It’s been a rather long time since I have done a Blogger Profile and when I was invited to the first anniversary of Fraser Valley Pulse, I thought what better time to re-start up the series.
Kristi Ferguson started up Fraser Valley Pulse in March 2009 and took on the role as the owner, editor, live-blogger, marketer and more. She has recently expanded to include articles from contributors who cover everything from health and beauty, family, business, and interviews with local experts.
Ferguson describes the site as , “the Fraser Valley’s neighbourhood lifestyle guide,” as they feature local businesses, events and things to do from White Rock to Chilliwack. She added, “the site celebrates the achievements of local business owners and encourages people to shop and support local.”
Those who frequent FVP can use it to search for locally owned businesses in the directory, find great local gems in the Pulse Spotlight or find things to do on the Pulse Adventures and events pages.
“The goal for FVP is to create the best centralized, hyper-local website for the Fraser Valley population,” said Ferguson. “Somewhere locals can visit to find out what’s going on in their community, what great businesses are nearby and what fun things they can get involved in. The FV covers a huge area, but out here in the burbs we tend to spend time in different areas of town – someone who lives in Langley may also spend lots of time in Surrey, Abbotsford, Maple Ridge, etc. It’s great to know what’s going on around you.”
Readers can sign up for a once/week newsletter update to keep up to date with our weekly Spotlight features and highlights of the blog, events page and articles.
Going forward into the second year of Fraser Valley Pulse, Ferguson would like to continue to see community involvement by way of submitted event listings, business ratings and the sharing of Pulse Pix.
Follow the blog or check them out on Twitter @FVPulse.
Should you have a favourite community site or new blog that you would like to see profiled, please feel free to contact me.
The Pacific National Exhibition or PNE will be celebrating 100 years this summer. From livestock, pig races, demolition derbies, and the “As Seen on TV” marketplace, to cotton candy, fried onions, mini donuts and The Mousetrap, it’s a Vancouver tradition. While the PNE won’t be around for its limited engagement until summer is in full swing, Playland is now open on weekends.
1910: The first Vancouver Exhibition was launched. The exhibition and agricultural fair saw 5,000 people on opening day, each paying the 50 cent admission. According to Vancouver History, “over the next 10 days, some 68,000 people attended… …and for the next two decades the Vancouver Exhibition was the second largest in North America after New York City’s.”
1910 – Procession for the opening of the first Vancouver Exhibition, Granville & Dunsmuir
ITEM #: CVA 7-105, Photographer: Quiney, James L.
(Left) 1918 Exhibit ITEM #: CVA 99-646 (Right) 1925 Exhibit ITEM #: CVA 99-3556
Photographer: Stuart Thomson
(Left) 1918 – Women’s Building (Right) 1925 – Inside Women’s Building
ITEM #: CVA 99-645, ITEM #: CVA 99-3560
Photographer: Stuart Thomson
1929 – Entrance gate to the Vancouver Exhibition and Happyland on Renfrew
VPL Accession Number: 7925
Photographer / Studio: Frank, Leonard
1931 – Pure Foods Building
ITEM #: Bu N508, Photographer: Moore, W.J.
1940s – Line up at the Giant Dipper, Happyland
ITEM #: CVA 1184-1219, Photographer: Jack Lindsay
1950s – VPL Accession Number: 41011
Photographer / Studio: Province Newspaper
For updates and information about this year’s attractions at Playland or the 100th anniversary celebrations at the PNE you can follow them on Twitter or Facebook.
If you would like to check out Playland, I have a couple of passes to give away. Playland is currently open Saturday, Sundays, & Holidays (10:00am – 6:00pm) until it expands its summer hours in June.
Here’s how to enter to win one of two 4-packs of passes:
Leave a comment on this post (2 entries)
Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)
The passes are good for any full day at Playland during the 2010 season.
Update May 18th My first winner is Sharon. I’ll draw another next week in a few days, thanks for entering!
Update May 20th The final winner is Ashley – thanks for all the great comments!
Fine print: I’ll do the draw for one of the 4-packs on May 18th, and I’ll do the other one week later on the 25th 20th (sorry, I’ll be leaving town on Friday and want to mail the passes before I go). Comment entries will be duplicated during the draw process in order to count them as two entries. Approximate value is $29.95 per ticket ($120 per 4-pack). Please note: the Playland day-passes are NOT valid during the week of the PNE.
Twitter was experiencing the effects of a bug this weekend that exploited the following/follower method (as this post on Mashable explains). This morning, as an after effect of this bug, all users have noticed their following and follower numbers have dropped right down to zero. This means the little corner store down the block has the same follower count as Ashton Kutcher or CNN at the moment.
I’m certain Twitter is working to rectify the problem and it’s not something permanent as timelines are still filling with updates. However, things like this always seem to cause panic, mass hysteria, and the inevitable shouting at inanimate objects such as a computer screen or iPhone. To alleviate some stress in the future, here are a few ways you can back up your Twitter account.
Backupify
John Biehler clued me into the Backupify service a few months ago and it can be used to archive and back up your accounts from Twitter to Flickr, Delicious, Google Docs, WordPress, Blogger, and Facebook. The very basic service is free (although they do have premium options) so there’s sanity to gain from simply singing up.
Backup My Tweets
The Backup My Tweets service will back up your Tweets since they have a limited shelf-life on Twitter.com. It doesn’t back up your followers as Backupify does, but it will provide you some peace of mind. There is a program you can download for your PC that will backup your friends however I have not tried this so I cannot guarantee its security.
The best thing anyone can do right now is wait this out. Do not go on a mass re-following spree as I can only imagine this would muck up any backups or restoration process they might have Twitter has posted an update saying they have suspended following until this is resolved. Stay tuned to Mashable.com or @Mashable for updates since they have been crowned the most influential account on Twitter (well, at least up until this morning).
Update All is right with the world. From the official Twitter account: “Follow bug discovered, remedied. Read our status blog for details. http://bit.ly/dhQ3fF“.
Last weekend I enjoyed an annual girls getaway with my mother, sister, and niece in Victoria. It was a fantastic way to reconnect, explore, and also celebrate my mother’s birthday. We’ve been doing our girls getaway weekends for 8 years now and for 6 of those years we’ve stayed at the lovely Delta Ocean Pointe. Its location, views, kid-friendly staff, and facilities are the reason we return each year. It’s also my mother’s top choice.
I’ll be writing my Top Five for 2010: Victoria so I won’t go into too much detail about the places we visited and the sights we saw. However, I will pay tribute to my mother today, whom I’m sure was expecting a birthday post too but I hope this makes up for it… Continue reading this post ⟩⟩
My first Day Two session at Northern Voice is How (Should) Journalists Use Social Media, with speakers Lisa Johnson of the CBC and Kirk LaPointe of the Vancouver Sun.
Lisa talked about how she uses her own blog, Twitter and Facebook to reach out and find stories. First off, she explained that using social media makes a city smaller and more friendly.
“A big part of our job is to find out what’s happening,” she noted. By reaching out through online channels journalists in a newsroom aren’t just asking each other “do you know someone who…?” they can ask social networks. She said she’s found people for stories such as accountants, residents of Tsawwassen, business owners etc. just by searching Twitter or asking questions online.
Lisa added that Twitter is “a social scanner, like a police scanner.” You can find news and immediate information about an event, region, or issue. Chances are you can also find someone on the scene or taking Twitpics, immediately documenting the situation.
Kirk presented second as the words, “We will die before the newspaper does” appear on the big screen. While Lisa’s talk was more about how she uses social media to report, Kirk’s is focused on the state of the industry. “No audience problem. No news problem. More business problem,” stated his next slide.
“If we don’t find a business model in this, you’re going to get what you pay for,” he adds in reference to free, digital content. “Our biggest challenge is we need to redefine public and subsidy.”
Moving onto content he says journalists need to rethink the way they approach a “story”. It’s no longer a “story” but it’s a topic. Report on a topic and that’s the starting point — the beginning of the conversation.
“Know more each day about your audience,” said the next slide from Kirk. “We need to know what it is they are consuming, and what they’re not consuming.” He moved onto engagement and community building, emphasizing that it’s not a “frill” – these connections need to be taken more seriously than ever.
Kirk’s final slide reads: “The next decade is messy, but I can be fired more easily than you.”
During the Q&A Linda Soloman of the Vancouver Observer asks about the policy of mainstream outlets drawing inspiration from articles from bloggers but not giving credit. Kirk responded by saying he’s noticed Vancouver Sun content on their site as well however Linda assures him that VO always links and give credit (what we call a “hat tip” in the blogging realm”). Kirk said that everyone gets “ripped off” in some form or another and it’s hard to police that kind of thing, which is very true. Before the back-and-back got a bit too heated, it was agreed to take this particular discussion offline.
Personally I can see where Linda is coming from. Often I’ll see a blogger write something unique or tweet some news that is then picked up by a major outlet, who in turn does not credit the blogger or tweet as the source of the story. This is where I actually see radio stations excelling. I’ll get on-air credit from Jonny Staub at The Beat or James Sutton from The Peak for something I’ve posted online, which is wonderful. I get a shout out, they get to share information in real-time over the air, and in turn I will probably thank them publicly. This helps build bridges and strengthen the online community, in my eyes.
The discussion continued as the room emptied for lunch. This was yet another great panel session at Northern Voice with some great questions from the audience and insight from the speakers.
