Social Media Revolution

Based on #1 International Best Selling Socialnomics by Erik Qualman this is the latest in the most watch social media series in the world.

This is the long version produced June 2011

Beyond 2010 Hackathon

I've stayed up all night with a great group of talented people at the Beyond 2010 Hackathon (in Edmonton, Alberta) and an equally talented group of people in Birmingham UK. We've all been hard  work developing a mobile app tool to help people in the event of a disaster. It's been a fun and productive process and I really love the truly collaborative nature of the project - we've all been using typewith.me to produce the written documents and skype for conference calling with the UK Hackathon team. I'm really happy to have had an opportunity to be involved in this (thanks to Brittney LeBlanc for coordinating!) and I can't wait to use and see the final product! And hopefully we will all have created something that saves lives and eases suffering. 

I See Pictures Everywhere

On Friday I participated in something of a first for me - a live interview with Adriel Hampton via the social media site, twitter.

Adriel asked me questions about Flickr, Empire Avenue and how I tie them both together. The interview could be watched by anyone who wanted to follow along in real time on twitter, but Adriel also put it all together in an article on his blog called Q&A: ‘I See Pictures Everywhere’ which you can read by clicking on the link.

Turns out I'm quite happy to talk about Flickr and my photography so if anyone has any questions they should feel free to ask. The medium of twitter worked really well for an interview and it was a lot of fun so I hope we see more interaction like this in the future.

Let the World Changing Games Begin

I just watched this TED Talk by Jane McGonigal called “Gaming can make a better world.” McGonigal outlines how Gaming (and Gamers) can save the world. You should watch this TED Talk in it's entirety but I have taken the liberty to aggregate McGonigal's points for you:

Urgent Optimism: Gamers always believe an epic win is possible;

Social Fabric: Gaming builds strong social relationships;

Blissful Productivity: Gamers are willing to work hard all the time if they are given the right work; and

Epic Meaning: Gamer's love to be attached to awe inspiring missions and epic stories.

McGonigal says this adds up to Gamers being super empowered hopeful individuals who believe that they are individually capable of changing the world. To harness this power of thought, we just have to convince them to look past the virtual world to the real life problems of this world.

But I think the challenge would also be to change the opinions of the old school people who would be hard pressed to understand why they should value or empower this type of behaviour. While I believe Gamers (like McGonigal suggests) would happily rise to a global challenge, the virtual world remains the most comfortable place to turn when a person finds little value or satisfaction in mundane workplaces were employers will never value their skills (or recognize their potential). When people are only cogs in a money making machine why would they bother to innovate at work - especially when the rewards from gaming are so much more enjoyable and readily available.

I do think McGonigal is onto something here... but I wonder how will we convince the grown ups that they should let us play?

Awaiting Erindale

As I ponder the changes that are coming to Empire Avenue next week in the Erindale iteration and how it will affect not only my stock but also those of my investments, I was pleased to see this recommendation from (e)ANGLER on his blog, eavproblog.com.

However the rumours are true, yes they are. Peter Dutton has an amazing flickr influencer score of 46. Check out his flickr profile HERE.

Flickr has long been one of my favourite Web2.0 sites. For more than five years my photo's have been part of the community there and I have easily spent more time there than any other social media site. I'd be happy if you could pay it a visit and if you use Flickr, please feel free to add me!

I Can Haz Geek Pedigree?

Tonight I attended the inaugural Edmonton Girl Geek Dinner. It was a wonderful gathering of like minded women from the Edmonton area and I am very much looking forward to being a part of this new community.

At the dinner we were asked to introduce ourselves and part of that introduction was to describe what makes you a geek. This got me thinking about my geek "credentials" and as I listened to everyone list off theirs I realized, with some shock, that EVERYTHING I do makes me a geek. More so, I've pretty much been a geek forever - even back when it wasn't cool to be one.

I'm not sure if people still hold stereo types of the traditional "geek" but for all intents and purposes I look/act fairly normal (or so I think). So, what makes me a geek under the hood?

1. I love the internet. Twenty years ago I was using the "internet" in the army before it was even the internet. Two years later I was Co-Sysoping a 10 line STS Chat system, using new technology called "dial up" from a computer in my own home - a snazzy new 486 that I don't even want to think about how much I paid for. The internet has come a long way since those times. I grew up in, and live in, the Internet Age.

2. I work in the Technology Industry. I work at a local software company called Yardstick Software Inc. and we offer a proprietary software that allows our business partners to offer training, testing and certification - online, of course. I'm not a programmer but I work with some real uber geeks so that's got to count for extra, or something.

3. I'm a Gamer. I spent many childhood hours in a place called an "arcade" plunking quarters into games like Pac Man and Space Invaders, but my life changed forever around the age of 10 when my Dad brought home our first home game console - the ColecoVision. Sometimes I would wake up in the night actually hearing the sounds of Frogger even though everyone was asleep. By 1985 Nintendo ruled in our house and gaming was an entrenched part of life. I once actually got tendinitis from playing too much Super Mario/Duck Hunt and had to wear a wrist brace for 6 months! I'm nearing 40 (no, not really) and I still game - Diablo2, Civilization, Dragon Age, HALO, etc. I can't imagine a time in life when I won't want to game. Actually I like to imagine a time in life where I am inside the game itself... holodecks, virtual reality, the matrix - here I come!

4. I love all things SPACE. From the first time I stayed up all night just to watch the stars move across the sky, to the first planet I ever saw, the first time the Space Shuttle flew over me to actually knowing someone who was on the International Space Station... my dreams have always been somewhere in outer space. When I was a child I wanted to be an astronaut more than anything else and even though today that is highly unlikely I now live in an age where space is perhaps more accessible to me than it ever could have been then. If I wanted I could even be buried in space!

5. I love technology and the gadgets that come with it. I remember taking a course 20 years ago to learn something called DOS so that I could use the new "laptop" computer we had in the army. While I was fairly impressed with that piece of kit back in the late 80's/early 90's I still would not have guessed (and if you had told me I probably wouldn't have believed you) that I would one day carry around a small tablet like device that could access the entire world via the internet, satellite and telecommunication systems - in my pocket. Today I can't imagine not using a tool like my iPhone.

6. I love the geekdom of popular culture. Before I was even 7 years old there was Star Wars, Battle Star Galactica and then Star Trek to cement a life long obsession with Science Fiction (I recall having quite the crush on Starbuck - then fast forward to 2004 to find I once again had a crush on Starbuck). I later developed a love affair with fantasy (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter), anything that offered some form of societal critique and the the early internet meme's like HI BINGO, All Your Base, Weeeee and Badger, Badger).

7. I live in a Social Media world. Given my relationship with the internet, online social networking makes a lot of sense to me and my web presence grows accordingly: I've been blogging since 2003; Flickring since 2003; Facebooking since 2005; Twittering since 2007; and, starting this year trading on Empire Avenue. I have, and will continue to, used social media to meet people in places I travel too and to converse with celebrities whom I previously would not have had access too.

8. I have Geeky hobbies and interests. This is where it is hard to nail everything down. I collect things (like hockey and Pokemon cards, rocks and shells); I love firearms, explosions, jet fighter planes and am awed by weapons technology; I appreciate a good car (a Lamborghini will make my heart skip); I am interested in both politics and religion and LOVE to mix them whenever I get the chance; I adore "end time prophecy" and know more ways for the world to "end" than most people dream up in their nightmares; I am fascinated by things like UFO's, crop circles, ghosts, theoretical physics and afterlife studies. Oh, and Terry David Mulligan signed my grade 12 yearbook at my graduation. Now that's geeky.

Technology is propelling us into the future by leaps and bounds but to me it seems like a logical flow. The events of my grandfather's lifetime must have seemed more abrupt - he went from horse and buggy to man on the moon, what a whirlwind of excitement that must have been. I'm not sure I can imagine the kind of world my children will raise their families in but I sure am game to get my geek on!

Yes, I am a Geek

And I think this might be the only time I have been really (consciously) involved in setting a world record. According to Firefox they had 8,002,530 downloads of the new Firefox in 24 hours.

If you missed your chance to download the newest version of Firefox with the rest of us cool kids, you can still get it here.

Pakistan Blogs

"I was terribly sorry that the assassination denied the people of Pakistan their full range of choices in the scheduled election. Assassination is foul murder, and also a tragic crime against the voters, a form of the most serious treason against the nation."
The Pakistani Spectator :: Read the rest of the post HERE

"History has always been written by those who hang heroes"
Saady :: Read the rest of the post HERE

"This weekend was a truly sad one, not just because of a great politician and leader of our country being murdered but what her supporters and other elements did to Karachi in the name of mourning."
Deadpan Thoughts :: Read the rest of the post HERE (pictures)

"Benazir Bhutto has stayed with us enough to leave behind her vision of the future. Let us honour that vision. Her sacrifice has not weakened the federation, she has made the federation stronger. But we are not talking about a federation presided over by Musharraf. We are talking about a federation free of the army's involvement and Musharraf's presence."
Farrukh Khan Pitafi :: Read the rest of the post HERE

"Her murder is the murder of Pakistani nation."
The Pakistani Spectator :: Read the rest of the post HERE

"Also, the government suddenly realizes that Pakistan should be kept clean, so they wash the whole scene immediately after the incident."
Land of Pure :: Read the rest of the post HERE

"And then it sunk in. My country. My people. Me. What a loss. What a loss. I did not support Benazir but I think she was a great politician of Pakistan. What a loss."
Jalaluddin :: Read the rest of the post HERE

See what Pakistan Bloggers are saying today

We Are the Internet

Cultural Anthropology in Real Time

I am moved by how much this message speaks to who I have become and my (obviously not so unique) worries about it - and the impact of this is greater even for my children. The world we are thinking in today - the world we are thinking up - is not the same as the world we thought we would be growing up in.

See more discussion here and here.

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