State of the Edmonton Twittersphere – March 2010

Welcome to the third State of the Edmonton Twittersphere of 2010, my look at the intersection of Twitter and Edmonton, 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: 8095 (an increase of 1624 from February)
# of tweets by local users: 416919
# of tweets by local users containing #yeg: 27538 (6.6%)
# of tweets by local users that were replies: 144491 (34.7%)
# of tweets by local users containing links: 105599 (25.3%)
# of tweets by local users that were retweets: 20345 (4.9%)
# of tweets by local users that were twooshes: 14367 (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 over 52% of all local tweets were posted between 9 AM and 5 PM.
Local users posted roughly 9.3 tweets per minute in March (compared to 8.3 tweets per minute in February).
The day with the most local tweets posted was March 26 at 15986. On average, 13449 local tweets were posted each day (compared to 11933 in February).
Of the 144491 replies posted by local users this month, 47407 or 32.8% were to other local users.
A total of 1573 users posted 50 times or more in March. In comparison, 1296 users posted just once.

Here are the top ten most followed local users:

Here are the top ten most listed local users:

Here are the top ten most active local users:

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

Here are the top ten most replied to local users:

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 10,000 tweets were posted each day in March.

Notes for 4/25/2010

Here are my weekly notes:

This weekend marked the 20th anniversary of the launching of the Hubble Telescope. It’s pretty amazing when you think about all we’ve learned from it.
Love Lady Gaga? Here are 50 covers, choreographies, and parodies on YouTube.
David Carr wrote a great overview of how Gizmodo monetized the iPhone spectacle.
An update on the planes vs. volcano visualization I linked to last week.
Nice: Announcing the first free software Blu-ray encoder.
From comScore: State of the digital media universe in Canada.
Roger Ebert says video games can never be art.

Edmonton Notes for 4/24/2010

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

It rained a little over the last couple of days, finally, but because of high winds and extremely dry conditions the fire marshal had issued a city-wide partial fire ban.
The Katz Group started the week by submitting rezoning and other applications to the City for its proposed sports-entertainment district. You can download the documents here.
The typical Edmonton homeowner will see property taxes rise by $149 this year, which translates to a 6.5% increase.
Recaps from yesterday and today: Edmonton Public Library’s MP3 Experiment, and the South LRT Grand Opening. The Journal has more on the LRT here.
I really like this idea – the City will try to stop the concentration of poverty in the inner city. Healthy neighbourhoods have a good mix.
MacEwan president Paul Byrne, 63, announced that he’ll be retiring next spring from the role he took over in 1997.
Congratulations to Transcend Coffee on the opening of T2 (the new Garneau location).
Good write-up on FC Edmonton, the soccer squad that will join the NASL in 2011.
The Edmonton Public Library launched its new branding this week. Spread the words!
Northlands had its AGM recently, and issued this release outlining its major achievements throughout 2009.
Making Sense of Social Media in Education, Government, and the Enterprise starts tomorrow and runs through Monday (on ShareEdmonton).
Also tomorrow is the Edmonton Police Foundation Half Marathon (on ShareEdmonton).
The final Connections 2010 event, your chance to connect with more than 40 City of Edmonton departments and services, happens Thursday evening at the Alberta Aviation Museum (on ShareEdmonton).
The Royal Bison Craft & Art Fair runs next Saturday and Sunday (on ShareEdmonton).

Edmonton’s South LRT Grand Opening

Today was the grand opening of the Southgate and Century Park LRT stations (see my previous coverage here). A joint news release issued by all three levels of government declared that “a new era in Edmonton’s transportation history has begun.” Edmonton’s LRT now extends 20.3 kilometers from Clareview Station in the northeast to Century Park in the south.

A number of distinguished guests were on hand for the two ceremonies today, one at Southgate Station and one at Century Park Station. Among others, MP Laurie Hawn spoke on behalf of the federal government, Premier Stelmach surprised many people by appearing himself to congratulate Edmonton, and Mayor Mandel was joined by his Council colleagues.

Here are some of MP Laurie Hawn’s remarks:

Here is Premier Ed Stelmach:

Here is Mayor Stephen Mandel and City Councillors:

After the ceremonies ended, everyone joined the fun already underway at the ETS Community Fair! There were information kiosks, activities for kids, and some of the City Centre Market vendors providing a preview of the upcoming market season.

I’m very happy that our LRT now extends to Century Park, and I was glad to see so many Edmontonians out to celebrate today. Now we need to move on to the next extension, to keep the momentum going. The LRT system map looks a little odd without any “future LRT station” nodes!

You can see the rest of my photos from today here.

Edmonton Public Library’s MP3 Experiment

More than 250 Edmontonians gathered tonight in Churchill Square to take part in the Edmonton Public Library’s MP3 Experiment. The shared experience was a great way to help launch the new brand:

Ever heard of an MP3 Experiment? Think of it as a giant, updated version of the game "Simon Says" …all you need to participate is an MP3 player (iPod, etc.) and headphones. Here’s how it works: anyone visiting spreadthewords.ca can download an MP3 file onto their portable MP3 player. On the day of the experiment (without listening to the MP3 file ahead of time), participants gather at a prescribed public location and at a pre-determined time all push play. Hilarity ensues as participants carry out ridiculous, coordinated instructions delivered to their headphones via an omnipotent narrator and everyone else tries to figure out what the heck is going on.

It was actually lots of fun – I’m glad I was able to participate! I really love that EPL incorporated some learning into the experiment too, talking about some of the buildings around the square, our sister cities, and more. Here’s the video:

You can see more photos from the evening here. Stay tuned to epl.ca and @EPLdotCA for updates on the Spread the words campaign.

Edmonton Public Library: Spread the words.

Today the Edmonton Public Library (EPL) introduced its new brand, which includes a new logo, brand promise, and shared values. The rebranding is the result of more than six months of work, which included research, design, and some deep thought about what EPL is all about.

Why rebrand?

After a series of personnel changes throughout 2009, EPL found itself with a brand new communications team, led by Tina Thomas. Drawing on her experience in the private sector at companies like Nortel, Tina started to examine EPL’s branding. What she found was that although usage statistics were good, EPL wasn’t growing its user base, and it was stuck with the common misconception that books were the only offering. And although the different branches were nicely integrated behind the scenes, Tina and her team found that many people didn’t realize they were part of the same library.

The rebranding aims to increase EPL’s appeal, recognition, and profile in the community. It’s a single, consistent, and unifying brand identity.

Where to begin?

One of the most important steps in the rebranding process was the creation of a Shared Values Wheel. The core value, passionate about sharing, is in the centre of the wheel, and it is encircled by two rings with the rest of EPL’s values, like ideas champion, open, human, and unrivaled value. Tina told me that once they had figured out the wheel, everything else seemed to come together quite nicely.

The new brand!

Through research, EPL found that many people considered the old logo to be cold, boring, forgettable, and similar to clip art. The new logo better reflects the idea that EPL is about more than just books – “five simple bars can mean a great deal.” It’s modern, fun, and can be transformed in a variety of ways (as you’ll see below). I really like that it moves away from the very obvious book.

The brand promise, spread the words, embodies EPL’s values, which are centered around sharing; not just books, but also music, DVDs, ideas, etc.

EPL provides an exceptional service to Edmonton. It’s worth talking about and sharing. Spread the words is a call to action to this.

Starting tomorrow, you’ll see the new logo and branding everywhere. Sixty-five buses around the city will carry the new ads, and there will be a series of creative TV spots too. Even the library cards themselves will reflect the new branding, and there’s of course reusable tote bags, mugs, and all the usual things you’d expect. Here’s one of the commercials:

Perhaps the most important update will be to the website. In early May, it’ll be updated not only with the new branding, but with a modern look and dramatically improved navigation and layout. Built using Drupal, the new website will enable better integration with the EPL catalogue in the future. EPL worked with Donovan Creative on the rebranding (see their press release here).

Physical signage at the Stanley Milner library downtown will be changed right away. The rest of the branches will be changed as upgrades are required over time.

Launch events!

EPL is launching the new brand with, appropriately, a shared experience. Tomorrow at 6:30pm in Churchill Square, you’re invited to take part in the MP3 Experiment (on ShareEdmonton):

Ever heard of an MP3 Experiment? Think of it as a giant, updated version of the game "Simon Says" …all you need to participate is an MP3 player (iPod, etc.) and headphones. Here’s how it works: anyone visiting spreadthewords.ca can download an MP3 file onto their portable MP3 player. On the day of the experiment (without listening to the MP3 file ahead of time), participants gather at a prescribed public location and at a pre-determined time all push play. Hilarity ensues as participants carry out ridiculous, coordinated instructions delivered to their headphones via an omnipotent narrator and everyone else tries to figure out what the heck is going on.

It’s going to be a lot of fun! Head over to the website, download the MP3, and follow the instructions on the right side.

After the MP3 experiment, EPL is showing an audience participation version of The Princess Bride at the Stanley Milner library (on ShareEdmonton). The show starts at 7:45pm, and participants are encouraged to bring noisemakers, blowing bubbles, and bells, among other things!

There’s much more planned for the weeks ahead as well, including a membership drive and sticker campaign. Stay tuned to @EPLdotCA on Twitter for updates. And don’t miss Brittney’s excellent post on the Spread the Words campaign!

Congratulations to EPL on the new brand!

Resources

Learning about the Edmonton Public Schools Foundation

Yesterday I attended an information session at Evansdale School on the Edmonton Public Schools Foundation, which launched on February 10. I admit I hadn’t even heard of the foundation until Jeremy mentioned the information sessions to me! I’m glad he did, because it was really interesting to learn about.

Our host for the session was Sandra Woitas, the director of the foundation. She has had a long history with Edmonton Public Schools as a teacher, consultant, and principal. After everyone had introduced themselves, we heard a little about Evansdale School and some of the unique programs it hosts. Next, Sandra welcomed two high school students who spent a few minutes talking about the experiences they have had during their time in the Edmonton Public School system. After that, we got into the information. Sandra gave an excellent overview of the foundation and how it came to be. Here are my notes:

The idea for the foundation came in 1996 from then Superintendent Dr. Emery Dosdall. He wanted to include a broad selection of stakeholders to help raise the profile of Edmonton Public Schools.
For the next decade or so, the idea floated between administration and the trustees. It wasn’t until trustee Bev Esslinger revived the idea that the ball got rolling again.
The foundation is meant to serve the 70% of Edmontonians who pay school taxes but don’t have a connection to the schools (either no kids, or their kids have graduated, etc).
In addition to raising the profile of Edmonton Public Schools, the foundation will advocate for improving public education here in Edmonton.
One of the areas of focus for the foundation is early childhood education. As Sandra said a few times, “either you pay now or you pay later.” To that end, they hope to raise money for early learning.
Full-day kindergarten programs would be one beneficiary. The first was setup at Norwood school thanks to a donation of $78,000 from Denny Andrews. Based on the success of that program, 24 other full-day kindergarten programs were setup throughout the city. There are apparently 15 more on a waiting list.

To finish off the session we were treated to a quick tour of Evansdale School. The school is multicultural, with students from over 40 countries! It also features a number of unique community outreach programs. We visited the full-day kindergarten classroom, and a music class as well. The SMART board in the kindergarten classroom surprised me – I learned that every classroom in the school has one! It was really great to see.

Everyone who attended the session left with gifts! You can see the Evansdale mug, and the beautiful placemat created by a grade six student at the school. The bag of seeds came with a little explanation from Sandra: “what we’re doing with the foundation right now is planting seeds.”

If you’d like to support the Edmonton Public Schools Foundation, tell a friend about it! Or consider attending the fundraising breakfast on May 20 (on ShareEdmonton).

Start offering bus service to EIA from Century Park!

The Transportation and Public Works Committee will be discussing the issue of transit service to Edmonton International Airport (EIA) today. Let me start by saying that I would certainly take a bus to the airport from Century Park if it existed, and that I think public transit to the airport is extremely important. Or as Councillor Don Iveson said so well:

This is one of those litmus tests of whether we’re a city or a town.

I’d like us to be a city.

There are two key reports that are relevant here. The first was written by the Edmonton Transit System Advisory Board (ETSAB), and it recommends that an experimental ETS bus service operate from Century Park to EIA. You no doubt heard about it in the news. The second was written by the Transportation Department, and it recommends that the City of Edmonton not proceed unilaterally with operating service to the airport.

As part of its report, ETSAB did a survey of about 600 passengers in October 2009 and found the following:

The highlight result is that a remarkable 53% of passenger respondents said they are likely or very likely to use airport transit to and from Century Park. Only 1 in 4 of these EIA passengers (13% of all passengers) need actually follow through with their indicated likely usage, and the service will be profitable. Only 1 in 8 of these supporters (7% of all passengers) need follow through for 50% cost recovery level to be achieved.

The accuracy of that survey was not demonstrated, and the Transportation Department’s report rightly pointed that out.

Transportation’s report also makes note of the Capital Region Board’s role in all of this, and I agree it makes sense for surrounding communities to take part. That said, I think Edmonton should be proactive about transit service to the airport.

Beyond that, the report from Transportation just doesn’t add up. Here are the questions I have about it:

Why is there such a focus on 100% cost recovery, when the rest of ETS operates at about 45%? Only “special event service” and charters are subject to 100% cost recovery, and even with planned fare increases to $3 by 2013, cost recovery is only expected to rise to about 54% (see Transit System Fare Policy C451D for more info)
Why are three new buses required and why would the total cost to acquire them be “at least $1.5 million”? First of all, based on 2008 data (large PDF), the City has no lack of spare buses. With a fleet size of 821 40’ diesels, there are at least 146 spare buses available at any given time, 19 of which are reserved for emergency deployment. So wouldn’t it be cheaper to find a way to reduce the number held for maintenance from 127 to 124? And even if we did want new buses, where does the $1.5 million figure come from? Based on the May 2008 report (large PDF) that discussed trolley buses, the cost for a diesel bus in 2010 was expected to be $425,000 whereas the cost for a hybrid was expected to be $650,000.
Of course, the type of bus chosen has an impact on operating costs, which for some reason are $254,000 more in the City report than in the ETSAB report (even though ETSAB used a figure provided by ETS). That same report on trolley buses found that maintenance costs for the hybrid and diesel buses are similar, but that the hybrids use 15% to 20% less fuel.

And perhaps most importantly, why do both reports focus on a ticket price of just $2.50? Especially considering adult fares are up to $2.75 now. I’d be willing to bet that most people who’d use the service would be willing to pay more. I don’t think $5 or perhaps even $10 is out of the question.

And then, on top of all of that, there’s this article in the Edmonton Sun:

The city’s transportation department is proposing to build a dedicated bus lane along the future LRT corridor from city boundaries to the Edmonton International Airport.

So they’re saying bus service to the airport is too expensive, but they want to build an expensive dedicated bus lane for bus service we don’t even offer? To be fair, this was in response to what could be done to move people were the City successful in its bid for EXPO 2017. Still, Transportation boss Bob Boutilier was quoted as saying:

“There are opportunities to build up that ridership now. The cost of building a bus way is a lot less than an LRT route but people will see the value as ridership crawls up and progresses to a higher capacity.”

I can think of a way to build up ridership right now – start offering bus service to EIA from Century Park!

Recap: 2010 EEDC Annual Luncheon

Today I joined hundreds of other Edmontonians at the 2010 EEDC Annual Luncheon, held at the Shaw Conference Centre. The event was an opportunity for EEDC to share its accomplishments over the past year, and to provide thoughts and guidance on the economic outlook for our city. Outgoing EEDC board chair Randy Ferguson got things underway with some thoughts on two of his favorite subjects: downtown, and EXPO 2017. Randy reiterated how important a downtown is to a city, and said that we must have the courage and commitment to make EXPO happen.

Next up was EEDC President & CEO Ron Gilbertson. Something that Ron has been showing a lot lately is the Edmonton Economic Dashboard, which grades our city on eight different aspects. Here’s where we are today:

Income/GDP – A
Retail Sales – A
Unemployment – B
Insolvency – C
Office Vacancy – A
Housing – B
Air Service – B
Inflation – A

Overall, that gives us a B+. Looking long-term, Ron gave Edmonton an A, saying:

Though Edmonton was not immune from the 2009 global decline, our economic fundamentals remain strong. Few economies have as bright prospects over the coming decades as Edmonton and northern Alberta.

The 2010 EEDC Awards of Excellence were also handed out:

Leadership Excellence Award: EPCOR
Innovation Excellence Award: Innovotech
Recognition Excellence Award: Art Gallery of Alberta

EPCOR President & CEO Don Lowry, Innovotech President Ken Boutilier, and AGA Chair Allan Scott were all on-hand to accept the awards on behalf of their respective organizations.

University of Alberta President Dr. Indira Samarasekera closed out the event with a phenomenal speech about the importance of working together (which you can read online here in PDF, or here). She focused on innovation, smarts, and creativity, and shared some really interesting and scary statistics (such as the low percentage of Albertans that go to post secondary). My favorite part though, was the beginning:

“I would like each of you to take your trusty digital device – Blackberry, iPhone, Palm, whatever you use – from your belt or pocket, or out of your bag and purse, and hold it in your hand,” she instructed. “Now, take a second moment to take a good look at it. In your hand, you hold the symbol of innovation. We call them smart phones. These smart phones have transformed our lives – our social lives, our business lives, our family lives, even our emotional and physical well being.”

It was a great way to start. She said one of our biggest challenges is speed – we have shorter incubation times than ever before, and we need to keep up (Innovotech’s Ken Boutilier talked about that too in his remarks). She also said that we need some BHAGs – Big Hairy Audacious Goals. And she stressed that both the City and the University desperately need to diversity their talent and economic bases. Dr. Samarasekera is a great speaker, and was definitely the highlight of the luncheon.

You can read the 2009 EEDC Annual Report here in PDF. Stay tuned to @EEDC on Twitter for updates.

Notes for 4/18/2010

Here are my weekly notes:

Among other things, Twitter announced this week that the entire archive of public tweets will be available at the Library of Congress.
The launch of datadotgc.ca is very exciting! You can read more about it here.
Does music have soul? Even music generated by artificial intelligence?
What’s emitting the most CO2 per day – planes or volcano?
Conan O’Brien, who was in Edmonton last night, will make his comeback on TBS.
I admit I’m a sucker for infographics, but this is too true.
Nate Silver, of FiveThirtyEight fame, has created a quantitative index of the 50 most livable neighbourhoods in New York. Great stuff!
Sharon and I took part in the Gallery Walk yesterday, which was a great way to enjoy the fantastic weather we had this weekend. Today, we spent the day at the Greens, Eggs, and Ham farm. More on that later!

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: