Month: August 2009

FITC Edmonton 2009: October 17-18

For the first time ever, FlasintheCan (FITC) is coming to Edmonton. Very successful FITC events have happened all over the world since 2002, bringing together Flash, Flex, and AIR designers, developers, artists, and students to to educate, challenge, and inspire. Here’s what to expect:

It starts with the presentations. Two solidly packed days of presentations, both technical and creative. Presenters from around the world have been hand-picked for their skill and talent, and all are eager to share and meet you. It’s also about the networking. Being able to meet and talk to people who share your passion for this industry. Meet them at the presentations, in the exhibitor hall, or at the evening party.

The Edmonton event takes place on October 17th and 18th at NAIT. Here are the full event details:

WHAT: FITC Edmonton 2009
WHEN: Saturday & Sunday, October 17-18, 2009
WHERE: Shaw Theatre, NAIT, 11726 – 106th Street (map)

Ticket prices range from $49 to $299, but if you sign up before September 1st using the discount code “backintime” you can get in for just $99 (or $49 for students).

Among the impressive list of presenters are well-known locals Grant Skinner, Randy Troppmann, Erik Johnson, and Victor Rubba. If you’re at all involved in Flash and/or related technologies, this is one event you don’t want to miss!

Notes for 8/16/2009

Here are my weekly notes:

Edmonton Notes for 8/15/2009

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Fringe 2009Fringe 2009

artsScene Edmonton Summer Party – August 20th

Back in May I attended the launch party for artsScene Edmonton – a fantastic event at Planet Ze Design Centre in Old Strathcona. I had a great time, and suggested that artsScene events could become “must attend” events for local creatives. The first test of that is coming up next week:

On August 20, we’re ready to bring you our second party – a “Jekyll & Hyde” themed summer party that promises to be bigger and better, with two venues, more featured artists, DJs, and live music acts!

They have since announced the performers, and they include: Kerri-Lenn Zwicker, Jay Sparrow, Field + Stream, The Outdoor Miners, and guest DJs The Cake Eaters and Roland Pemberton III.

The “Jekyll” part of the event starts at 6pm at Latitude 53 (10248 106th Street), while the “Hyde” part gets underway at 9pm at Prohibition (11026 Jasper Avenue). Tickets are just $15 online or $20 at the door and include access to both venues. You can pickup your tickets here.

Don’t forget artsScene Edmonton is on Twitter, Facebook, and they have a mailing list. They also recently joined LinkedIn, so get connected!

Hope to see you on the 20th!

State of the Edmonton Twittersphere – July 2009

Welcome to the seventh State of the Edmonton Twittersphere, my look at the intersection of Twitter and Edmonton. You can see last month’s stats here.

The source of the data this month has changed, slightly. In addition to Twitter Search, I added more data directly from Twitter itself. A total of 19,199 tweets were pulled from user timelines directly because they did not exist in Twitter Search.

User identification remains the same. If a user has his or her location set to Edmonton, St. Albert, Sherwood Park, Leduc, Nisku, Stony Plain, Fort Saskatchewan, Beaumont, Spruce Grove, or matching lat/long coordinates, they are considered an Edmontonian.

For July 2009:

# of local users: 5133 (an increase of 1491 from June)

To clarify, that means there were 5133 users who posted at least one tweet in July 2009 with their location set to something that makes them an Edmontonian as described above. This number should be treated as a minimum – there are probably many more Edmonton users without their location set.

I’m happy with my previous stats posts existing as point-in-time snapshots. That said, I am continually improving my data set, making it more accurate over time. I am still happy with the numbers I posted for January through May – they are reasonably accurate (within about 100 users). The number I posted for June however, 3642 users, is not accurate. It was actually 4581, which means this month actually increased by 552 users (however I left the 1491 above for consistency).

Here’s a graph to illustrate local user growth in 2009:

Here are the rest of the stats for July 2009:

# of tweets by local users: 210162
# of tweets by local users containing #yeg: 12879 (6.1%)
# of tweets by local users that were replies: 73119 (34.8%)
# of tweets by local users containing links: 43702 (20.8%)
# of tweets by local users that were retweets: 8393 (4.0%)
# of tweets by local users that were twooshes: 7185 (3.4%)

Once again, the number of tweets containing #yeg actually includes all local hashtags, such as #yegtransit or #yegfood (though most often they are used together anyway).

Here are the numbers above in graphic form (not corrected for June):

Here are the top clients used by local users for posting updates. You’ll notice that API is now identified separately from web:

Some other interesting stats for the month:

Finally, here are the top ten users in Edmonton by followers (most followers first): Pat_Lorna, revtrev, DrBarryLycka, LesM, subunit1, garrymullen, redneckmommy, mastermaq, NHL_Oilers, dan_cote.

Analysis

Looks like we’re getting some growth again, which is a little surprising considering it’s the summer. A couple of things helped to boost July’s stats, including the City Centre Airport issue and the big summer storms. I counted 1464 tweets posted by local users with the #ecca hashtag in July, and I already posted some stats on the storm here. Additionally, July 8th (which is when the Council meeting on the airport was held) was the second busiest day of the month.

Since January, I have identified just over 9200 local users. The number above, 5133, is how many of them were active in July.

I’ll post the Calgary stats as soon as I can – still some manual processing to do, so it might be next week before I get it all finished.

Facebook has acquired FriendFeed

Today Facebook announced it had acquired FriendFeed. This is exciting, interesting news for a number of reasons. First, I think FriendFeed is a fantastic platform. Facebook is about to get a whole lot better thanks to the engineers behind FriendFeed (this is very much a talent acquisition). Second, I think this will cause Twitter, Google, and everyone else in the real-time space to pick up the pace. We’re going to see a whole ton of innovation in the months ahead. That’s good news for all of us.

Here’s the TechCrunch story on the deal, which is where I first read it. Here’s the official Facebook press release, and here’s the official FriendFeed post.

Here are some other relevant posts I’ve found interesting:

Also today: Facebook launched improved search for everyone.

I haven’t used FriendFeed much lately, and I’m not incredibly active on Facebook either. Still, I’m stoked about this deal. In addition to making Facebook a whole heck of a lot better, I think it’s going to have that “a rising tide lifts all boats” kind of effect. At least I hope so (I’m looking at you Twitter).

Twestival Local 2009 in Edmonton

Back in February, the Edmonton Twitter community participated in the first ever Twestival – a tweetup for charity. We raised over $1000 for charity:water, and we had a great time doing so! As a great a cause as that was, I would have preferred to support something local. That’s why I am excited about Twestival Local:

Twestival was born out of the idea that if cities are able to collaborate on an international scale, but work from a local level, it would result in a spectacular impact. While Twestival Global put the spotlight around one cause, Twestival Local is encouraging cities around the world to host events in support of a local cause.

The goal is to give people a chance to feel they are contributing to a larger social initiative, but bring the cause a little closer to home.

So basically Twestival is back, and we’re supporting a local cause this time! Which one? We don’t know – we need your help to decide! You can vote online here.

We’re going to hold our Twestival on September 10, 2009. We haven’t yet decided on a venue, so please add your suggestions for that and anything else to the wiki. Watch @edmontontweetup and the Twestival Edmonton blog for updates.

Notes for 8/9/2009

Here are my weekly notes:

Edmonton Notes for 8/8/2009

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

U-Pass Facts & Figures for 2008

Last month, the City of Edmonton’s Office of the City Auditor completed a review of the Universal Transit Pass (U-Pass) pilot program (PDF). They found that although costs for the program rose, ridership has increased. I took a look at the report, and thought I’d share some of the more interesting facts and figures from it.

For those of you new to U-Pass: it’s a partnership between Edmonton Transit (ETS), St. Albert Transit (StAT), and Strathcona County Transit to provide a universal transit pass to eligible students at the University of Alberta and MacEwan. The current pilot started in the fall of 2007 and will finish up in the fall of 2010.

A total of 84,954 students were eligible in 2008 (counting both the Fall & Winter terms). Here’s the breakdown:

Here’s the revenue that each municipality received in 2008 (the City of Edmonton receives 84%, and the other two each receive 8%):

As the report was created by and for the City of Edmonton, it’s not known what, if any, service changes were made by St. Albert Transit or Strathcona County Transit (unless they too have a report somewhere). ETS made the following changes:

  • 437 service hours were added
  • 3 new routes were added
  • 19 more buses were put into service

Again, we only know the costs for the City of Edmonton. Here are the key figures for 2008:

  • U-Pass Sticker Production costs were $14,500
  • U-Pass Advertising and Promotion costs were $2,928
  • The opportunity cost of the U-Pass program, which is the loss of other ETS fare revenue, was estimated at $10,480,846
  • The cost of providing extra bus service hours was $2,571,221

Add it all up, and you get a total cost of $13,069,495. For the U-Pass program to break even, a fee of $155 per student per term would be required (up from the current $94.50).

In the Edmonton Journal, Councillor Krushell said that ridership nearly doubled from 2006 to 2008, from 7.3 million trips to 13.9 million trips. I’m not exactly sure where she got those numbers, because they aren’t in the report. What is in the report are Campus Passenger Boardings:

As you can see, boardings increased by 21,353 or 12.7% from 2006 to 2008. The report notes that some of this increase may have been caused by factors other than the U-Pass. Other non-financial positives include:

  • An 8% decrease in student parking permits at the University of Alberta since 2006
  • A greater than 8% drop in monthly parking passes at MacEwan for 2007 over 2006

And of course, there has likely been a positive impact on the environment with fewer students driving.

What’s next for the U-Pass?

Although NAIT students initially rejected the program in 2007, a recent survey indicated that a majority would now be interested in joining. The NAIT Students Association hopes to hold a referendum on the issue early next year. The expansion of the LRT to NAIT will no doubt have an impact on interest. If approved, NAIT could join the program for the 2010-2011 school year.

I suspect the program will continue after the current agreement ends, though it is likely that U-Pass fees will rise. Watch for news on a new agreement early next year – the U of A will be holding a student referendum in March to approve new fees, according to The Journal.