When John set me up with WordPress he installed a helpful little plugin that sorts through comments and tosses aside anything deemed ‘spam‘. I can then browse through the comments later and dump them all in one click of a button. Sometimes the numbers are painfully high but the benefit is that, I don’t really have to filter anything myself, it’s all done for me. Occasionally I’ll pass through the spam just to check and see if anything of value was misplaced. Honestly, I get a kick lately out of some of the comments and what they say, here’s a sample of what I see as I scroll through:
No more spam, man!
Delete this spam!
I hate spammers!
Spammers suck a lot
You have so much spam in here
They just sit there, taunting me, (and cracking me up), until my all-powerful finger hits the appropriate key and ZAP! They’re all deleted. I’ve shared this with John every now and then and it seems as though I don’t have it too bad. These types of spam comments sure do beat the ones he gets about products to help improve his “performance”.
In an effort to sort through what I personally know about being a part of this whole weebernet of information, I started browsing a couple topics. I found one site that pretty much sums up how I feel about a couple things, and the fact that he’s quoted an 80s movie not only makes me giggle but keeps my focus.
There is way too much hype, way too much ideology, way too much orthodoxy, and way too many hopes, dreams, and expectations packed into this poor overused word. There are many good intentions, and real revolutions, all enabled by technology. But the discussion of everything “social†in media is starting to feel, well…maybe The Breakfast Club, that fountain of mid-80s wisdom, said it best:
Claire: So academic clubs aren’t the same as other kinds of clubs. John: Ah… but to dorks like him, they are. What do you guys do in your club? Brian: Well, in physics we… we talk about physics, properties of physics. John: So it’s sorta social, demented and sad, but social.
[Publishing 2.0]
The whole geek inheriting the earth thing rings true but you no longer have to be Poindexter to blog or participate in social networking (see my post about the lonely bloggers). But this isn’t just about blogging, that’s the just part of this whole thing that I’m most familiar with.
How does all this “social media” fit into the big business world or how does it apply in the 9-5 scheme of things? I’m not really the one to ask, but hopping on the “social media” bandwagon on a whim, putting Digg and Del.icio.us links on your website and trying to sell SEO to clients without knowing what you’re getting into can have negative repercussions. Although hearts may be in the right places, it seems like some companies are that older guy at a party wearing obvious pop culture trends trying to be hip ‘yo but clearly out of place. So they need help, they need to ‘get with the times’ but perhaps they’re really not sure how.
School your clients to do the right thing, not just wrap themselves in a bunch of psychobabble about social interaction with their “communities†without actually adopting a new mindset.
Knowing what you’re getting into is key as well as understanding what you’ll get out of this, and how your clients will ultimately benefit. You can’t go out and put a googofluxcapometer in your car purely because that’s a term you heard people using around the water cooler. You actually need to know what these tools are, how you can effectively use them, and explain exactly what they are to your clients.
If you have no idea where to start (or have no idea what I’m talking about right now) you can do Google searches (e.g “blogging for __” or “how to __”), find a forum in which to discuss “social media” for newbies or if all else fails, browse the wikis back to front. We’re in a new phase of the “information super highway” both personally and in the business world. I’m no expert, but I am a part of it all.
Special guest star time on Episode 20! Run Time 49:02, click for MP3 or visit site to listen and for more details.
A momentous episode for the history of our podcast, we have the first guest join us, and there is an outnumbering of females to male ratio. Loxy from an Edmonton Oiler fan blog, Hot Oil, joins in on the discussion, especially her take on the two wins over the team so near to her heart. We also hash out the loss to Calgary in between the four points we got last Thursday and tonight. Unfortunately, Dave was unable to join us for this episode.
Record as of this episode: 30-20-4
Northwest Division: 2nd
Western Conference: 7th
The division continues to be a tough battle, and it was really great to have Loxy on the podcast to get an outside view of how other teams view the competition that the Canucks bring. Even though you might love to hate the Oilers, she gives you a little insight to what it’s like for an Edmonton lover living in Vancouver, plus we pick her brain on how her fellow fans view Luongo and the Sedins. And since the schedule debate continues to be a hot topic, we pose the question to Loxy as well.
One extra note, if the audio quality seems off on this episode, please forgive us. We had issues with the recording setup, but I did my best to adjust what we recorded, even after a couple false starts and a mid-episode crash. These things happen from time to time.
After hopping on a bus I meandered my way over to the studio to sit in on some of Matt Good‘s recoding sessions. Right now my computer screen seems way too bright in this candle-lit space and I’m seriously outnumbered, being without a Mac.
Dan Lilly has been snapping some really great photos about his experience and time here, which far surpasses the early evening I’ll spend on this lovely leather couch surrounded by sound maker machines and speaker thingamabobs. Audio looping, random frustrations, searching for perfection.
Inside jokes break the tension, while I still feel like the light from my computer is absolutely blinding and intruding on a soft, mellow atmosphere. I’ve just worked a complete work day but theirs is far from over. I believe this is the third week that they’ve been in the studio, and I have no idea how that fares in comparison to any other time, being that I’m completely ignorant of ‘how a record is made’, but I think I’m getting a glimpse into the process as we speak. Listening to the same piece of audio incessantly loop stop, play again, discuss, and repeat. Ironically enough the one word that is looping the most is “details”… “details”… “details”…
Around the room conversations turn to something any Vancouverite could talk on and on about for hours (and that I know very well), the local hockey team. Rod’s sporting his Canucks jersey with the Orca logo but the consensus around here is that the stick in rink is ultimately the best design and should be implemented immediately. There’s a Canucks game tonight vs Chicago, who are just coming off a win against Calgary but we’re also just coming off a victory over Edmonton, which by default makes us more happy, confident and… elated.
There’s a call for dinner orders, but I think I may not be staying the entire evening, if anything the ample helping of Greek food I had at lunch time will be able to carry me into the late hours.
I’m certain the moods and atmospheres in here change numerous times daily, right now it’s calm, there’s sounds of fingers on laptop keyboards and intermittently the audio will pipe up with another piece of a chorus. I’m looking through Dan’s Flickr to find a good pic to add to the post. It’s kinda creepy browsing photos of people in a situation that’s unfolding right before your eyes. Truth is, our camera isn’t the best and I wouldn’t want to impose and well mostly, Dan’s pics kick ass.
A little while ago John and I expressed an interest in attending this year’s Northern Voice conference. Being bloggers and podcasters (in Vancouver and Iowa) for 3 years it seemed like a great opportunity to meet other locals with the same interest. We’ve met up with other bloggers before and attended a podcast meetup last year, which was really fun, but we’ve never been to a Northern Voice conference before. Most of all it would be a great opportunity for John to network since he’s going to get his work permit for Canada any day now.
The only thing keeping us from going was the entry fee. The two day conference is $100 out of our pockets and another $40 is we wanted t-shirts. So… for full participation and t-shirty experience it would cost our family $140. Now let me give you a quick little background on John and I.
John moved here in 2005 to be with me and hopefully start a lovely new career. Since he’s basically immigrating he cannot work until the Permanent Resident application is approved. He’s been jobless and I’ve been supporting our family monetarily ever since, needless to say, we don’t have a lot of money. We splurg sometimes and go out to watch a Canucks game at our fave local watering hole, and yes we attended Barcamp in the summer – which was really great. But at this point in time we’re inches away from having his work permit, which on top of all other immigration and lawyer fees, is $150. You may be able to see our financial dilemma now.
The Northern Voice crew were looking for submissions for a travel bursary, $500 for 5 people to make their way to the conference, who otherwise probably wouldn’t be able to attend. John and I jumped on this and recorded a podcast a couple days ago. We submitted and were hopeful. We only asked for part of ONE of the bursaries, not really the whole thing either, just the admission fee. Sure, we’re locals but maybe our cause is worthy enough, we’ve never been to a Northern Voice and we were really looking forward to it.
This morning the winners were announced, and we weren’t included. That’s perfectly fine, I mean it would only cost us $4.50 to get there by bus, but the admission is really the kicker. Oh well, right? I’m sure others were just as deserving and had to travel greater distances. Hmm…. although I think the idea of one of the winners could have just been put implemented, since it’s a great gesture, not sure it should have taken up one of the bursary spots though...
Regardless, if this is the first you’ve heard of Northern Voice and you’re a local blogger, check it out – the schedule has been posted and it looks really great – hopefully you’ll network, learn, shmooze and have great fun.
On the other hand, this was something that I really wanted to be a part of but I’m not certain that we’ll be able to get there this year, due to financial constraints (getting John’s open work permit = $150). So if that’s the case there’s always next year…
