Digital Life

BCIT delivers 3D interactive learning

Gillian Shaw — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:01:00 GMT

Vancouver’s NGRAIN is part of a new $1 million-plus CUBE initiative at the BC Institute of Technology that is letting students work on everything form aircraft engines to knee joints in a virtual learning experience that replaces expensive equipment with 3D simulation.

The CUBE initiative was created with a $1 million grant from Lockheed Martin and $380,000 in software contributions from NGRAIN, a leader in interactive 3D training and equipment simulation solutions.

The CUBE is a two-year initiative that will deliver 3D virtual learning experiences through laptops, tablet computers and other communication devices.

“Over the next two years, we expect 3D simulation instruction to become mainstream at BCIT,” Chris Golding, BCIT’s vice president of Learning and Technology Services said in a release. “It will provide the Institution with the ability to meet the changing expectations of the new generation of learners who are digitally connected and who view 3D virtual learning environments as natural extensions to their education.”

“By delivering 3D-enabled course materials directly to instructor and student laptops, knowledge can be delivered in the context of what the student is doing and seeing at that very moment. It’s a valuable supplement to the instructions our students are receiving from our faculty in classrooms, shops and labs”, he said.

Technology not isolating, Pew report finds

Gillian Shaw — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:09:00 GMT

If you think all that cell phone and Internet time is cutting us off from our real world connections, you’d be wrong.

At least that’s the conclusion of the Pew Internet Personal Networks and Community survey that has found – contrary to fear of Internet-obsessed social misfits never straying from their computers – that Americans aren’t as isolated as the worriers might have us believe.

In fact, social isolation has remained virtually unchanged since 1985, back when mention of a world wide web would have still had most people looking around for spiders.

Sadly, six per cent of the adult population says it doesn’t have anyone they consider ‘especially significant’ in their life or someone to discuss issues of importance to them, but the rest seem to have avoided that isolation trap.

Photo by D Sharon Pruitt

And social media, far from cutting people off from local connections and community commitments was found by the study to be associated with positive activities – from users of Facebook and other social networks being more likely to include people from different backgrounds in their discussion groups, to Internet participation that either has little or a positive impact on local activity. Being online doesn’t mean you don’t visit people in real life – the study found Internet users as likely to visit neighbors in person as non-Internet users. And cell phone users and people who are online a lot at work are more likely to be part of a local voluntary or charitable organization.

The study does allow though that there is “some evidence that use of social networking serves (e.g., Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn) substitutes for some neighborhood involvement.”

Discussion network have shrunk by about a third since 1985 but you can hardly blame technology since people who use cell phones and the Internet are more likely to have larger and more diverse discussions networks.

So keep on blogging, tweeting, Facebooking – and when your parents/wife/partner complains you’re never off that computer, point them to this report.

Google Dashboard, small but useful addition

Gillian Shaw — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:57:00 GMT

I checked out Google’s newly launched Dashboard this morning and it was like getting a mini bio of my online Google life.

It’s a convenience for people like me who trail accounts and identities through the online world, signing up and sometimes forgetting just who I was in what app. It’s the multiple user ID disorder. I try to use the same user name when I can but if it’s already taken, I end up with several that are a pain to remember.

Plus being a longtime tech writer, I’m not a fan of sharing personal details like birthdates and such that could prove lucrative for ID thieves. This gave me a handy way to check what’s published and what’s not.

I keep pretty good track of the Google products I use but the Dashboard reminded me that I didn’t have the web history feature turned on – one way of making it possible to find information from a web site I’ve surfed and forgotten where it was.

Google Sites and Google Wave aren’t yet part of the Dashboard, an omission I hope will soon change.

All in all, a small but useful Google addition.

Telus becomes third Canada carrier to sell iPhone, rolls out network and new plans

Gillian Shaw — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:57:00 GMT

Telus became the third Canadian wireless carrier to sell Apple’s popular iPhone, launching the device today in conjunction with the rollout of its new network.

The network, which Telus is calling 3G+, is a joint initiative with Bell. It covers 1.1 million square kilometres of Canada and has data speeds of up to 21 megabits per second.

The Telus rollout comes the day after Bell announced its new network and pricing plans, in a move that marked an end to Rogers’ exclusive hold on the iPhone market in Canada.

The Telus smartphone plans, which include voicemail, call waiting and conference calling start at $50 a month for 100 local anytime minutes, plus 50 bonus minutes, unlimited calling and text messages for five number or 1,000 outgoing and unlimited incoming texts or double anytime minutes. It also includes unlimited night time local calls starting at 9 pm and 500 megabytes of data.

The $65 a month plan has 200 local anytime minutes, plus 50 bonus minutes, unlimited nationwide calling and text for five number or unlimited incoming text messages or double anytime minutes. It also has unlimited night time local calling that starts at 9 p.m. and it includes one gigabyte of data.

For $80 a month, smartphone customers get the same features as the $65 plan, with calling timed bumped up to 350 local minutes anytime with a 50-minute bonus and data increased to two gigabytes.

The $100 a month plan increases the local minutes to 450 plus 50 minutes bonus and it includes three gigabytes of data, with the rest of the features the same as the plans that start at $65 a month.

Tethering is included in the plans, which have an account set up charge of $35. Additional long distance minutes in Canada and from the Canada to the U.S. are 35 cents a minute and pay-per-use text messaging is 15 cents per message.

Telus mobile data plans start at $30 a month for 500 MB, $35 for one gig, $50 for two GB, $65 for three GB and $85 for five GB. Additional data is five cents per megabyte with U.S. data roaming $3 per megabyte and international roaming $25 per megabyte.

Telus also announced new plans for regular wireless phones with details on the Telus mobility web site.

The company recently dropped its controversial system access and carrier 911 fees for its wireless customers

Telus had earlier announced prices for the iPhone that start at $199 for the 16 GB 3GS and apply for three-year contracts of $50 a month a more. The 32 GB version is $299 with a three year contract.

According to Telus, customers can choose to keep their current plan or switch to a new one without penalty or without extending their contract.

Bell launches iPhone, new networks, new plans

Gillian Shaw — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:18:00 GMT

It was a big day for Bell Canada today with its launch of the iPhone, ending Rogers’ exclusive hold on the popular Apple device and combined with the rollout of Bell’s new network.

The HSPA network, a joint initiative with Telus, promises data speeds of up to 21 megabits per second on new devices that are geared for the network. Bell is going to continue to operate its existing EVDO network so customers' devices that aren't optimized for the new network will continue to work.

Bell unveiled its long-awaited plans for the iPhone, which starts at $199 for the 16 gigabyte version of the 3GS with a three year contract and $299 for the 32 gig version. Combo price plans start at $45, not including a monthly system access fee of $6.95, a monthly e911 emergency service fee, activation fee of $35 and an extra $2 a month for customers who choose paper billing.

All of the combo data plans for the iPhone include tethering, which means Bell iPhone customers can use their phones as a wireless modem for their computers to transmit data.

The $45 combo includes 100 anytime local minutes a bonus 50 local minutes, local Fab Five, which is unlimited calling and text to five local numbers of the user’s choice, 500 MB of data and unlimited local nights and weekends that start at 9 p.m. and end at 7 a.m.

Bell’s $55 combo for the iPhone goes up to 300 anytime local minutes, the same local Fab Five as the $45 combo, one gigabyte of data for email and Internet browsing and the same unlimited local nights and weekends.

Combo 75, at $75 plus the added fees, has the features of the lower-priced plans but local anytime minutes are increased to 400, the Fab Five is extended to unlimited calling and text Canada-wide and data increases to two GB.

The highest priced of Bell’s iPhone combo plans, the Combo 95, includes 500 anytime local minutes along with the rest of the features of the Combo 75.

The plans all include unlimited WiFi at Starbucks. Additional minutes are 35 cents/minute, as is long distance for Canada and the U.S. The $75 and $95 plans include call display, visual voicemail, message centre, call waiting and conference calling. The $45 and $55 plans include call waiting and conference calling.

Additional data costs three cents per megabyte but if you are in the U.S., roaming data costs are $6 per MB, so don’t leave your wireless data on if you don’t want unexpected surprises on your bills. Here is the link to Bell’s iPhone combo pricing plans.

The iPhone was among nine new devices announced today by Bell. Others include the Samsung Omnia II, the LG Xenon, the Blackberry Bold 9700 and others listed here. The company also released the Novatel U998 TurboStick, a wireless modem for the new network that is capable of delivering speeds of up to 21 megabits per second.

Bell customers with the Samsung Omnia II or the LG Xenon can also make two-way video calls on the Bell network for $5 a month for unlimited local video calling. The company also launched a Facebook application for video calling that will let users talk to their Facebook friends anywhere in the world without long distance charges. That app is included in the video calling plan.

Telus launches the iPhone and its new network tomorrow.

Twitter lists: Useful tool or cliques r us?

Gillian Shaw — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:27:00 GMT

It only took making my first Twitter list to realize this is a feature I’d want to use with care.

My fledgling list was a no-brainer – I put together The Vancouver Sun list so not only could I have it neatly listed in one place, but I’d also have an answer for all the people who ask me who’s on Twitter in the newsroom.

No subjectivity here – I just went through my Twitter list to find all the Sun journalists I follow.

However, even such a simple task had me wondering. Maybe I should add former Sun journalists like my tech colleague @petermwilson because he’s a great follow. Or maybe I need to include colleagues at Canwest whose work appears alongside ours in the Sun. And come to think of it, we have entire other departments outside the newsroom – I left them out.

And so when I read new media/social media strategist Chris Brogan’s take on it today, I had to agree:

“Sure, on the one hand, they’re a great way to group people and information together. For instance, I might make a list for news feeds. I might make a list about travel, like hotels and airlines,” Brogan wrote in his blog. “But the minute you move into the people department, things get sketchy quick.”

It’s true. Exclusionary or a useful tool?

Taking a look at Mashable’s Twitter Lists, Resources and How-tos gives you a hint of the exclusionary aspect:

10 Essential Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter.

I’m also certain there are more than 10 – what about the eleventh who could be the most inspiring entrepreneurial tweep of all time? (Except of course we'll forgive that since Caterina Fake, who co-founded the then Vancouver start up Flickr, tops the top 10 list.)

Or, Tasty Tweets: 55+ Foodies to Follow on Twitter.

Pity the poor foodie who doesn’t make the cut. But then again, 555+ might not have the same cachet. However this list invites suggestions, an acknowledgment that the Twitter expertise with food doesn’t start and end with 55 contributors, which perhaps makes it more the inclusionary.

Not to throw out the baby with the bathwater, Twitter lists can be a really useful way of filtering the masses of information that come at you through the micro-blogging service.

An example in our Twitter neighborhood is Vancouver’s Kris Krug, who put started a Vancouver 2010 Olympics list. The key word here and one that makes all the difference is ‘started.’ First thing Kris did was to let people know about it and ask for suggestions for tweeps he missed. That makes it a dynamic list and a useful one for a quick look at the people and organizations who are tweeting about the upcoming Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Games – from athletes to official organizers to news organizations to the many other not-so-official but important contributors to the social media stream around the Olympics.

I’m not going to stop making Twitter lists, but I’m going take Kris’ approach. I’ll make lists but they’ll be dynamic and open to contributions. You won’t find me putting together ‘the only 10 tech companies worth following in Vancouver’ or ‘the 3 ski resorts that do social media right.’

I’ll take the Twitter lists + approach.

Now I've figured out that Twitter lists dilemma, I'll have to take a look the people I follow on Twitter and see if there are more lists to be made.

Any ideas? What Twitter lists do you think would be most useful?

Or, are you like Vancouver's Raul Pacheco-Vega, a fellow panelist at Fresh Media and tomorrow's IPPBC conference, who tweeted that the exclusionary aspect means he won't be making any Twitter lists?

Update: I just checked out Listorious, launching soon but available if you have Twitter list access. A useful way for Twitter newbies and veterans alike to find interesting people to follow. I added my Vancouver Sun Twitter list and discovered I am on a grand total of four lists - just somewhat shy of the 1,500 Chris Brogan is on. Thanks Ann Douglas, Gary Jones and Glenn Hilton for adding me to your lists. And thanks to others I may have missed - I had to post my Vancouver Sun list with Listorious so there could be a bit of catch up time between when a list is made and it reaches Listorious.

In fact, I just see it lags well behind Twitter Lists, which shows me on 79 lists. Clearly I need a Twitter list for 'Twitter list tutorials."

And yet another update, thanks to Greg for his comments. First item on the tutorial - post your best and most useful lists on Listorious, which as Greg from Listerious points out is for public lists you think others could use. It's a useful system for filtering the many lists that are now being created daily.

And if all the fuss has you wondering why you'd care about Twitter Lists anyway, take a read of Steve Gillmor's post on The Private Web.

"Twitter lists are a robust signal that the company has moved from keeping up to encoding the value of its network," he writes in an interesting take on where this is all leading.

Poken, the RF way to share your contact info

Gillian Shaw — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 03:15:00 GMT

Here are a couple of my favourites from this week's tech toys column.

POKEN $20

I was at a conference recently when Internet entrepreneur John Chow suggested we Poken our contact info.

A hit at the recent bloggers' conference in Las Vegas, the tiny Poken hangs on a keychain, doubles as a storage drive and shares your contact details with other Poken owners. To exchange info, you hold up the tiny hand, its palm glows green, and the exchange is done. Plug the USB drive into your computer and you'll have the contact info on the profile that you've set up at Poken. They come in a range of designs -- I got a kitty one -- and you can customize them with your own brand. Any time you update your information on Poken, your contacts will automatically see it on their Poken site. Targeted for companies and great for trade shows and conferences -- but everyone has to have one to make it work. Find out more at www.doyoupoken.com.

T505 BLUETOOTH VISOR SPEAKER, MOTOROLA, $130

I watched a guy parking the other day with a cellphone in his ear, and his attention was so clearly directed to the conversation that he hit the car behind him. Definitely a candidate for hands-free, possibly one who shouldn't even try to drive and talk at the same time. With Ontario and British Columbia only the latest in a growing number of jurisdictions that don't want you to juggle a phone and the steering wheel on the road, it's time to start considering hands-free options. The Motorola T505 Bluetooth Visor Speaker allows for instant Bluetooth connectivity in any vehicle, great for those of us who haven't recently sprung for a new model that has such features already built in. www.motorola.ca.

Find this week's tech toys column here and a photo gallery from my tech toys column is here.

God of War III Ultimate Edition arrives in March, Canadian pre-sales start November

Gillian Shaw — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:52:00 GMT

Sony's God of War III Ultimate Edition for the PlayStation3 is coming out next March but starting in November, Canadian fans will be able to pre-order it at select retailers and get a voucher to download the God of War III E3 demo.

Sony Computer Entertainment America announced today the God of War III Ultimate Edition PS3 release for March 2010 and the free demo voucher is available for consumers in the U.S. starting now.

The Ultimate Edition will include the game, plus a limited-edition art book, the director’s cut of God of War: Unearthing the Legend and a full-length movie documentary showing the history of the popular God of War franchise along with downloadable music. It also gives fans other exclusive features, including access to the God of War Combat Arena with up to seven unique challenges. The Greek mythology-based game turns the player into the ex-Spartan warrior Kratos, travelling on his adventures from the heights of Mount Olympus to the depths of hell.

God of War III Ultimate Edition will retail for $99.99. Check it out at godofwar.com.

Putting a price on tweets

Gillian Shaw — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:44:00 GMT

John Chow’s part time blogging pastime has become a $40,000 a month revenue generator and now he has turned his attention to Twitter where he is earning almost $120 a pop for posting paid tweets.

While the $2,600 he has racked up since he started about a month ago may seem like lucrative pickings for the 140-character tweets, Chow is only a small player in a growing online business where celebrity Twitter users can rake in upwards of $20,000 per tweet and more.

All it takes is endorsing a company, product or service in a tweet, or simply letting an advertiser deliver a prepared pitch to their Twitter followers.

“I’ve made more than $2,500 this month and my blog is making $40,000 a month,” said Chow, who describes his work as making “money online by telling people how to make money online.’

“I expect the sponsored tweets will probably climb to $6,000 next month. My sponsored tweets are going for close to $120 and I’ve done 22 tweets already this month,” said Chow who has signed up with two companies, Sponsored Tweets and ad.ly to earn revenue from tweets.

Companies like Sponsored Tweets and ad.ly are signing up Twitter users – including celebrity tweeps with followers that number in the millions – with the amount advertisers are willing to pay directly linked to their Twitter popularity and influence.

TV star Kendra Wilkinson, on the cover of InTouch magazine this week showing off her very pregnant belly, is listed on Sponsored Tweets with a fee of $11,765 to reach her almost 393,000 Twitter followers.

Kim Kardashian has more than 2.5 million followers and you have to be an advertiser to check her fee with ad.ly, but Sean Rad, founder and chief executive said, said celebrities with Twitter followers in the millions can command paid tweets in the five figure range.

“We let them set their own price,” he said. “It’s a market price and people probably play with those numbers all the time, moving them up and down.”

Rad said the paid tweets, which his company limits to no more than one a day per Twitter publisher – the name given Twittter users who post tweets for money – can range from $1 a tweet to the low five figures.

“You’d get $20,000 once in a blue moon, you do get $11,000 a tweet – it depends on the person and on the following,” said Rad. “Five figures is actually very common in our system but four figures is more common.”

Rad said his company limits the number of paid tweets to avoid having them regarded as spam and he said so far, about one month into its launch, the service hasn’t generated a lot of negative reaction.

“We’re about in-stream advertising,connecting top tier publishers with top tier advertisers,” he said. “Most of our ads get retweeted many, many times.”

Rad said the company approves all the paid tweets and Twitter users get a chance to decide if they want to post the tweet.

“We approve every tweet before the publisher even sees it and then the publisher approves it, “ he said.

For Chow, it’s just a new sideline to his already lucrative online earnings.

Read the whole story here.

UBC kicks off Olympic challenge for classrooms

Gillian Shaw — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:32:00 GMT

Students and teachers around the world will have a chance to showcase how they are using digital technology to share their thoughts and stories about the upcoming 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

A University of British Columbia initiative, the Global Minds Challenge kicked off this week with a call to classrooms to demonstrate how they are using social media, mobile phones and other digital technologies to promote student engagement with the games.

The best five submissions will each receive up to $2,010 in prizes.

"As a host venue for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, UBC is committed to promoting broad participation in the Olympics and igniting the potential in global youth," David Vogt, director of Digital Learning Projects in the UBC Faculty of Education said in release announcing the project. "The youth of today are 'digital natives,' and the 2010 Winter Games will simultaneously be the world's greatest digital media event as well as its most inspiring teaching moment.

"The UBC Global Minds challenge was conceived to capture that moment in the form of an ongoing investment in the youth of tomorrow."

UBC’s Thunderbird Arena is host to men’s and women’s hockey during the Olympics and sledge hockey in the Paralympic Games.

Students and teachers are being challenged to use everything from Twitter to YouTube to show their digital creativity around the Games.

Global Minds is open to both public and independent kindergarten to grade 12 schools around the globe.

The competition closes on Dec. 18, 2009 with winners to be announced this February. Read details of the challenge here.

Telus drops controversial system access fee

Gillian Shaw — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:50:00 GMT

Telus is dropping its controversial system access and carrier 911 fees for its wireless customers, the company announced today.

It’s a move that appears aimed at making Telus’ wireless offerings more competitive as it rolls out its new 3G+ network November 5 and takes on Rogers' dominance in the iPhone market with the addition of Apple’s popular smartphone to its lineup. The company is also adding voicemail as a standard feature on all its plans.

While the changes will only save a few dollars a month on wireless phone bills, the added fees have irritated wireless customers and dropping them is seen as a plus in marketing wireless services. The access and carrier 911 fees add $7.70 to the average Telus wireless bill and voicemail is $7 as a stand alone feature and not part of a bundle of services.

The company also announced that it is launching "clear and simple" pricing for both new business and consumer wireless rate plans. Existing Telus customers will have a choice of keeping their old plans or switching to one of the new ones.

Telus has declined to reveal plan pricing details for the November 5 launch of its new network and the iPhone, saying it is closely guarded competitive information.

Update: Vancouver's Tris Hussey pointed out the fine print on Telus' iPhone web site description. The iPhone prices, that start at $199.99 for the 16 GB version apply for three-year contracts of $50 a month a more.

"Pricing available to clients (new and renewal) who activate on a 3 year term with a Smartphone voice and data rate plan of $50 or greater," reads the fine print on the Telus web site.

Telus gets Apple iPhone November 5

Gillian Shaw — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:49:00 GMT

The wait is finally over for Telus customers.

Telus will start selling Apple's iPhone November 5 the same day it rolls out its new 3G+ network, the company announced today.

It will bring the iPhone 3G and the newer iPhone 3GS to its customers, at the same time launches its new next generation network, which the company is billing as Canada’s largest 3G+ network.

The next generation wireless network increases data download speeds up to 21 megabits per second.

Telus has matched Rogers' pricing for the iPhone 3GS. It is:

iPhone 3G 8 GB: $99.99 with a three year contract; $599.99 with no contract

iPhone 3GS 16 GB: $199.99 with three year contract, $699.99 with no contract

iPhone 3GS 32 GB: $299.99 with three year contract. $799.99 with no contract

U2, YouTube show future for music

Gillian Shaw — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:02:00 GMT

YouTube and U2 joined forces Sunday night to show just what can be done for the future of music delivery.

Playing to a sold-out house at the Pasadena Rose Bowl in California the Irish band shared its show with millions of fans around the globe - in real time.

I tuned in to the show and it was as good as promised and better.

The livestreamed concert was billed as a global first and it is sure to set the stage for others to follow.

Leave it to Bono to pull off this musical coup. The lead singer welcomed Los Angeles fans and 'everyone watching on YouTube all over the world - seven continents."

A music giveaway? Or masterful thinking?

I put my notebook computer on the kitchen counter Sunday night to tune into the concert while I was making chocolate chip cookies and in minutes it had drawn a crowd. (Or at least what counts for a crowd at my place on a Sunday night.)

"Will be great to see them in Vancouver," was the reaction. U2 plays at BC Place this week.

That livestreaming decision can do nothing but help U2. They gambled on leading edge technology to share their music with their fans and it is a loyalty that is certain to be returned.

If you missed the livestreaming, tune in to the rebroadcast here.

Vancouver-born entrepreneur launches Blackberry watch

Gillian Shaw — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 11:47:00 GMT

A young Vancouver-born entrepreneur is cashing in on the cellphone driving ban with a wireless-enabled wristwatch that keeps Blackberry users updated on their Blackberry messages and calls.

Eric Migicovsky, who left Vancouver to study at the University of Waterloo and launched the startup Allerta Inc. there when the economy left jobs for grads scarce, has released the inPulse wristwatch today to coincide with Ontario’s newly introduced ban and just ahead of British Columbia’s proposed ban.

The $149 inPulse watch connects via Bluetooth wireless to the Blackberry smartphone, delivering alerts for incoming emails, text messages and calls and it also vibrates to alert users to incoming calls. It delivers a snapshot of information from the Blackberry without users having to pull out the device to check it, but it doesn't have any input function -- strictly read-only.

The inPulse started as a team project when Migicovsky, 23 and a graduate of Sir Winston Churchill secondary, was still in university. He came up with the idea while he was biking over cobblestoned streets in Europe and worried he'd lose his new phone in the canals he was biking along.

It was a fourth year project for Migicovsky who studied systems design engineering in the co-op program at the University of Waterloo. Feedback from the business community encouraged him to team up with five other engineers to turn the project into a commercial product.

“Over the last eight to 10 months we have been working at shifting our project from hardware that we hacked together for a school project and turning it into a real production device,” he said.

Ontario's cell phone restrictions come into effect today. The BC legislation, due to come into effect January 1, bans text messaging and email and allows hands-free cell phones and devices that require one touch to activate. New drivers in the province’s graduated licensing program will face a complete ban on using cell phones while driving.

Migicovsky said the inPulse is being billed as a Blackberry accessory and not a complete solution for drivers.

“You might have a Bluetooth headset for answering calls but at the moment there is nothing that lets you view email or text messages without holding the Blackberry in your hand,” he said. “You can’t input on the watch, but you can glance at it and see if an email was one from your mother and not a really important business email.”

“It’s an extension of the Blackberry, not a replacement.”

The display on the watch doesn’t show the entire email, just the sender and the subject or part of it depending on the length.

“It’s not meant for people to read their email,” said Migicovsky. “It notifies you and gives you a quick summary of what’s going on, it allows you to put it off for later.”

Migicovsky said the inPulse watch is also useful outside the car, letting users who just have a few seconds to catch up check for messages without having to pull out their Blackberry.

“It’s good if you’re running to a meeting and you don’t have time to go through your Blackberry, or if you’re carrying bags, walking the dog and you want to instantly get that information,” he said.

The inPulse web site, at www.freeupyourhands.com, launched today for pre-orders.

Fresh Media: On future of media in Canada

Gillian Shaw — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:16:00 GMT

The Fresh Media forum at Vancouver's newly opened W2 Community Media Arts had more questions than answers about the future of news and story telling in Canada.

But probably that is as it should be in an area that is changing day-by-day, as technology delivers new ways to share and disseminate information with audiences that span the globe.

And what was most telling was the optimism at Fresh Media for learning and adapting to the many forms of media that let everyone become a publisher.

With it comes responsibility, as Twitter users are finding as the first of the defamation lawsuits over 140-character tweets start making their way through the courts. Some bloggers have learned the rules around defamation the hard way, not having counsel on call to 'lawyer' contentious copy. On a separate issue, over whether or not hyperlinking to defamatory material constitutes defamation, BC's Court of Appeal recently issued a decision that could have ramifications for online speech. The court ruled that Jon Newton of p2pnet wasn't liable for linking to articles written about Vancouver businessman Wayne Crookes that were alleged to be defamatory. More on that judgment here.

It's breaking new ground and even the experts are left trying to keep up with the pace of change. As some of the participants in Saturday's forum indicated, they are only just learning about the pitfalls and challenges that journalists face every day.

Dave Olson at Fresh Media forum, photo by Tris Hussey

Along with the deep thinking over the future of our craft, there were hands-on workshops and demonstrations of the many facets of new media making. They were running concurrently so I wasn't able to catch them all but I sat in on Rebecca Bollwitt's (Miss604) blogging tips and Dave Olson's session on podcasting. I haven't been doing podcasts, not from deliberate intention, mostly because I preferred making my own videos and other projects. But I was inspired by Olson's session to get podcasting. Among the many other sessions were Vancouver photographer Tris Hussey's on photography and social media, April Smith of AHA Media and Irwin Oostindie on their work with W2's Fearless City Mobile in the downtown eastside, Lorraine Murphy of Raincoaster Media on Twitter and others.

Listen to the podcast Olson made from our Saturday podcasting tutorial here.

The place was jammed - an indication of the talent and appetite in Vancouver for exploring these issues.

I was on a panel entitled New Media, Old Media, It's all Media. Our session , like others that day, was interactive, a dialogue with the audience. Gus Fosarolli, client relations manager for Marketwire led our panel; Raul Pacheco-Vega, who has both a personal blog and one relating to his work in urban sustainability, water governance and environmental policy represented the blogging. I come from a traditonal journalism background but my work, which appears in the print edition of our paper and online, spans both old and new media.

Many of the questions raised at our panel and other sessions are ones that the mainstream media players have grappled with for years.

One was around the issue of credibility and disclosure. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission's recent decision to require bloggers to disclose any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing products had people talking about issues of trust and independence. While some of the comments I heard suggested most people think the mainstream media doesn't have to pay such costs as restaurant bills for reviews or flights on public relations junkets, the reality isn't as straightforward. Most media have policies on that and it's by no means the same across all organizations.

Another, a pressing question facing print publications today is monetizing web content. For bloggers who don't have someone paying the bills to support their independent voice, that can lead to dilemmas. If, for example, a blog is sponsored by a company, how long would the money last if the blogger published bad reviews about the company's products? I talked a bit about that and gave the example of one blogger who had this disclosure statement on a web site:

I was paraphrasing from memory but here is the full text of the disclosure notice, which was pointed out to me by my friend and former tech colleague Peter Wilson: "I frequently receive free merchandise or services from designers, manufacturers and other miscellaneous providers of various things. I sometimes receive payment for writing about such. What I never, ever do... is express anything but my honest opinion in a review."

I guess that would be up to readers to decide.

BCIT's Kemp Edmonds' caught some of the discussion on his live blog of our panel.

And at a time when everyone with a cell phone can capture the news in photos and video, as Paul Pritchard did in his recording of the death of Robert Dziekanski, who was tasered by RCMP officers, what is the impact on the mainstream media in covering breaking news stories? I think the Pritchard video demonstrates the kind of collaboration in delivering news that is happening - even if unplanned -- as mainstream media picks up the cause of citizen journalists, as it did in putting Pritchard's attempts to get his video back from the police in the news.

Speed versus accuracy? We like to think we do both well but the recent balloon boy hoax showed how quickly and effectively everyone, from CNN to the most local blogger, can be duped. It shows accuracy shouldn't be sacrificed to speed Otherwise credibility goes out the window. What are you left to believe if stories were to be prefaced with disclosure: 'this is the best we can do because we're in a rush, don't blame us if we have it totally wrong.'

Deadlines aren't new although the 24/7 dissemination of the news means newspapers and even radio and television don't have lag time between them. Back in the day when newspapers' chance to deliver a story amounted to a copy that landed on doorsteps and on newstands, deadlines were certainly further apart. It meant more time to fact check, interview and find a variety of sources. But the 24/7 world doesn't excuse us from due diligence in reporting. And before you write to point out our mistakes, that's not to say we don't make them.

Our interaction with our community and our audience is now 24/7 and it is a dialogue, not a one-way dissertation. While I was preparing for Saturday's panel, I dug up a photo from our archives that was a rather drastic demonstration of reader interaction back in the day. Business writer David Baines had written a story about an investment scheme gone sour. The investors were not amused. They descended on The Vancouver Sun newsroom en masse, bearing placards in an event that nearly turned into a newsroom riot. As I recall, that ended the practice of leaving the doors to the newsroom unlocked.

Today, you still have to buzz to get into the newsroom but our interaction with readers has expanded in the virtual world. While it may not have the excitement of a newsroom riot it's a change that I welcome. I look forward to the increasing interaction made possible by technology and to a media world in which the best of traditional media and new media combine to become simply media.

It's a discussion we must keep going.

Join in.