Month: May 2010

Edmonton IT Community: What are your top 5 needs?

Along with a few other usual suspects I’ve been invited to take part in an informal IT Circle later this week. The goal is to come to some consensus about what the top 5 or 10 needs of local startups and growing IT companies are, so that we can start trying to address them. I feel very strongly that we need to be doing more for the tech community in Edmonton, particularly the part of the community that is often overlooked – web & software. I’ve written about this in the past, most notably here.

The meeting is being hosted by EEDC, who I openly criticized in that post. I’m encouraged by the progress I’ve seen them make over the last six months – I think they’re really making an effort to listen, to learn, and slowly to participate in the community. I hope to see that trend continue, through this meeting and other initiatives.

So now I need your help. If you’re a member of the local IT community, whether it’s biotech, public sector, startups, or something else, what are your top needs? What’s on your wishlist? How can we make the tech community in Edmonton better? Let me know, and I’ll bring that to the table this week. Thanks!

FWIW, here are a few on my list:

  • Micro/seed funding. Small amounts of money to enable entrepreneurs to try things out.
  • Exposure to external experience. How can we connect with people who in other places that could teach us a lot?
  • Storytelling. I talk about this a lot…how can we do a better job of telling local success stories to others?

Live Music in Edmonton now at ShareEdmonton with YEG Live

It’s difficult but not impossible to discover all of the events that happen in Edmonton, and I’m continually working to improve the listings at ShareEdmonton. One of the ways I’m doing that is by working with others who already have large, accurate collections of events. The latest such example is YEG Live, Edmonton’s source for local live music, artist, venue, and event listings. You can now see all YEG Live events at ShareEdmonton!

I can’t remember how I was introduced to YEG Live – it might have been via Twitter, or it may have been because they use one of my photos for their header background. In any case, I was impressed. Founders Chris Martyniuk and Cameron Gertz have created an excellent online hub for local music in Edmonton. Most importantly, they really care about the accuracy of the data on the site. As a result, YEG Live has a superb collection of artist profiles, venue profiles, and of course, live music events. I contacted Chris to see if he’d be interested in working together, and fortunately, he was!

Now when you browse entertainment events at ShareEdmonton, you’ll see the ones that come from YEG Live highlighted with the icon to the left. When you click through to an event, such as tomorrow evening’s show featuring Sweet Thing at Haven Social Club, you’ll see all of the usual details you’d expect at a ShareEdmonton event page (start & end time, location details, related tweets, etc) as well as links and short bios for the artists performing (which link to YEG Live). There are also prominent links to the YEG Live event and ticket information pages.

Thanks to Chris for all the work he did to make this integration possible! There’s no sense in duplicating the tremendous effort he’s already putting into creating an accurate calendar of live music events in Edmonton, so I’m glad we were able to work together. It’s a win-win-win as I see it: ShareEdmonton is a little more complete, YEG Live gets a little more exposure, and Edmontonians are more likely to discover great live music events happening in the city!

Notes for 5/30/2010

Here are my weekly notes:

We took my Grandma out for brunch today to Cafe Haven to celebrate her birthday. Happy Birthday Grandma!

Edmonton Notes for 5/29/2010

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

It has been another very wet weekend in Edmonton. Here are a couple of photos of today’s City Market Downtown and the Highlands Street Festival:

City Market Downtown - May 29

City Market Downtown - May 29City Market Downtown - May 29

Highlands Street FestivalHighlands Street Festival

Highlands Street FestivalHighlands Street Festival

You can see more photos here.

I’m going to Tech·Ed North America!

Tech·Ed is one of Microsoft’s most important annual conferences for developers and IT professionals, held in several places around the world. This year, Tech·Ed North America is in New Orleans in June, and I’m going to be there! I was invited by Microsoft Canada to attend, an opportunity I jumped at. I’ll be there with John Bristowe, taking in the sessions and labs, learning as much as I can, meeting other developers & IT pros, and generally having a good time. And of course, I’ll be blogging, tweeting, photographing, and otherwise recording & sharing the whole experience.

The conference runs from June 7 to 10. There are literally hundreds of sessions during the week, as well as a couple of keynotes and other special presentations. There’ll be some awesome parties too! The sessions are organized into 21 technical tracks, everything from Architecture to Office & SharePoint. I’m particularly interested in sessions on:

  • Open Data (obviously)
  • WCF and WF in .NET Framework 4
  • Windows Phone 7
  • Azure (cloud computing)

If you’re going to Tech·Ed, what sessions are you planning to check out? If you’re not going to Tech·Ed, what do you think I should see? Let me know!

I’m going to blog about my experience a little here, but also at Techvibes and the Canadian Developers blog. I’ll be tweeting about it too, using the official hashtag #teched. Can’t wait!

State of the Calgary Twittersphere – April 2010

Welcome to the fourth State of the Calgary Twittersphere of 2010, my look at the intersection of Twitter and Calgary, AB. You can see last month’s stats here.

For information on the data, definitions, and other background, click here.

For April 2010:

# of local users: 10108 (an increase of 194 from March)
# of tweets by local users: 499825
# of tweets by local users containing #yyc: 18291 (3.7%)
# of tweets by local users that were replies: 148981 (29.8%)
# of tweets by local users containing links: 147895 (29.6%)
# of tweets by local users that were retweets: 27169 (5.4%)
# of tweets by local users that were twooshes: 16932 (3.4%)

Here are the numbers above in graphic form:

Here are the top clients used by local users for posting updates:

Some other interesting stats for the month:

  • Just under 49% of all local tweets were posted between 9 AM and 5 PM.
  • Local users posted roughly 11.6 tweets per minute in April (compared to 10.6 tweets per minute in March).
  • The day with the most local tweets posted was April 28 at 20061. On average, 16661 local tweets were posted each day (compared to 15259 in March).
  • Of the 148981 replies posted by local users this month, 41125 or 27.6% were to other local users.
  • A total of 1883 users posted 50 times or more in April. In comparison, 1502 users posted just once.

Here are the top ten most followed local users:

  1. douglasi
  2. calgrasley
  3. MarkIsMusing
  4. NatbyNature
  5. ahhhgolf
  6. CassieSTROM
  7. WestJet
  8. VeronicaHay
  9. TOMIMWizard
  10. twitty7x

Here are the top ten most listed local users:

  1. douglasi
  2. NatbyNature
  3. VeerUpdate
  4. WestJet
  5. NHLFlames
  6. accruing
  7. CarlaYoung
  8. ProtruckR
  9. uppercasemag
  10. izzynobre

Here are the top ten most active local users:

  1. ProtruckR
  2. arizonaa
  3. CalgaryBizcaf
  4. izzynobre
  5. Mariia19
  6. MarketingHits
  7. smoothjazznow
  8. nscafe
  9. VaughanBuilders
  10. zampieridiogo

Here are the top ten most active local users using #yyc:

  1. WeatherCalgary
  2. CgyCa
  3. CalgaryBeacon
  4. C_DIG
  5. mtroyaltransit
  6. lonnietaylor
  7. walkerjill
  8. LisaOstrikoff
  9. Calgary_News
  10. Hughes4MayorYYC

Here are the top ten most replied to local users:

  1. that_angela
  2. nscafe
  3. alex_ruiz
  4. C_DIG
  5. WESTcalgary
  6. Kristinnuendo
  7. nicolesaxton
  8. gotkube
  9. twowheelgeek
  10. Darren_Krause

Here are the top ten most retweeted local users (by other local users):

  1. WESTcalgary
  2. cbccalgary
  3. calgaryherald
  4. CTVCalgary
  5. cityofcalgary
  6. NHLFlames
  7. CatchCalgary
  8. alex_ruiz
  9. YYCLostPet
  10. AvenueMagazine

Final Thoughts

Calgary crossed the 10,000 active user mark this month! And came tantalizingly close to breaking the 500,000 tweets per month mark too. User growth was smaller than the month before, at least partially due to improvements I made in my algorithm for identifying local users.

I think the “most retweeted” list is useful for measuring influence, though it alone doesn’t tell the whole story. Just to clarify, the most retweeted list only accounts for standard-style retweets (those using Twitter’s retweet feature or those starting with RT @) made by other local users. I hope to improve this over time.

State of the Victoria Twittersphere – April 2010

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

For information on the data, definitions, and other background, click here.

For April 2010:

# of local users: 2755 (an increase of 289 over March)
# of tweets by local users: 112561
# of tweets by local users containing #yyj: 8561 (7.6%)
# of tweets by local users that were replies: 35218 (31.3%)
# of tweets by local users containing links: 36733 (32.6%)
# of tweets by local users that were retweets: 8783 (7.8%)
# of tweets by local users that were twooshes: 3645 (3.2%)

Here are the numbers above in graphic form:

Here are the top clients used by local users for posting updates:

Some other interesting stats for the month:

  • Just over 52% of all local tweets were posted between 9 AM and 5 PM.
  • Local users posted roughly 2.6 tweets per minute in April (compared with 1.8 tweets per minute in March).
  • The day with the most local tweets posted was April 19 at 5740. On average, 3752 local tweets were posted each day (compared with 2634 in March).
  • Of the 35218 replies posted by local users this month, 11865 or 33.7% were to other local users.
  • A total of 526 users posted 50 times or more in March. In comparison, 241 users posted just once.

Here are the top ten most followed local users:

  1. cpudan
  2. SynthGear
  3. cybercourt
  4. goodnewstouse
  5. RealEstate_Site
  6. WDCB
  7. gvoakes
  8. tpholmes
  9. DanielMJBarton
  10. AndrewHolenchuk

Here are the top ten most listed local users:

  1. SynthGear
  2. marisa_herrera
  3. awilkinson
  4. lacouvee
  5. gvoakes
  6. tpholmes
  7. doggybytes
  8. willw
  9. VicConcierge
  10. timescolonist

Here are the top ten most active local users:

  1. auryanna
  2. lacouvee
  3. yukarip
  4. MiteeeMike
  5. TheQdotFM
  6. bluehairedblond
  7. FrogstarWorldB
  8. Rod_Phillips
  9. dorkflower
  10. dotsam

Here are the top ten most active local users using #yyj:

  1. lacouvee
  2. yukarip
  3. Delivery_Club
  4. VIOutdoorExpo
  5. TheQdotFM
  6. fransjonker
  7. 5252motorsports
  8. meetupvictoria
  9. Ahkonsu
  10. AwesomeMommies

Here are the top ten most replied to local users:

  1. YukariP
  2. dotsam
  3. bluehairedblond
  4. lacouvee
  5. nopicnic
  6. jwalsh
  7. Rod_Phillips
  8. FrogstarWorldB
  9. howlabit
  10. ToriKlassen

Here are the top ten most retweeted local users (by other local users):

  1. lacouvee
  2. TheQdotFM
  3. Rod_Phillips
  4. timescolonist
  5. lifeasahuman
  6. VIOutdoorExpo
  7. MossStMarket
  8. volvicbc
  9. FootButterGuy
  10. WharfsideDeals

Final Thoughts

I did some additional work on my algorithm for identifying local users, which accounts for the smaller increase in the number of users from last month. I think the “most retweeted” list is useful for measuring influence, though it alone doesn’t tell the whole story.

Just to clarify, the most retweeted list only accounts for standard-style retweets (those using Twitter’s retweet feature or those starting with RT @) made by other local users. I hope to improve this over time.

Celebrate Your Neighbourhood Spirit: Edmonton Community Challenge

Last July I attended an event called the Community Challenge, co-hosted by Edmonton Next Gen and the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues. Its purpose was to bring next-geners together to discuss how to improve and work with community leagues. That event was the first collaboration between the two organizations, and it was pretty successful!

Now NextGen and EFCL have teamed up again, this time for the Edmonton Community Challenge:

The Edmonton Community Challenge is a volunteer-driven event that aims to promote community spirit through friendly competition. By registering to join teams that represent community leagues throughout the city, individuals can support local charities, get to know others in their community, and win some great prizes! The event challenges will take place throughout the month of June, and teams will be rewarded based on a pre-determined point system for their energy, creativity, and commitment to sustainability.

I think it’s a neat idea. The big prize is a $15,000 fund for the winning community league which will be spent on a capital project in the neighbourhood. There are also smaller individual prizes to be won along the way.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Register, by June 1.
  2. Get a passport from your team captain.
  3. Bring your passport when you participate in the events and get it stamped! The key events are the Pancake Breakfast (on ShareEdmonton), the Neighbourhood Cleanup (on ShareEdmonton), the 24 Hour Bike Repair-a-Thon (on ShareEdmonton), and the “Can It” Challenge (on ShareEdmonton).
  4. Check the rankings. The team with the most points at the end of June wins.

If you need a little nudge to register, how about this: one of the prizes will be an Apple iPad! Remember, you have less than a week to register!

Stay tuned to the ECC website for news & updates, as well as Edmonton Next Gen on Twitter.

Mapping where Edmonton’s kids live and learn

On Friday evening, an interactive map I worked on with Edmonton Journal education reporter Sarah O’Donnell went live. Sarah’s first story based on the data was published in the paper today. Here’s our introduction to the project:

With five schools closing in Edmonton’s core and nine new suburban schools opening in September, education reporter Sarah O’Donnell wondered, “Just where do children live?” Local programmer Mack Male worked with The Journal to create an interactive map showing at a glance where children live and where they learn.

Here’s the map we created:

You can also see the map on ShareEdmonton here.

We showed a little of this at MediaCamp a few weeks ago, citing it as an example of traditional media and new media working together to tell a story. Newspapers like the New York Times often publish interactive story elements of course, but this is fairly new for the Journal. And I think it’s just the beginning!

I wanted to share a few notes on how the map was built:

It was an interesting experience for me! We had to double-check the data many times, and had to make decisions about how much/little to show. In that way, it was more like writing words than building a map. Thanks to Sarah for working with me on this!

Here’s what Sarah wrote in her story:

Nine new suburban schools will open next September; like Sister Annata Brockman, some will be close to capacity from the moment they open their doors. One look at a map of where children live shows why.

Most neighbourhoods with the highest number of children are on the city’s fringes. Those are the communities where the new schools are opening.

I was hoping the map would result in some discussion, and it has. Beth Sanders blogged about it this afternoon. She tackles the issue, highlighting as others have that city planning doesn’t “just happen”, rather its the result of many decisions made over time. We need to align our decisions – City Council and EPSB need to be on the same page! Beth finishes with some thoughts on open data:

The City of Edmonton, in creating and providing open source data, is providing a critical feedback loop for Edmontonians to understand how the city we are creating works. There are exciting conversations ahead in Edmonton’s future.

I agree completely. Kudos to the City of Edmonton, Edmonton Public Schools, and Edmonton Catholic Schools for making the data available for this mapping project. I’m positive it is just the first of many tools to come that will help Edmontonians better understand the data and contribute to the future of the city.

If you have any feedback on the map, let me know!

Notes for 5/24/2010

Hope you had a nice long weekend! Here are my weekly notes:

Facebook has been in the news a lot lately for privacy issues, and for the fact that it is expected to announce its 500 millionth user sometime in the next few weeks. A recent Time article basically says that Mark Zuckerberg will continue to ask for forgiveness, rather than permission. His quote: “We’re building a Web where the default is social.” The article says that Facebook is redefining privacy and that Zuck thinks people want to share more about themselves online.

If you believe the media (both new & traditional) you’d think there was a huge backlash going on against Facebook right now. Apparently there are lots of startups looking to capitalize on Facebook-related privacy fears. There are protest groups, and even a “Quit Facebook Day” initiative.

Here’s a quote from Matthew Milan, co-creator of QuitFacebookDay.com:

“I’m not interested in having my data somewhere I can’t trust what is going to happen to it.”

Really? I don’t buy it. Our data is in so many places already, and more sensitive data probably. Do we trust all of those places? Do we even know all of them? I think Zuck is right. My gut tells me that the vast majority of Facebook users don’t give a hoot and that they’ll happily share more information. There’s a tiny percentage that have found media eager to help them make a mountain our of a molehill, but that’s it.

I won’t be quitting Facebook anytime soon.