Year: 2010

MediaCamp Edmonton & Hacks and Flacks Night

Today marks three months since our initial planning meeting for MediaCamp Edmonton, an event taking place this Saturday at the Shaw Conference Centre (on ShareEdmonton). There are more than 130 people registered already, from a broad range of organizations and disciplines. We’re going to have some great discussions on the future of media!

The day will start off with a panel discussion, moderated by MediaCamp Edmonton instigator and EdmontonJournal.com Editor Karen Unland. Our panelists are:

The panel loosely represents the various audiences we think will be at MediaCamp – mainstream media, social media, public relations, and technology. I think it’s going to be a great way to get everyone warmed up for some great discussions throughout the day!

After the panel, we’ll give everyone an opportunity to pitch topics and then we’ll build the grid for the day (MediaCamp is an unconference). Some of the topics we’ll likely cover include:

  • What’s a mash-up and how do I do one to tell a local story?
  • What can journalists do with open data, and how?
  • How is social media being used effectively by mainstream media?
  • Which journalism best practices need to be fostered in social media?

As with all unconferences though, you get out what you put in. If you’re passionate about a particular topic or idea or question, pitch it!

Right after lunch we’re going to do something called Lightning Talks, which are quick, five-minute presentations on a tool, idea, or trend. It’ll be a great way to find out about some interesting things that you can follow-up on later. If you’d like to lead a lightning talk at MediaCamp, let me know.

I’d like to thank all of the people who have helped to organize MediaCamp Edmonton, as well as our sponsors: EEDC & the Shaw Conference Centre, Guru Digital Arts College, ShareEdmonton, Athabasca University TEKRI, CTV, and Grovenor School. We’re looking for additional sponsors – if you’re interested, please let me know ASAP.

The City of Edmonton has organized a media mixer called Hacks & Flacks Night for Friday at Metropolitan Billiards downtown (on ShareEdmonton). It’ll be a great opportunity to meet some of the people that will be at MediaCamp the next day. If you’re interested, register here.

Stay tuned to the MediaCamp Edmonton website for updates (and streaming video of the panel) as well as #yegmediacamp on Twitter. Hope to see you at the event!

Five questions with RETA on the Heartland Transmission Project

The Heartland Transmission Project has been a fairly controversial story in the news here in Alberta recently. The project, which involves the construction of a double circuit 500kV power transmission line, is being led by AltaLink and EPCOR under the Electric Statutes Amendment Act (2009). I haven’t seen too much controversy about whether or not the infrastructure is needed (though you should read Dave’s post), but there has been lots related to how we go about acquiring it. Leading the charge is RETA, Responsible Electricity Transmission for Albertans. They recently launched a great video on the issue:

I thought the video was very well done, even if we’ve seen the format elsewhere in the past. I decided to ask RETA’s President, Bruce Johnson, a few questions.

Why did you decide to get involved with RETA?

I got involved about 2 years ago when I first heard about the proposed Heartland line and its 4 potential routes (one of which I live on). I quickly understood, though, that the issue was much bigger than just pushing them into someone else’s back yard. We needed to push for a policy that says whenever high voltage power lines are run by schools, daycares, houses etc., they need to be buried.

Why should people care about the Heartland Transmission Project?

The impacts these lines have can be broadly categorized as health (numerous diseases strongly correlated with power lines), safety (these towers can come down in wind and ice storms and they’re proposing to build them on top of high pressure acetylene lines, environmental (275 million birds are killed each year by flying into power lines), property values (homes near the lines can drop in value by as much as 40%) and aesthetics (the towers are 20 storeys tall and nearly as wide as a football field). And guess what, these lines aren’t even needed and, just to add insult to injury, you get to pay for them anyway on your electricity bill.

Where did the idea for the video come from?

We knew we needed to do something to wake people up about this, and, at first, we thought we’d create something dramatic and shocking. But on reflection we thought that something humorous but ironic might get more people talking. We had seen a number of spoofs on pharmaceutical ads on SNL and the like and that format became the basis for the script.

What has the response been like? Any other videos in the works?

We’ve had extremely positive responses from just about everyone. A few people think its in poor taste (but at least they’re talking about it) and a few others believe there are no health effects despite the huge body of evidence to the contrary. Right now no immediate plans for another video.

How can people get involved in this issue?

The best thing people can do is to email the premier at premier@gov.ab.ca and tell him to stop the overbuild and to put lines that are necessary underground when they impact people directly. That, and join RETA on our website. It’s free. The Heartland Line proposal will go before the Alberta Utilities Commission sometime in the next 3 to 6 months and we need to have convinced the government to change it’s position by then.

To learn more, visit the Heartland Transmission Project and RETA websites. If you’d like to write a letter in support of RETA’s position, there are templates and instructions here.

Notes for 5/2/2010

Here are my weekly notes:

Today was a nice day for lunch on the balcony (with Sharon’s favorite street canopy in the background):

Lunch

Edmonton Notes for 5/1/2010

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Capital City Clean Up – 15 to Clean Challenge!

Now that the snow has melted, litter is once again visible on our streets and sidewalks. That means it’s time for a big push by Capital City Clean Up (CCCU), the City of Edmonton’s year-round litter and graffiti management program.

On Wednesday, Mayor Mandel kicked off the latest CCCU initiative, called the 15 to Clean Challenge:

“The responsibility for keeping our city clean is shared by all of us. If we all took 15 minutes to clean up litter or wipe out graffiti, imagine how much of a difference we could make together,” said Mayor Stephen Mandel. “Edmontonians take pride in their city and show it by participating in events like this.”

Participating in the challenge is easy. Just take 15 minutes to pick up some litter or call 311 to report graffiti. Challenge your friends and co-workers and go as a group! When you’re done, log your clean up activities online (you have until May 16 to do so).


Photos by Raffaella Loro (see more here)

I took part in a clean up group last year and had lots of fun! Last year was a great year for CCCU. Here is 2009 by-the-numbers:

  • 4758 – Adopt-a-Block Team Members recruited
  • 11588 – bags of Adopt-a-Block trash collected
  • 246 – litter tickets issued
  • 11160 – hours volunteered collecting litter
  • 13158 – square meters of graffiti painted/cleaned (141628 square feet)
  • 546 – graffiti wipeout volunteers
  • 266 – graffiti wipeout kits issued
  • 3276 – Graffiti Clean Up volunteer hours
  • 98 – graffiti tickets issued
  • 27 – CCCU program partners
  • 6458 – bags of trash collected during River Valley Clean Up
  • 7319 – volunteer hours for River Valley Clean Up

River Valley Clean Up kicks off next week (on ShareEdmonton) – you can learn more here. If you’d like to Adopt-a-Block, you can do so here.

Fifteen minutes is all it takes! Get out and help to clean up Edmonton!

State of the Winnipeg Twittersphere – February & March 2010

Welcome to the second & third State of the Winnipeg Twittersphere, my look at the intersection of Twitter and Winnipeg, MB. You can see January’s stats here. Since I completely missed posting the February stats last month, I have included some of them with the March stats.

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

For March 2010:

# of local users: 4972
# of tweets by local users: 249553
# of tweets by local users containing #winnipeg/#ywg/#wpg: 1918 (0.8%)
# of tweets by local users that were replies: 85563 (34.3%)
# of tweets by local users containing links: 61451 (24.6%)
# of tweets by local users that were retweets: 10486 (4.2%)
# of tweets by local users that were twooshes: 6421 (2.6%)

Here are the numbers above in graphic form (combined with February’s numbers):

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

Some other interesting stats for the month:

  • Just under 47% of all local tweets were posted between 9 AM and 5 PM.
  • Local users posted roughly 5.6 tweets per minute in March, compared with 5.1 in February.
  • The day with the most local tweets posted was March 30 at 9226. On average, 8051 local tweets were posted each day, compared with 7397 in February.
  • Of the 85563 replies posted by local users this month, 17616 or 20.6% were to other local users.
  • A total of 973 users posted 50 times or more in January. In comparison, 799 users posted just once.

Here are the top ten most followed local users:

  1. 333AutismNews
  2. ColemanMichael
  3. JasonFrovich
  4. crackberrykevin
  5. BieberMommy
  6. canadianmetal
  7. PetLvr
  8. Dr_BobsEmporium
  9. WinnipegMetal
  10. WayneHurlbert

Here are the top ten most listed local users:

  1. 333AutismNews
  2. soulpoetrysite
  3. BieberMommy
  4. BieberIsABabe
  5. Petiethecat
  6. davidzinger
  7. lyndseo
  8. theweakerthans
  9. neuroaster
  10. JBieberzWiife

Here are the top ten most active local users:

  1. herselfwpg
  2. JKnDEWsCareBear
  3. heartinthenight
  4. BieberIsABabe
  5. xoalyssabates
  6. carl65ca
  7. fpbowen
  8. DDubsDiscoBall
  9. April_miss
  10. alyssapinski

Here are the top ten most replied to local users:

  1. ianmcc
  2. SnowBear
  3. April_miss
  4. sanchez_xo
  5. AceBurpeeShow
  6. jimtoddphoto
  7. JKnDEWsCareBear
  8. ChrisDca
  9. kaisaris
  10. RacialOverTones

Final Thoughts

I included three hashtags in the tagged stat this month – #winnipeg (the most common), #ywg, and #wpg. Even with all three, less than 1% of all local tweets posted were tagged! Compare that to Victoria, where over 9% of all local tweets posted were tagged.

You can see that February 28 was a record day for the number of tweets, as it was in all other Canadian cities, thanks to the gold medal hockey game and closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics.

Sign of progress

The new South LRT extension has been the hot topic at water coolers throughout the city this week:

Edmonton Sun

Edmonton Journal

CBC

When was the last time that so many Edmontonians were talking about the LRT? Nothing like a little controversy to bring a topic to the forefront. I’ve almost heard more people talking about the delays at 51 Avenue than about the downtown arena! And you know what they say, there’s no such thing as bad press…

Yes it sucks to wait at a traffic light. The City will get the issues sorted out though, I’m sure of that. In the meantime, we should capitalize on the discussions that are happening! Explain to Edmontonians that we’re forging ahead with new LRT extensions and that we’ll learn from this experience.

And wouldn’t you know it, since I started writing this post I received a notice that Bob Boutilier, GM Transportation at the City of Edmonton, will be addressing strategies and challenges associated with fast tracking the NAIT, southeast, and west LRT lines at a news conference tomorrow morning. Excellent!

State of the Ottawa Twittersphere – March 2010

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

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

For March 2010:

# of local users: 10785 (an increase of 1419 from February)
# of tweets by local users: 539860
# of tweets by local users containing #ottawa/#yow: 4457 (0.8%)
# of tweets by local users that were replies: 189236 (35.1%)
# of tweets by local users containing links: 153778 (28.4%)
# of tweets by local users that were retweets: 29274 (5.4%)
# of tweets by local users that were twooshes: 16791 (3.1%)

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 51% of all local tweets were posted between 9 AM and 5 PM.
  • Local users posted roughly 12.1 tweets per minute in March (compared to 11.2 tweets per minute in February).
  • The day with the most local tweets posted was March 23 at 20898. On average, 17415 local tweets were posted each day (compared to 16150 in February).
  • Of the 189236 replies posted by local users this month, 58286 or 30.8% were to other local users.
  • A total of 1981 users posted 50 times or more in January. In comparison, 1710 users posted just once.

Here are the top ten most followed local users:

  1. pmharper
  2. campbed
  3. billbateswins
  4. Jason_OToole
  5. ErinBlaskie
  6. BlackBerryCool
  7. phdinparenting
  8. snookca
  9. knealemann
  10. Demi_LovatoFans

Here are the top ten most listed local users:

  1. snookca
  2. CharlesCrosbie
  3. pmharper
  4. BlackBerryCool
  5. Demi_LovatoFans
  6. michaelgeist
  7. surinderJsingh
  8. michelfortin
  9. plevy
  10. CloutMarketing

Here are the top ten most active local users:

  1. GAMING_LOUNGE
  2. ottawa_crime
  3. TopiaGreenStop
  4. DJNOODLES2
  5. MrsLoulou
  6. melissa_allstar
  7. bitofmomsense
  8. Favwa
  9. rebecera
  10. whoreformusic

Here are the top ten most replied to local users:

  1. all_caps
  2. bitofmomsense
  3. JenButson
  4. gordbot
  5. leslielscott
  6. justinvl
  7. MrsLoulou
  8. see_jane_sell
  9. snobiwan
  10. MissHelveticaB

Final Thoughts

First off, apologies for the late stats this month. I think the increased numbers in March reflect three more days in the month than we had in February, but also some steady growth (and perhaps some modifications I made to my code). More than 12,000 tweets were posted each day in March. The percentage of tagged tweets, while still small relative to other cities, did increase a little.

State of the Calgary Twittersphere – March 2010

Welcome to the third 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 March 2010:

# of local users: 9914 (an increase of 1724 from February)
# of tweets by local users: 473003
# of tweets by local users containing #yyc: 16273 (3.4%)
# of tweets by local users that were replies: 143512 (30.3%)
# of tweets by local users containing links: 145927 (30.9%)
# of tweets by local users that were retweets: 24607 (5.2%)
# of tweets by local users that were twooshes: 15013 (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 49% of all local tweets were posted between 9 AM and 5 PM.
  • Local users posted roughly 10.6 tweets per minute in February (compared to 9.7 tweets per minute in February).
  • The day with the most local tweets posted was March 25 at 17829. On average, 15259 local tweets were posted each day (compared to 13937 in February).
  • Of the 143512 replies posted by local users this month, 39809 or 27.7% were to other local users.
  • A total of 1732 users posted 50 times or more in January. In comparison, 1606 users posted just once.

Here are the top ten most followed local users:

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

Here are the top ten most listed local users:

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

Here are the top ten most active local users:

  1. izzynobre
  2. nscafe
  3. arizonaa
  4. ProtruckR
  5. MarketingHits
  6. a_picazo
  7. CarlaYoung
  8. CalgaryBizcaf
  9. that_angela
  10. alex_ruiz

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

  1. WeatherCalgary
  2. CgyCa
  3. C_DIG
  4. nscafe
  5. mtroyaltransit
  6. jcpollock
  7. lonnietaylor
  8. that_angela
  9. donnamct
  10. walkerjill

Here are the top ten most replied to local users:

  1. that_angela
  2. nscafe
  3. alex_ruiz
  4. C_DIG
  5. Ubermoogle
  6. danellew
  7. Eves1
  8. gotkube
  9. Kristinnuendo
  10. JohnCornegge

Final Thoughts

First off, apologies for the late stats this month. I think the increased numbers in March reflect three more days in the month than we had in February, but also some steady growth (and perhaps some modifications I made to my code). More than 11,000 tweets were posted each day in March.

State of the Victoria Twittersphere – March 2010

Welcome to the third 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 March 2010:

# of local users: 2466 (an increase of 707 over February)
# of tweets by local users: 81649
# of tweets by local users containing #yyj: 7476 (9.2%)
# of tweets by local users that were replies: 23855 (29.2%)
# of tweets by local users containing links: 27881 (34.1%)
# of tweets by local users that were retweets: 6301 (7.7%)
# of tweets by local users that were twooshes: 3042 (3.7%)

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 56% of all local tweets were posted between 9 AM and 5 PM.
  • Local users posted roughly 1.8 tweets per minute in March (compared with 1.5 tweets per minute in February).
  • The day with the most local tweets posted was March 4 at 4438. On average, 2634 local tweets were posted each day (compared with 2150 in February).
  • Of the 23855 replies posted by local users this month, 7043 or 29.5% were to other local users.
  • A total of 388 users posted 50 times or more in March. In comparison, 227 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. OasisProperties
  9. AndrewHolenchuk
  10. marisa_herrera

Here are the top ten most listed local users:

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

Here are the top ten most active local users:

  1. lacouvee
  2. Auryanna
  3. wxVICTORIA
  4. yukarip
  5. Kent_Basky
  6. TheQdotFM
  7. the_moggest
  8. alliequaife
  9. dorkflower
  10. FrogstarWorldB

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

  1. lacouvee
  2. yyjtwestival
  3. usedvicalerts
  4. TheRobGreen
  5. danpollock
  6. the_moggest
  7. TheQdotFM
  8. yukarip
  9. meetupvictoria
  10. Ahkonsu

Here are the top ten most replied to local users:

  1. lacouvee
  2. FrogstarWorldB
  3. nopicnic
  4. YukariP
  5. jwalsh
  6. the_moggest
  7. dotsam
  8. iceinmamilk
  9. Rod_Phillips
  10. unclespeedo

Final Thoughts

First off, apologies for the late stats this month. I think the increased numbers in March reflect three more days in the month than we had in February, but also some steady growth (and perhaps some modifications I made to my code). I’m still impressed by the relatively high percentage (relative to other cities) of tagged tweets in Victoria!