Yesterday I attended my first unconference since being back in Vancouver. Since it wasn't really a topic at the top of my priority list and most of my closer colleagues and friends were not attending, it gave me the opportunity to re-examine the art of live blogging / tweeting / shouting an event.

Since the rise of social media over the past five years, many look to these “live reports” from participants to give a next to live view of what is happening or if any significant announcements are being made. The form of course can be as a full blog post on a hosted site or short bursts or “tweets” using Twitter or the many similar status updating services.

Over the past year, newcomer Foursquare is making impressive roads into the “update” forum through the iPhone and other smartphones… but as a service, it's focus is more primarily on WHERE the updates are being made and not so much on what you are doing. Thoughts and muses, something which has been the focus of Twitter and other services, doesn't seem quite in place there even though a “Shout” feature allows a generic short update no different in any way than a regular tweet.

So SHOULD someone use this when sharing live information from an event or conference?

My initial feeling right now is that it shouldn't. The interface on the iPhone and website for Foursquare really does on the location in every possible way and it is much more difficult to follow the flow of “thoughts” of your contacts, other than their new badges earned or another mayorship they took over from another unsuspecting soul. “Gamish” things followers looking for inspiration don't find very much inspiration in.

I would love to see someone come forward as the poster child of “LiveShouting” of an event. Let's keep our eye SXSW.

Thoughts?

Technorati Tags: foursquare, posting, posts, Twitter

Technorati Tags: 2010 Vancouver Olympics, olympics, vancouver, Vancouver Olympics

Well, it’s another birthday.  Celebration worthy? Lamentable? Meh. Just another candle in an already candle-crowded birthday cake. Right?

The feeling I have this year is simply – gratitude. I have a wonderful partner who I care for dearly and am proud to have beside me through every adventure around the globe. A fabulous extended family who are supportive and loving far beyond the boundaries of family obligation. And I have friends and colleagues… LOTS OF THEM! All over the world. They reach from Nagoya, Tokyo, Kyoto, Sapporo and Osaka, Japan to Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, Seattle, San Francisco, St. Louis, Atlanta, Chicago, Boston, London, Dublin, Amsterdam, Milan, Athens, Novosibirsk, Beijing, Hong Kong, Taipei, Manila, Durham, Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland, Honolulu and many, many more.

Being a global gypsy has had a price – but it has had far, far more rewards.

I truly look forward to this coming year – and years to come. I feel good about the future and I hope to have the strength and ability to give far more than I ever receive.

Thank YOU for passing by and sharing this brief moment reading this. Cheers and help me blow those candles out!

Technorati Tags: birthday, burning cake, global gypsy, gratitude

This past week Google introduced a new social media service no one saw coming – Google Buzz.  Labeled as the new “Twitter Killer”, thousands of tech enthusiasts buzzed, rebuzzed and commented on each other’s buzzes on how this was something new, fantastic and MUCH better than any other social media service has ever been before. Yah, not quite.

The whole experience reminded me of another “tech frenzy” which occurred in early 2008. Tech Star Kevin Rose had introduced Pownce, a new micro blogging service with features far superior to anything else (at the time Twitter and Jaiku).  It could do links to audio and video, allow for easier conversations, less noise, etc. etc. Sound familiar? While the promise was there, Pownce quietly shut the doors at the end of 2008. Twitter had won.

Granted, this time around a much heavier player is involved – Google. With a large portion of the North American market using Gmail as their de facto email client, it seemed for many a “closer fit” to do what many don’t realize is already being done in other services for quite some time (the most  similar being Friendfeed).  The “instant engagement” factor dazzle many people and soon the day slips away as every single sneeze from recognized names is being liked and commented on.

I don’t like it. Not so much for the form it has taken, but more because it is not where most of MY engagement takes place. It totally makes sense if the big tech names such as Robert Scoble, Leo Laporte, or Loic LeMeur LOVE this platform… it works best for them. They can cough on their keyboards and 65 people from all over the world will ask them if they are OK within seconds. For me, Facebook is my present place of choice where colleagues, friends and relatives comment on my sneezes – and I appreciate that. Oh, I’ll broadcast those sneezes out to the rest of the services through Ping.fm (including Google Buzz) and will attract individual engagement here and there, but it’s not the same. Interesting but different.

I like it when companies like Google push the envelope and try to make present technology better or more integrated. They’re not evil. I’m just a little bit more cautious and cynical when I read comments like “I’m with Scoble. I’m going to do exactly what he does”… for no better reason than, well, Scoble says so.  The only words that come to mind are – TECHSHEEP. Hate ‘em, hate ‘em hate ‘em!

But back to Buzz… my feeling is it will by a part of many people’s  (and company’s) online strategy but in and of itself, it’s not really a game changer. Already the best use I’ve seen so far  has been by Pete Cashmore of Mashable getting feedback for stories being written, which totally makes sense since his blog’s constituency is Social Media. No “follow me because I say”. Just simple “Our writer’s are working on this story. What do you think?” kind of stuff. Totally gets my admiration and respect.

What are your thoughts? Being a “Buzzard” is game changing or just another social media brick in the wall?

Cheers.

Technorati Tags: Buzz, Friendfeed, Gmail, Google Buzz, Jaiku, Kevin Rose, Mashable, Pownce, Robert Scoble, Scoble, social media, Twitter

Even though I’m in the eye of the storm for the Olympics, last night was the first time I truly participated in ANYTHING to do with these events. I chose to participate in the 2010 Olympic Torch Community Celebration in Richmond, Canada.

These festivities, and the remainder to be held during the games, are in Minoru Park, the centre of the municipality. The area has been designated the O Zone, complete with venue facilities and a grand main stage.

Entry into the park was relatively easy and orderly. Admission was free and security felt much more like entering a night club or concert than it did looking for nasties wanting to do something heavier than sneaking a can of beer into the grounds.

Once in, you were immediately hit with the objective of the grounds… one big red maple leaf self-hug. Though the demographics of Richmond are mostly Asian, the majority of the participants were not. It truly was a mixed crowd of both locals and international well wishers wanting to take part in the party to bring in the torch.

Other than a faux pas of calling the venue “Surrey” by the host at one point (to boos in the crowd) and an instrument malfunction for the Delhi 2 Dublin band (which cost 10 minutes of uncomfortable stage silence for the 15,000+ crowd), the evening was fun, fast paced and lively. I truly enjoyed myself, even after getting “bonked” on the head by a rogue Coca-cola crowd beach ball.

The climax of the evening was suppose to be Rick Hansen ride up the stage and lighting the Olympic cauldron. Though it was a wonderful moment, the real fun came in the exit to follow – an absolute disaster. Imagine 15,000 people with children or elderly parents elbowing each other to squeeze through 4 double door exits at the same time. I never felt ANYTHING so chaotic and uncomfortable, even on a Tokyo train in a morning rush hour (which I have experienced many times). Where was the crowd control? Where were the police? The RCMP? I was amazed to see far, far fewer of them than I did when the event started. One middle-aged woman was in tears and obvious discomfort as she sat on the curb outside the door immediately after the squeeze out – her partner comforting her as best he could.

If the exits continue through the Olympics as they did last night, I would suggest to stay away from the O zone if you have smaller children or elderly members of the family. Or at least come and go at the non-peak time to avoid any issues.

To the O zone Richmond organizers – thanks very much for the free party. You did do a great job and I did enjoy myself up to the end. Just clean up that last bit of organizing to avoid any further more serious problems. Please.

Other shots in the area:

Technorati Tags: crowd, crowd control, o zone, olympics, relay, richmond, richmond o zone, rick hansen, torch, van2010

As a resident and native of Vancouver Canada, I have a handful of memories which are distinctive to my connection to the city. The Vancouver Whitecaps winning the 1979 NASL Soccer Bowl Championship, Expo 86 and now the 2010 Winter Olympics. Having been out of the country for the past three years, I haven’t had much of a connection with the games any more than any other non-sporting resident of Japan. Yet, as I walked through downtown today, I too felt the excitement and pride felt by the hundreds of volunteers and employees who have worked hard to put together the safest and most enjoyable event worthy of global attendance and attention.

Here are a few of my photographs today as I casually walked through the streets.

The motto for these games is “You Gotta Be Here.” Today I certainly was grateful I was.

Technorati Tags: 2010, 2010 Vancouver, down, olympics, van2010, vancouver, Vancouver Olympics, winter olympics

In 2007 when we left Canada to live in Japan, one of the LEAST things I  worried about was staying connected. Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr… all were in place to keep a nice little “scattered” journal of my adventures around the world. Surprisingly enough, the application I turned to the most for the GREATEST connectivity were none of these… it was Skype. No, NOT the free audio or video  calls. It was the GROUP CHAT.

I created what was known then as a Public Chat Group. This allowed me to bring people in, encourage discussion (usually about technology) and moderate anyone who became overly obnoxious or belligerent to the others (yes, very much like a kindergarten teacher). I learned a lot about building communities online during that time and my reward was the friendship with many fantastic people around the world (not to mention a few new clients and opportunities along the way as well!).

The following year I continued my expansion with Skype, particularly with the Japanese Expat community in Tokyo and Nagoya. I started the TechTalkJapan Public Chat Group which later changed to JapanTechTalk and subsequently spawned into a weekly live podcast.

In 2009, I backed off of Skype…  for whatever reason. Twitter was now the tool of the geekorati and there seemed to be so many other ways to collaborate online, especially with the new iPhone and the plethora of cool apps being introduced. Skype just seemed to be, well, old skool.

Now a new calendar is hanging on the wall and I venture back to the Skype waters… to be shocked and shaken. Public Groups no longer exist on Skype! What??!!!

How this “little change” went unnoticed was in the version of Skype I was using (on Windows, yes – stop the booing and hissing). Even though I had purchased a new computer midway through last year, the version of Skype which came bundled with my Japanese EeePC was 3.5 and I never bothered to look. The major changes came with version 4.0 which was released a year ago! Talk about being left out of the loop. Since Skype hasn’t disabled any features from earlier versions, there really is no way of knowing this unless you are one of those people who always look for the latest beta versions coming out. I guess I’m just getting too spoiled with the iPhone which tells me automatically when a new version is ready to download.

What does this mean for online community collaboration with Skype? Well it doesn’t really kill it since the groups are still there and accessible. Most of the moderator tools have now been hidden in /get commands (ya, not big fan of that move).  A direct link to invite people can still be generated with the command /get uri but the NEW URL produced starts with skype?chat.. and not http:// , so shortening it with services such as bit.ly is impossible. Another scratch your head in amazement  move.

As long time pacificIT Chat participant Dan York noted, Skype is still the preferred chat client of choice for most people. In fact, I would say with the upcoming iPad most people will now be looking at Skype as the de facto way of using the device for video chatting – so the future is looking blindingly bright for the company.

Regardless of these surprises, my strategy for 2010 is to return to Skype and to fully utilize it to connect with friends, family and clients around the world. I just hope if more major changes like these come down the pipe this year, someone will send me the memo.

Technorati Tags: Dan York, pacificIT, pacificIT Chat, skype

Very interesting find lately has been PingTags, a recently released service by Squarepush.

QR Tags are scan codes the size of a postage stamp and are all the rage in Japan and other parts of the world. Most North Americans simply scratch their heads and say, “Didn’t I see one of those on a Scoble t-shirt or something?”

PingTags attempts to remedy this by making them useful with familiar tools such as LinkedIn and your mobile device such as the iPhone. Simply log in with your LinkeIn credentials, grab the blocky scan, place it on your website, then wait for people to scan it.

For the scanning visitor, the link appearing from the code will lead to a nicely formatted front door to scan owner’s LinkedIn profile. For the scan owner, the visit can be logged with the usual analytics information such as IP address, type of device visiting (iPhone, Blackberry, desktop, etc.) which links were visited and an EXACT location of the visitor, if they chose to reveal it during their visit.

I don’t think there’s anything evil behind it so the technology pretty well does what it should without compromising anyone.

Will this lead to more traffic from QR happy Japan? Sure… if you’re site can be read in Japanese, of course.

Enjoy.

Technorati Tags: analytics, Blackberry, iPhone, Japan, LinkedIn, PingTags, QR Code, Scoble

Technorati Tags: bellydancer, birthday, madgreek

Video

Had a great time with the whole family at the Mad Greek in Richmond, BC Canada. The belly dancer was a bit of a surprise but certainly added to the “culture” of the event and “family safe”. The whole evening was truly enjoyed by all!

Happy Birthday Toni, Orietta, Zia and, of course, Mom!

Technorati Tags: bellydancer, family

Technorati Tags: Cartoon, Comic, Facebook, foursquare, humur, location, Technology, Twitter

Technorati Tags: blogging, email, Gmail, iPhone, Posterous

Blogging does have rewards but it certainly causes a lot of pain as well. Case in point – my recent transfer of my old pacificIT.ca blog over to sanzalone.com. A very NOT SO pleasant task.

The first reason why I decided to transfer over to another blog were the issues I was having with my host, 1and1. I started  with them in 2004 with their initial web space give-away. I stayed with them when blogging became hip and all seemed well since they were able to host Wordpress blogs, my eventual platform of choice. By the time I hit Japan in 2007, they already started charging full price for all services and domains (far from being the “cheapest” on the marked, as they started out as) and their backend hosting (MySQL, PHP) started to slowly fall behind the “market norm”. Now with the latest offering of Wordpress at 2.9.1, there’s no support for PHP 5 from my initial instal nor does the latest platform connect with MySQL 4, the format my original blog started with.

While I found the fix for PHP 5 relatively easy, the fix for updating the  MySQL database to 5 is archaic and downright impossible (export the old and import into a new.. as long as it is under 2Mb…huh?!). I’ve given up on it and have decided to go at it one post at a time for the transfer.

While 1and1 may say the process is still possible without the unnecessary work, I find myself not minding too much going through my old blog posts. There were some gems there I simply had forgotten about and some things which simply look silly now. I know. It’s ALL a part of blogging – yet somehow I feel keeping the silly posts is like holding on to receipts 15 years later… good for a chuckle but not really of value, even  to Revenue Canada.

I’ll keep plugging away at it here and hopefully sometime before the summer I’ll have the whole process complete under one setting. We’ll see.

EDKYB9AW9BDA

Technorati Tags: 1and1, wordpress

Well it’s a new decade and I’m starting off the year back in my old/new country so I thought it was only fitting to see things off right by creating a brand new website.

My objective is to clean up a lot of the online “digital scraps” I’ve left around the Internet since diving in over a decade ago and have a central location to post, aggregate and communicate online.

As always, these experiments are a work in progress. The pieces I DO KNOW I want to keep include Lifestreaming and blogging. The platform itself has been a much more difficult decision. In the earlier part of the decade I started with Blogger, moved to a hosted Wordpress blog, then on to Storytlr and now, after much delay and searching, I haved decided to return to a hosted Wordpress site bringing in as many of these elements as I had before.

Please feel free to contact me about your thoughts. After all, it’s NOT all about me on this site. It’s about how we can all help each other.

Enjoy.

Robert Sanzalone

PS. If it’s your first time here, don’t forget to bookmark this page and subscribe to the RSS feed! If you are on an iPhone, feel free to “Add to Home Screen” by pressing “+”.

Technorati Tags: blog

Well it’s a new decade and I’m starting off the year back in my old/new country so I thought it was only fitting to see things off right by creating a brand new website.

My objective is to clean up a lot of the online “digital scraps” I’ve left around the Internet since diving in over a decade ago and have a central location to post, aggregate and communicate online.

As always, these experiments are a work in progress. The pieces I DO KNOW I want to keep include Lifestreaming and blogging. The platform itself has been a much more difficult decision. In the earlier part of the decade I started with Blogger, moved to a hosted Wordpress blog, then on to Storytlr and now, after much delay and searching, I haved decided to return to a hosted Wordpress site bringing in as many of these elements as I had before.

Please feel free to contact me about your thoughts. After all, it’s NOT all about me on this site. It’s about how we can all help each other.

Enjoy.

Robert Sanzalone

PS. If it’s your first time here, don’t forget to bookmark this page and subscribe to the RSS feed! If you are on an iPhone, feel free to “Add to Home Screen” by pressing “+”.

Technorati Tags: skype

In October 2006 Sweetie and I voyaged over to Mie, Japan for the Japanese side of our wedding – the Canadian side occurring the month before in Vancouver. During our stay we toured central Japan, particularly Nagoya, the fourth largest city in the country. For some unknown reason, I liked Nagoya. A lot. It was so different from both Vancouver where I grew up and Tokyo, where I lived in 1991-92. Just before we were to return to Vancouver, I looked at her and said, “Let’s move here.” Her eyes frowned the reply, “Ya. Right.” I then continued to push, “No, really.” After much deliberation, Sweetie finally relented and we began an Odyssey of adventures in Japan which has lasted three incredible years.

We are now proceeding to the next chapter and are preparing to move back to Canada.

Over the past few weeks I have been wondering how to write this post. There have been SO MANY PEOPLE who have been part of our lives while we were in Japan which I will be forever grateful to. My relatives who have shown kindness and love even though their son-inlaw / brother-inlaw just never seemed to get the knack of trying to converse in Japanese. My friends in Tokyo who were so wonderful during my early Blognation Japan days introducing me to the “Tokyo Tech Scene” and involving me in many wonderful projects and gigs. My colleagues and fellow instructors in Aichi prefecture who alleviated the frustrations most foreigners have in the Japanese workplace. My fabulous team of “correspondents” from across Japan (and the world) participating LIVE on the JapanTechTalk podcast. Finally the impressive and talented business people we met through JIBE (the Japan International Business Exchange), an entrepreneur networking group Sweetie and I started with a partner in Nagoya earlier this year. All experiences full of awesomeness.

I’ll continue to share my thoughts and experiences, as I have since 2004, online in social media or whatever the next big thing is. Twitter, Facebook and all the rest.

Sayonara Japan. For now. Wish us luck and send us your prayers as we embark on our next chapter. We may not be back here to live, but we’ll be back. Really.

Here’s an interview I had today with a VERY good friend of mine, Greg Mansfield, the Continuing Education Coordinator for the Insurance Brokers Association of BC.

Greg has had some amazing achievement over the past few years, particularly in the area of combining education and technology. He is one of the foremost authorities in the province for Online Education.

In this video clip, we chat about what he does at the Association and some of the technology he uses, particularly Moodle, an Open Source Course Management System (a type of Content Management system or CMS).

Let me know what you think. Enjoy!

interview, ibabc, greg, mansfield, robert, sanzalone, insurance, brokers, association, bc, British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, Robert, Sanzalone, Robert Sanzalone, insurance broker, insurance brokers, insurance brokers association, insurance brokers association of bc, insurance brokers assocition of british columbia, canada, vlog, blog, podcast, Pacific, IT, pacificIT, Pacific IT, moodle, White Spot, open source, software, open source software, education, online, online education, Greg Mansfield, coordinator, ibabc

I really enjoyed reading Peter Tupper’s article in the Vancouver Courier last week on Wireless in Vancouver. It pretty much summed up what I already have concluded – the decision makers in the city have no idea what Wi-Fi is for and have no “real” intention of implementing a plan anywhere, anyhow unless it’s really, really, REALLY necessary.

From one angle, I understand the apprehension. This is still bleeding edge technology and even advanced cities such as San Francisco are still grappling with how to implement a city plan to “Muni-Fi” the city. On another angle, Washington State knows exactly what the technology is and the benefits it brings to the workforce and local economy which is why it has been implemented on local transit buses as well as Interstate highway rest stops.

I’m glad Matthew Asham, a great colleague I met while being the Organizer for the Vancouver Wi-Fi Meetup is spearheading the initiative to implement some kind of system for businesses and associations to have some kind of Wi-Fi system in the city. Otherwise our smirky attitude of “Canada Kicks Butt” is in prime position to have its butt kicked – especially in 2010.

Enjoy.
Robert Sanzalone
Technology Evangelist