Dear Facebook

The Social Networking Site Facebook

I love you, ever since I joined your service a couple years ago. I have been able to reconnect with friends from Sydney, AZ to Yellowknife, NWT.

But Facebook we really need to talk… Your not Twitter, Nor do I want to be Twitter. See Facebook I joined your service to share my life with a close 200 friends, and I really try keeping up with all of them. Honestly, I have a personal twitter account, but I am not sure what to do with it because I already use this site, and that site, to voice my public views.

And, yes, before you privacy experts get your shirt in a knot. I know the privacy on Facebook is a basic one. And anyone with some savvy hacking skills could potentially see, copy, change any of my info on your site, and I am OK with that. I know the risk of what I post and have read more then one story about employees getting fired for posting stuff on Facebook. I also prefer to keep my business life and social life separate, so if I haven’t accepted your friend request. Isn’t not you it’s me. . .

Lets just call my Facebook friends an extended family for want of a better word. I’d be OK with telling them stuff I wouldn’t be comfortable tell a complete stranger, which quite frankly resembles the entire Internet.

If I did want to publicly rant and rave then I have half a dozen different services at my disposal, or I’d just make all of my post public. but I didn’t join Facebook to do that. Nor is Facebook something I want to use that for. I like Facebook for being Facebook it was the reason I joined and the reason I continue to log in each day.

Hope you had a great Christmas and I look forward to seeing you in the New Year.

regards

Robert

Tags: Facebook, new web, privacy, social media, twitter

Goodbye Tony We will miss you!

When I was in high school I wanted to go into the media and during a class at the old Coast Cable 11 Studio’s in Gibsons BC. We sat in the classroom and watched BCTV.

Tony Parsons and Mike McCardell were the text-book of what good journalism was. As I grew older my views of the media had changed, I was hardened by years in the news, and this hardening had led me to leave the media.  but watch Tony and Mike, they, they were still the tried and true source they were when I grew up.

While Mike is still on the air, at least for now. Both were from the old school of journalism. The type that isn’t taught anymore. The type that really can’t be taught in the confines of a school.

I will miss Tony on the Nightly news. He is Irreplaceable at least to BCTV. You can leave your goodbye comments on their website.

I have stopped watch Global as it is now called, it’s a different station on the same channel. Chris Gailus although a Canadian spent many years at a FOX affiliate in New York, USA and is more of the sensational type and doesn’t have that same calm cool voice Tony has. But I watched tonight, just to say goodbye.

I have moved on to CTV and another veteran of the old school journalism, Bill Good, who use to work at BCTV. In hopes I can find a newscast that if it has to deliver bad news it will do it in a calm cool and collected way.

Tags: BCTV, CTV, Goodbye, Media, News Hour, Television News, Tony Parsons

chrisfwyoung.com

British-born and Toronto-based photographer Chris Young contacted me about improving his website. He wanted to have a site that was more search-engine friendly, had bigger images to display and something that fit his sense of style and colour scheme.

I showed Chris what I had done with Andy Clark’s site as well as my own and we started on the design process.

Chris wanted the flow of a flash site but none of the drawbacks. So through a process of trial and, admittedly, some error. We found a clean looking site with all the functionality he needed.

Being a freelancer, Chris also wanted a site that would increase visit’s to his site from first-time visitors and hopefully increase sales of some of the spectacular images he has taken.

Making a Splash

Accordion Widget

For some splash pages there are antiquated pieces of the Internet’s past. But for a photographer they do play a key piece of branding as you want to make an impression with your images as soon as possible. I took what I learned from the devious behaviour site and made the entry page one large image that adjusted to the size of the browser. I also did this with CSS and not javascript so it would be compliant across multiple browsers.

I suggested a wide horizontal image and suggested to Chris he use the Stonehenge photo. It is certainly a powerful photo that captures your attention immediately.

My developer Kevin Ganapathy did some programing so that Chris could change his background image from the user interface and not from the confusing FTP.

Playing the Accordion

Chris also wanted some way to hide the thumbnails. So, I took the accordion that I had been using on my own site and Kevin programmed the thumbnails to show up only in the different categories.

We then installed a Wordpress blog and styled it toward more of a photo-blog format. Both Chris and I are pretty happy with the results and had a lot of good feedback on the clean aesthetic look.

Tags: content management, Photography, pixel post, search engine optimization, Web Design, wordpress

The summer of bikes and coffee has been going strong. Promoting The Tree has been one of funnest projects I have ever had the chance to work on. Having a contract where you get to bike in the glorious sunshine to events all over the city, talk with people, take pictures and then blog about it has been a blast. Bikes on the Drive has been one of the nicest and easiest clients I have ever worked for.

Biking with Coffee in Vancouver Photo: David Niddrie

I found ilan to be a guy you like a quality cup of coffee and he really enjoys the coffee blog too. It is one of the reasons he hired me to write The Tree Blog. Over one day and a few Americanos we hatched this idea.

A biking coffee tour to some of the best coffee shops in East Vancouver. After blogging about The Tree bicycle for most of the summer and taking it to a few coffee shops I found the bike and coffee blog share the same goals: More sustainable products through education of consumers about the products they were purchasing, It is also great for cross marketing and promotion both were started and localized to East Vancouver and The Drive.

Without further ado here are the Details:

The East Van Biking Coffee Tour

Sponsored by: Bikes on the Drive & Vancouver Indy Coffee Scene

You can just show up but we would like to get a feeling of people who want to attend the event,
You can sign up on the coffee website.

It is the first event I have ever put on and it should be a lot of fun, I hope you can make it out!

Tags: bike, coffee, Commercial Drive, cross marketing, cross promotion, East Vancouver, Tour

Frozen Fog one of many image from Native Landscapes

In my former life as a news photographer and I did a fair amount of travel around Western Canada covering the events of the day. So when Joe and Audrey asked me to show my work at the Bump and Grind I was more than happy (it is the closest cafe to my house).

This show was commissioned five years ago for the Bienal Fotosemana, which had photography exhibitions across Bogota, Colombia. I was chosen too as the international guest and showed at Universidad Nacional de Colombia Meseo De Arte, The National University Art Museum.

With the help of Vince over at 49th and Bump and Grind we will be serving the Colombia Timana during the event.

So here is the skinny:

Show: Native Landscapes
Where: Bump and Grind 916 Commercial Drive
When: Saturday, June 13 5:00 – 7:00 pm

Tags: Arctic, art, coffee, Colombia, opening, photo, Photography, Web Design

For many college and university students the summer means going into the bush, living out of tents and planting trees. From what I have heard it can be hard, back breaking work where you only get paid for the trees you plant.

Well my summer has been a lot different than the usual tree planter. Instead of working in a camp in the middle of a clear cut, I am working for Bikes on the Drive (BOTD) on Commercial Drive, which is pretty much the center of East Vancouver.

I walked into the shop some months ago and talked with ilan Handelsman, manager of BOTD about telling their story and getting some more traffic to their website. What happened was ilan told me the story of The Tree. A bike conceived by the staff on BOTD out of frustration with the current trends in the commuter bike industry.

Bikes on the Drive Tree

What happened next was truly something amazing. I had one opportunity to convince BOTD that I was the one who should tell the story of The Tree. But to do this I had to explain social networking. The problem is that much like everyone else I didn’t really fully understand social networking in terms of marketing and a return on a shop’s investment. But what I did have was time on my hands.

I sat down and two days later with the help of OmniGraffle I had built a three-page flowchart that somewhat explained social networking to the bike shop and how it could be measured. A full two months after my first conversation I then presented this two month proposal to Tina the shop administrator and owner.

I am happy to say that three weeks ago a three month contract was approved by Bikes on the Drive and I have barely had enough time to do laundry since then. (I said barely).

So we have taken The Tree to the Bike to Work Week BBQ’s, Commuter Stations, Mexico thanks to Bugsy, Critical Mass and the bike is already a Museum Piece and it’s barely two months old.

So far it has been the biggest internet marketing project I have ever taken on. Here is a short list of what we’re working on:

• Microsite dedicated to the bike.
• Bikes on business card
• Magazine display ads
• Domain Purchase and association
• Guerrilla marketing
• Art Directed photo shoot on false creek.
• Photos of every part of Tree Life
• Event promotion and coverage
• Video
• Own Flickr group
• Interview of all staff

And we’re not even into month two of the contract. . .

So unlike the intrepid tree planters of the Canadian wilderness I have been a firmly planted urbanist this summer, promoting one of the coolest projects I have worked on since becoming a web designer.

Jenelle models the Tree on False Creek

The shop managers and owners have been amazing to work with. I have presented ideas and concepts and 9 times out of 10 I hear, “Yes, sure, lets try that!” To be given almost cart blanche to market a product without a laundry list of restrictions has been a dream of a job to work on.

But I could not do this without friends like: Jenelle Schneider who was an awesome model for the photo shoot. Jacob Hopkins who did the photography of the tree on False Creek. My programer Kevin Ganapathy who is a great web developer but also speaks fluent Robert, which means he know what I am talking about most of the time. . .

Will keep you posted on how things are progressing this summer it certainly has been a wild ride this spring.

Tags: bike, blogging, Commercial Drive, content management, marketing, Photography, social media, twitter, Web Design

Here is a follow up post to the massively popular yelp post I told you about yesterday.

“I believe all of these community review sites and user-generated content site is all about transparency.” ~ Vancouver Indy Coffee Scene

And while this will be the last double post between the two blogs, I felt it was important issue to cover. 

Also, to show the nature of change on the internet. Most of the traffic the coffee blog received was from Twitter. It also had a huge bump in subscription from Twitter because of this. 

Hopefully all this controversy will subside and I can return to blogging, photography, web design watching the Canucks in the playoffs and swimming with the club.

Tags: accountability, News, ratings, social media, twitter

In  my other blog The Vancouver Indy Coffee Scene I talk about Coffee, what I like and what I don’t. You know the usual for a typical food/coffee web site.

But I here is story about How I got banned from the social rating system Yelp.

Tags: banned, blog, coffee, social network, Vancouver, web 2.0

Atchelitz Hall

Back when I was a kid I used to go to Chilliwack for a number of family functions. These ranged from weddings to anniversaries and funerals. You know, the stuff you were usually dragged to by your parents when you were a kid.

And while there was a huge variety of church’s halls and locations that we used one always stuck out in my mind and only because of my story connected to it.

Atchelitz Hall has been part of the Chilliwack Sardis community since 1924 and part of my life since the early 80s.

And so when I was called to take some pictures and make a five-page website for the Hall, truly it would be my pleasure.

See, when I was about five years old I was taken to a wedding reception at the hall. It was a hot summer night and the front doors of the hall were open to welcome the breeze come off the field of the Fraser Valley and cool off the guests who were dancing up quite the storm upstairs.

Well after all that partying I was a little tuckered out and had a seat on the front steps of the hall. The cool breeze was so nice. Some time later my parents found me sitting up fast asleep, completely balanced and by some mystery of physics I hadn’t fallen down the stairs yet.

Since that story and every time my parents mentioned it as we drove past I have always been quite fond of the hall even if I hadn’t been back in over 15 years. So when I was contacted by the Atchelitz Farmers Institute Hall to build a small website and take some pictures of the hall I was more than happy.

Atchelitz Hall Website

The site is a minimalist approach with a matching color scheme to the outside of the hall. For a savy web user this might seem to be a very basic site, but I believe that websites are supposed to serve a purpose of the user, not the designers ability to design a website. So having a basic photo gallery (which actually has SEO unlike flash based galleries) and a contact page is all they wanted and all they were looking for and are quite happy with the results.

For me it was just a feel good project to work on with a funny bit of history from my childhood and a chance to visit with some relatives I hadn’t seen in awhile. What more could you want out of a day in the valley?

Tags: Childhood, chilliwack, family, Fraser Valley, heritage, Historic, Photography, Web Design

Critical Mass stops at Granville Bridge no problem here

When I first moved back to Vancouver I  heard about critical mass and thought it was a great idea and while there has been a little bit of controversy over the years you just can’t stop 1,000+ people who want to ride down the city streets. I finally afforded a bike last fall and I took it to an awesome mass bike ride that end on the drive. The drivers seem to know what was going on and were more or less co-habiting with the biking masses of Vancouver and wow what a great way to see the city. A nice leisurely pace, a few hills and beautiful weather.

While we had a brutal spring, I was really looking for a nice relaxing ride through the city.

I had a few issues with this last ride. Frist there seemed to be a number of angry drivers who want 1,000 bicyclists to just stop what they were doing, not really that easy, hence the name critical mass.

Nice View Conflicted Feelings

Also while being a corker on the Robson St. hill, heading westbound a woman wanted me to stop the entire parade so she could cross the street… She fully supported the movement but yet couldn’t wait the five minutes for bikes to pass. She was horribly inconvenienced and getting quite agitated while this was a movement she fully supported?

On the other hand I always liked the mantra we’re not blocking traffic we are traffic. Hey drivers, don’t get annoyed with our so-called protest if you can’t share the road, but blocking the Lions Gate Bridge in both directions to smoke a bowl really didn’t sit well with me either. ‘Cuz regardless of whether your bike or a car blocking a main bridge for a 1/2 hour just isn’t cool regardless of who or what you are.

If any Critical Mass feels the need to block the Lions Gate Bridge I will not be part of it.

In Conclusion

So drivers remember we only do this once a month for a couple of hours on a Friday night and it is actually a very liberating thing and you should try it out.

Critical Mass is intended to be a celebration, not an opportunity to cause trouble. Those who want to try to tie up traffic as much as possible and be confrontational with motorists are missing the point. Remember we’re not blocking traffic we are traffic. I am sure we can all enjoy this amazing city together…

See you at the next mass

Tags: bike, bridges, Critical Mass, Photography, politics, rides