Heather Johnstone runs the Edible Garden Project on Vancouver’s North Shore.

Just wrapping up its 4th year, the the project encourages residents to share their bounty with people in need, as well as putting together a variety of urban agriculture and community garden projects.

This week, Heather and team opened the Queen Mary Community Garden, located in the City of North Vancouver. Those of you who aren’t from the North Shore may not be aware that there is both City of North Vancouver, and a District of North Vancouver. Heather’s project involves both municipalities.

I spoke to Heather about the project and where things are going with urban agriculture on the North Shore. We met up at the Lower Lonsdale Community Garden…

click to play

Runs: 11:01

Podcast ISBN: 978-1-926758-03-9
photos and podcast © Robert Ouimet & Bigsnit Media 2009

Cam MacDonald is a new breed of farmer.

He has no land, and his farm is scattered around the city of Vancouver.

Cam is practising urban agriculture, using yards donated by people he and his partners have met, people who are interested in converting lawns into food producing gardens. No tractor or gas-spewing farm machinery here; Cam zips between his plots on an electric scooter.

He’s the subject of the latest podcast in a series I’m producing with writers Spring Gillard and David Tracey called Can Urban Agriculture Save the World ?

runs 14:42

click to play

Podcast ISBN: 978-1-926758-00-8

photos and podcast © Robert Ouimet & Bigsnit Media 2009

Cam MacDonald is also a professional artist – his latest work and exhibits have a food and food-supply related theme. You can see examples of his work on his website, CamMacDonald.ca

I’ve started producing a series of podcasts about Urban Agriculture, hosted by Spring Gillard and David Tracey.  The series will run on Spring’s website, CompostDiaries.com, as well as on  VanGoGreen.

We recorded the first in the series on Tuesday at the YWCA downtown’s roof garden.  It’s an interesting project, and all the food grown in the garden is taken to a women’s group on the downtown east side. You can read more about the rooftop garden / food project on the Y’s website.

Ted Cathcart runs the project, and he was kind enough to spend an hour with us explaining the project and discussing the challenges.

The podcast runs just over 18 minutes.

click to play

podcast and photo © Bigsnit Media Consulting Inc.
podcast ISBN 978-0-9809054-9-6

The PLAN Institute and BC Women’s Hospital recently asked me to record a podcast with Dr. Mehret Mandefro.

She’s an HIV/AIDS educator and activist who’s also the subject of an incredibly moving documentary called All of Us. Dr. Mandefro is the founding director of Truth Aids

You can find out more about her on her website.

In the podcast I think you’ll get a real sense of her inspiration and drive to make a difference – she’s got an incredibly dynamic personality and at the same time, is very down to earth and realistic about the challenges of health education.

It’s on the Plan Institute website here – you have to register on their site first in order to get it.

Or you can also listen to it here:

click to play

Thanks to Emily Apt of Pureland Pictures for permission to use clips from the film, All of Us .

Some shocking data (courtesy TruthAids website):

• For African American women ages 15 to 24, AIDS has been the leading cause of death for almost 10 years.
• HIV is the leading cause of death for African American men ages 35-44 (NCHS,2002)
• African American men are disproportionately affected by the HIV epidemic: AIDS diagnosis rate among African American was almost 11 times the rate among whites

** UPDATE **

Dr. Mandefro has just been appointed a White House Fellow.  Details here

I’ve just finished some video work for BasicGov, a really interesting Vancouver based company that’s addressing the needs of small and medium sized local government all over North America.

These folks are clever.

Using an SaaS (Software as a Service) model, they’re providing a package of admin and organizational tools to local governments.

Typically, these tools are only available through expensive enterprise software – and the little guys find themselves making do with patched together solutions for tracking things like building permits , code enforcement, or planning. BasicGov’s approach seems even more relevant given the current economy.

What these guys have done is distill the key services required and created a web-based solution. Their clients have no technology overhead to deal with, they pay on monthly subscription basis, so they can start without spending heaps of cash, and all they need in place is an internet connection and a browser.

The goal of this project was to provide a high-level overview of the suite of products – essentially an introduction to the concept of SaaS without ever using the acronym, and how these products help solve specific challenges faced by small governments.

BasicGov, wisely, is using YouTube as a key platform to distribute these videos.

It’s fitting, considering their own model.

Just like their own service, using YouTube allows them to get all the benefits of a large scale distribution platform, with zero overhead. The idea is to use the videos as an introduction to the services, not as a ‘how to’ per se – though we may do some of those later.

Creating the videos gave me an interesting insight into their product as well. The team sat down with me and walked though each of the 3 key modules. I took notes, but mostly I was just trying to get oriented. I’ve never worked in local government, so a lot of the details were new to me.

Often with this type of software, a casual observer (me) will find it difficult to retrace their way through the various functions. I was surprised when I logged on back at my office, and discovered I was able to work my way through all the pieces with ease. Which of course was one of the goals BasicGov laid out when they started.

PRODUCTION

We worked through an iterative process, using storyboards to identify key screens and copy.

I often use Final Draft A/V for this kind of thing, but in this case, I opted for Story Board Quick. I like being able to generate HTML and FLASH versions of the boards – I work virtually most of the time and it makes sharing the info with the client quick. I also strip out the copy and provide the client with a clean copy deck – often this is the easiest place for them to identify changes.

For screen capture, I knew I wanted something other than Camtasia. It’s not really a Mac or PC thing, I work with both (I do all my audio on PC). Given that I planned on editing on Final Cut at high resolution, I wanted something clean and lean that made it easy for me to get the screens I wanted, with the zoom factor I wanted, etc.

I opted for I Show U HD. It plays nice with Mac and was rock solid. It was a real bonus being able to select from a variety of resolutions and frame rates – I imported all my clips directly to FCP.

Through the process I created rough cuts for the client to review. These I provided to them in Flash Video – using Adobe’s CS4 media encoder. I was then able to load them up on a server for them to grab and review at their convenience. What this meant was that we were able to move through more iterations faster than would have been the case with ‘in person’ reviews.

Once we finalized the copy of flow, I created a ‘finished’ voice track to replace my working tracks. I record all my audio on a Sound Devices 702T through a 422 field mixer. Then I haul the audio into Adobe Audition for editing, and master with T-Racks 24, then haul the mastered files back into Final Cut.

Because BasicGov wanted to take advantage of YouTube’s HD options, everything was captured at 1280 x 720, and the YouTube versions, both regular and HD, looks great. You can see them here:

• Overview
• Permits and Inspections
• Code Enforcement
• Planning

The team at BasicGov was a real delight to work with, and I hope we’ll do some more projects together soon.

As a consultant, I prepare a lot of documents for clients. Actually, even before they become clients, I find myself preparing and printing documents as part of whole process of determining whether we’ll work together.

Despite the fact that everything is prepared digitally, and often sent digitally, printing hard copy just hasn’t gone away. Even if I send only a digital copy, inevitably a copy is printed. It’s not just habit – most people find it easier to review and mark-up hard copy in advance of a meeting.

I do use recycled paper in my printer, and when ever feasible I print double sided – but I came across an idea that makes perfect sense, and one I’m going to start using right way.

It’s a font created in Holland that uses less ink.

It’s called the Ecofont, and it maintains readability, but because the characters aren’t ‘solid’, it uses less ink when printing.

Here’s the info from the folks who created it – a Dutch ad agency…

The prints we make for our ‘daily use’ not only use paper, but also ink. According to SPRANQ creative communications (Utrecht, The Netherlands) your ink cartridges could last longer. SPRANQ has therefore developed a new font: the Ecofont.

“After Dutch holey cheese, there now is a Dutch font with holes as well.”

Appealing ideas are often simple: how much of a letter can be removed while maintaining readability? After extensive testing with all kinds of shapes, the best results were achieved using small circles. After lots of late hours (and coffee) this resulted in a font that uses up to 20% less ink. Free to download, free to use.

One of my great frustrations is that I’m still printing loads of documents that end up going into recycling. So, I’m going to start using the Ecofont in my printed documents starting today.

Interestingly, on the screen at least, the cut-out dots don’t really show up until you get to a fairly big size – around 24 px and up.

I think, just to help spread the word, I’ll add a “made with the ecofont” in the footer.

Publishers should be thinking a lot more seriously about electronic books and how to leap ahead of their competitors.

Sony’s eBook has only been available in Canada for a few months, and it’s far from the perfect product, but it provides a glimpse into what’s coming.

Playing with the eBook Reader reminds me of the first MP3 players I used in the 90′s. At the time, people scoffed at the idea that the small players would replace their CD collection. People scoffed at the idea of an online music store where songs would be downloaded. And we all know how that turned out.

The shift to electronic books could easily follow the same pattern, assuming the hardware meets our needs. The Sony eBook is close – more on the problems later.

First – the good.

I love the eBook reader.

It’s sleek, easy to use, and the screen technology is far better than anything I’ve seen before.

Partly this is due to the high resolution of the e-ink technology – it’s more than twice the resolution of your typical computer screen – so text is crisp. Since the screen technology doesn’t depend on back lighting (like your laptop) it looks totally flat, so the effect is much closer to the look of paper than a digital screen.

The Sony eBook also displays images (in black and white), plays MP3′s and allows you to load up Word documents, PDF files, jpg and gif pictures, along with their own e-book format and other open electronic book formats.

I’ve loaded about 70 books into my reader and I’ve barely touched the internal memory. This version of the reader has 2 slots for Sony memory sticks, so there’s really no limit to the amount of content you can carry around.

I found that I quickly adjusted to the form factor. The placement of the ‘next page’ buttons line up with where you normally hold a book, and there’s a bookmark function to hold your place.

Essentially, the reading experience is different, but not in a negative way. The feel of the book obviously isn’t there, but it functions pretty much like a book, and that’s what makes its potential so powerful.

Riding the bus, sitting in a doctor’s waiting room, or hanging out on a park bench – this device is ideal. Like an mp3 player, it’s light and easy to carry – so I’m more likely to have it with me than I might a big heavy book. And considering that I can haul around hundreds of books, it’s hands down a much better option.

Opportunities

I can see a lot of major advantages in terms of publishing.

Timeliness

Reference and technical books, particularly those about software, are largely out of date by the time they’re published. With an electronic book, updates and changes could be made as often as required, and just a download away. It’s a natural for serialization. And dare I say it – a daily newspaper ?

Presentations

While I can haul out my laptop for a quick one-on-one presentation with a potential client, the size of the eBook is more easier to deal with, and I can literally stand in the elevator and walk through a presentation on the way up. Keep in mind that the screen only displayed in black and white (actually, 4 shades of grey) so I do repurpose my presentations to make them look good on the screen, but you can also just load up any PDF, Word doc, JPG or Gif image, and the eBook will simply display colour as monochrome images.

eBook and Podcasts

Given that Sony’s included an MP3 player right in the eBook, it seems natural to bundle books with author podcasts, as well as serialized “books on MP3″ packages that could be used for promotion

Trees

Books use paper. eBooks use bytes. Need I say more ? Shipping ? Fogetaboutit.

Here’s where I think things need to improve

Software. Sony makes great consumer entertainment products but its software is often horrid. Given that they have a great model with the iTunes store, there’s really no excuse for the state of Sony eBook store. The software is also the interface for loading books onto the eBook reader. It needs a major over-haul in look & feel as well as functionality.

Connectivity. Hard to beleive, but Sony’s software is PC only. Given the nature of the eBook reader, the Apple crowd should be a prime target market. But unless they’re running their MacBook in dual boot mode, they’re out of luck.

Tether. Connectivity to the computer is via a USB cable. I’m assuming the reason there’s no Bluetooth or other wireless connectivity is space, but I’d dearly love to be able to move data back and forth without having to find the cable and plug in. This is a challenge Apple still hasn’t solved with the iPod so I supposed I shouldn’t be so demanding. All I know is that as long as the device has to hook up to my computer, it’s potential is limited.

Price. The 505 model is 300.00 Canadian, which seems expensive given the price of things like iPods, game consoles and and digital cameras. The goal here is to get people using the device so they’ll buy books. Consumers don’t like paying for technology development and a price point that’s too high will keep the adoption rate low.

The newly released 700 models has some nice new features including touch scrolling, but at 400.00 it’s just way too expensive. Amazon’s competitor, the wireless Kindle, is 359.00 USD

Why publishers need to pay attention

The book isn’t going away any time soon, but things are going to change dramatically. Electronic books open up some new possibilities for existing publishing models, and throw the doors wide open to new models.

Is it possible that within a few years the biggest book seller might be a hardware manufacturer ? There’s a reason Amazon created it’s own electronic book reader.

Why not publish dailies in ebook form, so that I can grab up update on my way out the door and read it on the bus ?

Sony’s eBook reader already supports RSS feeds – with a wireless connection there’s no reason I couldn’t be walking through the mall, train station or even at transit bus shelter and downloading the latest update to the periodicals and books I’ve subscribed to.

The e-paper will get better. The connectivity will improve. The price will come down. There’ll be other models and competitors. All those things bode well for publishers – IF they get with it and start to explore what’s possible.

Links:

Get this article for your Sony eBook Reader (open BBeb format)

• bigsnit_blog_lrf.zip

Sony eBook reader at SonyStyle.ca

• 505 model
• New 700 Model

Amazon’s Kindle

A veteran writer turns his obsession with detail into a building project.

In his new book, Almost Green, James Glave tells the story of building a green studio in the front yard – and changing his life forever.

Recording at James Glave’s eco-shed on Bowen Island, this podcast was recorded before the book was published, a of sorts.

click to play

Read more about James Glave and how to buy the book on his web site, www.glave.com

photo courtesy James Glave

Robert’s notes…

I’ve known James since the mid-90′s. We both fumbled our way onto the then new world wide web – he was with Vancouver Magazine and I was with CBC Vancouver.

I always looked forward to seeing a new magazine article by James – they were smart, witty and superbly crafted. He brought the same high quality to his online work; it stood out then, and it stands out now.

When he left Vancouver for San Francisco and Wired News in 1997, many of us were envious of his determination to carve out a living ‘on the internet’. He became a regular guest speaker at the Simon Fraser University summer web publishing courses, and he regaled us with news from the front lines of life in Silicon Valley.

I’m glad James is back in Vancouver – and thrilled to see him bringing outstanding journalism and his determined voice to stories about the environment and sustainability.

While we wait for his book to come out – do check out his mini-book Buck The System on his web site – add your contribution to his PayPal fund – and enjoy the articles he’s distributing online.

The podcast with James Glave runs: 25:30 and was originally produced for VanGoGreen.com

podcast ISBN: 978-0-9809054-3-4

© Bigsnit Media Consulting Inc. 2008. Podcasts are available for re-broadcast by contacting info@robertouimet.com

Keynote at Northern Voice 2008

Matt Mullenweg is the 24 year founder of WordPress, an open source blogging and content management software.

He was the keynote speaker this morning at the Northern Voice blogging conference in Vancouver.

This is audio of his complete presentation, un-edited.

click to play

Matt Mullengweg at the podium, Photo by kk+ Vancouver fashion photographer, bon vivant and all around nice guy who’s wicked with a lens.

Robert’s notes…

I’m a user and was a fan of WordPress before I met Matt. Hearing him speak has convinced me that one of the reasons WordPress has done so well is that Matt clearly keeps his eye on the goal; to make WordPress serve its users.

His presentation may be based on his work at WordPress, but his ideas are equally relevant to web sites, magazines, radio, tv, and any other form of communication in existence today.

Monique Trottier has a nice text summary of the presentation on So Misguided.

Matt Mullenweg
Keynote Address at the Northern Voice conference
Vancouver, British Columbia
Saturday Feb 23rd, 2008

runs: 42:48

Photo above by Penmachine and used under CC license

HockeyStars.com launched earlier this week. It’s a fun tool for anyone playing hockey and I was fortunate enough to help with a small bit of the site.

I recorded and produced the audio you hear in the flash movies – there are more of them once you’ve registered.

It was loads of fun to work on. Hanging out at the rink all day reminded me of when I was a kid and spending the day at the DMCC arena in Dauphin.

Here’s what the site is about:

HockeyStars is devoted to the real stars of the game. It’s a free online community for amateur hockey players, coaches, parents and volunteers.

It’s where players come to connect with their teams and others in the community, and where managers and coaches can use online management tools to make team communication and operations easier. HockeyStars makes it easy to share game schedules, statistics, photos, videos and messages with teammates, family and fans.

HockeyStars is powered by Citizens Bank of Canada, a national online bank backed by the ethical grounding that comes from being part of the Vancity Group. Formed in 1997, we have a strong focus on corporate social responsibility and are the only bank in Canada with a clear ethical policy.

What does banking have to do with hockey? Well, some banks open new branches to serve the community around them. We’re opening online branches—small, online communities built around a common interest, like hockey. Through HockeyStars we hope to give back to the community while helping to raise a generation of young savers.