Alberta Budget 2010 website – security through obscurity
Tomorrow, Tuesday, is budget day here in Alberta. Like many Albertans, I am curious about what Finance Minister Ted Morton is going to deliver, so I started poking around online. First stop, last year’s budget, available at http://budget2009.alberta.ca/.
Seems logical that the 2010 budget would be at http://budget2010.alberta.ca. So I tried that URL, and was prompted with a login screen. First thing that came to mind was “administrator” and “password”. Voila:
Fortunately for Mr. Morton, the documents don’t appear to have been uploaded yet. You can see all the placeholders though, which is kind of funny. And it seems you can leave feedback.
It does reveal the theme of the budget, Striking the Right Balance. Last year was Building on Our Strength.
This is what is known as “security through obscurity”. It’s not really secure, it’s just hidden. I’d suggest that programmers working at the Government of Alberta invest in Writing Secure Code, a fantastic book on the subject.
I hope this isn’t a reflection of the budget we see tomorrow…cutting corners, etc.
Tags: 2010, ableg, alberta, budget, government, politics, programming, security, technology, ted morton, websites
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Notes for 2/8/2010
Didn’t get around to this yesterday, so here we go, my weekly notes Monday edition!
- I think my panel on Saturday with Karen and Colby at MacEwan’s Future of Story conference went very well. The rest of the conference was also really interesting, and gave me much to think about.
- From CBC: Arctic ice melting faster than feared.
- Sharon and I watched Up in the Air this weekend, which I thought was great! Somewhat odd ending, but overall, very good.
- Cool new feature from Google Maps: Nearby places you might like.
- A little geeky, but fascinating read: Recent evidence of horizontal gene transfer has some scientists thinking that the dominant form of evolution for most of the Earth’s history was between non-related organisms and not among ancestors.
- Saw this on Twitter: San Francisco’s Answer to Westboro Baptist Church. Priceless.
- Nice visualization of the size of Facebook.
Tags: mastermaq, notes
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Edmonton Notes for 2/6/2010
Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:
- During the first four days of opening events, close to 12,000 people visited the new AGA. Additionally, annual membership has grown to an all-time high of 2,250.
- The Kelly-Ramsay block on Rice Howard Way has been sold to John Day, whose projects include the Garneau Theatre redevelopment and the Sobeys Urban Fresh on Jasper Avenue.
- Nominations for the third annual Good Neighbour Awards opened this week. You have until March 1 to suggest someone!
- Hybrid Forge was selected as the winning company in the Leveraging Technical Expertise Locally pilot (see my previous coverage here). There were 14 total applicants, 6 of which had the opportunity to present to a review panel.
- The City of Edmonton Youth Council is displaying the Streets Speak mural series at City Hall from February 17 to 28.
- Full commissioning of the South LRT Extension from South Campus is underway! That means there will be a few service disruptions over the next week or two.
- More transit news: City Council confirmed that the NAIT line is the first priority for construction, and a new report suggests the City should spend $22.5 million over four years to implement smart cards for transit. Also, Transportation Manager Bob Boutilier says the LRT expansions could be completed by 2017, just in time for EXPO (if we were to win the bid).
- Congratulations to Ken Bautista and his team for launching Seek Your Own Proof this week! They also closed a round of financing with local VC firm Foundation Equity.
- The City wants you to share your views on the new plan for Fort Edmonton Park.
- Great post by Jordan Schroder on EXPO 2017 at theeedmontonian.
- Good news! Police Service Dog Cora is back in action.
- The incoming chair of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce says Edmonton’s future is in emerging as the global city for northern expertise.
- Edmonton is the 2nd most sustainable large city in Canada, and the 3rd most sustainable city overall, according to the Corporate Knights Magazine’s annual list.
- Two new Alberta websites launched this week: Productivity Alberta (details) and Apply Alberta.
- Congratulations to all the winners of the 2010 ROOPH Awards, recognizing individuals and organizations that are working to end homelessness.
- The application deadline for participants and speakers for TEDxEdmonton is Monday! The event takes place March 13.
- Sweeny Todd opens at the Citadel tonight and runs through the 28th (on ShareEdmonton).
- NAIT Info Week 2010 kicks off on Monday (on ShareEdmonton).
Tags: edmonton, events, news
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Pecha Kucha Night: Edmonton #6
Edmonton’s sixth Pecha Kucha Night took place tonight at McDougall United Church downtown, a really fantastic venue. It was pretty full, but I’m not sure what the final attendance numbers were. Pecha Kucha is always a great place to meet new people, and tonight was no exception. Many people in the audience had never been to a Pecha Kucha Night before, which was great to see!
True to its name, there was lots of chatter about PKN6 tonight, in person and online. At one point this evening, the hashtag #pkn6 was trending in Canada, but not for the reason you might expect.
In order of appearance, tonight’s presenters included:
- Mari Sasano, Winter Light
- Merna Schmidt, Outreach Coordinator of A Child’s Hope
- Rikia Saddy, Strategist
- David Demian, President of JCI Edmonton
- Jessica Roder, Urban Planner
- Ken Chapman, Cambridge Strategies and Reboot Alberta
- Chris Ford, Program Director for Action for Healthy Communities
- Matthew Capowski, Activist
- Liz Lepper, YESS volunteer
- Chris Moore, CIO, City of Edmonton
Before I go any further, let me just point out a few facts:
- It takes guts to stand up in front of a couple hundred people to talk for 6 minutes and 40 seconds, I get that.
- Christmas and the New Year are probably not the most opportune times to find presenters, as everyone is busy with work and life.
- You’ll never please everyone, because each person has a different set of expectations.
With that out of the way, I can honestly say that PKN6 was probably the worst of the Pecha Kucha events we’ve had here in Edmonton. I’m saddened by this, primarily because the main issue was not something new or unforeseen. Here’s what I wrote about PKN3:
Tonight’s event didn’t have a theme, but I think perhaps it should have. In comparison with the previous two Pecha Kucha Nights, I found the presentations this evening rather weak. There was far too much self-promotion going on.
PKN4 was better, except for the presentation by Edmonton Next Gen themselves:
Finally, some of the Next Gen members gave an overview of the organization. I’m not sure it was the most appropriate presentation, but it was probably good for those in the audience who were new to Next Gen.
At PKN5, self-promotion surfaced once again:
I thought all the presenters did a pretty good job tonight. I wasn’t as interested in Dawn’s or Jeffrey’s, but others in the crowd seemed to be. My least favorite was probably Nadine’s though. Yes most of the talks are self-promotional in nature, but hers really seemed like a commercial for the United Way (and their campaign is on now).
But tonight, at PKN6, self promotion was taken to a whole new level. With the exception of Rikia’s odd Canadian immigration history lesson and Jessica’s interesting discussion of evolution, all the talks were self-promotional. Ken’s is perhaps unfairly labeled as such; although it wasn’t overt, it was ultimately about Reboot Alberta. It was also probably the best talk of the evening, thanks in large part to how great and engaging a speaker Ken is.
An evening with less self promotion isn’t just my idea of a good event, either. Many people were chit-chatting on Twitter about it. Here are a few select tweets:
- paulzy: I think I’m leaving #pkn6 less inspired than when I came in. Rally caps?
- sarahdotb: The energy level in this room is nonexistant #pkn6
- bingofuel: Too many of these presentations are like, "hey, check out my organization!" #pkn6
- KendallBarber: Appreciate people’s enthusiam for own happenings, but too much promotion #pkn6 – there’s better things to say.
- ALeNeve: A little disappointed with the shameless self promotional aspect at #pkn6 #yeg hope the 2nd half ISA bit more inspiring
And, here’s what the official Pecha Kucha: What is it? page says:
Good PechaKucha presentation are the ones that uncover the unexpected, unexpected talent, unexpected ideas. Some PechaKuchas tell great stories about a project or a trip. Some are incredibly personal, some are incredibly funny, but all are very different making each PechaKucha Night like ‘a box of chocolates’.
Enough about self promotion, let’s talk about the theme. I’m not sure why they bothered with one tonight:
PECHA KUCHA NIGHT 6 explores our City’s best and worst kept secrets, furtive futures, ancient enigmas, cosmic quandaries, unsolved mysteries and how-to-guides for pressing problems.
Only Liz from YESS attempted to highlight a best kept secret in our city. Maybe the theme was kept secret from all the presenters? The theme of PKN4 worked amazingly well, and I think future Pecha Kucha Nights should also have a theme. Something must have happened for that event (ICLEI?) that didn’t happen this time, however.
Another thing that obviously didn’t happen tonight – screening of presenters. Maybe there weren’t enough submissions, or maybe they all did a good job of convincing the selection committee, but something clearly went wrong. There were two main issues, in my opinion: the order of the presentations, and the quality.
Mari’s presentation was funny at times, even if it was a giant commercial for Winter Light. But it was immediately followed by Merna’s depressing presentation about less fortunate children. It’s an important subject, absolutely, but the difference was extremely jarring. It happened again in the second half. Ken’s presentation was energetic, and really got the crowd into things (finally). That was followed up by a bizarrely bad presentation and then an extremely abstract talk on thought. There was absolutely no rhythm to the evening.
As for the quality of the presentations – Chris Ford’s was probably the worst I have ever seen at Pecha Kucha. Totally disconnected images, long awkward pauses, extremely overt marketing of the organization and its upcoming event, a clear lack of preparation…it was brutal. I’m sure Chris is a great guy, and his organization does good things, but his presentation just completely missed the mark. Compared with previous events, I thought the presenters tonight were clearly nervous, at times quiet, and mostly unenergetic (the notable exceptions being Chris Moore and Ken).
At the end of the evening, Cary asked me to come up to the front to be the “celebrity” who drew tickets for the prize giveaways. I joked afterward that he asked me to do that so I’d stop Twittering about the event! My tweets and this post are my initial thoughts on the event, and I’ll absolutely give it more thought so that I can provide more concrete, constructive feedback to Next Gen.
I don’t want to discourage anyone from checking out the next Pecha Kucha Night either! I attend a lot of events, so perhaps my expectations aren’t average. And despite all of the negative things I mentioned above, PKN is still an awesome way to meet new people and to reconnect with old friends. As the saying goes, don’t knock it ‘til you try it!
Finally, please fill out the survey for PKN6. It won’t take very long, and it’s a great way to provide Next Gen with some feedback they can use when planning PKN7. Let’s hope they take note of some of the things that were highlighted tonight!
You can see a few more photos here.
UPDATE: When I originally posted, I had the order slightly incorrect – fixed now.
UPDATE 2: I should mention that there was an after-party at Red Star, which sounds like it was fairly well attended and lots of fun!
Tags: edmonton, edmonton next gen, events, next gen, pecha kucha, pkn, pkn6
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#bill44 on Twitter by Edmontonians & Calgarians
A little while ago, Paula told me she was interested in reconstructing the Twitter stream that happened last year around Bill 44 (PDF and if you want a summary, Ken has a great one). She tried using Twitter Search but quickly found that it only goes back so far, so she asked if I could help. With a few caveats, I said I could.
The first caveat is that the tweets I have are only from people in Edmonton and Calgary (with their profiles set to one of those at the time). I’m sure other Albertans were taking part too. The second is that it’s pretty hard to find all the back-and-forth tweets for the various conversations, so the ones I pulled out all contain the #bill44 hashtag.
I looked at the data for May and June of 2009. Here’s what it looks like:
I was initially surprised by the double peaks, but Paula helped make sense of it:
The first peak is the night debate went until 3:38 AM and the amendments were defeated. The second spike is the night (and early morning) of the final vote. Debate started the evening of the 1st, and ended at about 3:20 AM on the 2nd. The Twitter chatter continued like mad on the 2nd and 3rd, as people bemoaned the result.
Here are the top ten most active #bill44 users during those two months: KenChapman46, Sirthinks, taudette, DebraWard, robertmcbean, AllieW, ChrisLaBossiere, davecournoyer, Paulatics, bingofuel.
After removing #bill44, #ableg, and RT, this is what the word cloud of the tweets looks like:
And here, in chronological order, is all 2406 tweets:
I have archived that spreadsheet here or you can get the full version here. That means you can download the data set and do your own analysis, if you like!
I agree with Paula and all of the others who have said this: Bill 44 was a landmark moment in Alberta’s social media & political history. I’m glad we were able to preserve a part of it.
As a minor aside, I think this a great example of what could come out of MediaCamp.
Tags: ableg, alberta, bill44, calgary, edmonton, politics, social media, twitter
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Recap: MediaCamp Edmonton Initial Meeting
Tonight we held an initial planning meeting at Credo Coffee for an event called MediaCamp. I have wanted to hold a local event to bring mainstream (or old) media together with social (or new) media for some time, and last week Karen Unland provided the necessary spark when she tweeted about a hacker event that took place recently in London, UK. A bunch of us very quickly settled on a hashtag – #yegmediacamp – and we got the ball rolling on Google Wave.
The meeting tonight was appropriately informal, and gave everyone an opportunity to meet one another and share ideas. We went around the circle with introductions and initial thoughts, and then discussed what MediaCamp might look like. Karen probably has better notes than I do, but here are some of the things I wrote down:
- Should it be a small event or a large one? The consensus seemed to be “go big”.
- Would an event focus on business models? Technology? Something else?
- BarCamp is pretty unstructured, TransitCamp had a bit more structure but used the same kind of model. What’s the right approach for MediaCamp? The consensus seemed to be that we have some structure.
- Lightning Thoughts was something that everyone thought was a good idea – quick, five minute demos.
- Multiple streams or not? We want to break down silos and encourage input from everyone.
- Will they come? How do we remove barriers to entry? How can we ensure a good mix of mainstream media folks and social media folks?
- As with most of these events, connections are perhaps the greatest outcome.
- Potential dates: April 10, May 8
- It was decided we’d loosely follow the ChangeCamp structure, striking subcommittees to focus on sponsorship/budget, volunteers, day-of, etc. The first step – create a Google Group to get everyone connected.
I agree with Bruce that labels seem to be a necessary evil, so I’ll use them here. The common thread seemed to be, “let’s work together”. What can old media learn from new media, and just as importantly, what can new media learn from old media?
I was quite impressed with the turnout, especially since it was just a planning meeting. Here’s who made it out tonight: Karen, Cam, Asia, Alain, Dave, Rachelle, Kelly, Jeff, Eugene, Brittney, Diane, Jas, Curtis, Reg, Bruce, Marty, Kerry, and myself. I know there were many more who wanted to come but couldn’t make it work!
Please follow along on Twitter, and join the Google Group. I think there’s a lot of excitement around MediaCamp, and I’m eager to see what comes of it!
Tags: edmonton, events, journalism, media, mediacamp, social media, technology, yegmediacamp
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Lightning Thoughts at ENTS
Last night ENTS hosted an event called Lightning Thoughts, an opportunity to share and discuss something inspiring or even just interesting. Each presenter got 5 minutes, followed by a few minutes for questions, though those rules weren’t strictly enforced (it was a pretty casual atmosphere). About 15 people showed up, which is a decent turnout for the first event (ENTS hopes to do it again next month).
There was a really wide variety of things shown, but here are a few:
- Ben showed us Swoopo, which is an interesting “entertainment shopping” service. It’s kind of like an auction service, except that you buy bids. It’s a bit shady, really.
- Eric shared Netvibes, Dropbox, and Delicious. He uses the services, along with Google Apps, to run his portable office. My usage of Delicious has dropped lately thanks to the new “Note in Reader” feature at Google Reader, but I use Dropbox all the time, it’s great.
- Keith brought his Amazon Kindle 2 and passed it around. I was really blown away by it actually, seeing it in person really makes a difference.
- Devin showed us Prezi, an awesome Flash-based presentation tool. I’ve seen Devin use it before, but I still haven’t tried it for myself. I must!
Finally, I really enjoyed this inspiring video that Grant shared:
Kudos to Eugene for getting the event off the ground – looking forward to the next one!
Tags: edmonton, ents, events, lightning thoughts, technology
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Update on ShareEdmonton
I’m still working on improving ShareEdmonton, slowly but surely, and I wanted to provide a brief update on my progress. Over the last couple of weeks, my primary focus has been on improving the event calendar. Making it faster, more complete, and easier to browse. There’s still a lot of work to do, but here are some of the recent improvements:
- There’s now a Featured Upcoming Events page where I can highlight specific events.
- Related events have been improved. For example, if you look at the page for this Saturday’s Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market, you’ll see other upcoming dates as well.
- That feature highlights something else – events on ShareEdmonton are as granular as possible. Instead of just having one event for The Citadel’s upcoming run of Sweeny Todd that starts on February 6 and ends on February 28, each individual show time gets its own page. That’s important in helping to answer the question, what’s happening in Edmonton at a given time and place? There are only a few exceptions to this, such as International Week.
I’m going to continue to make it easier to find and browse events, especially by tag, like valentine’s day or family day. I have made good progress on making the calendar more complete too. Currently, there are more than 200 unique events in ShareEdmonton for February, with more than 600 different instances (a unique event would be “Sweeny Todd”, and each showtime would be a different instance). There are probably hundreds more that I don’t yet have in the calendar. It’s a tricky problem, but I’m working on it!
Another thing I’ve been working on is improving Places in ShareEdmonton, which includes adding more places! Most recently, I started adding places that have been made available as part of the City’s open data catalogue, such as Police Stations. That’s a handy page to see all the police station locations in Edmonton. I’ve got some more neat stuff coming with this, so stay tuned.
If you have feedback, let me know!
Tags: edmonton, events, Paramagnus, ShareEdmonton
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Notes for 1/31/2010
Here are my weekly notes:
- I was mostly underwhelmed by the iPad announcement this week, and I think Mathew Ingram is right: Will the iPad Help Media? Possibly. Save Media? No.
- Great post from Dave on the sudden interest in Albertan politics by the Ontario-based media.
- If you’re in Vancouver, you could win a ticket to see Malcolm Gladwell at the F5 Expo just by leaving a comment on this Techvibes post. I’d love to see Malcolm Gladwell speak!
- Very handy feature on Google Reader: Follow changes to any website.
- From the NYTimes: Smart Dust? No Quite, but We’re Getting There.
- Chirp is the official Twitter developer conference! Wish I could go.
- Sharon and I went to the AGA Grand Opening today at 5pm. The exhibits were all great, but deserve a longer visit. I was also really happy to see the LRT entrance:
Tags: mastermaq, notes
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Edmonton Notes for 1/30/2010
Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:
- It’s AGA weekend here in Edmonton! The official ribbon cutting ceremony took place this morning, and the public will start visiting tomorrow. Daryl Katz and his wife Renee donated $500,000 to the AGA this week. The Journal has an interactive tour online.
- Edmonton is the newest member of the Alberta Industrial Heartland Association.
- According to the Conference Board of Canada, Edmonton’s economy is set to grow 3.2% in 2010 on the strength of improving energy markets.
- On Monday, the City of Edmonton launched a new recruiting website that uses the concept of “talent hubs”.
- Local game developer BioWare is off to a great start with its latest game, Mass Effect 2. The company has sold over two million copies in the first week of release. Awesome!
- In case you missed it: my recap of DemoCamp Edmonton 10.
- Epcor is planning to demolish 5 of the 10 former Rossdale power plant buildings this summer.
- The Ice on Whyte festival recorded impressive final attendance numbers of more than 39,000 people. Over 50 volunteers helped make the event happen.
- The Oilers still haven’t won a game this year, but the Oilers Skills Competition seems to have gone fairly well. The team says that over 10,000 fans attended the event, with another 10,000 watching online.
- Edmonton International Airport (EIA) had a good year in 2009, and has lots planned for 2010 too.
- Also on the topic of aviation – the Edmonton Flying Club filed a lawsuit against the City over the closure of the City Centre Airport.
- St. Albert Transit is preparing to put up new signs that more closely match the design of the Edmonton transit signs. You can see the new design in PDF here.
- Two major events take place next week: Global Awareness Week at MacEwan (on ShareEdmonton), and International Week at the University of Alberta (on ShareEdmonton).
- On Wednesday evening we’re going to chat about MediaCamp Edmonton at Credo Coffee downtown – join us!
- Coming up on Thursday is Pecha Kucha Night 6. I’m really looking forward to it!
- Have you voted for Edmonton at MonopolyVote.ca?
Photos of the Next Gen Engage event that took place on Thursday evening.
Tags: edmonton, events, news
Categories: Edmonton Notes | 2 Comments »
The Art Gallery of Alberta is now officially open!
A ribbon cutting ceremony was held this morning at the Art Gallery of Alberta, officially opening Canada’s newest art gallery and celebrating the thousands of people and many years of hard work that went into making it a reality. AGA Board Chair Allan Scott led today’s ceremony, and said in a statement:
“It is the AGA’s dream that a rebuilt, renewed Art Gallery of Alberta will serve as a cultural centre of excellence for the Alberta community today and beyond, for generations to come.”
All levels of government were represented. Canada’s Minister of Public Works Rona Ambrose brought remarks, as did Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Norman L. Kwong and Minister of Alberta Culture and Community Spirit Lindsay Blackett. Minister of State and Western Economic Diversification Lynn Yelich was also present. Mayor Stephen Mandel brought remarks from the City of Edmonton, along with nearly all of the City Councillors. We also heard from architect Randall Stout, and AGA Executive Director Gilles Hebert.
Many of the speakers paid tribute to Barbara Poole and her late husband John Poole, who in October 2001 donated $2 million in seed money for the gallery project. The Poole family continued to donate $1 million each October until 2004, bringing their total donation to $5 million. Randall Stout talked about how important community has been to everyone involved in the project, and he cited the Poole’s funding request as proof. Instead of requesting that part of the building be named after the family as is often the case, the Pooles requested only that the new AGA building be connected to the pedway system and LRT, that it be connected to the existing city network. In his remarks, Mayor Mandel called Barbara Poole “a gem, a jewel” and said that if Edmonton had a first lady, it would be her.
The ribbon cutting:
The public will start streaming into the new building tomorrow morning at 9am, with the grand opening celebration lasting through Monday. If you weren’t able to get tickets to attend, fear not, the AGA is here to stay and there will be plenty of time to visit again, and again. A few quick facts to keep in mind as you explore the new building:
- Steel, Zinc, Glass, and Douglas Fir are the key materials
- 800 tons of structural steel were used in the framework of the building
- 90% of the steel used was comprised of recycled material
- 5000 individual steel pieces were custom made, and laid end-to-end would total 12 kilometers
- 26 metres (86 feet) is the height of the atrium lobby
- 190 metres (625 feet) is the length of the borealis
It really is quite amazing to see!
You can see all of my photos from the ceremony here, you can watch Allan Scott’s introduction here, and you can watch Mayor Mandel give his remarks here.
Tags: aga, art gallery of alberta, ceremonies, edmonton, events
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Recap: DemoCampEdmonton10
Tonight was our tenth DemoCamp here in Edmonton if you can believe it, and we’re still going strong! Our last DemoCamp was a little over two months ago, so it was definitely time for the community to once again get together. Cam asked the audience for a show of hands to find out who was new to DemoCamp, and a surprising number had never attended before. It’s fantastic that more and more people are finding out about the event, and are coming to support local entrepreneurs. Thanks everyone – keep it up!
Before and after tonight’s demos.
We had five demos this evening:
- Dave Bodnarchuk from EventIQ started things off by showing us InviteRight. He spent most of the demo showing the slick table organization features of the tool. Event organizers or venue managers can arrange registrations by table visually, using a simple drag & drop interface, kind of like seat selection on the airlines. They’re currently working with McNally and Spruce Grove high schools to test.
- Our next presenter was Kent Tong from eQube. He started by explaining that eQube plays in the gaming sector – gambling, bingo, etc., not video games! Kent focused on something called Lil’ Gecko, which is a mobile gaming device rented to casinos and other customers, but they also offer a complete end-to-end solution. They’re trying to come up with games (casual things like Bejeweled) that get the average person visiting casinos again.
- Next up was Brian MacKay from Tooq, a tool focused on the contractor and small business sector. Currently a few weeks away from beta, Tooq right now helps you create and manage invoices. Eventually Brian and his team hope to create a job market based around the people using Tooq for invoices, estimates, and other tasks.
- Fourth tonight was Dave Chan from pureLIGHT. He demonstrated preLIGHT and pureLIGHT, applications his team has written to help designers light scenes. The key difference is efficiency – pureLIGHT produces the same kind of quality as similar solutions, but with significantly improved workflow and on-the-fly tweaking (not to mention a far lower cost). I wrote about the other side of the company, 3DI, back in December.
- Our final presenter of the evening was David Quail, who showed us Attassa. Reminiscent of Xobni, Attassa is focused on improving organization and context in email. You can view messages by conversation, and can see a list of related people for any given thread. You can also find attachments really easily. Attassa works with Outlook and the iPhone, and was developed in just two months!
All of the demos were quite well done tonight, with only minor hiccups along the way. Having said that, I’m not sure that people were buzzing as much about the demos at RATT as at past events. I think my demo of the night goes to Dave Bodnarchuk. Though he ran out of time, the app looks good and he’s already got customers signed up, so that’s always a positive! I also really liked Attassa, and I think it has great potential.
Here are some upcoming tech events to watch for:
- Social Web Meetup on February 1
- Lightning Thoughts on February 2
- MediaCamp Meeting on February 3
- Pecha Kucha Night 6 on February 4
Stay tuned to Startup Edmonton and GameCamp Edmonton for updates on their events too! You can always see the latest tech events at ShareEdmonton.
Thanks to everyone who came out tonight. See you at DemoCampEdmonton11!
Tags: democamp, democampyeg, edmonton, events, technology
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Upcoming Speaking Engagements & Events
On Saturday I was invited to speak at the Annual Sustainable Campuses Conference, on the subject of Open Data. I gave an overview of open data, shared some examples of open data apps for sustainability, and described how open data arrived here in Edmonton. We also spent some time chatting about Twitter, both in general and how it is being used by the open data community. Thanks to the organizers for including me!
I’ve got a few additional speaking engagements coming up that I wanted to mention:
- January 25-28: Social Media for Government (on ShareEdmonton)
The conference started today and finishes tomorrow, with post-conference workshops taking place on Thursday. I’m leading the last workshop that afternoon, where I’ll be taking participants through a social media campaign from start to finish. We’ll look at examples of campaigns that have worked, as well as examples of what to avoid. There are some really smart people speaking at the event, such as Jas Darrah, Diane Begin, Troy Wason, Ken Chapman, Walter Schwabe, and many more.
- February 5/6: What Happens Next? Future of Story (on ShareEdmonton)
I’m really excited to be taking part in this conference, hosted by MacEwan’s School of Communications. I’m participating in a panel on “The Next New Journalism” along with Karen Unland and Colby Cosh. The panel will be moderated by Rey Rosales, Associate Dean at MacEwan’s Centre for Arts and Communications. I obviously have some strong ideas about the future of journalism and media, as I’m sure Karen and Colby do, so it should be interesting, and fun!
- February 8: Financial Executives International – Edmonton Chapter (on ShareEdmonton)
What are the current trends in social media and social networking? How is business being impacted, and how can organizations take advantage? I’ll be sharing some thoughts on those questions and more with dozens of local executives at this event.
- March 11: MacEwan Student Business Conference 2010 (on ShareEdmonton)
This conference aims to connect students with business leaders and innovators. I’ll be taking part in a roundtable discussion on social media – what is it, why is it important, how can businesses use it, and how it relates to an overall communications strategy. Hopefully we’ll also have some great discussion about how students are using social media.
- May 5/6: Technocon 2010 (on ShareEdmonton)
I’m honored to be one of the keynotes for this conference, open to all City of Edmonton and University of Alberta IT employees. The conference focuses on three key themes: open, world class, and transformation. I’ll be talking about open data, open government, social media, transparency, and more all related to the theme of open. Can’t wait!
Here are a few other upcoming events I’ll be at:
- DemoCampEdmonton10 on January 27
- Next Gen Engage: Your City Your Voice on January 28
- Art Gallery of Alberta Grand Opening on January 31
- Lightning Thoughts at ENTS on February 2 (hopefully)
- MediaCamp Edmonton Initial Meeting on February 3
- Pecha Kucha Night 6 on February 4
Hope to see you at a few of them!
Tags: business, edmonton, events, media, speaking, technology
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Sneak Peek at the new Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton
Nearly thirty people from Edmonton’s very active social media community attended the blogger sneak peek today at the new Art Gallery of Alberta in downtown Edmonton. Armed with smartphones, video cameras, audio recorders, and lots of digital cameras, we toured the new building with Sarah Hoyles, the AGA’s Media Relations and Communications Coordinator, and Gilles Hebert, the AGA’s Executive Director.
The very striking building is situated at #2 Sir Winston Churchill Square, on the northeast corner between City Hall and Chancery Hall/Century Place. I think it is just as beautiful on the inside as it is distinct on the outside. Everyone is in for a real treat when it officially opens to the public on January 31!
A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to visit the building with Torch Reporter Chris Wheeler, so I thought I’d start this post with some of the under-construction shots I took at the time:
And here’s one of AGA Board Chair Allan Scott, who has been working to make the new AGA a reality for more than ten years:
On to today’s tour! We met in the foyer, right underneath the borealis.
Here’s a shot of our guides, describing the borealis above:
Our first stop, after the coat check, was Zinc, the Art Gallery of Alberta’s new restaurant. Still under active construction, we got a very quick glimpse at what dining in Churchill Square might be like. As Sharon remarked, standing in Zinc is reminiscent of standing inside Cactus Club Bentall 5 in downtown Vancouver.
Here’s Chris and Sharon, representing Edmonton’s food bloggers:
Next we ascended the grand staircase to the third level, which provided us with a fantastic eye-level view of the borealis, as well as the opportunity to step outside onto the City of Edmonton Terrace.
We slowly made our way back downstairs, pausing on the second level to learn more about the way the new building is meant to capture snow. It’s explained in this video, which also provides a sneak peek at Storm Room, an interactive ten-minute exhibit featuring water, among other things:
Passing by the front entrance, we next visited the basement level, which features a number of education spaces (the rooms are named after colors, such as orange and yellow), theatre space, the AGA sales office, and the LRT entrance.
A lot of thought went into the design of the new AGA, something that architect Randall Stout illustrated very well during his talk back in September. It’s a building that you have to visit multiple times – it looks different depending on the season, weather, and time of day. It’s a fantastic addition to Edmonton’s downtown, and to the city as a whole.
Thanks to everyone who made it out to the tour today! You can see the rest of my photos here.
Here are some of the other posts from today’s tour (I’ll update as more appear):
- Proud to be an Edmontonian: Art Gallery of Alberta at daveberta.ca
- Art Gallery of Alberta at eatingisthehardpart.com
- AGA Sneak Peek from @lealea
- Art Gallery of Alberta – Sneak Peek at momentsindigital.com
- Blogger’s Tour of the Alberta Gallery of Art from @livingsanctuary
- Art Gallery of Alberta from @sirthinks
- The new Art Gallery of Alberta at marisasano.ca
- Inside the Art Gallery of Alberta at alexabboud.wordpress.com
- AGA from @evolvingblue
- Art Gallery of Alberta – Q&A session and Photos from @alainsaffel
- Video tour of the AGA from @zoomjer
- Art Gallery of Alberta – sneak peek at alainsaffel.com
- A blogger’s tour of the AGA from @britl
- Art’s deeper meaning at communityintelligence.ca
- A Gem for the Core: the Art Gallery of Alberta at onlyhereforthefood.ca
- Back to Square 2: Art Gallery of Alberta Sneak Peek at korymathewson.com
- Today the AGA, tomorrow the other news stuff at theedmontonian.com
- Art Gallery of Alberta Social Media Tour at adamsnider.com
- Peeking Behind the Curtains of the AGA at iheartedmonton.com
Tags: aga, art, art gallery of alberta, buildings, churchill square, downtown, edmonton, events, social media
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Ice on Whyte 2010
Yesterday was the final day of Ice on Whyte 2010, Edmonton’s ice carving festival (now part of Winter Light). Sharon and I had been planning to stop by ever since the festival started ten days ago, but for whatever reason we never made it out. We made up for it yesterday though, visiting twice – once during the day and once at night!
Here are some day & night shots of Ice on Whyte 2010:
You can read Sharon’s post here, read about the ice carving competition winners here, and you can see the rest of my photos here. Check out the Winter Light site for more upcoming events!
Tags: edmonton, events, festivals, ice carving, ice on whyte, winter light
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