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James Eberhardt, Marble Media, With His Wife

Flickr is one of the best photosharing sites on the planet, not to mention, all over the internet!

The Canadian New Media Awards has joined the masses and set up a new flickr account to share photos from years past. Check out some of the pictures added from the awards show in 2005 and 2006.

This will be one of the places online anyone can upload their CNMA pictures for this year's show in Toronto this May for all to see and experience. You'll be able to check out the Who's Who of new media in Canada and download any photo from the site as well.

ONLY 2 WEEKS LEFT!! Submit a nomination for the Canadian New Media Awards 2007 by clicking here.

Check out what past finalists have said about being included in and recognized by the CNMA's:

1. "Not only did the awards raise my company's profile on the national New Media front, but they also legitimized years of independent production and non-profit creative passion!"
   Brooke Burgess | Executive Producer | Budget Monks Productions Inc.
2. "Winning a CNMA is one more thing that gives a client confidence in me. Every little bit helps."
   Nate Smith | Centre Ice | The Vacuum Design
3. "My CNMA nomination did a lot to raise my visibility in the industry and in the company I work for. I've been booked for numerous speaking engagements and consulting jobs since."
   Tim Willison | Interactive Engineering | Organic Inc.
4. "Thanks to the CNMA Website, a Polish executive found out about my work and invited me to work on a project in Poland which allowed me to set a foot in the eastern European market."
   Tommy Ferlatte | Creator
5. The prestige of winning a CNMA gave me the recognition instrumental in launching my career forward. No other award I’ve won bears quite the same weight. Norma Penner | Senior Contributor Designer | Organic Inc.

Submit Here.

Raincity Launches Social Networking Website For Kids

Kidzworld: a fully moderated, safe and secure social networking site for kids. In this world, internet savvy grade-schoolers can play games, enter contests, win prizes, test their knowledge in trivia quizzes, keep up to date on the latest sports and entertainment news, and meet other Kidzworld members from all over the world!

Even though it's designed and created for kids online, the kid in you will dig this site. My favourite section is the photo and videosharing KW Zone. Once you set up your profile, you can upload pictures, videos, find friends, add friends, comment on others' photos, and the coolest feature: edit the entire design of your KWZone to pretty much anything as many times as you want!

You can check out all the latest in the sports world, listen to your favourite tunes on KW Radio and get up to date on all the latest gossip in entertainment - wow, I think I just described my perfect news source!

Jeremy Hubert, Raincity's Director of Web Development and Lead Ruby on Rails developer, built the site from the ground up. It was an enormous challenge and took months of the nose to the grindstone, meeting with the team at Kidzworld on a regular basis to get the perfect product developed to their satisfaction and off the ground.

The site was built entirely in Ruby on Rails, and is, without a doubt, one of the largest deployments of a Rails site EVER!

Congrats Jeremy - what a feat! Now, let the kid in all of you take a spin through a Kidzworld - enjoy!

Attention:

Raincity Studios is seeking an experienced Web Designer to perform work on a contractual basis. Applicant should have a sizable portfolio of their professional design work available for immediate review.

Details:

Two Positions available:

* Web Designer

* Web Designer/Developer

Web Designer Qualifications include:

* a flawless understanding of branding and design for dynamic, interaction-driven websites and web applications

* Familiarity with current and upcoming web design trends

* Creativity and problem-solving abilities a must

Web Designer/Developer Qualifications include:

* All of the above qualifications plus...

* Web Standards development techniques including CSS and XHTML

Additionally, PHP fluency will give the applicant a large leg up. Familiarity with the Drupal CMS a large plus.

If you are interested in working with Raincity, please forward your cv, portfolio URL and any other additional files or information to: inquire@raincitystudios.com

Cisco Gets Jealous Over Apple's Dream Toy

Based on the fact that it's Apple, and Steve Jobs, and a tagline that reads: "Apple reinvents the phone", I think that Cisco doesn't have a hope in hell, and Apple Inc. knows it.

As of late Wednesday, Cisco Systems is suing Apple Inc. in US Federal Court for their trademark on their own handheld device, IPhone. That's with a capital "I". Apparently, Apple has been repeatedly asking Cisco for its' permission to make use of the brand, a name the company has held for 7 years.

I think the legal team over at Mr. Jobs' Mecca has likely been over this one, and this was just part of the grand master business plan in launching what is the most lovely phone ever to grace this land. Not to totally write off Cisco, I mean, it's Cisco and all, but, well, come on, it's Apple.

I'm sold on the iPhone. Who wouldn't be after that keynote? And once those inevitable bugs are worked out and the price drops a wee bit, oh yes, it will be mine.

I am very much addicted to the Read/Write Web, that is to say: it's where I like to surf for all the latest and greatest. And this upcoming week is no exception.

You want reviews of 2006 and all that shook down and what it all means as we launch into 2007? Richard MacManus and his 2.0 crack team of writers always seem to hit all the issues, news, conferences, and sum them up well, with honesty and realism in their writing, reporting and critiquing.

SO - I'll be watching and reading and hopefully reporting back and linking on The Standard, as per the usual, but let's be honest, it's 11 days, yes, ELEVEN days, until the stores close and the 12 Days of Christmas (technically are supposed to, in theory) begin. So while I shop, or rather, make my homemade gifts (oh my family love me for it, really they do) and we all feast over and over again, you can always take a spin through the read/write to catch what you've missed.

That is, if Grandma's house has that wifi hook-up so you can escape away to feed your addiction between eggnog and Santa chocolates.

Technology Branding 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games

I’m here at Presentation Centre at the Great Northern Way Campus, the new home for New Media BC and the future home for the Centre of Digital Media. Today is all about bringing together different sectors of technology, government representatives and members of the VANOC team.

With the Vancouver/Whistler Olympic Games kicking off in a mere 1163 days, now is the time to initiate the vision and branding for how we are going to best represent ourselves to the world. With billions of people from around the globe watching in 2010, it will be a precious time to define BC and Canada for perhaps the 25 years following, so who do we want to be? Is this a time when we can take advantage of this opportunity to change the way the world views Canada?

Using the latest in digital technology is an integral aspect in branding us as a world leader in new media. Just some of the ideas that were generated and expressed today with respect to new media and technology influencing our image in the 2010 Games:

• Let us shape new technology of the future, and not just be a part of it.
• Make the roof of BC Place a virtual world, a projector screen – enhancing the experience of the live audience, so that in turn, the television audience is experiencing the same positive, exhilarating feeling.
• Utilize real-time rendering: the ability use the computer to create characters, scenes, locations, and have each interact with one another - live imagery and computer generated imagery
• Collaboration between local companies here in Vancouver is an essential aspect of contributing to best-representing ourselves as a city, a province and a country.
• Bring the intense desire for community that has been found through the avenue of Second Life to connections and the possibility of virtual communities to the Olympics. One idea was to run the Torch through absolutely every location and community from coast to coast!

Scales and kk are here, of course, and are speaking to the group about how the media and therefore the coverage of the games has changed, due in no small part to new technologies and companies, and to showcase how Raincity and Bryght can be of great help and service to growing online communities leading up to 2010.

Raincity Seeking Flash Animator

Raincity Studios is currently looking for a kickin' flash animator. Perhaps you? Know of such a person? Please, pass the word along.

Ideally, this candidate loves animating in flash, hence the whole flash animator slant. And we're not talking about a bouncing ball across a screen - an honest to goodness animator. Actionscript 2 guru would be the ideal as well, but not as essential.

Please get in touch with us if you are interested, with "Flash Animation Position" in the subject line, or pass this along to anyone who you think may be.

Check out our site and get a sense of who we are and what we're all about.

Microsoft Releasing Standards-Based Web Design Tool

While it seems the feedback and criticism of IE7 has been predominantly on the negative side, Microsoft is getting set to launch Microsoft Office 2007 at the end of this week, and with it will come several other new web tools.

Apparently, Web Expression will be a tool that will actually be useful for designers, and not just for your average Joe, designed to be a professional-level product. It will eventually replace Frontpage, but will of course be going up against the big guns of Dreamweaver and GoLive.

Robert Scoble of Podtech recently shot a demo with product manager Wayne Smith - check it out.

From information technologists, to media workers, to celebrities, blogging in China has always been a place to have the freedom of speech in a country that does not permit it in the mainstream.

Now more than ever, celebrity blogs are becoming more and more popular and has increased audiences into the hundreds of thousands for just one post.

Check out this article and celebrity post that has been translated, highlighting the progression of the blogosphere power that's rising in China.