What's Web 2.0? - Resources

Raincity Studios Seeking Web Designer

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 12:07:26 -0800

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

Reviews of Web 2.0 2006... And Into The Future

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 12:07:36 -0800

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.

New Media BC Day

Thu, 07 Dec 2006 12:06:10 -0800

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.

For Want: One Fly Flash Animator

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 15:31:26 -0800

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 Expression Web

Wed, 29 Nov 2006 10:39:16 -0800

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.

TwinF Shares Their Tech Know-How From Barcelona

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 11:27:53 -0800

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!

Some Industry News...

Wed, 15 Nov 2006 11:25:28 -0800

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!

What You Could Have Experienced If You Had Come To Drupal Training Day One

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 16:23:41 -0800

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.

Web 2.0 Summit Launchpad

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 13:45:57 -0800

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.

RapSpace.tv Launch Party!

Wed, 08 Nov 2006 14:17:18 -0800

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!

Take Back The Power

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 14:55:17 -0800

Cope 378 Launches New Drupal Site

Raincity Studios’ client, Cope 378, has just launched a new Drupal site called Take Back The Power.

The premise of this site is to raise awareness and create a community voice that will be strong enough to influence and effect the outcome of the BC provincial election in 2009. The goal is to encourage and inform the majority of voters to mark their ballot in 2009 for a candidate that supports the return of all BC Hydro’s operations to public control.

It is their belief that Canadians are on the verge of loosing waterworks to privatization and the BC government is responsible for selling us out to the private sector to companies like Accenture.

The site provides the public with useful and informative knowledge and statistics on the political history surrounding the privitization of BC Hydro, Accenture's "legacy", and it is a space where the public can get involved. Anyone can register on the site and join the conversation by blogging about the issue, commenting on other people’s opinions or by taking a survey to help the cause.

Erik Hermans really enjoyed heading up this project, working primarily with Lori Winstanley from Cope378, who was amazing to work with, and also in joining forces with graphic artist, Huw Evans, who delivered consistently and with some truly exceptional work.

This will no doubt prove to be a powerful tool in building a community for a just cause that effects us all. Get online and Take Back The Power!

SXNW Soiree: South by Northwest Second Annual Geek Fest Party at SXSW

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 13:04:13 -0800

What

Blue Flavor, Bryght and Raincity Studios are proud to present the second annual South by Northwest (SXNW) geek fest party at the Iron Cactus in Downtown Austin.

There will be plenty of free drinks and cool people to meet.

This year we have booked virtually the whole venue but please let us know you are coming so we can plan ahead.

When

Monday, March 12, 2007 - Tuesday, March 13, 2007
10:30 PM - 2:30 AM

Where

Iron Cactus

Iron Cactus is a Southwestern style grille and Margarita Bar. They pride themselves on presenting authentic Southwestern cuisine, gleaning recipes and ingredients from Southern Mexico to Utah. Plus, Iron Cactus features more than 80 Tequilas and is considered in the top 10 best Tequila bar in the world..

606 Trinity Street at 6th Ave
Austin, Texas 73301 Google map

Hope to see you there!

Get Into Dog Lotion

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 13:01:40 -0800

Winter Is Upon Us: Hit The DogHouse

Doglotion.com is a new Raincity Drupal site for the extreme skiing community to connect, showcase their stuff, brag! - and anyone out there who wants to take part in the fun, can. All you have to do is register on the site and start uploading!

The site has been live for just over a month, and we've been watching the membership and participation grow to a healthy group of amazing (crazy) skiers.

Erik Hermans and Steve McKenzie worked with DogLotion Guys, Andre and Jamie, to create a site that has sophisticated functionality on a user-friendly platform for pictures, videos, blogs, commenting, forums, articles and any latest reports from the highest destinations in the world.

Skiing is a year-round venture - somebody SOMEWHERE in the world is skiing in July - but we thought, seeing as the cold has hit, frost is in the air and you can smell snow here in the Northwest, we'd remind you of that international vantage point of The Lotion Of A Dog.

A Recap On A Social Software Panel in Newfoundland

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 15:55:28 -0700

Marketing Your Film Online

How does one effectively utilize the internet to promote and market a film project?

That was the question raised by filmmakers and members of the National Film Board and Telefilm Canada that spawned the workshop "Marketing Your Film Online", an event sponsored by Telefilm Canada at this year's St. John's International Women's Film Festival that wrapped up this week in Newfoundland.

Pattie Lacroix from Catapult Media in Halifax and I held a panel talk on this very issue for the participants at the festival this year. It was a ton of fun and the people in attendance gained a lot from the session, based on their positive responses in the aftermath. We gave the talk from the perspective on how filmmakers, producers and directors could potentially freely, literally, tap the internet and the many social networks that are out there to explore, to better promote their work. This information on the basics of online social networking can obviously be applied right across the board to just about anyone with something to sell, show or share!

Pattie started the discussion off with an introduction to the next generation of the web: social networks and softwares and how user-generated content effects users today in how people connect and collaborate online, and how the web is more about event driven experiences than about sites.

Before heading off to the East coast, I sat down with the person who first taught me all about this world of social networks and softwares, to formulate the talk in a constructive and useful manner for the specific audience: krug - THE social software guru junkie.

And here's how that all looked and unfolded in the end:

Blogging - A general overview on blogging and the importance of linking and tagging. We looked at Wordpress, Blogger and Typepad and I quickly walked them through setting up a Wordpress Blog - they were amazed at how fast and easy it was to complete.
Video Sharing - We talked about the YouTube and Revver services, the similarities and differences, and looked at some examples of both. What was nice for all to see was the user-friendly, non-intimidating interface of both sites.
Photosharing - Flickr - Not only a place to post and highlight anything under the moon for your own purpose, but the connections you make in growing your community and commenting on other photos is priceless.
Social Bookmarking - delicious and digg - Here is where illustrating the purpose in tagging became prevalent and more understood.
Event Calendar - Upcoming - Trying to stay "in the loop" is sometimes tough, and the idea of having a site where one can quickly announce or reference city events was an attractive site for this particular audience.
We also looked at LinkedIn, MySpace, last.fm and zaadz

Case Studies:

I then moved into highlighting several examples to better illustrate how other television and film projects used some of these free social softwares in the past for promoting their work:

The Inconvenient Truth documentary - used both YouTube and MySpace to create the buzz and promote the issues related to the film
Snakes On A Plane - The Blogosphere Craze!
Battlestar Galactica the TV series - The buzz that was created through the Producer's podcast and blog

The whole talk, with questions and conversations that were generated from it, took up about 2.5 hours - we could have gone all day!

As I mentioned, the info was all really well received and most of the people were truly blown away by the vastness of this space. We, who live in this web 2.0 bubble, can perhaps sometimes take it for granted. There is a whole world out there that knows very little, or sometimes, nothing at all, on how powerful the internet has become, and it felt great to have the opportunity to transfer what I have learned to those people who are open and ready to learn it as well.

Thank-you to Pattie for having the foresight to bring someone like me back to the East to take part in this endeavor. We're hoping to continue working as a team on more workshops in the future - it was a lot of fun teaching this stuff!

Thanks to Telefilm Canada for sponsoring the event.

Thank-you to Krug for all of your help, knowledge and support, as always!

And a thank-you to Kelly Davis, the festival's Executive Director, and her crew this year. You did such an outstanding job. I look forward to seeing the festival grow in numbers and participation in the coming years and to hopefully coming back to take part again!

The Paradox of Registering Bloggers' Real Names in China

Thu, 26 Oct 2006 12:01:17 -0700

Registering Your Legal Name To Blog In China

The powers that be over the blogosphere in China, China's Net regulator Ministry of Information Industries (MII), has just put forth an initiative that may be issued in the near future, where upon all bloggers in China will be required to register their real names if they wish to continue to blog. This has been instigated in an attempt to put a stop to or get control over the insults, curses, libels and fraud typically found on blogs - a tactic that is both illogical and absurd. And what the hell are they going to do to these "real name" bloggers when they find them?!

There is an estimated number of 17.5 million people in China that have started a blog. San Lian Life Week editor, Wang Xiaofeng, is one such man, and he has written a post on the topic that is both amusing and insightful.

His blog post can be read here in his mother tongue (interesting to have a peek at even if you can't understand it).

Jeremy Goldkorn posted his translation on Danwei and that English article can be found here.