Ryan Ashton (of Adcouver and Boston Pizza fame) recently asked the big question, and will wed Corrie Miller (of Rock 101’s Bro Jake Morning Show and Vancouver Province fame).

(Ryan and Corrie style out in black and white)

Congrats, guys. Can’t wait for the party.

Last night I attended a “pre-launch” party at Sxip, for their new software program, Sxipper.

It’s an identity management app that makes logins and registrations easier and more secure by storing your encrypted contact information and passwords and auto-inputs it into pre-mapped forms and fields. Or something like that.

Rob and I arrived early, and we were in one of the first groups to sit down in an orientation (beers in hand, can’t forget to mention that) that in many ways resembled a focus group, although they insisted it was anything but. We were asked a series of questions about our browser usage, and how often we login or register for things online. The invite list consisted only of what they called “power users,” so the consensus was that we do it an awful lot. After answering a few questions about how much of a pain it is and how much we’d like to see it fixed, we were set free to mingle again; hot dogs, beer et al.

(Roland uploads his photos on the fly at the Sxipper pre-release party)

As neither Rob or I had brought our laptops, we weren’t able to install it on site and try it out. Instead we were treated to a projected demo, that scratched the surface of what Sxipper does.

From what I could see in the demo, it is something that I would use. Anything that makes my life easier and my data more secure is useful to me, as long as it is indeed easier.

We were specifically asked not to share screenshots of the program, so I can’t show you examples of Sxip’s hip (and very Apple/Fido-centric) interface. And it was also clear that the folks at Sxip didn’t want a flood of users crashing the gates right away, but were rather inviting a few local users to try it out, tell their friends to have a look, and let the buzz grow organically.

As for the event, it was a great. Lots of friendly and familiar faces, and it was neat to get a sneak-peek at a local software product that could just become a mainstay for the average user across many platforms. And the free beer and smokies must have worked, because here I am blogging about it.

For now, it’s optimized for use with Firefox and Safari (I think) and is still a sleeping giant. You can sign up to be the among the first to try Sxipper by signing up here. You can see a video by Roland Tanglao here.

tag: sxipper

You knew it was coming, and at last it’s finally here. How could I write a series about quality web content without mentioning the value and effectiveness of blogging?

(image courtesy of flickr user Trois Tetes.)

It’s no secret that I am one of the most outspoken evangelists for blogging, both as a hobby and as a business tool. But rather than have me blab on and on about what I think, I’ll defer to my fellow experts, and have them tell you why you should (or shouldn’t!) add a blog to your business’ marketing portfolio.

First up is “The Blog Squad,” two wise ladies who are huge proponents of blogging as a business tool, with a post entitled “Blogging’s Biggest Business Effect:”

It’s not more paid speeches, not the two book contracts, not more traffic, etc. - although those ARE effects I’ve seen.
It’s the the enormous increase in networking — and of course associated opportunities…Bloggers know a lot of people, and a lot of people know them. In business, that’s a BIG plus.

Well said. I think the reason is obvious, too. Bloggers make themselves more accessible and give value to their site visitors, and relationships develop very naturally as a result.

Next up is Mike Sansone, who’s whole blog “ConverStations” is dedicated to promoting the virtues of blogging for business. A few days back, Mike wrote a post called “Company Blog: Should You or Should You Not?” It includes several links to past posts he’s written on the subject, and to others’ opinions as well. Most notable are the last few sentences:

If a company wants to build valuable relationships, engage with their customers, extend their reach, become more findable and improve their bottom line in the process (and in this order) - they will probably find value in blogging.

Reverse the order above, and its probably best not to blog at this time.

Lastly, since now the fence-sitters are converts, I point to a post by Pronet Advertising that lists “My 50 Favourite Blogging Resources,” that should contain more than enough info to help you get started today.

Ever the Master of brevity in the blogosphere, Seth Godin points out a press release from CBS that highlights their enormous success on YouTube, including a quote from YouTube brass. And then he speaks volumes, by saying almost nothing at all:

“Think about that for a second.”

I applaud CBS for changing their stripes and trying a new way of distributing their content, and I’m especially proud that they are willing to publicize that such a huge audience prefers a different model from the one that has kept them safe and warm in their ivory towers for so long.

Score one for new media.

But perhaps the best news for CBS is the fact that viewership is up, according to their ratings. It proves what many of us have been saying all along; Giving a valuable chunk of information away will only help business, and not hurt it. It builds trust, and exposes your message to a larger potential audience. It puts collateral into the hands of your would-be evangelists.

Now it’s the music industry’s turn to learn this lesson, right Mack?

In Step 1, we take a look at some basic equipment, and how you create your video clips:

Later…editing!

I joined MyBlogLog today, and I like it already. It’s easy to add the rest of your online communitites to your profile, most with just your username, and automatically adds your various other frequently visited sites and communities. Seems like a great way to stay in touch with other online networkers. Plus the comment feature is more user-friendly than most that I’ve seen elsewhere.

Visit me on MyBlogLog, and add me as a contact.

Update: Reading this back, it doesn’t sound authentic. I am not affiliated with MyBlogLog in any way, I just thought the overall user experience was quite agreeable, and worth passing along.

He’s done it again. Rob has authored a very comprehensive post entitled: “Protect Yourself Against MySpace Profile Hacking,” which lays out how such a thing happens, and how to make it stop once it does.

This information is useful, but only to the 150 million or so members of MySpace.

Firefox 2.0’s functionality caused a feverish frenzy of fits that feature words that start with “F,” friends. Since installing the new version, I am unable to get it to work.

Even uninstall/re-installs have proven fruitless. Or rather, the install works, but I when I go to open the program, I get a message saying that a previous Firefox process needs to be stopped first, or restart. Neither works, and I am losing patience fast. I can’t handle another hour of IE; I just can’t.

I am currently accepting any sympathy or useful “how to” tips you may have. Thanks in advance!

Update: Crisis averted, thanks to Lindsey and the MozillaZine Knowledge Base.

Update: An interesting discussion about Give Meaning has begun due to some recent articles in the Vancouver Sun. Check the comments on this posts to follow links to find out more.
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The day before Halloween, I wrote a post about GiveMeaning, a Vancouver non-profit with some great ideas of taking the old Unicef coin-collecting boxes to the next level.

Last week I received a letter from GiveMeaning, containing two $5 “GiveMeaning Cards,”that I may use to make donations to the charity or cause of my choice. The letter, addressed to “Dear Blogger/Reporter” and signed by GiveMeaning’s CEO, explained that they intend to “empower the $5 donor,” and help people understand that even the smallest donations make a difference.

(Click to see the image full size on Flickr)

This morning, after a quick search for “children,” I used one of those cards to help build an HIV/AIDS center in Malawi, Africa and as the letter suggested, I’ll give the other as a gift (to my wife, in this case) for someone else to donate.

The site, at www.givemeaning.com, contains progress reports on projects, a tag cloud indicating the most popular causes, and a sign in area where donors can track their funds, and kids can track their fund raising with their own secure blogs. You may also purchase GiveMeaning Cards in several different amounts to be given as gifts.

Overall, I was pretty impressed with the ideas and execution of this campaign, but I thought I’d give a quick of what I liked and what I thought could improve.

For starters, it’s clear that I loved the idea from the beginning. When I received the letter in the mail I was even more impressed. They had obviously done their homework and tracked the “word of mouse” they received online as well as in the traditional media. Not only that, but the $5 card gave me something else to talk about; and although it’s their money, it did make me feel good to do it. By donating, I have been given an account, and now I can easily login and make donations to other charities and watch their progress. Also, members can create new causes and monitor the funds raised online.

As far as where they could make improvements, here’s my two cents: They understand blogging, that’s clear. But as yet, no one from GiveMeaning has left a comment on my blog, or (that I know of yet) reciprocated with a link to me. They are obviously not obligated to do so, but that’s just good ‘blogger relations,’ and would inevitably cause more posts like this one (among other bloggers, I mean). Also, they took the time to research my name and company name for the sake of the envelope, but the letter itself was a little less personal. I know that addressing it to me specifically, with perhaps a word or two about my post would take more effort and therefore more cost, but it’s safe to say that it would also bear even better results. After all, the letter was dispatched only to those people who had already gave mention of the program; so we are already “fans.” An ounce more of the empowerment that they mentioned in the letter would go a long way, me thinks.

Overall, I think this a great program. A fine example of using social media for a great cause. If you are a representative of GiveMeaning or from the agency that created the program and you’re reading this, then kudos to you. Leave a message in the comments, we’d love to hear from you.

Update: Tom Williams, CEO of Give Meaning, has replied in the comments below, directly from Africa. Despite limited connectivity, he gives updates of his work (daily, it seems) on his blog.

Before we launch ours, I thought I’d show you some of my favourite video podcasts, so you’ll know exactly where I’m borrowing most of my ideas from.

So today I present you with two great episodes from two different shows, that actually go oddly well together. Both address the question, “What is a podcast?” Both are funny and informative, and a bit cheeky, too.

First, I point you to an episode of The New Wrinkle, hosted and produced by Traviss and Amir, right here in Vancouver:

And…Welcome back! The second video in this installment is from Ze Frank’s ‘the show,’ where he explains “video blogging,” and introduces a new word; Rocketbooming! (No affiliation to the site)

Now that we’ve been suitably ridiculed by these fellars, we return to video mode next week with exactly what Ze said we should; we’re going to talk about video blogging!