A quick update to a previous post about the Dandy Warhols show tonight as it will now be taking place at Richards on Richards (and not The Vogue). Doors @ 8:00pm.
John and I will be attending later this evening and we hope to have a recap with some photos to add to this post as well. To warm you up for the show, here’s a quick Mixwit tape including four Dandy tracks.
Their new album Earth to the Dandy Warhols is available by download on their website and the CD will be released this summer.
You always see it there out of the corner of your eye sitting in its little plastic box mounted by the windows and blowing in the breeze after that one passenger opened the window even though no one else wanted him to. It’s The Buzzer, Metro Vancouver transit’s free publication available on all transit vehicles and skytrains.
“The Buzzer is a free onboard publication. It was first published June 2, 1916, and is presently distributed every second Friday.” [Translink]
I used to be big on The Buzzer, like back in 1984 when I would ride the 324 with my mom from Newton Exchange over to my grandma and grandpa’s house. I think I was just big on free pamphlets in general – you should have seen me at tourist rest stops during long-haul family camping trips.
Little did I know, or even think to look up, The Buzzer is also available online in pdf form (since 2006) although wouldn’t the content simply make for a great little Translink blog? They have cartoons, route information and upcoming events. Toss in a fun Google map for their next “how to take transit to…” article and they’re set. They are also in the middle of a FareCard contest, and the winner will be announced this Friday, June 20th.
I often wonder if the major launch of daily commuter papers in Vancouver hurt The Buzzer at all. It used to be something folks picked up specifically or so that they could stop staring at the same ads overhead during a 45 minute commute. As far as distractions go, the major free daily newspaper push a few years ago might have hurt The Buzzer slightly, but I do know some faithful readers.
Regardless, it’s a great tradition of transit literature over the last 92 years. Pick up the latest copy to browse the first edition ever from 1916 which was in search of a name (the contest offered $15 to the person who selected the winning name that would go to print). Runner up names to the contest were “Current Comments” and “Between the Lines”, I’m actually quite fond of the latter.
Thanks to The Buzzer for all the information and entertainment over the years. Who knows, maybe one day when we walk onto the bus our phones will beep and ask us if we want to view the latest issue, in digital form.
I received an email a while back from someone offering to cover Burnaby Lake Regional Park for the Park Series, which I gladly accepted. The following post is written by Mike from VancouverTrails.com.
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Home to such animals as Wood Ducks, Blue Herons, Beavers, Eagles, and Canadian Geese, Burnaby Lake is an important wildlife sanctuary and a great place for bird watchers and nature photographers to enjoy. There is 19km of hiking trails, 6km of horseback riding trails, soccer and rugby fields, and a rowing pavilion amongst other sports facilities around the lake area.
Metrics: The lake is 3.11 square kilometers and has a 10km walking trail that surrounds the entire lake.
How to Get There: Burnaby Lake is located in the center of Burnaby, on the north side of the Trans-Canada Highway about about 30 minutes driving time east from downtown Vancouver. The park has several access points including the Sports Complex by the soccer fields on the west end, the Nature House located off of Winston Street on the north, and the parking lot off of Avalon Avenue near the Burnaby Equestrian Centre on the east side.
The park is also easily accessible by public transit as the Skytrain stops at the Sperling-Burnaby Lake station along the Millennium Line and a short walk across the train tracks brings you to the Sports Complex on the west side of the lake.
History: The lake was created 12,000 years ago by a glacier and more recently was used for logging operations as several saw mills were located along its shores during the late 1800’s. Today, the lake is an important wildlife sanctuary that is home to more than 70 species of birds.
In 2008, the City of Burnaby and BC Government agreed to spend $20 million on dredging the lake so that it could be used again for rowing competitions. The funding was also to be used to improve the wildlife and fish habitat within the park.
Notes: My first experience going to Burnaby Lake was as a child, my parents took orphaned baby raccoons to the Wildlife Rescue Association on the south shore of the lake. Today, I jog the 10km path around the lake or just take an evening stroll along Piper’s Spit where beavers can often be spotted swimming from their lodge as the sun sets.
Read more from Mike over on VancouverTrails.com: “Vancouver Trails has a range of trails from easy to difficult, from half day to full day hikes, each divided amongst several regions and each with their own unique terrain.”
The Third Tuesday liveblog from the Network Hub on Richards Street will begin at 7:00pm PT today. Please stay tuned for tonight’s speaker, Joe Solomon:
Joe will discuss amazing case studies of how nonprofits and social change makers are using Web 2.0 tools to get the word out and inspire action. Joe will also talk about his recent experiences working on the Knowmore.org Firefox Extension, which won 2nd place at the NetSquared Conference. [Meetup.com]
Update: Gathering at the Network Hub after a quick pint at The Century and securing my seat for the live blog. Reminding everyone to enter the door prize draw by dropping their business card or leaving a comment on this post.
Update: Tod is here with the intro and notes that those who participate and become a part of tonight’s dialogue could win a cool book prize. Joe is now sharing the fact that while we’re all here tonight, Barack Obama’s fan page on Facebook could hit 1 million fans. First item of business, what is social media?
Update: People who would like to connect for a common cause and get their message out to the masses have a lot to gain from using social media. “Social media is really about engaging,” states Joe.
Joe says he’s not going to talk about projects like ChangeEverything or happyfrog, but other options like meeting your users on Twitter, Facebook and Second Life.
(Case Study) Genocide Intervention went on Facebook and looked up constituents that were in a home state of a senator and encouraged folks to call up campaign donors of the senator to help press for change.
(Case Study) Another cause was trying to get a major cola company to use their distribution channels in the developing world to help spread the word about dehydration, alternatively they used Facebook and social media to have the same reach.
Update: Speaking about the reach of YouTube, “everything you know about viral videos is wrong.” Viral is encouraging users to make their own version and to pass it on. Joe says a great example is a Greenpeace video that encouraged users to record their own short clip of putting a message in a bottle and passing it from one side of the screen to the other. Stitched together, it looked like one long chain message in YouTube.
(Side note: Colleen has interrupted three times so she wins the book, “Ultimate Blogs” by Sarah Boxer).
Question from Raul: “I’m not on Facebook, how do you reach people like me?”
Answer: Email, traditional marketing and cross-platform. On the way here Joe saw a poster for “Green Girls Gone Wild,” be creative in the corporate world and include new twists to help your cause. Also, be authentic don’t try to spin something for a cause that doesn’t look sincere.
“We can learn a lot from successes but we can also learn a lot from the failures,” says Joe.
Update: On to Twitter, using the hashtag system (like Twemes) to find relative thoughts, emotions, feelings and initiatives. Imagine collecting data that was hastagged like #girlfriend, if you just broke up in a relationship, then rating your happiness on a 1 to 10 scale. You could track topics like depression and find other users to form a support group and reach out or at least bring awareness.
Joe mentions the Frozen Pea Fund and how it raised support, money, awareness and how it became a huge thread on Twitter.
Tod, “is [the success] because it comes from a person and not a corporation?” do campaigns like this have more effectiveness because they have an actual voice and an authentic person behind them?
Tod, “do we turn to our internal people and make them the commercial? Do we find people who happen to work for the corporation and celebrate them?”
Joe quotes the Wired article by Clive Thompson, The See-Through CEO: “All of which explains why the cult of transparency has so many high tech converts these days. Transparency is a judo move. Your customers are going to poke around in your business anyway, and your workers are going to blab about internal info – so why not make it work for you by turning everyone into a partner in the process and inviting them to do so?”
Update: On to widgets, “then something cool,” although personally I think widgets are cool. Widgets are embeddable on blogs and show instant numbers and results, examples: Every Human Has Rights and The Nature Conservancy.
Update: Moving on to browsers… Firefox. You can create wiki profiles that anyone can edit that are available in a browser extension when you Google a company. For example, you Google Wal-Mart and you can see how many responses there are about the company and their accountability. I remember this platform from a DemoCamp a while back I think it was called RaytTheNet (this may not be the same thing but it sounds similar, and it’s from Joe). I believe the new name is “Know More”.
Question: How do you moderate the entries and make sure there is no messages of pure hate for the companies? How to balance criticism and praise? Should we fear the crowd-powered content?
My question: Is this like RaytTheNet?
Joe: “No, because that failed miserably.” All comments are moderated on KnowMore and we bring the data to the users, RaytTheNet was too lop-sided in term of being user-friendly.
A comment from the audience looks for a case study or example of a grassroots campaign of which a major company caught wind then took it on, spearheading the initiative that was already grown from the ground up by the ‘crowd’. Some social causes might not want to give up their grassroots cause and hard work simply for cash and a big brand name – or will they?
Update: Final note from Joe, “I am for hire!”
Wrapping up now, Tod asks if folks would be interested in a meetup in August and a poll will be going out soon to the Meetup group. Also, the group is looking for a venue that would be free and have enough room for everyone (or at least somewhere we know we can charge and put out the notice ahead of time).
Last item of the day, Tod’s got a book swap err.. sale including a super deal on an Apple Airport Extreme.
Sapperton Days are back again this year, celebrating a great little heritage neighbourhood in New Westminster.
When: Saturday June 21st – Sidewalk Sale, 10am to 4pm and Sunday June 22nd – Street Festival, 11am to 4pm.
Where: Between Braid & Sherbrooke Streets on East Columbia, New Westminster
How to get there: You could drive or simply take the Millenium Line Skytrain to Sapperton and walk up the hill beside Royal Columbian Hospital until you get to Columbia Street. The fair starts one block after you hang a right.
More info: ShopSapperton
A few years ago I met up with Fin, the Vancouver Canucks mascot, over in Sapperton Park. We giggled, posed for a photo, and he blew steam out of his blow hole (okay I’m not too sure the significance of that) but it was all a part of a really fun day out.
