Resources

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

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.

Check out our good friends Lee and Sachi LeFever's blog site as they have just posted a blog entry on their travel blog, The World Is Not Flat, that shares with the internet their ways of blogging while journeying around the world over the last year.

Raincity designed the site, while Bryght provides hosting and support. It's tough checking in on these guys cause we're all green with envy, but following their journeys and living vicariously through them over the last year has been a treat. Thanks for the video sharing show guys!

CRTC Blocked and No More Wires!

Many of us at Raincity are busy this week with helping out and participating in the Drupal training workshop that we're co-producing with Bryght, while continuing with our client work.

All is going great at the sessions... sooo much Drupal my head is starting to spin, but spin in a really, really good way. Collectively, we're training and learning a lot. For me, I'm on the learning a lot wave, not having used Drupal too deeply in the past. Right now, we're in the middle of looking at the neat 'views' and 'contemplate' modules: Hot stuff!

But I had a little time to spin through some tech news today, and spotted some interesting and noteworthy articles that I wanted to share, if you haven't already found them on your own:

Check out this bit on how our Conservative government is going to put a stop to the CRTC's ploy on internet phone regulation. See details here.

And what about adding more electromagnetic fields into our lives? Let's hope it's not radioactive... This one is pretty fascinating and has physicists at MIT finding the right technology for a re-charging toy that will enable users to recharge their batteries in laptops and mobiles from a laptop-sized tool at a relatively close range. If you have one of these tools in each room of your home, you'll likely be completely and truly wireless!

Read all about it here.

And yesterday, Amanda Congdon became the first videoblogger for a major news broadcaster: ABC snagged her!

Day One of Drupal Training

... Starts with a good WorkSpace coffee, croissants and fruit. Some phones dead, others left in cars, rain on the windows, taps of fingers on keyboards... meeting the room of folks that have gathered - 14 in all!

... then an ease-into-the-day warm-up to the lovely language and ways of Drupal, from the kind, gentle voice of Bryght's Djun Kim, as we all begin to perk up from our morning hit of caffeine and starting some inspiring Drupal talk.

From the get-go, the sessions had a great flavour of sharing, as anyone in the intimate group jumped in when needed and questions were addressed quickly and easily from the level of expertise in the room. Djun, James (Bryght's James Walker made the trek from T.O. to help train as well!) and Scales conducted different parts of the workshop and provided a fluid and informative day.

Some of the topics covered:

• What is Drupal and why do we need it? Short answer: Because it can do ANYTHING!
• A Drupal site can be a site that is... a blog, for social change, a brochure site, an intranet, a portal, club site, web store, social networking, for media, news... pretty much ANYTHING YOU WANT!
• Drupal sites don't all have to look like Drupal sites! Have a look at these: jumptv.com, ninagordon.com, zimmertwins.ca, rapspace.tv
• Installing Drupal
• From the ground up: Administering your new Drupal site - settings, modules, themes, enabling and disabling all sorts of fun stuff
• Creating Content

At the end of our day, we had an open panel discussion Q and A where we continued with Drupal seeping into our veins...

"I just started using Drupal a few weeks ago, and it's astonishingly a slick piece of software." - Matthew Saunders from Westaf in Denver.

The overview of the day from Djun's original schedule broke down like this.

The Web 2.0 Summit kicked off this week in San Francisco. One of the more popular workshops is a rapid fire launch and demonstration of new technologies, products and business models.

From social networking sites like "the blogophere of bulletin boards", to tools like, "yellow post-it notes", which allows you to share smart data, to a 3D social network that operates inside your browser called 3B.

The Read/Write guys summed up the projects revealed quite nicely in this article here.

Join The Nimble Company For RapSpace.tv Launch

RAPSPACE.TV IS:

A Web 2.0 social networking video site targeting the global hip hop nation.

Raincity Studios has been working on the new site, Rapspace.tv, over the past several months, and we're super stoked to welcome the official launch and join The Nimble Company this Thursday in celebrating hip hop music and the hip hop community.

More importantly, the evening is for raising funds for hip hop technology initiatives in Uganda and Kenya. Donations will be requested at the door.

Come down to The Web Cafe (map) at 8pm on Thursday, Nov. 9 to join in the festivities: live performances and online edge!