest problem with quoting Wikipedia in my Ph.D. when it comes to obscure videogame references.

-Jens

While a number of people have commented that if the CEOs of major companies have time to blog I should as well.

I think the difference is that most blogging CEOs (and many PR bloggers) have the chance to blog as part of their regular work day (no matter how long that work day might be). My work here at BlogCampaigning is certainly related to the work I do at CNW Group but it isn’t part of my job description and only takes place outside of work hours.

I’m also a firm believer in what Jeremiah Owyang refers to as “paying yourself first,” although I think I have a slightly different spin on it. His priorities are to his blog and getting his message of web strategy out to the masses.

My priority is to enjoy life.

In the summer, that means being outside. It means playing sports (through the TCSSC) and reading books in Trinity Bellwoods park. When I’ve relaxed and “paid myself first” in this respect, I know that I can focus on the work that I need to do.

I’m also getting tired of blogging about blogging and communications blogging the newest technology. Instead of talking about, I’m trying to put these tools into practice in a couple of side projects (and I’d like to thank Mark Evans - his Four Reasons Why was a bit of inspiration for this post).

To paraphrase an old saying: Those who can create, do. Those who can’t blog about how others are creating.

-Parker

After spending the night in a hostel located in a rather dubious area – stores with names like “Super Iran” and stickers on cars praising the one and only true religion didn’t inspire confidence that a constitution based on the principles of democracy and liberty was held in high esteem here – one of the first things we did was to try and call the band. No answer. Fair enough, it is a long trip after all, although they would have had a couple of hours of sleep at this stage.

This call was followed by several others. Wasting time was getting more and more difficult. What was there to do? Wandering around aimlessly certainly wasn’t inspiring, neither was getting a second breakfast nor strolling down the main shopping street. We were bored out of our brains.

The only relief: The internet. Not only did it offer an escape from the mind numbing mediocrity of the place but it also, via of Operator Please’s newsletter, revealed that Qantas employees were on strike and therefore it wasn’t sure if the band was going to make it on time for their own show. The good news though: We could finally escape the fourth terrace of the purgatory.

The next stop was Bremen: If Operator Please made it to the festival it would only be an 45 minute drive from there, it they didn’t we could spend some time with friends in the city whose university I attended for almost five years.

They made it though, as we found out the next day. And they even organized backstage passes for Jenna and me, the golden ticket.

It was surreal to see them play, in a very good way. About 2 ½ years ago I was telling Ashley, the bass player, about Hurricane festival after they played a gig in a tiny club on the Gold Coast. And now I had the chance to witness them perform there – in my Vaterland, in front of an enthusiastic audience.

If you get the chance: Do yourself a favor and go to see one of their shows or buy their album: they’re confident but not cocky, they’re sweet but won’t rot your teeth, they’re cool but could be your friends.

The whole experience was almost as surreal as being backstage. When I saw Dave Grohl I couldn’t resist to ask him for a photo. When I was 12 I watched hours of MTV just to tape a single goddamn Nirvana video. Giving me the opportunity to meet one of THE heroes of my youth, someone I absolutely adored growing up in that boring place in the middle of nowhere, someone who at that time was in the biggest band on earth is something I will forever be grateful for (despite me looking like a cartoon of myself on that said photo). That and for the opportunity to wash my hands backstage.

Further highlights include: Seeing the Wombats from the photographers pit; watching the Foo Fighters from the sound tower and overlooking a crowd of tens of thousands people; Jaguar Love, Tocotronic and of course Sigur Ros: the chill out after the apocalypse.

Dust, rain and the fact that we had to sleep in my car because I couldn’t organize a tent didn’t matter anymore on this dreamlike weekend.

-Jens
[Update: Now with 100% more pictures. The one with me and Dave Grohl won't hit the interwebs before I haven't photoshopped it though]

While the plot about a conspiracy involving some of the world’s security forces and a type of doomsday weapon failed to really pull me in, I was amazed at the way Vinge described the future technologies.

For example, the main character is in his 70s but is recovering from Alzheimer’s thanks to some new biotech that sounds remarkable similar to what this company is doing.

Inhabitants of this future aren’t really that different from us in that they are constantly connected. However, rather than glancing down at little screens to find out who is calling or what is being “Silent Messenged” to them (think Microsoft messenger mixed with this sort of tech), the information is displayed in their contact lenses, a technology that is not really that far away. Apparently, one group of researchers have already developed an LCD screen that you can wear in your eye.

Combine that with these image recognition glasses and you’re almost at the level that the characters in Rainbows End are. However, they can take it one step further by using the display to “skin” their reality and make it look the way they want in much the same way that we change the look and feel of our software programs and desktop. Imagine something like this Flickr-Google Earth mashup (via BoingBoing and NY Times, but in real time rather than photos and the option to use user-generated images/skins for your reality.

The way Vinge describes this new tech is perfect in that it is simply accepted by the characters in much the same way that we accept things like email and cell phones into our everyday lives.

For anyone even vaguely interested in knowing what our world will be like in the very near future, I strongly recommend Rainbows End. If you’re in Toronto and want to borrow my copy, let me know.

-Parker

First there was the report of a sixth human foot found washed up on a stretch of shoreline in BC in a span of less than a year, but this was later revealed to be a hoax.

Then there was the reports of a teen-pregnancy pact in Massechussets, complete with a 24 year-old homeless man as one of the fathers.

Just two days ago, someone sent me this link about a woman that had been dead for 42 years in front of her television before anyone found her.

The week even started out pretty wild with stories of Taliban attackers freeing anywhere from 250-400 of their comrades from a prison in Afghanistan.

I don’t even want to know what next week will bring.

-Parker

According to an upcoming PricewaterhouseCoopers report, the videogame industry is expected to reach USD 68.3 billion in global sales by 2012 - a compound annual growth rate of 10.3 per cent.
…
According to the report, the largest category - console games - will grow by 6.9 per cent annually, from USD 24.9 billion last year to USD 34.7 billion in 2012.

Online and wireless games will experience the fastest rate of growth, at 16.9 per cent and 19 per cent, respectively. The report expects online sales to reach USD 14.4 billion in 2012, with wireless sales reaching USD 13.5 billion.

The videogame advertising sector, meanwhile, will grow from USD 1 billion in 2007 to USD 2.3 billion in 2012 - a 16.7 per cent annual growth rate.

The PricewaterhouseCoopers report suggests a decline in at least one sector: it expects PC games sales to decline 1.2 per cent a year until it reaches sales of USD 3.6 billion in 2012 - down from USD 3.8 billion last year.

Growth in the US will lag compared with global growth, with overall video game revenue growing by 7.9 per cent annually - from USD 12.1 billion in 2007 to USD 17.7 billion in 2012.

The study cites several key factors for videogame industry growth, including increased broadband penetration driving the online market, the increasing popularity of MMOs and mobile phones capable of downloading games with sophisticated graphics.

A compound annual growth rate of 10.3 percent – that’s better than all other media sectors except for online advertising and access.

-Jens

A few weeks ago, I got the go-ahead to launch a Twitter account that would pull news from our ‘Internet Technology’ news feed. I chose this category from the list because I thought it would be most relevant to Twitter users, and you can check it out here.

More recently, we launched a wicked-cool CNW Group widget that allows anyone to display news from CNW on their website or desktop. I installed one on the side bar of this blog, and you can see it further down. Otherwise, check them out for yourself here.

CNW also partnered with Viigo Inc., a company that distributes news to mobile devices. It is essentially an RSS reader that works on your BlackBerry or Windows mobile device, but it is super-slick and easy to use. If you’ve got a Blackberry, check it out at http://getviigo.com/cnw.

That’s it for now…

-Parker

*This is a personal blog, written outside my CNW hours and may not reflect the views of my company. For more, see the BlogCampaigning disclosure page.

From the Third Tuesday Toronto page:

Jesse Brown is the host and one of the producers of the CBC Radio One show Search Engine. A journalist and humourist, Jesse has worked in many different forms of media, including print, television, and radio.

Since its launch in September, 2007, Search Engine has won praise from followers of Internet culture, in Canada and worldwide, and has attracted a thriving, engaged community of listeners with an interest in the social, political, and cultural impact of technology.

Designed as a collaborative, open source radio show, Jesse and his colleagues at Search Engine utilize the show’s blog to communicate and collaborate with listeners. The radio stories feed off of opinions or information gleaned from listener commentary, and feature stories on the show typically spill over into healthy, sometimes heated discussion in the blog comments. Jesse also openly encourages listeners to suggest improvements and changes to the show itself, and continues to tune the show format based on listener feedback.

Jesse broke into media at the age of 17 by founding a city-wide underground student newspaper. He was honoured by Ryerson University with their Udo award, “for noteworthy contributions to the field of Journalism,” and remains the youngest recipient in the award’s history. His radio program The Contrarians ran as a summer replacement series on CBC Radio One. His satirical column The Experiment ran for two years in Saturday Night Magazine and won a National Magazine Award for Humour.

Come out and hear Jesse speak about the ideas behind Search Engine, the power of the community, and the future of open source broadcasting

Sounds awesome.

See you there.

-Parker

I’d like to start off by saying that Halifax is one of the most beautiful cities in Canada. It was my first time visiting any of Canada’s maritime provinces and I was quite impressed. The people were friendly, the city was walkable, the buildings were nice

Maybe I’ve just spent too much time in a concrete wasteland over the past year.

The conference itself was great, but I was disappointed when during Joseph Thornley’s presentation less than half of the communicators in the room said that the used Facebook. A handful even knew what Twitter was, and only a slightly larger group raised their hands when asked if they wrote a blog. I’m sure that the session was inspiration for Joe’s post about how social media authorship is mandatory for credibility as an advisor.* Similarly, I question why the CPRS Toronto website is so often out of date, and why they can’t just switch to a blog format. Since the CPRS members are supposed to the creme de la creme of Canada’s professional communicators, shouldn’t their society reflect the latest trends and advances in communications?

Part of the reason there are so many “social media experts” out there these days is that it doesn’t take much to rise above the average level of social media knowledge. Compared to the many great and otherwise brilliant PR pros that I might at the conference, I’d pretty much say that anyone who reads this blog (or any blog) could be considered a social media expert.

To those Halifax Twitterheads that invited me to the Monday-night Tweetup: Thank you! I’m sorry I couldn’t make it, but lobster dinner at the shore club was calling my name.

Last week we also had the most recent installment of Thirsty Thursday, a monthly gathering of Toronto’s most brilliant young communicators. The weather was great, and we totally took over the patio at the The Central. Not only was there free foosball, but the waitress had an incredible memory for drink orders.

If you’re not already a member, join the Thirsty Thursday Facebook group, and we’ll invite you out to the next one.

In fact, since our friend Michael Allison is going to be in town, some of us will probably be getting together late next week.

Now it’s time for an afternoon of playing soccer and watching the Euro cup (I’m cheering for Sweden, but mostly just hoping that Germany loses).

-Parker

*Why does my spell check not recognize the word “advisor?”

Some parts of the fourth edition of the popular video game Grand Theft Auto were inspired by al Qaeda’s operations, including the Sept. 11th attacks, claims one member of a militant Islamist forum who identified himself as Abdul Wahab. Several links to YouTube videos of the game were also posted, including one of a helicopter crashing into a building and exploding. Abdul Wahab posts links to other parts of the game, detonating taxis and buses as well as suicide operations, and claims they were all inspired by al Qaeda.

And you thought Jack Thompson was nuts – as if some stone-age fundamentalists and their horrific acts played any role in inspiring the most successful entertainment product of all times. That certainly would enhance its mass appeal… I mean c’mon, theoretically you could commit suicide attacks in pretty much every game with explosives – apart from the fact that these actions don’t benefit you in GTA at all. If you survive you just get into a lot of hassle with the cops. Not very terrorist friendly rules. Let’s just hope this doesn’t inspire Weazle… eh Fox News to run headlines along the lines of “GTA – now endorsed by Osama.”

But then again what do you expect from a world that makes addicted gamers feel worse about their habit than those addicted to pornography. Says Dr. Jerald Block, who specializes in treating online game addiction:

BLOCK: …the computer gamers tend to be harder to treat. People feel a lot of shame around computer games. Whereas, it’s socially acceptable to have a porn problem.
IDEAS: You can’t be serious. You mean your clients are more ashamed of …
BLOCK: …playing World of Warcraft than looking at porn. Yes.
IDEAS: Why?
BLOCK: As a society we understand that porn is something people do, and you can see a psychiatrist and get treated for it. But gaming is hard to describe to anyone else. So these people can’t explain their situation to friends. In fact, it’s hard to give you an example of what my clients talk about, because gaming is enormously complicated.

-Jens