What's the Story?

What's The Story?

Siobhan McLaughlin — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 17:15:00 -0500

The story continues ..... but over here.

Rebus and the scottish language

Siobhan McLaughlin — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 12:53:00 -0500

I'm currently reading Inspector Rebus novel 'Resurrection Men'. I notice he uses the term high heid yins

This is a great phrase but very Scottish. I was trying to think of an equivalent phrase that would be used in Canada but I couldn't. My parents never used this phrase whilst I was growing up, they never said "Those high heid yins in Ottawa..."

High heid yins is defined as 'upper management' by The Scottish Vernacular dictionary.

Here is high heid yins used in context

"The experts are not the 'high heid yins' - the experts are the 'Teachers on the ground and in the classrooms'. They are the ones whose opinions should be sought in the debate about standards of education."

2006: A software retrospective

Siobhan McLaughlin — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 12:44:00 -0500

In 2006, I tried out more new applications and web 2.x services than I had in a while. Recently I've had to get a new computer set up and I've noticed what are my can't live without applications:

FireFox - I cannot live without this Browser. To go back to *non*-tabbed browsing is like going back to dial-up. Also, I realize now that IE starts a new browser instance almost everytime you click on a link. Firefox re-loads the active browser tab. That has its advantages and disadvantages but over all its better than having 11 IE windows open.

Thunderbird Feedreader - I haven't found a better tool to read RSS feeds than Thunderbird. I like that I can have a huge list of feeds in the left pane and scroll through them. I also like that I can select a headline and read the article within Thunderbird. I'm trying to get into Google Feed reader but I haven't really got into it yet. Add feeds to my Google Homepage forces me to visit the web page if I want to read the full feed.

What's RSS you ask? Really Simple Syndication. Its the only way to monitor newspapers, industry journals, blogs etc. I don't know what I did before RSS.

Apps I've stopped using

Riya.com - I tried it and it was interesting but here is another web 2.0 applications that the creators seemed to loose interest in. It took me a while to get a hold of anyone in Support to delete my account. In my mind Riya is a cautionary tale for Web 2.0. There was much hype around this application from TechCrunch and others. It really hasn't gone anywhere except into a new tool called Like.com that also doesn't seem to be overly developed.

Flickr - I wanted to try this to upload my Prague photos but its not that easy to upload a huge number of pictures for a trip. This was a surprise for me. Flickr is definitely meant for the take 2 or 3 pictures a day people. I'm not like this (yet).

Readings 2006

Siobhan McLaughlin — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 13:43:00 -0500

Below are all the readings of 2006. There are a few more but I wasn't as good this year about adding books. I never forgot to add a great book but I did forget to add the Ian Rankin Inspector Rebus Mysteries. Then after a few days, I couldn't remember the book's name. Though, they are excellent books and just the other day I was recommending them to a friend who hadn't read them.

In readings, 2006 marked my return to the 'Mystery novel' primarily Inspector Rebus but others as well. I had stopped reading them at some point but growing up I was an avid reader of Agatha Christie. My mom is a fan also but luckily when I was young she explained to me that Christie wrote from a time and place. Her books are excellent and she in part defined the genre. But they do have some class prejudice and racism (while in Egypt, her British characters would refer to the Egyptians as foreigners!) of Christie's day. Still PBS' Mystery series has been showing an updated version of the Miss Marple mysteries
These have been excellent and re-do some of the outdated sentiments that Christie may have written.

2007 will surely contain more mysteries, I heard that Giles Blunt has a new book and I'm looking forward to that.

All That Matters by Wayson Choy

Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes

JPod by Douglas Coupland

Overnight Float by Claire Munnings

The In-Between Life of Vikram Lal

Blackbird

Midnight at the Dragon Cafe

Blackfly Season by Giles Blunt

The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler

The Hanging Garden

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

Reading Lolita in Tehran

The Search by John Battelle

Saturday by Ian McEwan

Utopia:Towards a New Toronto

Ladykill by Charlotte Gill

Someone comes to town, someone leaves town

Gently Down the Stream by Ray Robertson

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time

Can you Keep a secret by Sophie Kinsella

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

Nights of Rain & Stars by Maeve Binchy

The Information by Martin Amis

Music for the Holidays

Siobhan McLaughlin — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 16:42:00 -0500

At Tucows, a few of us were discussing that this is the 'Year of the E-card'. This year I got more e-cards than ever before for my birthday and they were great! I actually really enjoyed watching them. My sister said the same thing to me, that she really enjoyed picking out christmas e-cards for her friends.

This Christmas Eve, the T. and I are spending a few hours on YouTube and so I bring you our christma - Tube holiday greeting. Enjoy.

Readings - All that Matters by Wayson Choy

Siobhan McLaughlin — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 15:01:00 -0500

I just finished an excellent book by Wayson Choy called 'All that Matters'. This is Choy's second novel, the first was 'The Jade Peony'. The Jade Peony is the story of a Chinese family that has moved to Vancouver in the 1920's. Each section of the book tells the story as children are born and the family grows. All That Matters is about the same family but this time from the perspective of the oldest son.

What an excellent idea! I loved this book because it is beautifully written but also because a great story is told from another angle. As a reader I appreciated Choy's decision to write this novel. It is as though we are standing in the family's house again, this time in a different spot in the room.

Choy is another example of the great new group of writers from Canada who are writing about the immigrant's experience. I look forward to more and more of this literature. I get a little tired of the 'Margaret Atwood is our best writer' school of thought. I like Atwood but her experience growing up in 1950's Leaside to third generation Canadian parents and summers in the Canadian woods is not shared by all Canadians (including me). I am more excited to read novel's like Choy's and also writers who chose Canada to be their home like Michale Ondaatje, M.G. Vassaniji and Rohinton Mistry.

VideoHits

Siobhan McLaughlin — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 16:28:00 -0500

Once upon a time youngsters around Canada raced home to watch VideoHits on the CBC hosted by none other than Samantha Taylor. For many, this was the only place to watch music videos because MTV was not available in Canada (generally) and Much was still new too.

What a great show that was. Who doesn't recall the first time they saw A-Ha's 'Take on Me' video on it? The other day the T. was YouTubing and he found the video to star Toronto band BluePeter's track 'Walk on Past'. I had never seen it before.

So content owners? How do I legally see the BluePeter video again? And what do I owe you? And what do we owe for a clip someone uploaded of David Lee Roth sing Jump with a bluegrass band?

I really find the discussions around content missing a key point. Media companies have too much content. They don't have an efficient way to share it and gain revenue from their extensive back catalogue. I can understand why MuchMusic, for example, would lose revenue or be concerned with current day top 40 videos on YouTube. If you can watch this on YouTube then what does the big cable network offer.

The back catalogue has always been the huge money making revenue for media companies (How much revenue did they earn from releasing The Beatles "1" cd?) And I can see opportunities for media companies in releasing video (the old 80's TV shows now occupying most of HMV). But really the entire back catalogue... a video site is the best way to show this.

Readings Lately

Siobhan McLaughlin — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 08:29:00 -0400

I started Monica Ali's newest book Alejento Blue.

It was okay but not great. Authors who have a huge hit with their first book often have a weak follow up. I assume this is because the publisher rushes them into publishing a second novel. This book felt like there was a couple of good short stories that got worked into a novel.

I heard an interview with Nick Hornby on Writers and Company. He talked about how people too often keep reading books that they don't enjoy but that they think they "should" read. I was reminded, again, that its okay to put down a book.

I also started Dionne Brand's novel At the Full and Change of the Moon.
It was very good but alas due back to the library before I could finish it. It was a richly written novel and so took me longer to read. I will definitely be reading more novels by Brand.

If its easy, it must be legal

Siobhan McLaughlin — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 21:41:00 -0400

When I read about Amazon.com's new movie download service, I was intrigued to try. There are a few movies that I have seen (mainly documentaries, some foreign films) that I've always wanted to share with others. But the more I read about Amazon's service the more I was put off by the DRM-madness.

I thought why not try torrenting. How hard could it be? Well its not that hard. In an experiment like fashion I did some basic Google searches and pretty quickly figured out how you can get a torrent of a film. I didn't find any documentaries. I found some of the foreign films that I wanted to see but I quickly learnt that unless you can find a DVD copy, you may not get English subtitles. That's a shame if you've spent 24 hours downloading a Danish film dubbed in Spanish, as I did.

But I found other stuff I did want. I also learnt that Scandavians (with their high rate of broadband adoption) are a fantastic source of British dramas. And I get to practice my Danish reading comprehension through subtitles.

When I mentioned my "research" to others, mainly in my family over Thanksgiving, they always said, "But isn't that illegal." Which is a point. Except then someone (from the family) mentioned that they use LimeWire for music. They said, its so easy it has to be legal. Right. Except its not.

Downloading music without paying is an activity that has become pretty mainstream. I think most of this is due to Mr. Jobs. But creating an easy way for people to rip their CDs ( a previously tedious task), and a reason to, people became generally comfortable with digital content and less tied to a physical media. So, movie/content producers can say torrenting is destroying Hollywood, but the easier it gets the less illegal it seems. On this there is no turning back the clock.

How about just producing good content? Why not make the documentaries I saw easy for me to download legally?

Google Spreadsheets: Its about sharing

Siobhan McLaughlin — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 14:23:00 -0400

At BarCamp, the T. and I attended the fantastically named session 'Your Shiny New Tech a.k.a. Keeping up with the Jones'. In the session, we all revealed our new on-line gadgetry.

One participant (would like to link but I'm bad with names) was one of the BarCampEarth Toronto organizers. He showed us Google spreadsheets. Google spreadsheets was largely panned by the blogorati when it was first revealed. It got the usual big deal another me-too Office app.

About a year before BarCampEarth Toronto, my co-worker, the Iron Chef Email (Product Manager) pointed out to me how Google Spreadsheets was now appearing in his Gmail interface. His point was 'Well its nice but I don't get why this has to be online.'

In BarCampEarth Toronto, the answer was nicely revealed. The BarCampEarth Toronto team had used Google Spreadsheets collaboratively. They were a group of 4 or 5 people co-organizing an event. They conferenced using Skype and naturally they tracked items using a spreadsheet. The easiest way to do this with a group is to have everyone update at once and while you are talking. We played around with this at BarCampEarth Toronto and it works well.

Person A starts the spreadsheet, sends a link via email to Person B. Person A & B can now update the sheet and both see the changes at the same time. The spreadsheet app has almost all of the functions that you would expect from Excel (at least what I would expect and I have done some number crunching).

If you have ever had the sad task of trying to 'share' an excel spreadsheet with an email like, 'Enter your updates and send it back to me' you will know how useful a collaborative version can be. In the past, I have seen people try to use a central copy on a network server that everyone updates. But more and more I find that I want to update things as I am holding a meeting and let everyone see the update. Collectively agreeing on work items and listing them off is a powerful way to conduct a meeting and allowing everyone in the meeting to enter information is even better. This is the ideal way to conduct team work.

Most interesting for me is when I described this tool to my sister, who works in international development managing projects around the globe, she immediately saw that it could be useful to her. She already uses Skype regularly to meet with overseas colleagues now she can work on a collective tool. When something makes sense to someone who is just trying to do their job and is not interested in technology for its own sake then its time to take notice.

Tools or applications that start to meet our slowly changing work processes and flows are the ones that stick. And this is where I see Google having the most impact. Its not about taking on Microsoft. Its about building for the changing way we work and live.

BarCamp Earth: Toronto

Siobhan McLaughlin — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 11:49:00 -0400

Saturday was BarCamp Earth in Toronto.

BarCamp is an ad-hoc conference. A group organizes it and gets a space. All kinds of people show up with some level of interest in technology ( developers, marketers, graphic designers etc. etc). Sessions are organized by the attendees and people talk.

The T. and I attended the BarCamp Earth Toronto and it was a great event!

The group - James, Maria, Ryan, Dave & Dmitry did a great job organizing.

This was the first time for the T. to go and he was really impressed. It made me realize what an incredible thing that BarCamp / DemoCamp is. He couldn't believe that it was a free event that was well organized, incredibly interesting people / ideas being shared and free food. It sounds funny but there was great food there, water etc. I think that the food really contributes to a relaxed atmosphere of hanging out for a day and sharing ideas.

For this BarCamp, the organizers planned a BBQ on Sunday. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate and that has been postponed. But I like this idea, especially the notion that the BBQ would be family friendly giving partners and/or kids to come out. This is a great move to make BarCamp more inclusive to those who would like to spend time with their family on the weekend and also meet up with BarCamp geeks.

We attended three sessions having arrived at around 2pm or so.

We sat in on a session on designing a web site for SEO. Great session by LiquidDesign I believe (did not get their card, wish I had.). This session dispelled some myths on SEO and Google. But most important the session leader stressed that a web site should be written for humans first, optimized for the Google bots etc. later.

We also participated in a session called 'Your Shiny New Tech or Keeping Up with the Jones'. A group of us shared new tools / cool new things we had found. The T. particularly loved this session as he hadn't had a chance yet to play around with the new 2.0 apps as much. I was impressed to see Google Spreadsheets in action, more on that in a future post.

Finally we sat in a session on McLuhan tetrads. The best part of this session for me was discussing McLuhan's ideas in relation to YouTube. A longer post about that later.

Overall BarCampEarth was a great day. I don't have many suggestions about what to change. I missed the grid populating session though. The only thing I noticed that the schedule got a little off at some point. My only suggestion would be to try to keep to a time schedule and ask sessions to end on time. Conversations can continue after. The MSN offices were a great space for this as there was lots of room to keep talking outside of the session rooms. It seems challenging to interrupt a session and end it but personally I like this bit of organizational strictness.

Siobhans I Know

Siobhan McLaughlin — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 13:00:00 -0400

One of my favourite aspect of site stats are the Referrers. I don't really care how many people read my blog. I know most of them anyway. But I love to see which random Google searches land people on my blog.

In my referrer stats I noticed this link and I checked it out.

Its a weird collage of pictures. There are two of my pictures - screen caps from my review of Riya. The other pictures range from a group of school kids in Ireland or the UK (can tell by their uniforms) and a dog. Scrolling down the first time I had a surprise when I recognized someone on the page, who I know, that is also named Siobhan.

These are the Siobhans I know.

The images come from a tool called 'Google Image Ripper' which finds images in the right size rather than the thumbnails that Google provides. Its a useful little tool since many Google images are too small to use and sometimes link to a dead site.

Midnight at the Dragon Cafe

Siobhan McLaughlin — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 16:53:00 -0400

I haven't been reading as much lately, I haven't had as much good stuff on request at the library come in and I haven't been sure what to request.

So if any readers have books to suggest, I would be definitely interested in good summer reading!

I read a book over the long weekend - Blackfly Season by Giles Bunt. This was a well written mystery that takes place in a thinly disguised Thunder Bay. It was a great summer mystery.

I just finished Midnight at the Dragon Cafe. It was an excellent novel, especially for a debut novel. Midnight at the Dragon Cafe portrays the life of a Chinese family that immigrates to a small Ontario town in the 1950's to run a Chinese restaurant. More than anything, this novel made me realize how isolating life was for the first Asian immigrants who settled in small towns, couldn't speak English and had children who bridged both worlds, the private world at home and the public, Canadian world of going to school.

Also, like the novel The Jade Peony, this novel illustrates how difficult Canada's immigration policies, restricting women to immigrate for many years, made family life for Chinese Canadians.

Bass in the City

Siobhan McLaughlin — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 21:06:00 -0400

Sorry fisher friends, this is not a post about bass (rhymes with lass)
but bass (rhymes with face).

The T. and I went walking last Sunday and found the Kensington Bass. I first read about it this bass in the Spacing Magazine.

The Kensington Bass is a public art installation for bass players. A bass was built on a street light pole. Its completely in tune and operational. There is no external amplification but if you put your head to the pole, you get a great sound as it reverberates inside.

The encounter with the Kensington Bass inspired me to upload my first YouTube video (will I be at a party some day saying, "I totally remember my first YouTube video, it was ...") Its a very close up shot of the T. playing so that my circa 1999 digital camera could get some sound.

Any other bass playing Trawana readers? Go to the Kensington Bass, play it, record it, upload it. And tag it baby, tag it.

DocSoup: HotDocs through the year

Siobhan McLaughlin — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 15:17:00 -0400

DocSoup subscriptions are available and I just ordered mine.

You can do so here.

DocSoup is a once a month documentary at the Bloor organized by HotDoc.

Last year I saw a few great docs through DocSoup with the best being New York Doll
The doc is about the bass player for the legendary 70's group 'The New York Dolls'.

While, we are all now used to glam rock cross-dressing, the New York Dolls over the top look was one of the first, "I can wear make-up and still be macho' musical acts. One of the best part of this doc was an animated 'rock family tree' that showed all of the rock groups that the New York Dolls inspired included KISS and Motley Crue.

So check out DocSoup this year!

SquishyCow on Parade

Siobhan McLaughlin — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 20:14:00 -0400

The AccordionGuy was sending off SquishyCows if you emailed him with a request. The only catch was that you had to take a picture of the SquishyCow in an interesting locale.

I had a similar request for a 'cow from Calum when I posted a pic of the adorable SquishyCow at ISPCon.

So I went to a conference in Las Vegas and nabbed a pair of SquishyCow for Calum. But first, I took them on the road to do some sight seeing.

You can see my pics along with Joey's and hopefully more (Calum!) here.

All My Countries: Euro Quest Blog & World Cup Blog

Siobhan McLaughlin — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 21:03:00 -0400

Tonight I am listening to CBC Radio and they are broadcasting EuroQuest.

While on air, the host mentioned that there is a blog for the show called EuroQuest EuroBlog on Blogspot!

Its interesting to see that a current affairs show for Radio Netherlands would use a blog for their homepage. A blog, or (to describe the real functionality) a web page that puts the most recent entries at the top of a page and automatically archives pages is the ideal forum for a radio show.

Another blogger that got much attention by the CBC was the person who wrote the World Cup blog. This photo blogger moved around the city taking pictures of all the celebrations through the past month. I heard him on the radio three times. Four years ago the CBC would never have brought on a member of the public in this way at all.

En Francais

Siobhan McLaughlin — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 12:14:00 -0400

en francais s.v.p.

World Cup on the InterWeb.

Siobhan McLaughlin — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 17:44:00 -0400

The World Cup is on now and what a shock to discover that I can't even listen to it on line. I am supporting two teams: Trinidad and whoever is playing England. I supported Trinidad because a team with the slogan 'Soca Warriors' is so cool, it deserves everyone's support. And besides Trinidadians (along with other West Indians) brought roti to Toronto for which I shall, in return, support their national football teams.

I wanted to watch the Trinidad - England game. But I had a lot of meetings that day so I couldn't leave the office. A ha I thought, I can listen to the BBC or Radio Eirrean stream. (I recalled how when we were in Ireland 4 years ago the Ireland - Germany game was playing on the radio in every shop we walked into). But on Thursday, no joy.

BBC / Radio Eireann don't play the games on the Internet stream outside of the UK / Ireland. They block it via IP address. I searched and searched but I couldn't find a site that was broadcasting a pirate stream. I also searched for a stream from Trinidad and no joy their either.

FIFA has very effectively locked down Internet broadcasting of the game. I know FIFA has broadcast contracts in most of the world, considering the incredible global popularity. So is it a surprise that it has restricted broadcast via Internet in regions with the highest broadband adoption. I think FIFA's decision is pretty traditional broadcast thinking. Stick to traditional broadcast mediums where the revenue model is clear i.e. million dollar ad contracts with Carlsberg. But why wouldn't FIFA want North Americans to be able to watch games via Internet broadcast, including commercials? Its only growth region is North America considering football is already pretty popular in India and China.

Old school thinking. It would have been fun to see the load that broadcasting the World Cup would have on the US Internet backbone!

But there are some interesting items on the World Cup on the InterWeb such as a vidoe archive sponsored by Nike & Google. Here's a great video of the Brazilian team - all the more beautiful because it uses fab Brazilian music.

Yahoo is sponsoring a Flickr Set of all World Cup fan photos. You can see those here.

CaseCamp June 13 2006

Siobhan McLaughlin — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 21:17:00 -0400

Last tuesday I attended CaseCamp. It was organized by Eli Singer as a 'DemoCamp for marketers'. Individuals and organizations were invited to present a marketing case with a challenge and a solution. Eli used similar rules to BarCamp with a strict 15 minute presentation length, 5 slides with 5 words per slide.

No one really followed Eli's rules except Eli. He co-presented with Susan Bloch-Nevitte, Executive Director of Public Affairs at the AGO, on the bloggers event at the Frank Gehry exhibit. The AGO invited a small group of bloggers to come to the AGO for a 'media only' style event with a wine and cheese and viewing of the exhibit. I recall reading about the exhibit on one of my favourite blogs Spacing. I thought this was a great way for an arts institution to reach a new demographic. This is a great example of how blogging can be extremely effective for public relations. This case was the most interesting for me at CaseCamp.

Kate Trgovac also did a really interesting presentation on a marketing campaign at PetroCanada for Winter Olympic Promotion.

CaseCamp was similar to DemoCamp in that some presentations are really interesting to me and some are less so. This is exactly what I expect of this type of event. In some respects, I prefer CaseCamp because it asks presenters to present a case (opportunity/action taken). DemoCamp is less strict in this way since DemoCampers are just asked to present some kind of demo.

Specific thoughts on CaseCamp:
- I would like to see some presenters to present a case with just the problem and surrounding background. The audience could provide suggestions for a solution. The presenter could say what steps were actually taken and how it was resolved. (i.e. We had a PR disaster, this is what happened. What would you do audience? ) This is generally how cases are done in courses I have taken.

- Eli should be strict about the 5 slides. This is difficult to do when people have a prepared presentation. But reminding people before the next event and during the event will enforce the idea. 5 slides is a good rule

-I like the venue and structure of the event. Going to a bar, having a drink and talking to people before we start is great. I prefer this to the DemoCamp structure of present and then we all head over to a bar afterwards.

-

DemoCamp - May 30 2006

Siobhan McLaughlin — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 21:14:00 -0400

Some pictures from May's DemoCamp

Ross shows his fashion sense by bringing the IBMMacTop.

Joey and Jay quickly step in as MCs for this event. Unfortunately David Crow was taken very ill but is now recovering.

Ross and Joey present Start Page, I really enjoyed this presentation. I think this is going to be a great product! It was also great to see James Woods. When is he going to do a DemoCamp presentation?

Aside from Ross's presentation on Start page, the most interesting presentation for me was on 'Blogscope'. It is a U of T Comp Eng. research project and is to improve search for high volume text streams (a.k.a. blogs). When I see this kind of project that I feel assured that the students have their job secured at Google, if that is their chosen path in life. They are fast become search algorithm experts.

But it also interests me that there is still so much research to be in Search towards its improvement. BlogScope provides information analysis that goes beyond Google Analytics. It is effectively a step towards a multi-dimensional seach engine. The axis being time (bursts of writing on one topic) and keyword (relevant words that appear around the keyword entered by the user).

This makes me ask why Google is not simply continuing to develop its core competency - better and better search. Adding dimensions to search, search audio content and search pictures (Riya) I don't think it would be hard for Google with its resources to copy what Riya has done.

What was your first broadband App?

Siobhan McLaughlin — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 20:48:00 -0400

Its common knowledge that email was most people's first Internet app. And most people experienced it via dial up or at least partly through dial up.

When I started university in 1993, no one in my residence had email and of course many had computers but not everyone had a computer. Many still used a common computer in the residence library to type up their paper. They were using a computer like a typewriter.

As a Comp Sci student, I had access to the Comp Sci lab or CDF as we called it at U of T (Computer Disciplines Facility). One day someone showed me how to use Mosaic. I used it for about 2 months until someone else said to me one day, 'My god, what are you doing? Use Netscape'.

I am proud to say that there are a few people who I showed the 'Web' to for the first time. But slowly more and more of my friends at other universities started to get email access. We had left high school a close group to go to different universities and it meant alot to us to email. Those first emails though read more like letters than the beau-mots one-liners that go back and forth today (New band - check it out 'Band of Horses'. Lee's Palace June 13th.).

The Scarb!

But then that was dial-up. When we got our broadband connection at home, well that was a day to remember. It was courtesy of my generous former employer who had developed a 1MG modem and wanted to encourage adoption by giving it away to employees at no cost. When the T. got it up and running, what was the first app, we used? Napster. It was mid-2000.

If you look around the world, you will see cable and DSL packages for up to 10 MG. If you are in the UK, Spain or Brazil, you may be getting broadband for the first time. The fact that these people are getting broadband now is changing their perception of the web. Now its the norm to get TV clips via the web. I believe that this shift in Internet usage has fundamentally changed people's expectation of what is on the web and how they use the web.

Web 2.0 on Dial Up

Siobhan McLaughlin — Mon, 22 May 2006 14:45:00 -0400

The wildly popular squishy cow doing booth duty at ISPCon.

On Tuesday May 16, I flew to Baltimore MD to attend ISPCon. ISPCon is a conference for Internet Service Providers and is held twice yearly in Baltimore in Spring and Santa Clara in the Fall.

The AccordionGuy, Joey Devilla, pointed out to me that I was attending a wide range of conferences in this week from the ultra un-conference BarCamp to Mesh, a cross between un-conference and conference to ISPCon, a full out traditional conference.

There were a lot of differences to be noted. For example, everywhere you looked at BarCamp or Mesh you saw someone hunched over a Mac typing away. It seems de-rigeur to type up your thoughts on your Mac during an un-conference. I felt really eccentric making my notes on paper. At BarCamp and Mesh, I only saw one or two Windows-based laptops (complete with Technorati stickers) the whole time. At ISPCon, I only saw one Mac the whole time (it was being used by Zimbra's product manager, to do demos of their Ajax based email client).

And so ISPCon turned out to be a good reality check after a few days of how blogs and Ajax will revolutionize the world. ISPCon had many attendees who run ISPs, including dial up. I heard a stat (which I haven't verified) that 50% of US internet users are using dial up. Dial up! As one attendee pointed out to me, a great number of his customers are still only interested in dialling in, checking their email and sending a few emails.

An interesting topic that was frequently being discussed at ISPCon was wireless broadband, particularly in rural regions where DSL / Cable is not available. Earthlink participated in the keynote address to discuss their municipal Wi-Fi projects. However, I found it more interesting to talk to ISP operators who had a rural market and were investing in wireless to sell more broadband.

The fact that broadband is only now being rolled out to many people in the US at the same time that more and more media is going on line is creating an interesting dynamic. Many times, I realized that my perspective (and those of BarCamp / Mesh Camp participants) is driven by having access to ubiquitous broadband. Many people in that crowd say wait until we have ubiquitous wireless with constant broadband access. But I think that when the current portion of dial up users starts to pay for broadband, it will be to access content on line. If email inspired people to pay for dial up, then what will encourage them to pay for broadband?

The Google of Our Dreams

Siobhan McLaughlin — Tue, 16 May 2006 11:33:00 -0400

A co-worker of mine at Tucows, Adam, & I had a discussion about Google. Adam writes the secret snowboarding blog, so secret that I shall link to it here.

Adam knows alot about SEO and recommended that if I was interested in it, he really recommended John Batelle's book 'The Search' and I just finished it.

Batelle's book is excellent and I highly recommend it as well. It was interesting to read the history of web page search, especially the chapters on DEC and AltaVista. Batelle is careful to stress that his book is not about 'Google' though it would be hard to tell that since the publisher decided to use Google brand colours on the book jacket (and I assume added the de-facto business book marketing '[...] changed the rules of business'. The book is not too business-y and not too technical so anyone interested in Google would enjoy it.

Batelle believes that the concept of 'search' and the fact that more and more content is becoming digital is the key factor that is changing our society. And Google is central to that.

What struck me as I read the book was that I realized that in all the blogs and articles I had read about Google over the past year, Google is really taking on many faces. To some Google is becoming a 'software' company ready to displace Microsoft. To others Google is a centre of innovation and 'super smart' (Phd.) people who will change our world for the better. While to others Google provides the most successful Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising model which has made domain names hot property again.

That PPC model is what allows Google to be so many things to so many people. PPC has brought in incredible amounts of cash. And cash is time. This week Eric Schmidt made a couple of statements publicly about Google. He said that more competition will result in higher prices and that Google appears to be benefitting from a 'limitless growth model'. Both of these statements can be argued to be true. In theory, Google does have 'limitless growth model' but how will that work out in practice? Well, you need alot of people searching, you need more and more people searching. You need people searching more often.

But when I think about this and all that I read about Google, I feel like its become almost a symbol or hope for the way we want the web to go. Fortunately, in software a great vision can be shaped into reality. This is both the advantage and downfall of many a CEO in software. Is Google going to become the Google of our dreams?

Mesh It Up May 15 2006

Siobhan McLaughlin — Mon, 15 May 2006 20:28:00 -0400

Hot on the heels of BarCamp, I attended Day 1 of Mesh. (It was no co-incidence that the two were held so close together. Mesh panelist/speakers Tara Hunt and Chris Messina helped to organize BarCampTdot).

Mesh was organized by a group of bloggers who felt that the type of discussion taking place in Silicon Valley should happen in Toronto. So rather than look to others, they organized a conference themselves. The group includes Mark Evans, Stuart McDonald, Matthew Ingram, Mike McDerment and Rob Hyndman.

I think that it is incredible that this group could organize a conference in 9 weeks. They had a great group of speakers and panelists. In some cases, I think that they asked their favourite bloggers and perhaps not the people most authoritative people to speak on 'Web 2.0'. Who would I rather hear from? Someone from Yahoo, Microsoft or Google. Someone from a hardware vendor (RIM?).

The group of attendees at Mesh was a real cross section. I saw many of the same people that I saw at BarCamp or previous DemoCamps. Many active participants in Toronto's development community attended as did a number of venture capitalists. Also, there were many communications and marketing specialists attending from traditional industries.

I think Mesh could have benefited from a Web 2.0 101 stream and an advanced Web 2.0 stream. The huge attendance and questions asked at Tris Hussey's well done 'Blogging 101' presentation illustrated how new these concepts are to most people.

I enjoy the topics that are discussed at Mesh but I don't think that there is enough acknowledgement that these concepts are very advanced and not yet mainstream. I know that traditional media is going to go through huge changes because of Web 2.0 but I still have friends who say 'What's blogging?'.

BarCamp TDot May 13 - May 14

Siobhan McLaughlin — Mon, 15 May 2006 14:09:00 -0400

On Saturday I attended day one of BarCamp TDot.

It was a great day. Joey DeVilla has a great post on what Barcamp is, if you've never heard of it before. To summarize BarCamp is an event for developers, product managers, marketers, students, designers .... anyone really to get together and talk about what interests them. Generally, the topics are about technology but it can be a particular topic (Ruby on Rails) or theory (Agile Development).

I really enjoy the format of allowing people to self-organize and make their own presentation. The rule of Barcamp is 'no participants' which can sound a little FightClub-ish but is really intended to say 'everyone can participate' or in other words, 'we all have the same authority to speak and contribute as a presenter'.

BarCamp Tdot was organized by Jay Goldman and David Crow. They did a great job. It was held in a warehouse in Liberty Village. There were drinks, and food. I will post my notes from each session I attended.

My general impressions of BarCamp is that there is a great need for both DemoCamp and BarCamp events in Toronto. Many people seem to be so happy to be able to attend this type of event to share, learn and meet other people.

What I noted was that there is not a broad enough spectrum of people attending BarCamp Toronto. I *thought* there was no one from IBM but I was later correct by Jen Nolan that there were 5 attendees. But I didn't meet anyone from ATI, RIM, Motorola, Bell Mobility or a major financial institution. Perhaps BarCamp is supposed to be 'grassroots' and Tucows is the most corporate they want to take it but there are talented engineers doing interesting things at all those companies. A few of us had a discussion about this and I was reminded that there could be another association for tech companies in Richmond Hill / North York. So BarCamp/DemoCamp Tdot may really be BarCamp Downtown Tdot. Personally, I would like to see a greater cross mix of hardware and software developers.

HotDocs May 7 2006

Siobhan McLaughlin — Mon, 08 May 2006 12:49:00 -0400

FootCred & Shayda
FootCred seemed good except I couldn't hear it properly. Bad sound was problem that plagued more than one doc I saw. I'm not sure why this doc wasn't mixed better since it was a completely studio product. Documentary makers please do not under estimate the importance of audio quality.

Shayda
Excellent doc! This was a compelling story of an Arab-Israeli (an Arab Muslim who holds an Israeli passport) young woman Shayda who competes in Karate championships with the Israeli team. Shayda faces personal decisions as she tries to continue Karate after she marries. A very personal examination of many issues - the treatment of Arab-Israelis, and the role of women in an Arab-Israeli family. Highly recommended!

Maquiapolis: City of Factories
Excellent doc! This doc covered the women who work in the Maquiapolis - the factories on the Mexican side of the US - Mexican border. Under NAFTA raw materials can be imported into Mexico and finished goods exported out. The jobs are well paid for Mexico but the local conditions in Tijauna are terrible. The doc used footage recorded by the women themselves which was excellent. This doc had an excellent soundtrack. Two docs from Mexico in 2 days and both had great soundtracks. Highly recommended.

HotDocs May 6 2006

Siobhan McLaughlin — Mon, 08 May 2006 12:30:00 -0400

Once in a Lifetime
Its always good to see at least one sports documentary at Hot Docs. Once in a Lifetime describes the rise of the New York Cosmos and its star player Pele from Brazil. I really enjoyed the watching the footage of Pele playing, he was an incredible soccer player.
This doc was fun to watch and had a great soundtrack. Its an interesting story to see how Warner basically bought a winning team, a practice that was frowned upon at the time but regularly done now. Enjoyable doc. Watch for it in wide release.

Total Denial
This doc explores the human rights violations committed by the Burmese military while an oil pipeline was being built through Burma. The oil companies chose to use the military for security in a country ruled by dictatorship. The doc follows how the Burmese human rights activists successfully sued a US company for compensation. Excellent doc, well made and tells the story excellently. Highly recommended.

In The Pit
This doc examines the building of a bridge in Mexico City. Imagine building the Gardiner expressway over a city 10 times the size of Toronto. This was a great doc. Particularly excellent sound track and the last five minutes of a continuous shot over the near completed bridge was amazing. Highly recommended.

HotDocs May 05 2006

Siobhan McLaughlin — Sat, 06 May 2006 11:18:00 -0400

Marianne & Actuality: The Life of Allan King
Ryerson graduates know the importance of a good hot dog vendor. Marianne is about another in the trade and her stand is in front of Mount Sinai hospital. This 7 min. doc by a York student was an excellent vignette of a hot dog stand operator who daily has a positive impact on that neighbourhood. Highly recommended.

Actuality: The Life of Allan King
Allan King has an incredible body of work over the years including the documentaries Dying at Grace and Memory for Max, Clare and Ida. This doc covers the life of Allan King but also the documentaries made by a Canadian film maker that reflect our national history. I wasn't sure what to expect here but I was surprised by how interesting this doc turned out to be.

Iraq in Fragments
The programmer for this doc described it in her intro as visually arresting and I cannot think of a better description. The film maker spent a year in Iraq, got to know people and documented their day to day life. The doc was recorded with a single camera but it was processed to appear like a cinematic film. At times, it was easy to forget that we were watching a documentary and not a scripted film. It was an excellent portrayal of the people of Iraq. It is visually beautiful without forgetting the horrors of war that occur there. Look for it in wide release. Highly recommended.

F*ck
When the HotDocs box office worker handed me my tickets for this film and said 2 for F*ck, I told her, "There's no need to swear.".
F*ck is a word we have all used, some more frequently than others. This doc explores the history of the word and its controversy. It had excellent interviews including those for the use of the word like rapper Ice-T and leader of the official opposition, Pat Boone. F*ck was hilarious and really enjoyable to watch. Highly recommended. This will go wide release so watch for it!

Hot Docs May 4 2006

Siobhan McLaughlin — Fri, 05 May 2006 19:01:00 -0400

Another volunteer shift today. This time in the Doc Shop. What is the Doc Shop you ask?
Every film submitted to the HotDocs festival is catalogued and reviewed for official screening. If it is not chosen to be screened during the festival, it is put in the Doc Shop catalogue.

Isabel Bader Theatre

During the festival, all of the docs submitted are put in a doc 'library' at Old Vic. Industry participants at the festival can book a viewing station and ask to see any of the docs in the DocShop. This way a film maker who was not screened during the festival has the opportunity to get their film in front of a programmer.

All morning I helped to find the docs that various industry delegates asked for. Many of the industry delegates are programmers for television or other media outlets around the world. It is incredible to see the number of docs submitted to the festival. It was encouraging to see how many media programmers came by to review docs. The official selections were frequently requested but many other docs were requested as well. Every time someone requested a film that I liked, I was happy for the film maker. It was encouraging to see people request to see Our Own Private Bin Laden or Arctic Son. Both have an important message for a wider audience.

In the evening I saw

Fatherland
A well made, emotional documentary. Born after the war, the film maker Manfred Baecker emigrated from Germany to Canada and started a family here. Like all Canadians, his son considers himself half German - Canadian. The film maker wanted his son to understand that part of Germany's heritage is its legacy during WW II. Manfred visits his father, a German WWII veteran, to discuss the role he played in the war. What his father knew and did not know about the Holocaust. This doc was well made and had an interesting topic. It gave this topic the depth of discussion that it deserved. My only criticism is that in a few points it felt a bit scripted, especially when Manfred's son and friends were on screen. But it did not detract too much from the doc. Highly recommended. Watch for it on the History channel.

Waiting in line at the Isabel Bader theatre

Uganda Rising: When Elephants Fight
The Hon. Lloyd Axworthy challenged a group of film makers to go to Uganda and document the humanitarian disaster that is occurring there. The film makers did so and when they interviewed Ugandans, they asked the film makers to tell their story, to not let the world forget about them. And they kept their promise. Uganda Rising is a powerful documentary, difficult to watch and accept the scale of disaster that is occurring. Most disturbing is the routine use of child soldiers in Uganda to fight a bloody civil war. The doc does a good job of providing some context for the conflict. However, the style of the doc with an unseen narrator was hard to follow at times. I would have preferred a more personal narration. See this doc. It is saddening to think that after all the reflection on the humanitarian disaster that occurred during WWII (see above), we all still allow these disasters to occur in the world.