Starting August 10, you’ll have a chance to vote for SXSW Panels and Presentations until Aug. 28th and your vote constitutes a portion of the selection process along with staff and an advisory board.

Here’s a pitch for a panel for SXSW Music Conference remixed from a panel at Northern Voice 2009 Rock n’ Roll Photo w/ Bev Davies + Kris Krug at Northern Voice 09. Like that panel, I’ll moderate a group of experienced band and concerts photographes about a variety of creative and technical and licensing issues. Read the whole submission below.

Also, for your voting consideration:

Hitchhiking to the Boardroom – Biz lessons from the road by Dave Olson
Web of Streams – Kris Krug
Robots Have Ears – Kris Krug, Amber Case et al

Panel: Rock N Roll Photography

Blurb:

Photos are an integral part of building a music scene and attracting audience but there’s a chasm between amateur snapshots and pro photos which truly capture the band’s aesthetic. This panel explores how bands and photographers can work together (technically & creativity) to produce images which enhance the artist/fan relationship.

Questions:

1. What do photographers want from bands when shooting them?
2. What can bands do to be better subjects for photographers?
3. What are characteristics of a great band or concert photo?
4. How can photographers get great shots at shows with low light and fast action?
5. What are the differences between shooting for love or money? Does it change your shots?
6. Who are you shooting for? Yourself, the bands, the fans, the future?
7. Everyone has a camera of some kind – how does this change the reasons/importance of your photos?
8. What are rights licensing options for photographers?
9. How can photographers build an audience by sharing and using Creative Commons?
10. How can photographers build relationships with promoters/bands/labels?

Bios:

Moderator Dave Thorvald Olson is a writer, podcaster and documentarian who frequently appears in media from High Times to CBC to BBC discussing counter-culture, art, hockey, and public policy.

Note: Dave Olson presented  F@ck Stats, Make Art spiel at SXSWi 2009 with solid reviews.

Why i am qualified to speak:

I’ve seen hundreds of rock shows, published punk rock fanzines, followed the Grateful Dead plus Elvis died on my 7th birthday. I presented this panel at Northern Voice conference in Vancouver BC – recap with video, slides, photos, reviews and live blog.

Also, I gathered up exceptional panelists:

Panelists:

Bev Davies photographed most every punk rock band in, or through, Vancouver in the 1977-85 from DOA to Dead Kennedys to The Clash plus “emerging” major acts like U2, Motorhead and Madonna. Her intimate and distinctive B&Ws, which appeared regularly in the alternative press together form a compelling chronicle of Vancouver’s music history.

Kris Krug regularly shoots bands along with fashion shows, tech conferences, Olympic Games and international travel. Known for his cross-processed style, he shares his shots with Creative Commons licensing, regularly organizes photo walks and contributes to conferences including TedX Shanghai, Gnomedex, PopTech, Petcha Kutcha and Northern Voice.

More about Rock N Roll Photography panel:

Photos are a key component of building a music scene or movement as well as engaging audience for a musical act, but there is a huge difference between some snapshots and photos which capture the band’s aesthetic and essence. Plus, photographers shooting for magazines or freelance don’t always want to share the licensing which allows the band to use the shots for their own promo use.

This panel with noted rock n roll photographers explores how bands and photographers can work together to produce images which thrill the band and inspire the fans. Beyond the technical points of photography, moderator Dave Olson will discuss how the manner of working, point of view, and setting are key contributors to quality results and ask the panelists how they find inspiration, develop a unique style, capture atmosphere, and form working relationships with the artists ~ plus technical tips to get in the pit and make a great rock shot.

For your Consideration:

Hitchhiking to the Boardroom – Biz lessons from the road by Dave Olson
Web of Streams – Kris Krug
Robots Have Ears – Kris Krug, Amber Case et al

Here’s my (Dave Olson’s) submission to SXSW Interactive 2010 – Starting August 10, you’ll have a chance to vote for SXSW Panels and Presentations until Aug. 28th and your vote constitutes a portion of the selection process along with staff and an advisory board.

After the enjoyment of presenting F@ck Stats, Make Art spiel at SXSWi 2009, I mulled over my options and have some pretty entertaining in mind which will entice me to dig deep in my older travel files and more modern Internet biz binders of artifacts to support my story-telling. Will use some photos this time around too.

Here’s the details of my pitch along with a a few other resources to prepare for voting.

Title of panel or presentation (maximum 8 words):
Hitchhiking to the Boardroom

50 word description of this panel / presentation

Not all business lessons are learned in an MBA program, nor management skills gained in seminars. This inter-disciplinary conversation distills a decade of working odd jobs in 20+ countries, followed by 14 years of Internet biz endeavors, into unique problem-solving skills as well as inspire attendees with a replenished toolbox of usable tactics.

10 questions that will be answered in this panel / presentation

How can I reach the top without a fancy degree?
Why should you bring “yourself” to work?
How do you diffuse a$$holes (especially when they are your boss)?
How can I find mentors, teachers and miracles?
How can I develop recession-proof business ideas?
Why are the advantages of communicating with an audience in their language?
Why should I forget pre-conceptions and surprise myself?
Why is an inter-disciplinary perspective important?
Why should I consider hitting the road (and not look back)?
How can I figure out what truly matters to me – and make it happen?

50-word bio for this speaker

Dave Olson is a world-traveling renaissance guy who has published essays, poetry and fiction, wrote and produced a documentary film, and traveled to 20+ countries working jobs from mushroom farmer to private beach club host. An experienced story-teller, Dave’s presentation style is unique, visually compelling and free of jargon, cheesy buzzwords and bulleted lists.

I am qualified to speak on this topic because:

{pardon the 3rd person} An experienced media pundit, Dave made dozens of TV/radio/newspaper appearances discussing web media technology, public policy activism, entrepreneurship, hockey and more on outlets ranging from CBC to BBC to High Times.

Most recently, he’s worked as a professional web community builder and marketing evangelist for a variety Vancouver web companies.

He regularly speaks at events and conferences about using technology to enable artistic expression and using social media for social change.

He graduated in 2004 from the noted Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington with a degree in Inter-disciplinary studies after studying public policy, philosophy, global affairs and writing – he also attended the Universities of Utah and Guam.

A podcasting pioneer, Dave creates several long-running series including Postcards from Gravelly Beach – a spoken word literature show, Choogle on! – gonzo international sound-seeing adventures, and Canucks Outsider, a wildly-popular audio magazine about Vancouver hockey culture.

Has this person spoken at SXSW before?

Yes

Recent Publications:

Depth Perception (poetry) – 2009
Letters from Russia (epistolary lit) – 2006
The First Rule of Longboard Hockey is … – Heads Magazine 2007
Rebagliati Positive for 2010 – Head Magazine 2006
Zen Rambling in Japan – Heads Magazine 2006
Hemp Culture in Japan – Cannabis Culture 2000

For Your Consideration:

Rock N Roll Photography – Panel
Web of Streams – Kris Krug
Robots Have Ears – Kris Krug, Amber Case et al

Art Makes the Future. Art is the Future by KK.

F@ck Stats, Make Art at SXSWi 2009

I presented my soliloquy for personal expression called “F@ck Stats, Make Art” on March 13 at SXSW in Austin, TX as a Core Conversation.

While I was spieling, I couldn’t help to recall all the others times I’ve stood before groups – from Rotarians to Mormons to Deadheads to strangers on buses to students in Germany – to tell my stories. When I spoke about my ole dead Gramps from whom I heard I alot of tall tales, I realized that so many of the mundane and amusing talks I’ve busted out at one time or another were all coming together in that room.

Thanks to everyone who listened while the stories were in development and when they were really happening. To everyone who showed up, Thanks. To everyone who came up for a hug and a kind word to to show off their hero/project/metaphor cards – big thanks. I feed off of you to lay it all open. I gotta trust you or I can’t tell it real-style.

DIY Analog Power Point by Unkown - did you take this?

At the risk of waiting any longer to post *everything*, here is an evolving wrap-up of the related content from F@ck Stats Make Art at SXSW 09.

Consider dropping a vote for my pitches for SXSW10:

Hitchhiking to the Boardroom prezo for SXSW Interactive
& Rock N Roll Photography panel for SXSW Music

You may also enjoy this recap of F@ck Stats, Make Art at Northern Voice 2008 and this podcast episode SXSW Stories from Middle Earth – Choogle On #79 in which i both preview and recap SXSW09, finally, here are all my SXSW 2008 Choogle on podcasts – 6 episodes to soak in the chaotic flavour of the music and parties.

What’s next? I have a closet full of stories – literally. I plan to tell them. Perhaps a tour, more books, more artifacts – Wanna help spread this message of tolerance, translucency and creativity? Subscribe to Choogle On! podcast.

Photo Slidedeck

I didn’t use this deck in the prezo but it includes most of the photos in the envelopes of Heroes, Metaphors and Projects.

Treats! Photo By James Chutter

Twitter updates

@SimpleScott :

#sxsw insight #2: “be tolerant and translucent” – Dave Olson

@SquanderingTime :

I think the food thing needs to happen before the next set of talks. Btw, the fuck stats make art talk was incredible.#sxsw

@MezzoBlue :

@uncleweed’s “F@&$ Stats, Make Art” was so compelling I forgot to check Twitter for an hour. #sxsw

@MeJayne :

http://twitpic.com/22fk0 – MoJo talk’n tasty nuggz with rockstar Dave Olson, preacher of truth and rebellion

@SarahDavies :

“Even if you’re one in a million, find the 300 other Americans just like you, and have a party!” – Dave Olson #sxsw

@LeslieBradshaw :

At my first session, from Dave Olson: “embrace translucency” (not everything about you is interesting) #sxsw

@AustinJardinera :

Inspired by Dave Olson to try presenting stories to customers via arts and crafts projects #sxsw

@TexasBrat :

#sxsw F*&K stats make art tolerance & translucency makes people able to get along and share with others ~Dave Olsen

(TexasBrat was rocked the coverage of the spiel! Check these: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven! whoa!)

Think you're clever? Express with Vigor! (I Love Fish Tacos) by KK

Blog etc.

CAN YOUR LIFE’S WORK BE DIGITAL? (Sarah Davies)

Is there a digital Thoreau? Will we discover a currently neglected philosophy blogger in a hundred years and suddenly realize that we ignored someone whose ideas would come to change the world?

SXSW Diary – Friday (Pete Ashton)

It worked for me because he’s sort of a fellow traveller having done the zine thing. I’m still processing my thoughts but it tied in with some thinking I’ve been doing about what I might end up getting involved with next…

jewgonewild @ identi.ca

Watching David Olsen put on a robe.. lol (look closely) #sxsw http://pikchur.com/pan

Kris Krug @ Friendfeed

Looks like Dave Olson’s ‘Fuck Stats Make Art’ talk is gonna be standing room only. Come be a part of history. ;) #uncleweed #fbombs #sxsw

Catchin' a buzz with Elvis by Michael Barnes

Photos

Do you have photos from F@ck Stats, Make Art at SXSW 2009? Please tag them “uncleweed” and “fsma” “sxsw09″ or something and i’ll pick ‘em up.

Kris Krug – Dave Olson – Fuck Stats Make Art – SXSW 2009 – photoset – see above for samples

James Chutter – Dave Olson Read Thoreau

John Biehler – SXSW09

Love these annotations by So Misguided, Monique Trottier

+

Remix

Mojo makes a slide about Transluscency

Mojo Remixes Art Make the Future or a slide deck

Special Thanks

To John Biehler, Peter Andersen, Jeremy Crowle for helping me bring it all together – and to all of you who took the time to show up and/or rate the prezo.

Stats?! Fuck em'... Ratings on the other hand...

Hero/Project/Metaphor cards

Make your own from the attached .pdf (attribution, non-commercial use only – note: while I took most of the photos, some photos’ origins are unknown or undocumented but presumed to be in public domain-ish).

{coming}

What Else? You tell me @uncleweed

Building A Scene – Rock & Roll Photography Panel Re-cap

Blurb:

Photography isn’t always clean, in a studio with great lighting, patient models, or beautiful subjects.

Iggy Pop decades apart by Kk and Bev Davies at NV09

In a panel with two noted Vancouver photographers Bev Davies and Kris Krug, host Dave O will explore how they find inspiration, develop a differentiating style, capture atmosphere, and form relationships with the artists, plus technical tips to make a great rock shot.

They’ll also discuss sharing your work to build a common experience and a “scene” for fans to self-identify with and participate in as well as compare and contrast favourite shots.

Video:

Thanks to Bruce Sharpe – 25 Hour Day via Blip.Tv, who sets up the clip in Rock N Roll Photo:

Using several well-chosen photos of rock ‘n’ roll stars as a backdrop, Dave Olson finds out from noted Vancouver photographers Bev Davies and Kris Krüg how they are permitted access (or not), how they work with the musicians (or not) and what it takes to get that iconic, memorable photo. From Northern Voice 2009.

It takes a minute or two for the video to settle down. Stick with it, it’s worth it!

Slides:

Complete Rock N Roll Photography slidedeck (Google) by Dave Olson featuring photos of Kris Krug and Bev Davies.

Live blog:

Northern Voice 2009 Rock and Roll Photography Kris Krug Dave Olson Bev Davies by Miss 604 Rebecca Bollwitt

Excerpt: I first started delving into the works of the legendary Bev Davies only just over a year ago but after discovering what I have (which is simply scratching the surface) I realized what an important person she is to rock and roll history, along with Vancouver history.

Along with Kris Krug, whose rock photography is recent yet not any less inspiring and captivating, Dave Olson will guide these two through a journey of their craft both on and offline.

Reviews:

Northern Voice – Dean H (SubPop New Media)

I also saw a great talk moderated by Dave Olson on rock ‘n roll photography featuring Kris Krug and Bev Davies. Both of Kris and Bev take fantastic pictures (that you should really take a look at) but, in particular, some of Dev Davies’ early pictures (there are some in a Flickr set here) are must see if you’re a fan of early ‘80’s punk and hardcore. Bev was basically the only one taking pictures at these shows in Vancouver in the early ‘80’s and her collection of shots of DOA, The Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, The Adolescents, Gang of Four, Duff McKagan-era Fastbacks (and on and on and on) are amazing. You may have seen her photography in the punk rock calendar that Nardwuar put together a couple years ago—all the photos in the calendar are her work.

Randy Stewart at Stewtopia: Northern Voice 2009 – Vancouver’s Finest

Dave Olson’s interview with Kris Krug and Bev Davies about rock and roll photography was fantastic. I had met Bev the day before after an intro by Peter Andersen and I had a lovely conversation, but had no idea she was so punk rock. Her pictures speak volumes.

Maryam ghaemmagha​mi Scoble says:

Finally, I especially enjoyed watching Dave Olson interview Bev Davies and Kris Krug about taking photographs from Rock and Roll bands and watching all the historic and amazing photos reel on stage.

Speakers:

KK + Bev Davies in Rock N Roll Photo by Penmachine

Moderator Dave Thorvald Olson is a writer, podcaster and documentarian who frequently appears in media from High Times to CBC to BBC discussing counter-culture, art, hockey, and public policy. He’s seen hundreds of rock shows, published punk rock fanzines, followed the Grateful Dead plus Elvis died on his 7th birthday. (DaveO’s Library)

Bev Davies photographed most every punk rock band in, or through, Vancouver in the 1980’s from DOA to The Clash. Her intimate and distinctive B&Ws, which appeared regularly in the alternative press, captured both the sweat of the band and the excitement of the audience and together form a compelling chronicle of Vancouver’s music history. (Bev on Flickr)

Kris Krug shot dozens of bands at the last 3 SXSW Music fests along shooting everything from fashion shows to tech conferences. Known for his x-processed style, at SXSW he captured evocative, gritty shots from well-known artists like REM and Flaming Lips to emerging acts and shares his shots with Creative Commons licensing to help bands and fans enjoy the experience. (KK on Flickr)

A few podcasts in process and notes on production workflow and podcast making:

Podcasts in Process

Choogle montage – handful of clips which never got a finish (or a beginning), or were too loud, or too without context – i think they could be remixed into a unique show with some music and loops and sound bites from the clips – it’s kinda a mess and a vague idea but there’s something decent there – kinda of a LSD mop-up tray

Clayoquot series – a bunch of audio clips which are disorganized and possibly out of sequence. need to sort em out into episodes length chunks – there are a few show length chunks i.e. the logging/fishing interview, reservation spiel, and some other poetry and essay bits for Postcards from Gravelly Beach – literature show – UNDERWAY

Last voter in Canada – this is the old election show mentioned in the new election show – my experience voting and then a post-vote party with noise and commentary – a bunch of clips to sort, levelate and arrange but could be a gooder

HempenRoad – While on a mountain ramble, Uncle Weed recounts the HempenRoad film project, a mixed media travel documentary about the commercial industrial hemp industry in Cascadia in 1996.

SXSW – 3 flase starts on this preview and recap of 2009 sxsw and my F@ck Stats, Make  Art lecture

Lt Magnum – interview with US Navy officer back from Iraq and Philipines taking military life, seabees and beer

Tribute to the Fonz – My pal Gazoo died last April – i recorded my thoughts on the dock of Harrison lake

Keys to a solid episode

1) Tell a story (often requires rearranging clips to create a narrative – add some music to give the folks time to reflect and chill as needed)
2) Remove douche-baggery (yeah sometimes there are false starts, stupid comments, missteps, self-indulgent crap and people calling “dave” – all that goes)
3) Sonically comfortable (export as AIFF, normalize/compress using Levelator, then convert to .mp3, listen and re-export til it sounds sweetopian)
Download this: http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator

Complete show pack

Includes:

* Episode – 128K stereo mp3, levelated
* ID3 tags (title, description, lyrics, art)
* Album art (photo edited in PS or flickr/picnik)
* Blog post with show notes/links with footer

Workflow Summary

1. Record mucho audio on M-Audio Microtrak or iPhone >

2. Import raw files to iTunes and listen to raw clips while riding transit >

3. Ferment for 6 months to 3 years for “seasoning” >

4. Either a) talk someone into editing it based on my cuts, or b) use Garage Band to build the episode by adding themes, music, anecdotes and such

5. Export/listen/fix-it-up/export/listen – happy? Export as AIFF> Levelate > Convert to mp3 > Add Meta ID3 Data (title, descrip, album art)

6. Upload via to a web dir via FTP

7. Create blog post (free wordpress.com blog) with description, links, album art, etc. >

8. Publish and flow feed to Feedburner > iTunes etc. Announce to folks, have a toke >

9. Repeat over and over For the People!

Toolbox

M-Audio Microtrak – record almost everything on this – battery life is the weak point, otherwise very nice

Sony stereo mic – Same as Father Roderick – gives great stereo separtation for sound-seeing

Koss Sterophones – You are gonna have cans on a lot, get good one, I prefer Koss over any other i’ve tried

M-Audio Solo Firewire Interface and desk mic for home recording

Social Media dude Jess Sloss breaks down a blogger outreach campaign launched to drum up attn for a Trailer Park Boys contest to promote a new movie and release of TV series on DVD.

Check the whole “mini case study” at: 3 Tips for Buying Social Media Attention by Jess Sloss on  June 26, 2009.

First, he outlines the gist of the outreach tactics, saying:

The long and short of it is this, they will give me $50, as long as I plop that banner you see in the side bar and send out a tweet.

There’s more too it though. Here’s how they outlined the offer:

The MovieSet gang lifted 4 bags full of Trailer Park Boys DVDs but we can’t hold onto the stash so are giving the booty away with a sweepstakes. We gotta let all of Sunnyvale know about the goods so we’re offering you a bribe to spread the rumors.

Whatcha get:

1. Bottle of Ray’s liquor – $20

2. Bag of Nova Scotia’s finest – $20

3. Kitty – free + $10 for shots

Then comes the money shot:

We’ve done enough law breaking to know we can’t just mail all this contraband so instead we’ll send you a cheque for $50. You gotta be in USA or Canada to get the payola and be invited by MovieSet.com specifically. No hanger-ons and groupies.

Then, he outlines the reasons he bought into the pitch:

1) Money isn’t the value proposition
2) The story is more than the sum of it’s parts
3) Humor goes a long way

And wraps up by distilling a few tips (which i heartily endorse):

a) Tell a Story
b) Answer the “why” Question
c) Be Real

Be sure to follow @thattallguy on Twitter – he doesn’t miss a thing!

Consider a Digg: 3 Tips for Buying Social Media Attention

My friends and eco-health-lifestyle-advocates Justin and Lisa were featured on Food TV on a massive canning project.

As described in Preserving Summer: Preparing for an Uncertain Future, they canned 800 lbs of fruits in their apartment with a little help from friends. They are both really solid, confident and natural in this video clip and clearly have a great time manifesting their life together.

You may recall my podcast about Justin’s (successful) project to give away 10,000 cedar seedings and Lisa’s great coverage for happyfrog calling the “green” event at BC Place on their green-washing.

Adopt Justin’s Cedars – Urban Vancouver podcast #3

Be sure to follow along at their blog as these talented folks doing it proper in their quest to develop an intentional community.

Finally, here’s their motivations for epic project:

1. Preserve enough staple fruits and veggies to make it through to next season
2. Eat local, healthy, organic food that directly supports local farmers
3. Develop skills that make us increasingly self-reliant
4. Develop a deeper sensitivity to the seasons and the availability of local food
5. Have an abundant supply of food in case we have to weather any supply problems
6. Challenge ourselves
7. Save $$$
8. Have fun
9. Inspire change
10. Have an abundance of goods to give away during the Christmas season
11. Have a stash to trade with other canners.
12. Prepare for the inevitable demise of global agribusiness and the reverting to localized food systems as result of peak oil

Note: Cross posted from: Vancouver Sun Article helps spread the fan-centric MovieSet Vision

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Gillian Shaw of the Vancouver Sun newspaper shared the MovieSet story with her readers in an article called “Online and on the set” on June 9, 2009.

The article ran as a full page on the Entertainment section and you can explore two versions online in both the Technology and Entertainment sections. The print edition includes a screenshot of the Behind the Scenes vidcast show with Shaun and Eric, while the online version features a video with Director of Fan Communities Dave Olson giving a tour of MovieSet.com (including Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus).

The article kicks off by asking: Care to wander onto the set of a movie shoot, chat with the actors, see the inside story on the stunts?

Well, do you?

This kind of set access has been the goal of MovieSet CEO Colleen Nystedt since 2005 and she continues to educate and push her industry forward with the belief that there is a universal interest in how movies are made and that the action on-set is something fans care about. MovieSet seeks to satisfy that hunger by delivering value to both the film industry, with the suite of production tools, and to all passionate movie fans, by providing exclusive access to great content.

{snip}

The article quotes the erstwhile leader of the “social media renegades,” Dave Olson, who relates the focus on fan participation as the key to traffic growth and enthusiasm for the site, using our recent Death Warrior campaign as an example (links added):

For small very specialized films, such as Death Warrior, a mixed martial arts film that included livestream video among its offerings for fans, Movieset allowed it to find a core audience that shared a passion for the action film.

“We found out where fans of that genre hang out, we communicated with them in their language and we invited them to take part,” said Olson. “We even gave away the bloody sweatshirt that Georges St-Pierre was killed in to a fan at the end of it.”

Finally, Ms. Shaw’s article outlines some of the other tactics we’ve used to bring movie fans behind the scenes and a call to action for movie makers of all kinds ~ from indies to majors ~ to hop aboard the MovieSet cluetrain:

“The site’s front page is refreshed daily and we’re outreaching to fans through Twitter, a Facebook trivia application and a behind-the-scenes vid cast,” said Olson.

While it still goes against the grain to loosen their grip on content, traditional studios are stepping aboard.

“Studios one by one are starting to realize there is some value here,” said Olson. “They see it is a conversation that is going on and it will go on without them.

“They are saying ‘we should start to participate whether we want to or not.’”

Dave Olson gives a tour of MovieSet.com

Indeed, there are now excellent examples which demonstrate the power of MovieSet’s two-headed monster. Cast and Crew members are employing our tools to streamline their daily workflow, they deliver content directly to their movies page including still photos, videos, news, or blog posts.

Once uploaded, the rich content gives the social media conversationalists an opportunity to reach out to an engaged community of fans interested in the film. Fans then become active contributors by following, supporting and commenting throughout each phase of production. And so on, and so on …

Read the full article: Online and on the set by Gillian Shaw (@gillianshaw on Twitter) in the Vancouver Sun, June 9, 2009 – please consider leaving a comment or sharing with your movie fan and filmmaker friends.

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Online and on the set Attached as .pdf

From Business in Vancouver on, Friday, 12 June 2009 in 2010 Gold Rush by Bob Mackin, comes a  discussion about the True North Media House including quotes from Kris Krug and comments about the “Open Letters to VANOC” i published via Raincity Studios in November 2008.

Posted here for archival purposes. Grab Print version as needed.

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Countdown: 35 weeks until the opening of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

VANOC slow to get into new media game

Kris Krug is among a small group of Vancouver new media trailblazers aiming to revolutionize how the Olympic Games are covered in this wild Web 2.0 world.

They have devised the True North Media House, and they say it will also be strong and free.

It’s going to be a Downtown Eastside-based alternative for outlets big and small that don’t qualify to be inside the fence at the main media centre in the Vancouver Convention Centre or in the non-accredited provincial facility at Robson Square.

“With the explosive growth of online journalism, citizen journalism and new forms of journalism, we’re going to have huge demand for the services we’re offering there,” Krug said.

The concept was borne out of meetings last fall among disaffected members of the local new media community. Early on, VANOC was wide-eyed about the new media. Krug and others briefed VANOC executives and staff on a new media day back in 2005. But as the Games approached, things changed.

I remember Krug sitting crestfallen outside the Pan Pacific Hotel last November, ruing the fact that VANOC didn’t let him join in the world press briefing. That week, his Raincity Studios’ colleague Dave Olson extended a hand with his famous “Hello VANOC, we’re nice, local and invite you for a coffee and a talk” open letter.

Any VANOC forays into the virtual world have been on the coattails of telecommunications sponsor Bell. The Cultural Olympiad’s intriguing Canada CODE digital collage is the best example. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are used by many individuals at VANOC, but not VANOC itself.

The reluctance apparently comes from top-down. The IOC has tiptoed around the Internet, not fully embracing the new media. To its credit, it opened its own YouTube channel during the Beijing Games while liberalizing its rules to allow athlete blogs. Krug said the IOC’s top Canadian, Dick Pound, told him that the Internet is the second-biggest threat to the Olympics movement, after performance-enhancing drugs.

“They haven’t figured out how to harness the Internet, so they view it as a cannibalization of their broadcast revenues,” he said. “By not figuring out ways to engage the media, particularly the new media, they’re missing out on a whole generation.”

So Krug is intent on showing the IOC the potential.

“We have lots of people who are stoked abut it. You might have a Swedish ski blogger, and we’ll have the Christians blogging about Christians in the Olympics,” he said. “We’ll have other people who are probably anti-Olympics there, too. It’s like a big house, and everyone’s welcome in. It’s about open access for all these locked out, independent new media.”

Bruce Sharpe (who co-created an essential bit of software for audio production called Levelator and is an all around nice guy) shepherded a project to crowd-source and prepare quality video of Northern Voice 09 including Letters from Russia.

Here’s Bruce’s intro the Letters from Russia post at 25 Hour Day:

Dave Olson talks about the sources of inspiration, the creative process and publishing your work in this lively mixed-media presentation. Watch this and you’ll understand why Dave has been dubbed a “local cultural artifact”. From Northern Voice 2009. Note: Contains adult language.

For more about the spiel and project, visit: Letters from Russia Recap from Northern Voice 09

And from @brucesharpe on Twitter:

Uncle Weed is in fine form as he illuminates the creative process behind Letters from Russia. From #northernvoice09

He and others – including my buddy Dale – made sure to mic up the presenters and set up a good angle for the shots. As the guy on the other end of the lens, i truly appreciate their work to provide a cool artifact from the preso (although i must admit my shock at seeing my decreasing hair follicles!) – my Mom will likely enjoy it as well ;-).

A few weeks back i was interviewed by Camille Pesnel, a reporter from France working for L’Express du Pacifique. L’Express is a French language newspaper here in Vancouver and Ms. Pesnel interviewed me about Canucks history and fan culture. I think – while the interview is in French, i spoke in English and don’t know what the article says. Someone want to do a translation?

The article also includes comments from Jamie Olivier from the Canucks Fanzone and  Richard Loat of The Crazy Canucks Facebook group. A few days later, Ms. Pesnel and I shot some cheesy pose photos of me at Burrard St. Stn Skytrain in front of a Canucks Fanzone ad  – for more photos of the ads, check out the Crazy Canucks Flickr group.

Here’s the cover of the L’express du Pacifique issue #24 (.pdf) and article “Fans sur la toile” (.pdf).

As part of Translink (the greater Vancouver area transit authority)’s “I Love Transit” week, i was invited by Jhenifer Pabliano to contribute an article about why i love transit. I assembled a mixed-media package to tell my story a few different ways – words, photos, poems, twitters and a podcast (some video coming soon for extra fun).

Here it is for your convenience, here’s: I Love Transit Week essay: Dave Olson

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For I Love Transit Week, I’m happy to share a contribution from Dave Olson, who is a prolific and talented local writer, podcaster, poet, Canucks superfan, and much more. You can find all of his work at uncleweed.net — and here’s some direct links to his blog, notebook, Twitter, and three podcasts: Postcard from Gravelly Beach, Choogle On, and Canucks Outsider.

So without further ado, here is “Rolling to the End of the Line,” an essay about transit by Dave Thorvald Olson.

Escape

Dave’s 4th Grade Sciene Fair Exhibit

Brother Bob and I would mimic the airhorns on the way to elementary school – same as we’d do for truckers and fire trucks, pulling the string down, hoping the bus driver would notice and honk. Seemed like a blast to me, tooling along in those big buses, filled with interesting people coming and going. I’d trace routes around Vancouver maps, then memorized provinces, states and countries – imagining myself at the wheel of some kind of bus. My 4th grade science fair exhibit extolled the wonders of Trolley Transit, complete with the proposed ALRT route traced off in felt pen on a GVRD map plus a stack of Buzzers to give away.

Later, transit became my escape. In the early 80s Vancouver was growing up – so much newness everywhere it seemed, except in my neighbourhood. So buddy Brad and I would skip out errr … wait until after … school and hop the 312 or 316. We’d roll down Kingsway, over an hour all told, to tromp down Granville to Odyssey Imports for records or Black Market for t-shirts. Then maybe skateboard over to that crazy new domed stadium place and hang out on the steps, trying to imagine would Vancouver would look like in 20 years. Then warm up in the law courts or the Vancouver Art Gallery before hopping a bus back home to the ‘burbs.

Exploration

My forays stretched later into night and ventured further afield – wherever there was an all-ages punk show or a sweet girl with busy parents, I’d find a bus route – navigating to shows at the York Theater on Commercial Drive or tracking down some old church or community hall on some route I’d never heard of charted out in a battered paper schedule. I remember missing the last bus to Surrey from downtown and hoofing all the way down Hastings to the PNE to catch another – a long walk in the cold Chuck Taylors before ending up at Whalley Exchange in the wee hours.

Dave’s beloved VW Microbus

In 1986, Vancouver changed. A lot. The SkyTrain (or Airbus as I preferred) was running for a few years to New West. We’d hop a #319 and whisk downtown on the ALRT in 22 scant minutes for the barrage of international events in shiny teal buildings. Suddenly Vancouver was modern and everyone came to watch. I’d seen most all of Vancouver from Ambleside to Crescent Beach by then, so I got my own bus – a VW camper bus – and set off travelling.

Creation

Twenty-two countries later and countless bus, trains, trolley and trams rides later, I returned and moved high up Lynn Valley – “Just ride the 210 ‘til the driver turns off the engine,” are the instructions to visiting friends. Living on the Baden-Powell trail also means I ride transit – a lot. Currently to Kitsilano – that’s two bridges of patience. But now, I am more prepared – I strap on oversized headphones, grab iPhone for live Twitter updates, snacks in pocket, and travel mug with tasty bevvie. Importantly, a Moleskine notebook, inky pens and an audio recorder in my lunch sack allow me use transit as a creative space.

The Crazy Canucks podcast crew, on the back of a bus! (Dave

Creation works best aboard the Seabus – the views stunning, you always get a seat, and if you are waiting, its your fault as the Seabus boasts punctuality the Germans would envy – indeed, “Otto and the Beav” rarely stumble whither windstorms or traffic jams (digression: i was hoping for “Sockeye” rather than “Breeze” for the third vessel’s name).

On my commute and weekend excursions, I mix up the routes for exploration and documenting the curious. I look to old-timers who rode routes toting heavy film cameras just to document the ordinary goings-on on 1930s Vancouver for inspiration. What I see goes into notebooks, snapshots, video clips and audio podcasts – sometime in the back seat recording a Canucks Outsider podcast, riding the SkyTrain end to end for a Choogle on podcast or documenting the SeaBus on Car-free day. Maybe writing freeverse and Twitter updates describing the scenes of life from the transit journey then co-mingling the spectacular and mundane of metropolitan Vangroovy into literary dim sum.

I love you, you’re perfect, now change

Aboard these cooperative transport pods are keys to a civil society – you mingle with strangers, you guess their stories, you accidentally eavesdrop on conversations, or hope for the character who amuses you to come on board. Tolerance and translucency abound onboard. For me, I roll with a load of billeted foreign exchange student chattering away in Portuguese, Japanese or practicing English. You begin to notice the same people and sometimes recognize your bus buddies at a store or a bar as “ahhh it’s that guy from the 228″. At least I do.

I tell myself I am helping reduce greenhouse gases and getting one more car of the road, but it ain’t always easy keeping it that way. Like any relationship, me and transit have rifts and differences – ask me about my issues another time. Despite my policy conundrums, I ride because efficient transportation is key to a pleasing living experience for more of us. So the escape, exploration, creative space, collective experience and chance encounters still get me running down the block – with a warm beverage, giant headphones and notebook – to hop aboard, flash my two-zone pass, and say “hello” to the driver while heading for the good seat in the back.

Page from Letters from Russia book

Recap

Here’s everything to do with my presentation of Letters from Russia at Northern Voice 2009 – a volunteer run social media conference in year #5 and Canada’s biggest shindig of its ilk.

I am in year 4 of presenting my mixed media messages to a diverse and enthused audience. Previous years included Fuck Stats, Make Art; 3 Ps of Podcasting; and Blogging your Passion. This year i also participated in a panel “Social Media and the Olympics: Then and Now” and moderated “Rock n’ Roll Photo” panel.

Audio and video to follow ~ Enjoy these ephemeral reminiscences in the interim.

Resources

Presentation slides for Letters from Russia

Presentation notes for Letters from Russia

Flickr set of the Letters from Russia art – grab em hi-res for your remix

Letters fromRussia with illustrations in .pdf – Print it, sew it, make you own

Letters from Russia without illustrations in .pdf or plain text at the Mountain Highway writer’s notebook blog

Spoken word literature podcast Postcards from Gravelly Beach Postcards from Gravellybeach blog or subscribe via iTunes: http://bit.ly/19Cbiz

Audio from Letters from Russia on Santa Cruz Free Radio

Gist

Letters from Russia by PeterOA on Flickr

“Whether blog article, photo, video, podcast – social media should tell a story. The best stories are retold and shared with others, and the very best stories create conversations which might live on for generations.

How does a content creator elevate their work from craft to art? The same creative parameters apply whether the delivery method is digital or analog or both. When applied with vigour, the work elevates to something beyond an ephemeral musing.

Using a mixed-media project called “Letters from Russia” as a example, Dave will discuss practical tactics for harnessing inspiration, plotting the big picture, grinding out the “real work”, and finally creating a satisfying tangible artifact.

Dave will discuss the role of blogs, podcasts, reader interaction, RSS, and self-publishing with chapbooks and/or on-demand web services as efficient methods of sharing and distributing the project to an audience.”

Letters from Russia in action by Retrocactus on Flickr

Comments

John Lyotier from 5 Things I learned about Blogging, Twitter, Social Media, and Myself at Northern Voice 2009:

Dave Olsen (www.UncleWeed.com) – I attended this unconference session by accident sort of. I was chatting with some of the attendees after the conclusion of Chris Heuer’s “Death of Advertising” talk [ed. note: meh... ], and then in walked this odd looking chap: floral shirt, a tickle trunk, smokey-grey fedora, and a smile that said that he knew the next 30 minutes was going to be fun. I asked those next to me what this session was about. They said, “wait and see”, and I am glad I did. Dave gave one of the more enjoyable presentations (”Letters from Russia”) that I have seen in a long time. Summarize it? I don’t think I can, and even if I tried, it wouldn’t do it justice.

Miss 604’s live blog: Northern Voice 2009 Dave Olson Letters from Russia

Today he was talking about the process from idea to publication while sharing his personal journey surrounding his Letters from Russia series. I wasn’t live blogging his session as I wanted to pay attention and focus on his message, delivered as he stood before a packed while sporting a smoking jacket.

I did however jot down some of his quotes on Twitter and John Biehler snapped some photos so I’ll share those now. (added link to retrocactus uncleweed tag on flickr)

Raul live blogged some bits and pieces at: Dave Olson at Northern Voice 2009 on “Letters to Russia”

11:32
Dave ended up at this place (I can’t really liveblog with the richness that Dave speaks). So you got to remember – the best part of DaveO’s talks is just listening to him. He is superb.
11:34
DaveO is now reading – It doesn’t make sense for me to really liveblog because you won’t get Dave’s richness. Hopefully people will put up video.
11:41
If you have all the time in the world to do everything, what are you going to do, wake up every time in the morning, getting a lot of creative work done?

Spieling Letters from Russia at Northern Voice by Tim Bray

Updates

macfarbt: @uncleweed thanks for the sharing and goodness @ northernvoice09. I want to find a way to mash up Letters From Russia with the Nepalese.

retrocactus: @uncleweed you should make that a pre-req for those attending your next talk: craft & bring your own version of Letters from Russia

madmannequin: Lunchtime at #northernvoice09 so far really enjoyed “death of advertising” & “letters from Russia” speakers. Looking forward to the rest!

michaelallison: Great session on the creative process with @uncleweed “Letters from Russia” …that’s presentation session. #northernvoice09

sprice: such a refreshing presentation by @uncleweed at #northernvoice09. letters from russia

jennmae: Watching @uncleweed’s letters from Russia presentation IMO he’s the best speaker I’ve seen #northernvoice09 http://twitpic.com/1lbe9

stephen_rees: #northernvoice09 Dave Olson – Letters from Russia – laughing too hard to type

seray: Letters from Russia at #northernvoice09. Starting off in Belize, must be good, I want to go to both places!

kel_roberts: Dave Olson up next “letters from Russia”, always good presentations from Dave #northervoice09

theunabonger: Flickr feed shows me @uncleweed is sporting a fine Chapeau today at #northernvoice09 #nv09. Now to find pictures of @scales and rest of gang

retrocactus: @uncleweed holding court at #northernvoice09 http://www.flickr.com/photos/retrocactus/3295911074/

Friends, Austinites, countrymen, lend us your ears: THE BLACK ANGELS and LIVE MUSIC CAPITOL present PSYCH FEST 2 Friday March 13th through Sunday March 15th, in Austin, Texas, spiritual birthplace and global epicenter of psychedelia.

Event Hours: FRI 8:30pm-close, SAT noon-close, SUN noon-close
The event will be held at the future site of Austin’s Radio Room at 508 E 6th St

What better way to honor the cradle of consciousness than a festival of hallucinogenic sights and sounds celebrating the town’s musical heritage and spotlighting the best new vanguards of the most mind-bending music ever played? “Tune in, turn on, drone out.”

Full lineup coming soon, check livemusiccapitol.com for details.

Full Lineup:

March, friday the 13th

11:30pm: The Black Angels (austin)
10:45pm: The Golden Dawn (performing ‘Power Plant’) (austin)
9:45pm: Lower Heaven (LA)
9pm: Woven Bones (austin)

March, saturday the 14th

12:15am: Sky Sunlight Saxon of The Seeds (LA)
11pm: Dead Meadow (LA)
10pm: Wooden Shjips (SF)
9pm: Golden Animals (LA)
8pm: Indian Jewelry (Houston/LA)
7pm: Daughters of the Sun (Minneapolis)
6pm: Shapes Have Fangs (austin)
5pm: The Shine Brothers(austin)
4pm: Astronaut Suit (austin)
3pm: The Tunnels (austin)
2pm: Smoke and Feathers (austin)
1pm PJ and the Bear (austin)

March, sunday the 15th:

11:30pm A Place to Bury Strangers (Brooklyn)
10pm: The Warlocks (LA)
9pm: The Strange Boys (austin)
8pm: Asteroid #4 (philadelphia)
7pm: Forever Changes (austin)
6pm: The Vandelles (NYC)
5pm: The Upsidedown (Portland, OR)
4pm: Miranda Lee Richards (LA)
3pm: Christian Bland & The Revelators (austin)
2pm: Cavedweller (austin)
1pm: Cartright (austin)
_________________

Friends, Austinites, countrymen, lend us your ears: THE BLACK ANGELS and LIVE MUSIC CAPITOL present PSYCH FEST 2 Friday March 13th through Sunday March 15th, in Austin, Texas, spiritual birthplace and global epicenter of psychedelia. What better way to honor the cradle of consciousness than a festival of hallucinogenic sights and sounds celebrating the town’s musical heritage and spotlighting the best new vanguards of the most mind-bending music ever played?

Your three-day key to the doors of perception is a scant $45 (or one day doses for $15 ) available online on www.LiveMusicCapitol.com beginning Friday the 13th, 2.13.09 at Noon, and in Austin record stores the following week.

With a lineup featuring such acclaimed acts as Austin’s own THE BLACK ANGELS, joined by A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS, DEAD MEADOW, THE WARLOCKS, Sky Sunlight Saxon of legendary garage rock innovators THE SEEDS and a constellation of rising underground stars from Austin and around the world including THE WOODEN SHJIPS, INDIAN JEWELRY, THE STRANGE BOYS, THE GOLDEN ANIMALS and many more, those doors will be rocked off their hinges.

This year’s Fest also features Austin’s psych cult heroes, THE GOLDEN DAWN performing their 1968 album ‘Power Plant’ from start to finish. Prepare your earthly vessel for lift-off.

note to self: consider tickets some of these events – same athletes as Olympics without the crazy price and hype etc. Via Vancouver2010.com mailing list.

Hockey Canada Cup – Sledge Hockey is coming to UBC Thunderbird Arena from February 24 to March 1. It’s a fast-paced, physical game that will impress every hockey fan. Cheer on reigning champions Team Canada as they host the world’s top sledge hockey teams — Germany, Japan and the USA for the first-ever Hockey Canada Cup.

For further information and to purchase tickets to see the best sledge hockey players in the world, please visit hockeycanada.ca/hccup

Other upcoming sporting events include:

FIL Luge World Cup
February 16–21, 2009
The Whistler Sliding Centre, Whistler
www.whistlerluge.com

WCF World Wheelchair Curling Championship
February 21–28, 2009
Vancouver Paralympic Centre, Vancouver
www.wwhcc2009.com

IPC Cross-Country Skiing and Biathlon World Cup Final
March 4–7, 2009
Whistler Olympic Park, Whistler
www.ipcnordic-vancouver.com

World Junior Curling Championships
March 5–15, 2009
Vancouver Olympic Centre, Vancouver
www.wjcc2009.com

IPC Alpine Skiing World Cup Finals
March 9–14, 2009
Whistler Creekside, Whistler
www.ipcalpinefinals2009.com

IBU Biathlon World Cup
March 11–15, 2009
Whistler Olympic Park
www.biathlon-vancouver.com

ISU World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships
March 12–15, 2009
Richmond Olympic Oval, Richmond
www.speedskatingrichmond2009.com

Hockey Canada Cup – Women’s Hockey
August 31–September 6, 2009
UBC Thunderbird Arena and Canada Hockey Place, Vancouver
www.hockeycanada.ca

Very happy to announce I am the last change to the SXSW Interactive schedule. The goodly Mr. Hugh Forrest called me at home to ask if i was interested in presenting.

Of course, i said “Yes” and will be presenting a Core Conversation called “Fuck Stats Make Art” on March 13th to kick off the legendary fest in Austin, Texas.

You may have caught the original gig at Northern Voice 2008, (Fuck Stats, Make Art recap) – if so, come again since I’ll remix my presentation for maximum amusement and interactivity with the audience. If not, consider attending as i’ll do my best to get you inspired and thinking about big picture stuff throughout the conference.

My preso will be analog with papery bits to explain my stories and thoughts about creativity, inspiration, publishing and finding your/our place in history.

Are you speaking? Please drop a comment so i can stop by and bask in your wisdom.

I’ll be holding forth on March 13 (happy birthday Lt. Magnum) from 3:30 – 4:30 … ahhh here’s the full deets so you can add to your intinerary:

Friday, March 13th

3:30 pm – 4:30 pm

Via a pictorial journey through his own career of creating grassroots art and publications, renegade social media producer and writer Dave Olson will extol, encourage and explain the importance oftaming the intimidation, solving conundrums and digging deep to muster authentic creative self expression in the digital era.

Photo of DaveO by Bre Pettis from SXSW08

Last weekend, i was pleased to present at WordCamp Whistler organized by my good pals Duane & Dale (of Brave New Code) and John and Rebecca (of sixty4media).

My spiel was called “Are you Worthy?” or ‘history of publishing from Greeks to geeks’. I also previewed my upcoming Moose Camp and Northern Voice presentations a wee bit.

Audio: Are you Worthy? DaveO’s spiel from Wordcamp Whistler (.mp3, 56M, approx 51:00)

Blurb:

The mighty power of web publishing should not be taken lightly. Traditionally, for stories to reach an audience required navigating layers levels or publishers, printers, editors, distributors but with WordPress, anyone can spread stories to a worldwide audience, instantly, for almost free. Awesome! But do you deserve this power? Of course you do – as long as you make something remarkable.

To make your work rise to the top requires diligent honing of your craft – from writing to photography. Writer and documentarian Dave Olson (AKA uncleweed) will offer reasons to push yourself to create art, as well as share practical methods for finding inspiration and following through to publication.

By exploring other forms of grassroots publishing, and exploring real-life WP examples, you’ll leave with a keen sense of your place in the history of personal expression, and a renewed vigor for making your best stuff ever.

Analog stuff at WordCamp Whistler by Miss604

Video: Kris Krug shot video of the whole presentation and posted it in a playlist in 5 segments for your viewing convenience – Video of Dave Olson Presentation – NerdCamp Whistler 2009 – huge thanks (will post the collection is a separate post). Kris’ blurb:

‘From Greeks to Geeks’ or ‘Are You Worthy?’ http://uncleweed.com/ Dave Olson (@uncleweed) gave a mind-blowing presentation at NerdCamp Whister (AKA WordCamp) about censorship, copyright, content creation, history, beauty, art, and the internet. These 5 videos are the 5 10 minute segments from his talk. If someone wants the pieces to string together please let me know and I’ll get them in your hands.

Tweets/Blogs: The folks really seemed to enjoy the schtick and highlighted favourite bits in Twitter reactions and blog posts. How about a sampler?:

hummingbird604: @uncleweed ’s conceptual Venn Diagram of the intersection of Awesomeness and Audience is here http://bit.ly/8IoN (expand) – #wcw09 Jan 25, 2009 01:06 AM GMT · Reply · View Tweet

nataliesisson: No 69 is my player number and it just came through for me as I won some excellent poetry from @Uncleweed at #wcw09 being attendee 69! Jan 25, 2009 01:13 AM GMT · Reply · View Tweet

arieanna: Powerpoint can kiss @uncleweed’s ass #wcw09 http://twitpic.com/16v8i Jan 25, 2009 01:14 AM GMT · Reply · View Tweet

gnb: #wcw09 @josiejose’s reproduction of @uncleweed’s venn diagram: The intersection of Awesomeness and Audience http://is.gd/h73M (expand) Jan 25, 2009 01:11 AM GMT · Reply · View Tweet

baronmunchowsen: not enough bands make colouring books anymore. That’s too bad. @uncleweed killing it at #wcw09. awesome. Jan 25, 2009 12:50 AM GMT · Reply · View Tweet

ericaha: ‘Anybody who has a story should be telling it.’ @uncleweed wcw09 Jan 25, 2009 12:42 AM GMT · Reply · View Tweet

Miss604: @uncleweed #wcw09 “instead of HTML and markup, I was using scissors and glue”

Jan 25, 2009 12:45 AM GMT · Reply · View Tweet

ColleenCoplick: @uncleweed quote “Ulysses was all over the motherfuckin’ bit torrent”. BEST QUOTE of #WCW09, hands down. Jan 25, 2009 12:31 AM GMT · Reply · View Tweet

WordCamp Whistler is Live | Fearless City24 Jan 2009 by raincoaster

And Dave Olson knitted together Aeschylus, Jack Kerouac, Guam, mimeographed punk fanzines, ice cream, heroin, and art in his presentation.

snickerdoodles: Word Camp Whistler…24 Jan 2009 by kerry macleod Here is a photo and poem from today’s final speaker Dave Olson. One of the few I actually followed and understood completely the whole time. He had real props like books.

Random stuff from WordCamp Whistler 200925 Jan 2009 by John Dave Olson ended the day with his talk and had the entire audience hanging on his every word. He invited people to sit up front and close since he wasn’t using the projector…and lots did. It was a great session to end the conference

by Graham Ballantyne

by TylerIngram

Ianiv and Arieanna

same as above

Thanks to all you came and listened.

My WordCamp Whistler cohort and ace Vancouver photographer Kris Krug shot video of my entire “Are you Worthy?” spiel with his new Flipcam and posted it in a YouTube playlist in 5 segments for your viewing convenience – huge thanks!

Video of Dave Olson Presentation – NerdCamp Whistler 2009 playlist

Here’s part 4 to whet your appetite:

Kris’ blurb:

‘From Greeks to Geeks’ or ‘Are You Worthy?’ http://uncleweed.com/ Dave Olson (@uncleweed) gave a mind-blowing presentation at NerdCamp Whister (AKA WordCamp) about censorship, copyright, content creation, history, beauty, art, and the internet.

These 5 videos are the 5 10 minute segments from his talk. If someone wants the pieces to string together please let me know and I’ll get them in your hands.

(Krug shooting Olson by Peter Andersen)

(Olson and Krug by John Bollwitt)

Bonus:

See KK in this sweet fisheye crowd stroll by John Biehler

KK Interviews me at WordCamp Whistler (video)

Be sure to catch KK and Bev Davies in the Rock and Roll photo panel at Northern Voice

With the Canucks mired in a futility streak, BC Almanac invited me down for a chat on the popular CBC Radio 1 afternoon radio show “B.C. Almanac”. I’ve appeared on a the show before along with On the Coast, and really enjoy going to the Ceeb and sharing my punditry with my fellow Canadians.

During this segment, I fielded calls from Canucks fans around BC (Penticton, Nanaimo, Fort St. John … ?) including 85 and 87 year old gentlemen who both brought good conversation and veteran savvy. Topics included coaching, Pat Quinn, Sami Salo, Ryan Johnson, Mats Sundin, chemistry, mediocrity, and psychology.

My amigo Bread the Producer recorded the segment and one of the production crew snapped a photo of Mark Forsythe and I chatting during an on-air break.

What’s Wrong the Canucks? – Canucks Outsider on BC Almanac, CBC Radio 1 (21:24, .mp3, 10MB)

Next Steps

With the Olympic Games barely a year a way, it’s time to organize the next steps of the campaign for an independent, alternative media centre before, and during, the 2010 Winter Olympics and Para-olympic Games in Vancouver and Whistler, BC. We aim to create an inclusive, apolitical and collaborative space for grassroots media creators to creative and publish content about sport and culture.

If you are ready to become further involved in this effort, we invite you to a follow-up meeting with the aim of forming some task-oriented committees and creating a board to organize this project over the next year.

Details

February 3rd, Tuesday
6:00pm ~ 7:30pm
at Raincity Studios
1 Alexander, Suite 420 (buzz #420 for access)
Gastown, Vancouver, BC

Agenda notes

At this meeting, Robert Scales will discuss his conversations with the BC Independent (unaccredited) media centre and discuss some conversations with curious collaborators and corporate supporters. He will also preview the “Social Media and the Olympics” panel at the upcoming Northern Voice conference in which noted Olympic scholar Dr. Andy Miah from the UK will share his experience and knowledge (see his essays in “Owning the Olympics”). Dave Olson will offer a few remarks about the Vancouver2010.com web focus group meeting including the IOC’s “constraints” and VANOC’s evolving web strategy.

In addition, the agenda will include ideation time and input from all participants and an opportunity to offer skills (and superpowers). Along with forming a board and committees, we’ll plan next steps and meetings, including a possible event to mark the one year countdown to the Games.

‘get in where you fit in’

Come with ideas and leave with follow-up items and projects to lead. To get things started, Robert, Kris and I propose to organize three committees for starters and then break out task forces and sub-committees as needed, ergo:

Robert Scales – Partnerships (sponsorships, fundraising, gov relations, corp outreach)

Kris Krug – Operations (programming, volunteer, facilities, finance, logistics)

Dave Olson – Communications (brand, messaging, media relations, web site, blog etc.)

Please use the Wiki to collaborate on organizational structure ideas and suggest topics to add to the agenda.

Sign-on

If you plan to attend, please register at the Google Group.  Sign up for the Group with a Google ID and we’ll approve your request as soon as possible. http://groups.google.ca/group/vancouver-2010-alternative-media

There is also a Google Wiki Site – confusing? Sure. The Group manages the mailing list and has informal group work space. The Site is more of a Olympic Media resource toolbox. Your account needs to be approved but then you can add/edit content and share resources. Everyone can poke around. Twitter @uncleweed to get added to the Site as a collaborator http://sites.google.com/site/vancouver2010alternativemedia/

Notes

For the record, Dave Olson (the writer of this release) is no longer employed by Raincity Studios but continues to work with colleagues Scales and Krug on this project – it’s all good.

PS My apologies for the short notice.

Field with drying rice in Gonda village, Nagano, Japan by Uncleweed

Moving jobs across English Bay

While i keep hearing that staying with one company results in a “career” with more vacations, raises and professional reputation, i’ve never worried much about my resume but rather try to focus on personal results and most importantly, moving closer to self-actualization.

With this in mind, effective immediately, I’ve moved on from Raincity Studios and joined Movieset.com to help jumpstart their mission of connecting moviefans with moviemakers from the office in Kitsilano.

Thanks for snacks and smarts

I’ll truly miss each of my Raincity Studios comrades – we went through some massive projects together under tight timelines, and curious circumstances. To each of you, sincerely thank you.

Each one of the Raincity Studios crew at times soothed my mental health, weary soul, and achey body in this rather treacherous year. Your kind words, wise counsel, sweet snack, or a coffee break (with the magical Dane at Workspaces’ absurdly perfect beverages) will never be forgotten. I am smarter for working with each of you and happier knowing each of you. To get to work each day with your best pals is something everyone should get to do.

Truly thanks to each of Robert, Kris, Mark, Erik, Francis, Roland, Richard, Audrey, Hubert, Steve, Smith, Katherine, and especially Mariska, plus Niall, Nicky, Boris, Djun, Corinn, Ansleigh, and colleagues in China and South Africa.

I’ll still be around working on the Olympic Indie/Alt/Social media centre plan and stopping by to goof around and trying to distract you from your important work. I am very proud with the work accomplished at RCS including winning the Best of 604’s best company blog award, writing most all marketing copy and messaging for Bryght.com and RaincityStudios.com, producing long form blog essays about net neutrality, copyright reform, and heaps of events, and using social web to inform social justice concerns as evidenced in my finals projects – the Phones for Fearless City campaign and a forthcoming Drupal case study about Homeless Nation.

Sampling Vancouver’s finest

Since moving to my now beloved North Vancouver in Oct. 2005, I’ve assisted a handful of Vancouver’s finest companies in raising their profile, refining messaging, effectuating social media campaigns and magnifying internal culture. At Elastic Path, happyfrog.ca, 3rd Whale and Raincity Studios, I’ve learned much about ecommerce, eco-entrepreneurship, and web community building while riffing with diverse teams to create remarkable projects.

At Movieset.com, I’ll help filmmakers reach out to filmfans using social media tools. As a movie enthusiast and a filmmaker (Hempenroad, 1997), i think i can bring a lot to the table. And I’ll have a chance to work closely with Michael Fergusson who i first met when i interviewed him for a Raincity Radio podcast (thanks Megan Cole). He showed up wearing a vintage Vancouver Millionaires sweater and talked about poetry so I knew we had something in common.

Digital Samurai for hire

Maybe it’s my love of Kurosawa films like the Seven Samurai and/or my feeling of being the reincarnation of writer/explorer Lafcadio Hearn (who lived in Shimane, Japan in the early days of modern western cultural exchange 1870-1910-ish), or sailor/diplomat William Adams (who was the first Brit to make it there in early 1600s and became an advisor to shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu), but sometimes i feel like a digital samurai. No not a stealthy fighter, but a hired hand, loyal until i move on to another fortress to defend, quest to fulfill, or princess to save (or is that Donkey Kong?).

Like the earnest Samurai who left money matters to the merchant class (another story for another time), I’m not in it for just the money and I have a sense of intrepid loyalty which drives my daily life … and I deftly handle a big sword (or laptop in this case).

Changing my bus route (again)

So, again I’ve changed my Translink bus route – this time from Upper Lynn Valley to Kitsilano – which will provide even more time to think about the neighbourhoods in the Vancouver gray.

So, a year later, I am in Michaels’ office. I am wearing slippers, there are several dogs wandering about, a green screen room down the hall, and a nice lady just brought me coffee. Anyone who knows me realizes i thrive on change and new input from words, scenes and smells – so there you go, another life remix.

Don’t worry, i am still here and available for beverages and conversation. See me at Wordcamp Whistler, Northern Voice among other funtimes.

##

change my route to think about the neighbourhoods

March 30, 2007

i change my route
from time to time
to think about
the neighbourhoods

switched Cambie 15
for Main Number 3
or Fraser if i don’t mind
cutting across Kingsway

skirted schoolgirls Xavier-bound
headphones, sweaters
in rows

downtown exchanges
spake in broken halts
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NEWS: Technology for all

Posted By: Jackie Wong
12/31/2008 12:00 AM
From: http://www.westender.com/articles/entry/technology-for-all/
Re: Phones for Fearless campaign for Raincity Studios and Fearless City

A used cellphone or digital camera might linger in the dusty depths of a closet — or worse, in a landfill — for years. But now, local tech developers, community organizers and artists are breathing new life into used mobile devices with Vancouver’s Phones for Fearless campaign, a project that aims to gather used cellphones and digital cameras for redistribution in the Downtown Eastside, enabling neighbourhood residents to tell their stories with the technology and, ultimately, connect with family and jobs.

The campaign is organized by local web services agency Raincity Studios along with Fearless City, a non-profit organization that uses mobile technology to provide resources and cultural outreach to Downtown Eastside residents. The Phones for Fearless campaign has been operating since December 23, and is currently soliciting donations of used digital cameras, cellphones (preferably with video, camera, or wi-fi functions), chargers, and spare batteries. Donations can be dropped off at the Roundhouse Community Centre (181 Roundhouse Mews), Pathways (390 Main Street), or Raincity Studios (1 Alexander Street).

“A consistent problem we experience in the Downtown Eastside is being represented sensationally by outside media, fueling the notion of a helpless community,” says Irwin Oostindie, who coordinates the Fearless City mobile campaign. “Fearless City is a project to confront the digital divide in one of Canada’s poorest inner cities, while providing access and peer training to community generated media so that residents in our neighbourhood can control their own representation.”

Developers at Raincity Studios have been using Twitter, Flickr, and blogging platforms to spread the word of the Phones for Fearless campaign. “The thing that’s neat about using tools like Twitter, blogs, and Flickr is it opens us up to a much bigger audience,” says Dave Olson of Raincity Studios. “We’re getting responses from California and Ottawa. It really gives us an opportunity to amplify our message to a much wider area, and much more quickly.”

Once the phones are collected and inventoried by Raincity and Fearless City workers, they will be available to Downtown Eastside residents on an as-needed basis, enabling residents to engage with mobile technologies that might otherwise be unavailable to them due to financial barriers. “Many people can afford the occasional use of a device without being caught in an expensive data plan,” says Oostindie. “It’s about a ‘handset’-up, not a handout — giving people access to appropriate technology to be engaged citizens, not merely surviving below a glass ceiling of independence.”

Kris Krug, a developer with Raincity Studios, holds up the first batch of used cellphones and other electronic devices donated to the Phones for Fearless campaign

Tags: phonesforfearless, raincitystudios, raincity, vancouver, kriskrug, kk

On a rainy day in Vancouver, BC, pro-Palestine and pro-Israel protests tried to out-yell each other outside of the USA Embassy.

My friend Kris Krug went down to document the event and came back rather moved by the experience by seeing friends yelling at each other with no resolve and also the fact that we as humans haven’t developed a method to resolve these absurd conflicts predicated by race, religion, and territory.

Personally, I think we can do better. Respect, forgiveness, kindness, friendliness and ecumenicality for starters.

Here are Kris’ remarks:

It makes me sad that in 2008 there is a such an immovable mountain of a conflict whose central tenants seem to be based on racism and religious intolerance. On both sides. All sides.

I feel sad and my had hangs a lil lower every time I hear about an escalation of the violence in the middle east. I like to be positive and optimistic in general and am frustrated not only in the terrible things that are taking place in terms of violence, but also that we don’t seem to even have the institutions in which we can seek forgiveness and resolution. I’m disappointed in all of us.

Here’s KK’s post: Anti-Israel Protest @ US Embassy in Vancouver and video of the protests. The reaction from Sean Orr and Jonthan Narvey suggest a microcosm of how to resolve conflicts – ergo: have a chat and a beverage and start find finding things in common.

Narvey says:

Sean Orr and I trading accusations of supporting fascists, until we realized who each other were. Afterwards, deciding to grab a coffee sometime to discuss our political ideas and things webby. I’ve got quite a bit of respect for the guy since his and Krug’s bit of genuine heroismthe other day in the dark side-streets of Gastown. I must confess I find Orr’s alignment with the pro-Hamas crowd disconcerting and not particularly consistent with his standing up for justice on the streets of Vancouver. Perhaps I’ll end up winning him over to my side some day.

Orr says:

And this is why, despite my constant disappointment with our leaders and the tyranny of our economic system, I am proud to be Canadian. I completely and fundamentally think Jonathan’s support of Israel is racist, imperialistic, and in opposition to world law; but as I stuttered to him in the pounding hail, I’d fight for his right to speak them. We talked a little bit about the fight and about art, then I crossed back over and joined in a chant or two of “End the Occupation Now” before returning home.

This podcast interview between travel writer and activist Rick Steves and Lord Alderdice called “Road Maps to Peace” provides some practical methods of resolving conflicts between cultures who have harmed each other for generations. Here’s the description:

Rick speaks with Lord Alderdice from Belfast, one of the key political figures who helped resolve Northern Ireland’s long-standing “troubles” between its Catholic and Protestant citizens. He shares his approach for addressing the tensions facing the United States and its allies today in overcoming terrorism and in designing road maps for peace.

Tags: action, Israel, kris krug, Palestine, peace, sean orr, vancouver

Ahoy Chooglers!

The other night while waiting on a 4 hour late train from Seattle, I strapped on the headphones and fired up the vappy for an editing fest. I worked on the next three and just published one.

The freshie is called “Drug Test Resistance in Belize”

Grab the Choogle on feed or Subscribe via iTunes

Description:
On the back porch, Uncle Weed shares a personal message to the chooglers international followed by a spiel about tactics to resist a golf course incident induced corporate drug test using vigilance, friendly lawyers, a trip to Belize w/ broken wrist, and Tolstoy’s War + Peace.

I included a fat link pack about including my Drug Test research essay (.pdf), info on travelling to Caye Caulker Belize and photos from my trip to Belize back in 2001to Flickr with the Drug Test Resistance in Belize post.

Episodes up next are … (working titles – still need to do the album art and write up the blurbs and all that):

- the Taos hostage incident from Mayne Island (a long story with a contest announced at the end)
&
- the Dalai Lama Canadian Citizenship ceremony (this was really hard to edit because of the applause but i think i trimmed out an nice story and cut out the speech by Vancouver’s then-mayor and other cheeseheads and left in the gentle words of HHDL14)

I also got a start on “Festive musings from Wreck Beach” underway so expect a bonanza over the next little while.

Enjoy!

Tags: choogleon, podcast, uncleweed

NOTE: Cross-posted from Fearless City.

Donate your old mobile phones to help DTES artists share stories, and tap into life, jobs & family.

How can you help?

1. Your used mobile phones – preferably with video, camera, wi-fi
2. Cash donations (* tax deductible) or new phone donations
3. Conversation – tell your friend on your blog, twitter, etc. – post a badge

Action Plan: First, Gather phones! Collect all the un-used mobile phones at your office and home – dig into your boxes of stuff, ask you friends! Digital cameras gratefully accepted too.
Next, Arrange Pick-up:

• Let us know via Twitter: Fearless City, email: info (at) fearlessmedia (dot) ca, Phone/SMS: 604.644.4349, Voice mail: 604.682.3269 xt 8320
• We’ll come by on purple Yahoo bikes on Tues. Dec. 23rd & 30th to collect your devices
• We’ll take your photo, bring treats, and thank you publicly with a link

Or, Drop-off (after Tuesday, 23rd) at:

• Roundhouse Community Centre – 181 Roundhouse Mews
• Pathways – 390 Main Street (kitty corner from the Canegie)
• Raincity Studios – 1 Alexander St. @ Water st.

Want to be a drop-off point? Let us know.

Even send by Postal Mail to: Fearless City
c/o DTES CAN
PO Box 88023
418 Main St
Vancouver, BC V6A 4A4

Notes:

• Remove your chip, and clear your contacts before donating (all phones will be completely cleared before released).
• Please include chargers and accessories – used digital cameras also welcome, batteries too!
• Unusable phones will be donated to FreeGeek for reuse and recycling

Who is Fearless? Fearless is a Vancouver Non-Profit group providing tools, resources, and cultural outreach to artists and residents in the impoverished downtown Eastside neighbourhood. Fearless is a project of the DTES Community Arts Network (CAN)
More:

• About Fearless City
• Fearless City wiki
• Fearless City community site
• Fearless City Youtube channel
• Fearless City Flickr photos
• Fearless City Flickr group
• DTES on Wikipedia

NowPublic

Tags: Vancouver | homeless | Art | mobile | Change | artist | homelessness | donation | help | donate | street | Downtown Eastside | Raincity Studios | Gadgets | CELL | PHONES | solutions | DTES | Tech & Biz | art culture

Mavili sells his handmade hats and scarves at Lonsdale Quay during the holidays and reports place him at other markets from time to time. His hats and scarves make great festive gifts and your money is going to a decent man working hard at his craft.

Get on the SeaBus at Waterfront Station for a :15 harbour cruise with a market at the other side where you’ll see Mavili and other fine vendors and fishmongers. Here are a few photos of Lonsdale Quay and North Vancouver etc.

His hats are made from the finest materials (mostly wool) and the workmanship is old-world outstanding – he is often sewing right on site!

This year, his booth he is on a cross aisle in the Quay Market near the bank machine – do not confuse him with the cheap knock of hats vendor. (BTW, Mavili only takes cash so the bank machine is well placed).

Here’s his photo for the record:

He makes hats and scarves in various styles for gentlemen and ladies – i am partial to the designs with earflaps cause my ears stay warm and i feel like Holden Caulfied in Catcher in the Rye.

Some kind Choogle on podcast fans purchased this one for me as a gift. Alas i lost it.

Fortunately Mavili made me a custom made new version with a few minor changes for ever more ruggedness!

Last year i purchased colour and style matched hats for all my brothers who were all pleased. I wear one of his hats each day and am now a proud owner of a matching hat and scarf set while my brother Dan got another lid for his collection.

Support this talented artisan this festive season and be sure to tell him i said hello!

Tags: hat, shopping, handmade, mavili, lonsdale quay, market, vancouver, north vancouver,

I am on the BBC! Blogs and Pods show – spieling forth about renegade media and Olympics. I spoke to Jamillah via Skype last week – the show aired on BBC radio on Sunday and released as a podcast Monday, Dec. 8th.

Here’s how to tune in:

Podcast feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/PodsAndBlogs

Site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/podsandblogs/

iTunes: itpc://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/fivelive/pods/rss.xml

Twitter: http://twitter.com/podsandblogs

I can listen to their lovely accents all day long. Thanks!

Tags: media, bbc, daveo, daveolson, uncleweed, 2010socmed, olympics, socialmedia, media, vanoc

Awards ceremonies always stir up commotion and controversy – i thought the Stone Cutters controlled the outcome of all major awards (but i digress … ) – and Best of 604 is no different. With 2 days left of voting, the jockeying for the coveted spots is getting intense.

Noteworthy, Mr. Narvey’s blog Currents is nominated in the best political blog but some don’t think he deserves placement in the category because he covers a variety of topics beyond politics. For goodness sakes, look at him, he uses a Zune! Is he a true political pundit or just another tech geek?

For my part, i want more political coverage! See, most of my friends are lefty-head-in-the-clouds and these so-called “progressives” don’t give me the straight edge view that the (often dangerously reactionary) Narvey provides.

I’ve lived in Utah and seen how the deep conservatives operate, and Narvey isn’t *that* offside but … still he offers up the rightie punditry i require for expanding my mind. With William F. Buckley dead, someone has to carry the affable, true-con role.

So Narvey, if you say you are political blogger, then blog politics all the time, more, more! and get rid of the lightweight techie chatter.

No matter your feelings on this, be sure to Vote for your fave in the Best of 604.

Photo by NetChick on Flickr

Tags: Vancouverblogger controversy, best of 604, miss604, narvey, politics

The gang rallying up WordCamp Whistler have accepted my pitch to speak at the event which is all about WordPress and happening in Whistler, BC, January 24, 2009.

Here’s my pitch so i can remember what i am spieling about:

Dave Olson

Topic: Are you Worthy?

The mighty power of web publishing should not be taken lightly. Traditionally, for stories to reach an audience required navigating layers levels or publishers, printers, editors, distributors but with WordPress, anyone can spread stories to a worldwide audience, instantly, for almost free. Awesome! But do you deserve this power? Of course you do – as long as you make something remarkable.

To make your work rise to the top requires diligent honing of your craft – from writing to photography. Writer and documentarian Dave Olson (AKA uncleweed) will offer reasons to push yourself to create art, as well as share practical methods for finding inspiration and following through to publication.

By exploring other forms of grassroots publishing, and exploring real-life WP examples, you’ll leave with a keen sense of your place in the history of personal expression, and a renewed vigor for making your best stuff ever.

Independent Media Center and the year 2010 with Dave Olson
Dave talks about the early plans for an independent media center to support media makers from around the world. http://www.raincitystudios.com for more.

More videos from Jess socialsquared

Tags: vancouver, 2010, vanoc, olympics, social media, independent media

Not to spoil any surprises but if i don’t post it here, i’ll misplace my notes and forget what i pitched to Northern Voice 2009 (awesome site by Alexa Booth too).

Pending acceptance, this will be my 4th year spieling forth to the assembled masses.

Year 1 – i pinch hit on a “Blogging your Passion” panel with awesome folks and impromptu banter and anecdotes

Year 2 – i was emergency replacement call up for “3 Ps of Podcasting” featuring my Bob Dylan-esque analog presentation

Year 3 – i was among the chosen and presented the secretive “F@ck Stats, Make Art” preso to the delight of most assembled

Year 4 – i’m hoping for a “creativity track” with Nancy White, Monique Trottier, Rachel Ashe and other artsy, craftsy types in a row – here’s my pitch and bio for 2009 (both awkwardly written in 3rd person):

Tags: northernvoice, nv09, art, craft, stories, letters from russia

I am following up on the Open Letter to VANOC from Social Media Makers with a few notes as well as an invitation to continue the conversation with VANOC over a tasty beverage. The letter has made its way around the world with Twitters, comments, blog posts, and personal notes of support and/or confusion coming in from many corners of the globe.

So, to keep the conversation rolling, here are my annotated notes, thoughts and recaps from the past few days of opinions rolling in:

First off, Jeff Lee, the Olympic reporter from the Vancouver Sun explored the changing media landscape in an excellent article and an accompanying blog post. He talked to several interesting people and brought a veteran mainstream media eye to the conundrums in "Changes coming to media’s coverage of Olympics – But new forms of news delivery are restricted by Olympic committee rules". He keys right in on the crux of the tension – money vs.choice.

"As traditional news organizations struggle with declining readership and cutting staff while trying to capture greater online presence, the Olympics is undergoing its own transformation. The change is also affecting broadcasters, who like the others, have not yet figured out how to fully monetize their Internet properties.

The traditional forms of media coverage — exclusive territorial contracts with broadcasters, appointment of news wire agencies by the IOC and press credentials parcelled out by national Olympic committees — are coming under pressure as people change the way they get their news."

His article also brought an insider’s point of view from the head of the (enormous) newswire AP who raised the same questions we are within the inner-sanctum of the IOC:

"In an address to the press commission, Tom Curley, the chief executive of Associated Press, warned that the lines between traditional news delivery models are blurring. Newspapers want to use streaming video, but are restricted because the IOC licenses broadcasters for field-of-play images. Audio broadcasts are similarly restricted. According to those who were at the meeting, Curley’s address stunned many members."

Mr. Lee (who is olympicreporter on Twitter) also published extended notes and thoughts in a blog post titled "Social networking media push for inclusion in Olympic plan" (a bit buried in the site but worth the read).

His blog post provides a full quote from Renee Smith-Valade, VANOC spokesperson, who took time on a Sunday to follow-up to Lee’s inquiry thusly:

“The IOC is the ultimate arbiter on the representation on the Press Commission, and each country’s National Olympic Committee determines which media get accredited for the Games. As the Organizing Committee we can and will encourage both entities to recognize and facilitate the immense growth of online media, however ultimately decisions for press commission membership and Games accreditation lie with them. We have not yet responded to the open letter from the social media group but will do so in the coming days."

My colleagues and I are encouraged that VANOC has a reply in mind. While its unlikely that we would have been accredited going through the IOC and national press associations channels, we firmly contend we have value to offer by being engaged in the dialogue. We also have first-hand experiences to share about creative solutions (including non-accredited media centers) and strategies to embrace the social media makers without compromising the relationships rights-holders, corporate sponsors and the like.

This quest isn’t just "for us" – we are starting the conversation for the thousands of people who are coming to participate in the Games as "amateur" reporters, photographers, podcasters, videographers, etc. and will eagerly post their content to audiences of maybe dozens, maybe millions of viewers. Individually, the coverage is very niche, and that micro-coverage is a big part of the appeal. Further, the collective content produced by "all of us" will likely rival the mainstream media output.

Mr. Lee’s article includes remarks from Yahoo Sports which articulates how quickly media is changing:

"However, change has already started. This summer, Yahoo Sports — which doesn’t have a print or TV broadcast property — sent 19 journalists and "analysts" to the 2008 Beijing Games. It had only one reporter at each of the 2004 and 2006 Olympics. Dave Morgan, executive editor of Yahoo Sports, said the investment paid off: more than 32 million "unique visitors" went to Yahoo’s Beijing Olympics microsite in August, outstripping even NBC’s online Olympic traffic."

So how does VANOC let the enthusiastic and experienced amateurs cover the Games while not opening up a box of problems? For starters, we look to the Piemonte Non-accredited Media Centre in Turin as a good example as it helped the alternative and independent press understand IOC guidelines, provided press releases and updates, and in-formal collaborative workspace and office resources. The funding came from tourism boards, local press agencies, sponsors (especially from the hospitality industry) and resulted in richer "long tail" coverage of the Games and the region.

For my colleagues who were in Turin (I was covering from Vancouver), this facility worked out great for organizing photo sessions, conducting athlete interviews, and exploring non-sports stories about art, culture, industry and tourism. We’ll talk more about this example over a hypothetical coffee but, … whether or not there is a "non-accredited media centre" we will invite folks to our Gastown loft office to add another layer of coverage beyond what CTV (in Canada’s case) has in store.

Frankly, this solution is hardly ideal (it *is* a working office after all) so we’re also touring downtown locations and talking to landlords and sponsors about acquiring a larger space – it’s too big of an opportunity to settle for "good enough".

Opinion round-up

Competitive videographer and Bootup Labs Marketer, Jordan Behan comments with an inquiry about VANOC’s social media (non)strategy:

"The decision to exclude the likes of the Raincity gang is quite puzzling, even without a social media strategy in place. In Dave’s full letter, he highlights the history of the fan-based, non-intrusive coverage they’ve done at previous Olympic Games, and it’s clear that this kind of participation only benefits the host city, the Games and even the holders of exclusive broadcast rights. I’m holding out hope that Vanoc (and our Canadian Olympic committee, apparently) will take great strides, not only to appear to appease social media creators, but instead fully embrace the concept and help to redefine citizen journalism’s role in Games coverage. With some creativity, they should be able to do so inside of the confines of the above-mentioned (archaic in these times, if you ask me) broadcast rights."

While Kris and I were in-between the official press briefing (where I somehow caught a cold) and the Olympic Resistance Network pres conference, Mr. Behan sent this Twitter update: "jordanbehan @uncleweed It’s ok to be pro-Olympics, and still anti-exclusive rights broadcasting and media monopolies, etc. At least, I hope it is. 12:48 PM Nov 20th"

Techvibes‘ wunderkind Greg Andrews offered his insight with Vancouver 2010 Organizers Snub Social Media (Nov. 20, 2008 2:21PM), where he points out how Kris and I didn’t fit into either group (protesters or journos) with twitter updates and commentary:

"Unlike many Vancouverites that were outside the event in the rain protesting the Olympics, Olson and Krug had intentions of journalism, not protest. Between them and Raincity CEO Robert Scales, they’ve unofficially covered the last four Olympic games, in addition to Olson’s blogging and podcasting of Canucks hockey.

Via Twitter:

    Got stopped at the door. "if you guys are here to protest pls go accross the street". Now they’re checkin our credentials.

    We were just escorted from the building. We had better access, even a welcome in Beijing and Torino.

    @todmaffin agreed they can’t make us go home. but we’re not here to protest in the rain, we’re here as jounalists."

Ruth Seeley commented on the Tech Vibes article pointing out the perception of value is no longer based on delivery method:

I wonder if they let in folk from The Tyee? It would be interesting to find out – because that could be part of the argument for allowing access to a broader definition of media. If anyone truly believes that 24 or Metro deserve access because they’re printed on paper and The Tyee doesn’t, some re-examination of belief systems needs to begin.

View from the Isles writer and photographer (now now working at Media2o) Tris Hussey offered his thoughts in "Raincity throws down the gauntlet to VANOC: Let citizen media in!" and asks what VANOC plans to do:

"Will VANOC step up to the plate where other host cities and Olympic Committees have not? That’s an open and excellent question. I for one would welcome social media participation at the games. I think we’d all be the richer for it."

Raincoaster Lorraine (who teaches blogging workshops in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside) followed up with her thoughts:

"Vancouver’s citizen journalists have done an exceptional job of covering the last several Olympics, and have, in fact, become known worldwide for it. This is a creative proposal that would ensure that, rather than taking an oppositional stance, Vancouver’s citizen journalists take one in support of the Olympics and civic pride."

Ianiv the Blogaholic (who also works at crowd sourced media site Now Public) writes about how ubiquitous recording devices have changed how media is created (and what media is) in, "Social Media and the Vancouver 2010 Olympics", saying:

"With the prevalence of devices capable of recording video, still images and sound, it is almost impossible that a significant event will not be recorded in some way. And sometimes all this content created by the people is at odds with the interests of the corporations that produce or sponsor an event."

… and Ianiv continues with concerns about the power of takedown notices which are often foisted at well-meaning and unsuspected fans …

"It remains to be seen what VANOC’s response will be, if any. It would be very nice if everyone could document their Olympic experience and share it with the rest of the world without the fear of getting takedown notices that would make all their efforts useless."

Vancouver (really Victoria) blog-father, new PR ace, and theatre enthusiast Darren Barefoot posts his thoughts (complete with a geeky Venn diagram) in "Thinking About Social Media and the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver" and frames expectations of what social media makers seek to make their reportage.

"As Dave says, social media types aren’t expecting all-access passes to the gold medal hockey games. He’s right to point out that there’s a big hole to fill in the media coverage for such an event. I was thinking about it, and drew this little Venn diagram:

The CTVs and CBCs are going to have the major, breaking news covered. It’s all that green space–that’s where social media creators can live. Through various channels, I’m seeing several ways forward for benefits for both parties. Social media creators get some tools, resources and access to help with their citizen journalism efforts, and VANOC enjoys a whole new layer of news coverage. Such a partnership would also highlight Vancouver’s place as a global for new media, citizen journalism and the like."

BuzzNetworker Colleen Coplick sets the scene and asks for an update in "The Olympics Must Adapt to New Media" (in her usual witty style):

"Recently, the Vancouver Organizing Committee (aka VANOC – you know, the bigwigs in charge of all of the Olympic everythings in Vancouver) began a four-day “World Press Briefing” for more than 250 visiting journalists and media managers. There was some serious debate about how media coverage of the Olympics is changing dramatically due to new and emerging media."

"So, Dave, Kris, Robert, where do we stand on this? Has VANOC gotten back to you? Have we come to any sort of conclusion here?"

Nothing yet Colleen, stay tuned for updates.

Out-Smarts Internet Marketing firm’s Mhairi Petrovic wrote "The Olympics and Social Media" speculates on the Olympic committee’s concerns and the unstoppable force of social media coming in 2010:

"Its no surprise that the Olympic committee is shirking this question.  Many organisations especially large traditional companies (those that vet each and every public communication to ensure it reflects the corporate line) view social media as a quandary and even a threat to their brand.  They think that encouraging community participation leads to loosing control of that branding process.  But the fact of the matter is that brands are out there in the public forum anyway. Isn’t it better to be part of the conversation to learn adapt and grow because of it than to be on outside throwing out press releases.

Social media journalism is undoubtedly going to be part of the Olympics in Vancouver with an army of bloggers, social network participants and online journalists all giving their perspectives.  Rather than stick their head in the sand the Olympic committee should be embracing this new way to entrench its brand with new generations and different communities."

Jenn Lowther lays out our big mission with "Social Media and the 2010 Olympics" and peers into the future to how the possible scenarios might play out:

"Kris and Dave were there not only as representatives of Raincity Studios, but as ambassadors for Vancouver’s entire Social Media and Citizen Journalism community – their exclusion from the briefing sends a message that social media is not a welcome commentator when it comes to the 2010 Olympics.

Regardless of how VANOC feels about Social Media and Citizen Journalism, it needs to realize that we will be covering the Olympics for our various media properties. Ideally, we would like to work with VANOC, ensuring that we are aware of the basic guidelines that it has regarding our coverage, i.e. not showing a Telus ad when Bell is a sponsor.  By excluding us from the VANOC media briefing, the organization is creating a self-fulfilling prophecy – by not including members of the Social Media community for fear that we will not follow the rules, it is ensuring that we do not know what rules need to be followed.

Yes, currently we do not measure our readership levels at those of mainstream media, but in aggregate we do receive significant viewership. In my opinion, VANOC is being extremely myopic in their exclusion of Social Media and Citizen Journalism, when it has a perfect opportunity put in their laps – being the first Olympics to fully capitalize on the power of Social Media that is present in Vancouver’s thriving tech community. When the Olympics are over and the MSM’s coverage of the Olympics is relegated to a disk or hard drive in some storage area collecting dust, the coverage from Citizen Journalists will be alive online, gaining views daily, reminding people how truly awesome the Vancouver 2010 Olympics really were."

Finally (for today at least) social media’s Clark Kent (and former Raincity Studios cohort) Will Pate offers kind words about us (thx bud) and words of advice for VANOC in Social Media’s Place in the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games:

Several of the folks in question are colleagues of mine, and represent Raincity Studios, the web studio I’m proud to say I co-founded. Kris Krug, Robert Scales and Dave Olson are tireless social media practitioners, trainers, authors and conference organizers. They represent the best of what Canada does when it comes to the ongoing evolution of journalism through technology. They are treated with the respect due to recognized experts outside Canada, it would be a loss for the Vancouver games to overlook great talent in their own backyard. It would be a win to build on what they learned using social media to cover the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

Nor should social media as a force for good and bad PR be overlooked. The news has been filled in the last few years with stories of journalists, politicians and businesses tanked by bloggers and cameraphones. But my colleagues are not proposing to build a virtual lynch mob, interfere with the major networks who pay good money for exclusive coverage of the events, or otherwise tarnish the image of our beloved Vancouver.

My colleagues want to help the mass of people who will arrive to watch and create social media at the games. I would like to see VANOC and the IOC reconsider bringing them to the table, at least so their exclusion doesn’t become a story that detracts from what I expect to be a most successful event.

If I may humbly offer a piece of advice: a little love goes a long way with the social media crowd. You don’t need to give them the VIP treatment, a seat at the big kids table is enough. Recognizing the powerful voice of the people will do wonders for getting them to sing on key.

Well said Will, a seat at the big kids’ table *and* a tasty turkey drumstick will help us all ;-).

My three cents

My personal reason for caring about all this starts from being a sports fan, a social observer and a documentarian and a belief that authentic media works better for many audiences. What I’ve found about the Olympics is what you see on TV is not like the experience on the ground.

The viewpoints and stories which are the richest and most compelling aren’t the ones getting the round-the-clock coverage. If i drift into anecdotes here I’ll never get this posted so I’ll save my loquacious stories for a fireside chat with a tasty beverage ;-). Be sure to ask me about the impact of a :10 video clip of the first ever Nepali Winter Olympian.

I should point out for the record (since I am being transluscent here). I grew up in Whalley in the 70s, I lived in both Salt Lake City, Utah and Nagano, Japan prior to those regions hosting the Olympics and witnessed controversies aplenty. I’ve also seen the changes (good and bad but mostly good) resultant from hosting an event of this magnitude. I traveled and worked in 20+ countries and now live in North Vancouver and will be hosting all sorts of international friends at my place during the Games (well those who bribe me appropriately at least – hint: bring micro-brews).

Like many British Columbians, I am bombarded with negative Olympic-related news from loan guarantees gone wild to security budget chaos and street closures. I work next to the heart of DTES and see daily the lives of the disenfranchised and addicts and homeless. These are very real problems but also beyond the Olympic mandate. Certainly though, pausing to consider their point of view will cause the most calloused to think twice about how we spend public money.

I have a 14 year old son who is stoked for Aerials and Moguls and Snowboard at Cypress Mtn. I saw 4 out of 6 Team Canada men’s hockey games in SLC and saw every hockey team (men’s and women’s) in the tournament at least once. Heck, Don Cherry even wore my hat! and i held the torch a few times … ooops i am starting on the stories …

Anyhow, this time, I am personally most excited to meet more Latvian hockey fans and watch Jeremy Wotherspoon fulfill his Olympic potential at the glorious new oval – where I also hope to see my friends from Thuringen, Germany again set records and party afterwards. Like I said, i’ts a whole different Games on the ground compared to the TV coverage of superstars and scandals.

Indeed, there are huge social problems facing residents of our fair region, but they won’t improve by complaining, instead we must use this platform judiciously and show that Vancouver has the ability to shine a light towards the possibilities of what we can accomplish as a progressive, creative and cooperative society – the Games are coming and I am ready in many ways.

Note from the Resistance

As for protesting the Olympics, … the Olympic Resistance Network’s press conference didn’t get too much International coverage as hoped but some Canadian sources took notice of their various concerns: Canadian Press – The Tyee – Globe and Mail.

These concerns are express by people who frankly have a hard time getting their message heard by the "suits" and as such, feel disconnected from the process and a bit ornery about the Games to say the least. I recorded audio to go along with photos and video of the Olympic Resistance Network event and will try to get that posted to share their important stories and concerns.

Keeping the conversation going

I’ve also pinged the erudite Olympic scholar Dr. Andy Miah in the UK for his comments so hope to hear from him for the next update, along with sharing whatever response we receive from VANOC. As rumoured, we are planning for a meeting next week to riff ideas about creating social media centres in Vancouver and Whistler (perhaps with sponsors?) – whew.

Mainstream media who wish to speak with Kris Krug, Robert Scales or myself (Dave Olson) about this topic, contact details are at the Raincity Studios media kit. Social media makers already know how to find us ;-).

PS If I missed including your coverage, please leave a comment. Ditto if you have something to say about the role of Social Media in the Olympics.

NowPublic

Tags: Sports | Vancouver | Olympics | 2010 | Now Public | Whistler | techvibes | resistance | vanoc | Will Pate | Vancouver Sun | Ianiv | social media | accredidation | greg andrews | jeff lee | jenn lowther | jordan behan | tris hussey

This is simply too important of an article to not spread around. Ian Mulgrew of the Vancouver Sun is the only MSM journalist in Vancouver who really speaks out sensibly and professionally about the pragmatic economics and realistic public policy options about cannabis in BC and Canada.

Thanks Ian for excellent work (PS Would you like to be a guest on a Choogle on podcast?)

Copied from the Vancouver Sun article: A bright green spot in the economy

–

A bright green spot in the economy

With courts striking down the government’s monopoly on supplying medical marijuana, private growers are clamouring to capitalize on pot’s commercial potential

Ian Mulgrew
Vancouver Sun

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Photo: Various types of marijuana are offered by former NDP candidate Dana Larsen at his marijuana dispensary on East Hastings Street. He says the medical pot market is about to expand.CREDIT: Bill Keay, Vancouver Sun “Various types of marijuana are offered by former NDP candidate Dana Larsen at his marijuana dispensary on East Hastings Street. He says the medical pot market is about to expand.”

DUNCAN – Eric Nash can barely contain his excitement waiting to hear from Health Canada whether he can start growing marijuana for 250 patients.

That would be just the start. There are tens of thousands more who are ailing across the country clamouring for his organic B.C. bud.

“There is a great opportunity here for the government to collect significant tax revenue currently being lost to the street market,” Nash, one of the best-known legal cannabis producers, enthused.

“With the current global financial crisis, this court ruling is certainly a bright light in dark economic times. We’re just waiting for clarification. I figure our production would increase significantly from several pounds to 150 pounds or more immediately.”

Now that the Federal Court of Appeal has struck down the government’s monopoly on supplying medical marijuana, Nash believes commercial agricultural production of pot is around the corner and the sky’s the limit.

His local company, Island Harvest, has cleared the industrial security regulatory hurdles so the company meets the standards set by Ottawa to grow the much-demonized plant.

“Our vision is to have a sustainable commercial agriculture operation,” he said. “There’s no reason we can’t achieve that. Look at the number of compassion clubs, look at the number of people using marijuana to relieve a headache or pre-menstrual cramps!”

More and more research is supporting previous anecdotal evidence that cannabis may have a wide range of therapeutic uses from the treatment of Alzheimer’s, depression, glaucoma, epilepsy and cancer to HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and ADD/ADHD. Its most ardent promoters say cannabis may be an addition to the modern pharmacopeia that rivals Aspirin in the breadth of its applications.

It doesn’t take a genius to realize the potential profits are staggering.

Until now, the government’s poorly administered medical program has artificially depressed that market by making it difficult for patients to qualify, supplied what many consider poor-quality marijuana and imposed an arbitrary restriction on qualified licensed growers to supplying only two patients.

Doctors, too, have exacerbated the situation with their reluctance to prescribe marijuana, claiming they have no guide on dosage or the usual pharmaceutical medical studies to rely on. That is changing, slowly.

Nash explained there have been three relatively recent, serious analyses of the medical marijuana market, which give an idea of its scope and potential.

The Canadian Medical Association Journal did a survey in 2000 and estimated the number of self-medicating marijuana patients to be 1.9 per cent of the population; a Price Waterhouse report prepared for Health Canada two years later concluded it was more like four per cent of the population, and a report in 2004 by a member of the federal government’s advisory committee on pot suggested the reality was closer to seven per cent.

(Health Canada, after eight years, has issued roughly 2,500 exemption permits to needy patients.)

Regardless, Nash said, based on the four-per-cent model, that puts sales at more than $400 million annually.

More optimistic projections say the medical market, including ancillary products such as vaporizers and paraphernalia, could be as high as $20 billion.

Add it up: The government sells maybe $1 million a year worth of the pot produced in a Manitoba mine, and compassion clubs across the country sell about $10 million worth of cannabis products.

By far the vast majority of patients who need marijuana as a medicine continue to buy their drugs from the black market. It’s a crazy situation: imagine if diabetics had to go to a corner dealer to score insulin.

That’s one of the fundamental reasons behind the court ruling Oct. 27: the medical marijuana program set up by Ottawa at the turn of the millennium isn’t working.

The government adopted the Medical Marijuana Access Regulations (MMAR) and accompanying bureaucracy in 2001. It has modified it since then in the face of judicial warnings that it was constitutionally inadequate, but it still can’t pass muster.

The courts find that offensive.

This new judgment heralds a tectonic shift in the country’s medical-marijuana regulatory regime and perhaps even the drug laws. It may even invalidate the cannabis prohibition.

Two B.C. Supreme Court justices sitting on separate cases (one about simple possession, the other production and trafficking) are currently seized with that question.

If they agree that because a section of medical program is unconstitutional the criminal law cannot be enforced, it would also mark the triumph of a Trojan horse strategy by cannabis activists to achieve legalization by expanding medical access.

Just as liquor was once obtained via prescription, cannabis could be regulated in a similar fashion, obviating the need for a criminal prohibition.

No matter how you look at it, the federal court decision promises an economic boon immediately for the hundreds of legal cannabis producers and increased opportunity for many others.

Nash said it was good news for both the consumer and producer.

The former government communications worker and his partner, Wendy Little, have been growing since 2002 and proselytizing longer than that. Their book Sell Marijuana Legally is a huge hit; they created an online users’ group for patients and growers, and they teach courses.

But medical growers across the country have been restricted, a policy that results in a huge gift of revenue to organized crime.

B.C. BUD’S STAGGERING NUMBERS

Stephen Easton, an economist at Simon Fraser University and with the Fraser Institute, has done the most respected work on the size of the domestic pot industry.

He sat down earlier this year in Denny’s with one of B.C.’s biggest dealers and went over his numbers.

“He figured it out differently than I did, using lights and ballasts,” Easton said. “But he worked out the numbers with me and it all worked out. He told me it was very close. He was quite surprised. I was very happy about that. We had a really good talk. He was really helpful for me.”

Since Easton’s original estimates, the domestic marijuana market has undergone some changes, but nothing cataclysmic.

“The fluctuations in the dollar are the main economic factor,” he said. “It has gone up and down and that pushes these guys.”

For most of the last few years, the most significant factor has been the various improvements in border security triggered by the 9/11 terrorist strikes.

In the 1990s and even throughout the early part of this decade, tons and tons of Canadian marijuana flooded into the U.S. market carried by anyone with moxy and a decent plan.

People were backpacking across with as much weed as they could carry in the Interior, or kayaking across with a stash of bud worth as much as emeralds.

Between 1990 and 2000, the Canadian pot market doubled in size fuelled primarily by the increased hydroponic production of B.C. bud.

Nationally, we apparently spent $1.8 billion toking up — just shy of the $2.3 billion we burned on tobacco.

By 2006, when he did his calculations, Easton said the numbers indicated a provincial wholesale market of $2.2 billion. You could increase that to $7.7 billion retail if consumers paid top dollar for their bud.

That dwarfed any other B.C. agricultural product.

The result on the street was easy to see: a proliferation of gangs duly documented by the RCMP, as every crook plucked what Easton called “the low-hanging fruit.”

The tightening of the border has had several effects.

Not just everyone can take it across now, with underground sensors, heightened air traffic scrutiny and the deployment of the military. Smuggling now is more the purview of the very organized and the very desperate.

At the same time, U.S. authorities have charted the rise of their own domestic production as American states relaxed enforcement and sentencing — the opposite of the 1980s and 1990s when their stiff attitude drove marijuana growers north.

In California alone, Berkeley, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Santa Monica and San Francisco all have officially told police to make marijuana offences their lowest priority.

EVOLVING PRODUCTION

Pot production in California rivals Canada’s total output.

Similar initiatives have been adopted in other states and cities such as Seattle, Denver and even Missoula, Mont.

With the north-south route to market more problematic, more B.C. bud has moved east to feed eastern appetites or find a less monitored area of the border before turning south. The Mounties have responded by increasing surveillance along the Trans-Canada on the Prairies, resulting in large seizures.

By far the biggest factor in the marijuana market in recent years, however, has been the revolution in production — the ease, predictability and most importantly the portability that has come with advances in indoor cultivation that mean great weed can be grown anywhere.

The RCMP have been reporting huge busts in Eastern Canada as production has sprouted in the Maritimes and Ontario, reducing their appetite for West Coast pot.

In Ontario, whose provincial production is said to have surpassed B.C.’s, authorities have uncovered two separate operations each capable of producing $100 million worth of cannabis a year.

B.C. bud ruled in the 1990s when the underground marijuana trade was responsible for keeping afloat many small communities buffeted by resource-market gales.

Our pot even had cachet even up until four or five years ago but these days, be you in Charlottetown or Joe Batt’s Arm, Nfld., you can easily obtain good seeds and fail-safe equipment and within a few months be producing marijuana to rival B.C.’s best.

Nevertheless, Easton explained, when you are looking at a commodity and domestic production, it’s all about the money.

The rise of the dollar in recent years worked against growers and exporters, but its recent fall provides an upward fillip.

“I imagine with all the market turmoil the domestic marijuana industry will pick up a bit,” Easton said. “it’s just had a 15-to-20-per-cent bump in two months.”

Some estimates in the 1990s suggested as much as 50 cents of every dollar generated in some Kootenay towns could be traced directly to pot.

With the international financial tempest wreaking havoc again with commodity prices, B.C. bud may yet help ride out the storm but probably not to the same extent.

“We’ll just have to watch housing prices in Nelson,” Easton laughed.

MEXICO CONSIDERING LEGALIZATION

Sitting in Kitsilano eating breakfast before meeting the city’s police board, former Drug Enforcement Administration agent Celerino Castillo III nodded his head furiously.

“Yes, yes, it’s all about the money,” he said. “The money, it’s all so corrupt.”

Castillo spent 12 years in the USDA infiltrating Manhattan drug rings, destroying jungle cocaine labs and training anti-narcotics agents. The climax of his career was pulling the curtain back on drug-smuggling by the Nicaraguan Contras with links to Lt.-Col. Oliver North and the CIA.

From the Amazon to the slums of Mexico City to the ghettos of America, Castillo has had a front-row seat on the western hemisphere’s drug world and come to the conclusion it’s time to abandon our current approach.

Mexico is again considering legalization because of the violence and social upheaval caused by illicit drug trafficking, and Canada should be headed down the same path, he says. So should South America and, of course, the U.S.

The money is too corrosive.

“The corruption is everywhere — every month we arrest a law enforcement official, every month,” he insisted, “whether it’s a border patrol agent or a customs agent or a DEA agent or an FBI agent. We arrest a law enforcement officer once a month, It’s huge. The amount of money is just so big. ‘I have a mortgage to pay, I have to send my kids to college.’ That’s always the excuse.”

He shakes his head.

He explained that in his state, drug couriers once arrived with suitcases of cash to deposit in local banks: “Now they buy the banks. Especially now with this upheaval. Who else has the ready cash?”

He laughed.

“But that’s actually how they’re money-laundering today — they buy a bank,” Castillo added. “There’s no way we can keep up.”

In retirement, Castillo has become a featured speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, an association of former police, corrections and judicial officers who want to change drug policy.

“There’s more production, more product and more of everything than there ever was. The war on drugs doesn’t work,” he said.

“All I’m hoping for is people to start to listen and educate themselves about what’s going on in the world,” he said. “I know first-hand. I’ve seen it from an agent’s point of view.

“It’s affecting and destroying a lot of families. For 40 years we’ve been trying this John Wayne approach and it’s not working. The bottom line: There are a lot more drugs today than we had 40 years ago.”

‘THESE ARE THE DEALING TABLES’

Dana Larsen ushers me into his new marijuana dispensary in the 800 block of East Hastings Street.

The former NDP candidate, who stepped down during the federal election when his recreational drug use was publicized, has renovated the run-down storefront and is promoting a new compassion club.

Like Nash, he thinks the medical pot market is about to expand exponentially and legally.

“There’s no smoking in here,” he said as he showed me around the spartan office. “But there’s a vapour lounge two doors down in the Seed Bank where you can light up after you leave.”

There is a modest reception area and a large back room. It’s clean but unfinished.

“These are the dealing tables,” he said, pointing to a handful of folding tables separated by office screens to provide a measure of privacy.

He laughed.

“I guess I should call them dispensing tables.”

Larsen, who used to be the leader of the B.C. Marijuana Party and Prince of Pot Marc Emery’s lieutenant, thinks the time has come to move into the medical field.

“I think there’s enough of a market in town to support another dispensary,” Larsen said.

“There are more than enough patients who need reliable, quality cannabis products than the current two clubs in the city provide.”

His menu of cannabis products included six strains of dried marijuana, four kinds of hash, two pot products in capsules and double-strength bon-bons — cannabis-infused organic chocolates.

The pot ranged in price from $7.50 a gram for Pine Cross up to $8 a gram for Sweet Tooth; pressed Kif (soft hash made with a sieve) went for $8 a gram; and very potent Bubblehash, which was extracted using water and ice rather than a sieve, went for $25 a gram.

In Oakland, Calif., the private dispensaries that support the state’s medical marijuana program are said to be generating revenues in excess of $70 million a year.

MEDICAL MARIJUANA COULD HELP THE SICK

Michelle Rainey is one of roughly 2,500 Canadians with a licence to possess and use marijuana. She’s also a celebrity in the medical marijuana world and on YouTube.

Rainey has Crohn’s disease and finds her home-grown pot an effective replacement for her previous expensive regimen of pharmaceutical drugs.

She believes the country’s health-care system could save a fortune if there was a working medical marijuana program, and those who could benefit from cannabis could easily shift away from other medications.

The roughly 110,000 Canadians suffering from Crohn’s disease and the 90,000 living with ulcerative colitis, for example, are estimated to spend $162 million a year for prescription drugs.

Many of those people are already benefiting from marijuana, Rainey said, but many, many more could be.

Consider too that many battling cancer and HIV/AIDS find edible cannabis products work to stimulate the appetite, but they’ve got to buy them on the street.

“We have a huge problem with physicians being apprehensive about signing for patients even though the proof is there,” Rainey said.

“Our seniors, for instance, are spending their pensions on big pharma only to end up with more aches and pains when all they may need is a puff or a brownie!”

Rainey has facilitated more than 70 exemptions for local patients, 30 suffering from Crohn’s: “I receive dozens of e-mails from people suffering every day from all over the world who have discovered cannabis alleviates pain and nausea. The government should not be preventing people from getting access to an effective medicine.”

The courts agree.

In its decision, the Federal Court of Appeal did more than simply hand Ottawa a legal loss. It said the government had been knowingly dragging its heels since at least 2003.

As a result, lawyer Kirk Tousaw told B.C. Supreme Court that this decision renders the criminal law invalid based on that history of jurisprudence, which ties enforceability of the criminal law to the existence of a constitutionally adequate medical access scheme.

He said the judgments in Ontario courts and now the federal court mean the state of the law is unclear and therefore criminal sanctions cannot be imposed.

In this latest case — called Sfetkopoulos et al v. Attorney General of Canada — some 27 patients with exemptions to possess marijuana for medicinal use applied to Health Canada for authorization to designate Carasel Harvest Supply Corporation as their marijuana producer.

Health Canada refused, saying that violated the regulations that restricted growers to supplying only two patients at a time.

But the Federal Court Trial Division agreed with the patients and declared section 41 (b.1) of the MMAR was contrary to s. 7 of the Charter because it threatened their liberty and security of the person by preventing them from choosing their marijuana producer.

The judge accepted that sick people should have access to marijuana for the treatment of serious medical conditions and they should not be forced to risk imprisonment to buy their medication on the black market.

He interpreted the constitutional guarantee of security of person rights to include access to medication without undue state interference.

Ottawa appealed and lost.

COURT REBUKES GOVERNMENT

The appeal court agreed with the trial judge — the medical marijuana scheme was constitutionally deficient — and rebuked the government.

The three judges said the Crown had brought forward a case dismissed by the Ontario Court of Appeal in 2003, that nothing had changed and the marijuana access regulations remained flawed.

In the unanimous 2003 decision, the justices similarly complained about Ottawa’s failure to deal properly with this issue.

In their terse three-page decision a fortnight ago, the justices refused to suspend the impact of their ruling to give the government time to amend the regulations.

Health Canada spokesman Phillipe Laroche said the department was still studying the ruling and had not decided on its response.

Now, Tousaw has argued that those charged or convicted while the medical marijuana access scheme was deemed unconstitutional should have their convictions overturned or their charges stayed. That’s thousands of Canadians.

In particular, Tousaw says Ryan Poelzer should have his conviction overturned.

Poelzer was charged May 18, 2007 and there is no disagreement about the facts. He was smoking a joint on a B.C. Ferry as it pulled into Langdale and that offended an off-duty cop who called the RCMP. As he stepped off the ferry, Poelzer was arrested and in his backpack police found 78.3 grams of marijuana, 8.6 grams of hash, and assorted paraphernalia and pro-drug literature.

In spite of Tousaw’s argument that the cannabis prohibition was invalid, or alternatively that the status of the prohibition is so confused that prosecution constituted an abuse of process, the provincial court judge in the case decided B.C. jurisprudence had declared the medical marijuana scheme valid and therefore the criminal law was fine and Poelzer in clear violation of it.

But Tousaw says the B.C. precedents are wrong and fly in the face of this latest ruling.

The Crown disagrees.

Federal lawyer Peter Eccles said the MMAR requirements are reasonable given the legitimate societal interest in controlling the distribution of a “potentially harmful drug.”

“They ensure only those with a bona fide medical need for marijuana, verified by appropriate medical declaration, obtain legal access,” Eccles said. “Mr. Poelzer is not such an individual.”

Perhaps.

Two B.C. justices will render their opinions soon on whether there actually is a criminal marijuana law in force at the moment or whether de facto legalization has occurred because the medical access scheme is unconstitutional.

Market issues ‘need to be addressed’

The question is how will Ottawa respond to the federal court decision.

Since the impugned marijuana access scheme is a product of regulation rather than statute, the government can quickly promulgate new rules.

“They could make cosmetic regulatory changes,” Nash acknowledged, “which would force another court challenge. But I think the judges are pretty fed up with them doing that.”

And for good reason — sick people should not have to deal with the black market.

Nash said it’s time to get medical marijuana out of the courts, properly regulated and controlled.

“It comes down to consumer choice,” Nash said. “We have people across Canada who want our organic product. Patients want different price ranges, they want different strains, they want different hybrids. There are market issues here that need to be addressed. When you go to a pharmacy do you want to be told you can only have Bayer?

“This is about patients’ rights and a legitimate need.”

imulgrew@vancouversun.co

–

Note:

Ian Mulgrew is the Vancouver Sun’s legal affairs columnist and the author of several non-fiction books, including Bud Inc.: Inside Canada’s Marijuana Industry (Random House, 2005).

See also:

Choogle on podcast interview with Dana Larsen: Party at the Vancouver Seed Bank – Choogle on #59

You know i love the SeaBus (the crown jewel of the Translink system) and plan to be invited for the inaugural voyage … and with the dozen of so suggestions i submitted already, you don’t have a chance of winning but … i thought I’d fill you in on Translink’s Name the New SeaBus contest anyhow.

Send in your entry for a chance to win 3 Three Zone Transit Passes and a ride on the inaugural sailing of the new SeaBus.

Please provide your suggestion and some basic contact information below to enter the Name the Seabus Contest.

Stay tuned for possible podcast coverage of me riding the high seas of Burrard Inlet on the new Sockeye, Coho, or Marmot, or Spirit Bear, or Minnow, or Luna, or Manatee, or Beluga …

Incidentally, the two current vessels are the Burrard Otter and Burrard Beaver.

And while incredible reliable and not inaudnted by advertising, sometime there are mishaps on the SeaBus.
Seabus Station Evacuated due to Smoking Vessel

Tags: translink, tranit, seabus, contest, vancouver, otter, beaver,

Cross-posted at: happyfrog Evolves from Small Amphibian to Mighty Mammal – Say hello to 3rd Whale

A busy year in the pond

Since launching happyfrog.ca just over a year ago, the small band of eco-minded renegades worked hard to help sustainability-focused businesses and organizations gain valuable exposure on the web, and in close conjunction with this effort, help green-minded consumers find these great biz’es and orgs.

Over this year, my colleagues and I attended all sorts of trade shows, conferences, meet-ups, presentations and camps to spread the message of sharing eco-smarts with your community. Indeed, we found great joy in seeing the positive impact we’ve made on green entrepreneurs and shoppers alike.

Evolution to a swimming mammal

Now, change is upon us. happyfrog has made friends with a pod of whales and announces happyfrog.ca has merged with 3rd Whale. This business merger means happyfrog.ca as we all know it will change significantly. Think of it as an evolution from a small amphibian to a giant mammal (and Darwin celebrates!).

The company will go forward as 3rd Whale with the aim of combining the happyfrog directory and social networking platform with 3rd Whale’s
mobile application (to be released for iPhone on in November, followed by Android and Blackberry versions) to markets down the West coast of North America, and to the world (and beyond! ;-).

Big Thanks

For happyfrog to grow as fast as it did was not easy but … we’ve had a constellation of collaborators helping build the vision.

Technical helpers:

• Social Signal – strategic planning and information design
• Affinity Bridge – Drupal development and maintainence
• Brave New Code – search widget creation
• Bryght – Drupal-optimized hosting
• Zhonka – email delivery through Drupal
• Big Mike Design – flash animation
• Cyan Design – graphic design
• Info distillery – information gathering

Frog squadders

• Rebecca Bollwitt
• John Bollwitt
• Raul Hummingbird604
• Alexa Booth
• Joe Solomon
• Greg Andrews
• Colleen Coplick
• Lisa Tilson
• Karen Fung
• Tris Hussey
• Olga Orda
• Rex Weyler
• Roland Tanglao
• Keira-anne
• Brad Rees
• Jonathan Narvey
• and all the other frogs who blogged, podcasted, vid-casted and otherwise helped.

Thanks also go to all the business owners who came to our focus groups, purchased ads, claimed their listings, spoke on a podcast, and said “thanks for helping us succeed”!

Same for the groups who invited us to speak at events and share this small revolution including Globe’s EPIC SustainableLiving Expo who which whom we put on an epic (heh) social media experimentat Canada Place (creating tons of creative commons’ content to support growing businesses), Shared Vision magazine for having our back in print, and Deirdre Rowland for getting us in the news and on the tube.

And most especially … thanks to *you* for showing up, reading our thoughts, sharing your knowledge, posting reviews, giving us a link, using the widget, and making our collective environment a little greener, and a little more fun. It would be lonely around here if you weren’t here. Truly, Thank You.

More about 3rd Whale and happyfrog

happyfrog founder (and independent media veteran), Ron Williams points out, “We couldn’t hope for a better partner than 3rd Whale – besides being values aligned, the “whales” bring technical and business skills to the table which help reach a larger audience and make change on a truly global scale.”

So, what does this mean for you?

You’ll see the site as you know it undergo a renovation and re-branding, you’ll see tens-of-thousands of new listings in new cities added (great for travelers too!), and you’ll see more tools coming out to help you share your eco-smarts with “pod mob” campaigns, mentoring programs, and reviews on-the-go with your smart phone.

Stay tuned for news about how your directory listings will change, blog posts will migrate and any changes to your account info – 3rd Whale will continue to respect both your privacy, and the time investment, you’ve put into happyfrog.ca.

I am truly grateful for your involvement in happyfrog.ca.

Your Greenly,

Dave Olson, Community Manager (emeritus)

Green Web and Mobile Companies Merge to Help Conscious Consumers “Be Green on the Go”
Cross-posted from PRWeb

What happens when a happy frog and a pod of whales get together to change the world? Vancouver, Canada-based, green web companies 3rdWhale.com and happyfrog.ca announced an equity merger with plans to grow globally with the goal of helping eco-minded consumers make informed choices in all aspects of their lifestyle – from organic food to eco-travel.

Vancouver, BC (PRWEB) November 12, 2008 — Vancouver Canada-based, green web companies 3rd Whale and happyfrog.ca announced an equity merger and plans to grow globally under the 3rd Whale name.

The merger combines 3rd Whale’s location-based mobile phone application with happyfrog.ca’s rich “web 2.0″ platform providing green consumers with cross-platform tools to find values-aligned businesses. By using the company’s next generation mobile and web tools, participants can easily share their eco-smarts by adding business reviews, blog posts, and mentoring programs to help others reduce their eco-footprint.

3rd Whale is best known for the “Greenest Person in the World” contest which generated media exposure from Venezuela to Germany. 3rd Whale is the brainchild of Boyd Cohen, who holds a Ph. D in Sustainable Entrepreneurship and is an Assistant Professor at British Columbia’s Simon Fraser University. The company recently opened an office in Sunnyvale, California and is actively adding members to the executive team and meeting with venture capital firms in Silicon Valley.

Dr. Cohen, CEO, points out, “By combining happyfrog’s expertise in web delivery of green business listings, and related community engagement, with the growing global brand of 3rdwhale.com and our mobile application, we are poised to initiate truly global change.”

In just over a year, happyfrog.ca grew into the definitive directory for finding environmental and wellness focused businesses and organizations in B.C. Happyfrog’s platform also gave a voice to bloggers and the public to share their opinions about favorite businesses from yoga to sushi with the Myhappyfrog social networking platform.

Happyfrog’s “Frog squad” of bloggers and podcasters were visible at eco-trade shows and conferences, including EPIC Sustainable Living Expo at Canada Place, resulting in tremendous exposure for the businesses and organizations showing real environmental leadership.

Founded by independent media veteran Ron Williams, happyfrog was built and launched by Webby-nominated consulting firm, Social Signal (known for Change Everything, BCHydro Green Gifts).

Williams, now President of 3rd Whale, expressed his excitement with the merger saying, “When I first dreamed of creating happyfrog.ca, I knew partnering with values and technology-aligned companies would be the key to scaling to a larger base. Upon meeting the 3rd Whale team, I knew we’d found a great fit to bring our local prototype to a worldwide audience.”

3rd Whale’s mobile application (called Luna) is in public beta for iPhone and on track for general release on Nov. 14th followed by versions for the Google Android and RIM Blackberry platforms. The happyfrog.ca site will be re-imagined and re-branded as 3rdwhale.com and tens of thousands of new entries will be added in conjunction with subsequent rolling launches in new markets worldwide.

###

environment ecology business entrepreneurship ron williams boyd cohen dave olson vancouver start-up merger acquisition

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Tags: happyfrog, 3rdwhale, merger, ecology, acquisition,

You know i dig making my wee little audio documentary interviews and … at the recent Vancouver Health Show at Canada Place, i interviewed four entrepreneurial women for podcasts posted at happyfrog.ca’s Frog blog. Thought i’d share ‘em here for posterity:

Know your Local Water
Vancouver has exceptional drinking water but there is many reasons for concern – chlorination, excessive water laws, groundwater protection and finding a filter made for local water. Mary of yourwatermatters.com also invites you to speak your mind by contacting the Ground Water Advisory Board.

• Read more
• Download audio file

Grab a Stylish and Durable Bag
Bringing your own bag is easier, more stylish with Moukisac.com. Marie tells about her durable 6 in 1 bag system which starts as a fanny pack and turns into a shopping bag with a variety of small sacks for bulks, produce and even sprouting.

• Download audio file

Dried Fruit for Washing Clothes

Soap Nuts are a fruit for washing clothes – the waste water is non-polluting, the soap packets are compostable and the smell is like lemongrass. The fruits are grown, dried and prepared in India and fairly traded to green consumers in Vancouver. Learn more about Sapindus (aka soap nuts) at Wikipedia

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Healthy Food and Packaging to Change the World
At the Vancouver Health Show, Dave talks to Alex a mother and entrepreneur who, with her partner Colin, produce dried whole foods packaged in cellulose, glass and with no glues. They discuss carbon footprint, local sourcing and creative distribution. Visit madewithlove.ca.

• Download audio file

In response to Robertson’s loonie lapse in The Province (Nov 4th) regarding Gregor Robertson (Vision Vancouver candidate for mayor) getting shook down for a wrong-zoned transit ticket:

Robertson was an NDP MLA in 2007 when he was caught riding two SkyTrain zones on a one-zone fare.

The avid cyclist told the transit police at the time it was an honest mistake, and one he rectified immediately by paying the extra dollar. He was still issued a $173 fine.

Robertson says he was going to use his Dec. 4 hearing on the ticket to argue the fine was grossly disproportionate to the offence.

I posit:

He’s right, it’s an absurd fine for a negligible offense. The excessive force used by the Skytrain police thugs is much more shocking then a failure to pony up a loonie on the horrendously overpriced and under-served transit system. Henry David Thoreau resisted taxes on principal to make a point and ended up influencing cataclysmic change in the world with his acts of non-violent civil disobedience (see: Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr.). Overstatement? Sure but i feel we have a stronger obligation to resist absurd laws and dranconian punishments than we do to capitulate to regulations which are not in the public’s best interest.

PS More Buses Now! and transit should be free or cheap – and if you don’t use the transit system, try it – you’ll learn it is expensive, and often confusing (especially for out of towners), inconvenient (especially in the ‘burbs) and uncomfortable (especially during rush hour). Mass transit is a huge part of making an urban centre livable and needs real support, not more cops and fines.

Tags: transit, transportation, translink, gregor robertson, mayor, vancouver

Excerpted from Meeting Friends at Health Show at Canada Place

… I can’t help but mentioning “More Buses Now!“

This campaign, organized by the transit drivers union, is holding the government to their promises of more buses – not just new buses to replace the aging fleet, but a significant increase in the total buses to encourage ridership, and stop the overcrowding which leads to pass-bys, crowded conditions, and compromised service and safety.

Not fun for anyone – riders or drivers – watching the bus roll by on a rainy day with places to go – yuch.

Participate by sending your opinion to Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon.

More Buses Now! Ask Kevin Falcon very nicely

I’m a daily transit rider (rocking the bus, seabus and skytrain – sometimes all in the same day) and certainly advocate for making transit more convenient and more comfortable rather than looking at public conveyance as a perk or service only for the dis-enfranchised.

I love riding and relaxing while someone else drives which is why I helped ringlead Vancouver Transit
Camp so continued big-ups to Translink for participating in the Skytrain Security Un-conference and huge ups to the organizers for putting this important dialogue in front of the public.

Finally, to really support transit and sensible transportation policies in general – anyone living in Surrey, be sure to vote for Paul Hillsdon for Surrey City Council and/or School Trustee – otherwise, be sure to read his plans for sustainable transportation in the entire region.

Bonus

Karen Quinn Fung – transit activist and scholar, added some of my acerbic dose of punditry to the conversation in Public Perceptions of Transit Security:

As I mentioned yesterday, if you haven’t heard Dave Olson aka Uncle Weed’s rant on transit police on his Choogle On podcast, I highly recommend it with some good humour – his delivery is spot-on, and he entirely captures my own feelings on the topic. (For those of you with delicate ears, he does use some abrasive and explicit language. Nothing worse than you’ll hear on the SkyTrain.) It also brings home an awful lot of issues for me – this is a bit of a long post as a result.

{snip}

Perhaps you’re ready to write Dave off, because you think he’s of a different political stripe or has an entirely different set of values. That’s a legitimate reason to disagree with his delivery, perhaps, but not, I think, with his observations or the broader argument: that as citizens we have the right and perhaps even a duty to question how the presence of surveillance and constant visible law enforcement in our every day lives affects how we act and live in our communities.

Thanks to Karen for so gracefully sharing my spiel with transcription (which matches my stream of consciousness exactly – like stepping my own head). I do indeed ride transit everywhere i go (as in, in other countries and cities besides Vancouver) and like the other Dave OlsEn, i wish transit were free for the people!

Cross posted at Daily Vancouver as: High-Flying Canadian Snowboarder Crispin Lipscomb – Olympic Outsider podcast #9

Recorded at the post-Turin Olympic flag tour in May 2006, top-placing Canadian half-pipe snowboarder Crispin Lipscomb talks to host Dave O about his Olympic experience, pre-race rituals and 2010 plans – plus offers insight into the Whistler lifestyle, future of the sport, and how to help young boarders.

Download High-Flying Canadian Snowboarder Crispin Lipscomb – Olympic Outsider podcast #9
(.mp3, 8MB, 9:53)

Subscribe:
Olympic Outsider podcast – iTunes – http://feeds.feedburner.com/olympicoutsider/
Canucks Outsider podcast – iTunes – http://feeds.feedburner.com/CanucksOutsider
More Dave O podcasts and writing ]]> http://feasthouse.wordpress.com/2008/10/31/dusting-off-the-podcast-archive-for-an-olympic-outsider-episode/feed/ 1 uncleweed crispin lipscomb http://feasthouse.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/talking-about-train-travel-in-the-vancouver-courier/ http://feasthouse.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/talking-about-train-travel-in-the-vancouver-courier/#comments Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:47:22 +0000 Dave O http://feasthouse.wordpress.com/?p=480 ]]>

I was interviewed (and my loquacious quotes like “super lame”) are included in an article about train travel in the Vancouver Courier.

I am including my quotes and a few other snippets about my pet-rant – inadequate train travel between here and points south as well as the photo by Dan Toulguet so it doesn’t disappear into the internet tubes like my previous photo appearance in this local newspaper. By the way, if someone could pick me up a paper copy, i’d be very pleased.

from the Vancouver Courier article by Robert Alstead, Oct. 22nd, 2008

Slow train coming

Robert Alstead takes a journey north by rail from California and wonders if Canada’s vanished passenger trains will once again carry us from coast to coast – Robert Alstead, Vancouver Courier
Published: Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Print version of Slow Train Coming
Web version of Slow Train Coming

Dave Olson, who works in marketing for Gastown web design company Raincity Studios, travels six or seven times a year by train, on business and pleasure. “I don’t care for jet travel because of the incredible hassle and huge eco-footprint,” says Olson. Like many, he would take the train more if he could. “I like the pace and not having to drive, I like the rhythm and the scenery you normally don’t see, the rail yards and seashores and forgotten neighbourhoods. I find the train-riding experience somehow charming, even poetic and certainly creativity stimulating,” he says.

However, he complains Amtrak’s evening train south is hardly convenient for trips to Olympia or Portland, seeing as travellers must make an overnight stopover in Seattle. The Amtrak Cascades is also infrequent and often booked up. Amtrak does offer several “train buses” which Olson has found “super lame” with long border waits. He’d rather take the car if there are no seats on the train, although it did mean a $124 parking bill and a chipped windshield on a recent three-day trip to Seattle. “I know we would’ve enjoyed some work or playing cards or meditating on the train,” he rues.

##

However, the Amtrak Cascades offers a good example of the difficulties faced in enhancing rail services.

For years, Amtrak has wanted to add a second roundtrip train between Eugene and Vancouver. However, congestion due to heavy freight movement on track this side of the border meant that a new siding needed to be added to allow trains to pass. For six years, Canadian and U.S. officials and railroad owners Burlington Northern Santa Fe had been unable to hammer out a deal over who should pay for the upgrade.

That means that a second Amtrak Cascades has been running only as far as Bellingham. Then in March of last year, spurred on by the onset of the 2010 Olympics, B.C. transportation minister Kevin Falcon announced that he was committing “up to $4.5 million” (reportedly 57 per cent of the upgrade cost) to build the siding.

In June last year, Premier Gordon Campbell marked the new service on the platform at King Street Station in Seattle by exchanging a large symbolic train ticket with Washington Governor Chris Gregoire in a photo op.

The siding was completed months ago. Amtrak is ready to go. But the service hit the buffers due to complications with the Canadian Border Services Agency, which reportedly wants $15,000 per day to clear the train.

Graham says the matter is in the hands of the B.C. government. A spokesperson for the province says it’s a federal government issue. Faith St. John, spokesperson for the CBSA, said she could not comment on the matter “because we are in discussions.” But she did say that “decisions to provide CBSA services at a new location or to expand current services take into account human resource requirements and the ability to provide security and service to the public.”

She could not say when the matter would be resolved.

##

See also:

Ranting on about Trains, Buses and Borders – Choogle on podcast #1

Vancouver Courier Newspaper article on the Canucks Outsider podcast

In response to Dave Delaney (davemadethat.com)’s meme-like inquiry about favorite podcasts – What are you listening to? A podcasting meme – I sit on the rocky banks of Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet drinking a St. Ambroise beer and extol a list of faves podcasts with reasonings and anecdotes about each.

• Dopefiend.co.uk w/Dopecast, Psychonautica, Lefty’s Lounge, Black Beauty’s Bungalow
• Clubside Breakfast Time
• Radio Zoom
• Psychedelic Salon
• Cory Doctorow’s Craphound
• Scarborough Dude
• plus selections from the CBC – Dispatches, Search Engine, Vinyl Cafe and BBC – In Our Time
• and Mosquito Leg Chimpanzee

“What podcasts do you listen to?” podcast (.mp3, 7:07, 6.6.MB)

Dave’s instructions told me to tag 5 people but that sounds kinda heavy so comment and chime in if you want – no big whoop.

Here are some of my podcasts:
Choogle on with Uncleweed – Counter-culture hi-jinks – Feed – iTunes – Blog

Canucks Outsider – Vancouver Hockey Podcast – Feed – iTunes – Blog

Out n’ About with Uncle Weed – Travelin’ man vidcast – Show – Feed – iTunes

Postcards from Gravelly Beach – Spoken word literature – Feed – iTunes – Blog

Olympic Outsider – Winter Sports/culture – Blog – iTunes – Feed

My pal Raul asked this question at: What the heck happened this past Canadian Federal Election?

Here’s my brief reply:

The left was split and Canada’s true desires weren’t manifest. The Liberals ran a (sorry) lousy campaign, the Green acquitted themselves excellently but are out numbered everywhere and the Cons slipped right in strategically laughing while Layton attacked Dion.

We need a proportional representative system where the House reflects Canada. We need a run-off style ballot so we aren’t flummoxed by the “strategic voting” conundrum (i vote with my heart).

And the parties need to show – in short, clear statements – how we (they) can protect the environment while promoting the economy.

I am still worked up about they way this election went down and riffed more about it at A Few words for Democracy at happyfrog.

I have a Choogle on! podcast coming out shortly (really) with my emotional reaction to the results in Canada and the impending vote in the USA. And I discussed the Conservative minority win on the Dopecast on Dopefiend.co.uk.

While i am on topic, here are my democratic actionable items, observations etc. cross-posted from happyfrog post A Few words for Democracy:

Ohhhh Canada

With the Canadian Federal election behind us, a looming USA General election (which will effect everyone), plus a Vancouver Mayoral race in which the winner will preside over the 2010 Olympics and attempt to assuage the controversies around the development, democracy in action is catching the attention of everyone – or should be anyhow.

I’ve personally learned that policy is decided by those who “show up” and let their opinions be heard – not by throwing rocks but rather by civilized discourse and personal expression to the policy makers.

Here are a few tools, events and ideas I’ve come acress to help constructively participate in the political process, while not sinking to the mud-slinging which happens when the issues cut to the core of who we are as a community.

Media Democracy Day- Speak up!

This Saturday at SFU’s downtown campus come “Speak for Ourselves” and learn about the critical issues effecting the media – both in terms of content and delivery – at Media Democracy Day Vancouver 2008.

With mainstream conglomerates amalgamating local media into a generic mish-mash more focused on selling ad space than spreading critical information, and Telcos (with the encouragement of the Federal government) tightening their grip on the gates of what’s “acceptable” there is plenty to educate yourself about.

Noted speakers will share their opinions – including happyfrog columnist and co-founder of Greenpeace Rex Wyeler and Tyee’s chief David Beers – and relevant panels will present different perspectives on this dynamic landscape from open access to citizen journalism to copyright/wrong.

Now Polling Grassroots Opinions

I’ve seen and chatted with Pedro from NowPolling.ca at many community events as he spreads the message that “Participation is the essence of Democracy”.

Sign up for a free account at NowPolling.ca and you can weigh in with your opinion on current issues of concern to the community on a local, provincal and federal level.

Here’s how they describe their work:

“This is a non-profit forum where anyone can register their opinions on a broad range of issues. You can choose your answers now, and if you change your mind, you can return to change your vote anytime.

As far as we know, nowpolling.ca is the first in the world to provide a perpetual polling system which facilitates your democratic right to participate in the political process.”

Sign up for an free NowPolling.ca account and see how your opinions jibe with your fellow electors.

Fairer Voting

Despite the optimism I held from watching the debates and CBC engaging X Challenge debate (with a cameo by happyfrog pal Chris Livingstone of EPIC Sustainable Living Expo), the results were a split left and a stronger minority government for the Conservative Party. Ugh.

During the election, many folks rallied for strategic voting for the environment in order to prevent Conservatives from taking seats. While I fervently support the environment, I personally don’t buy into strategic voting.

The solution which has come out of the election with some vigor is proportional representation. You can learn more about this at Fairvote.ca but briefly, this means a House of Commons which reflects the popular vote rather than the minority winner from the patchwork of ridings.

Here’s Fairvote’s statement about the recent election:

As usual, the first-past-the-post system played havoc with voters’ intentions. The Green Party, western Liberals, the NDP and urban Conservatives were among the political victims. The Parliament voters tried to create would have looked quite different from what the voting system gave us. Read the Fair Vote Canada press release.

The impetus for many to rally behind this is seeing the Greens leap up to just shy of 7% of the popular vote yet get no seats while the NDP led the Bloc Quebecois in the popular vote but trailed in the seats.

Another related idea is to vote for your 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice to form a “run-off” in each riding with the lowest candidate dropped and the votes recounted until a candidate had over 50% of the vote rather than the “first past the post” system now.

Whichever way you feel, it is a big question for Canadians and there is a movement for a voting referendum to encourage *more* democracy.

Voteabroad.org & Democrats Abroad

Ex-pat BeccaJo explained in her post “Last chance to vote in the U.S.!” the process and importance of voting for Americans living in the Great White North.

Registering is the critical first step. Next up, voting! If you are from the USA, you should have received your ballot already – if not, get on the phone to the county auditor in your last county of residence.

If you have received it, fill it out and get it in the mail or drop it off at the US Embassy. Unlike mailing from within the USA, you gotta pony up for an international air mail stamp.

For Demo-politicos seeking bonding in Canada, consider hanging out with the Democrats Abroad in Vancouver or via email. They are likely to be hosting a results viewing party for a big Nov. 4th.

CBC using Twitter

Some netizens have noticed the new happyfrog_ca Twitter account. Like many new web apps, this is a bit strange to explain at first – basically 140 character mini-thoughts.

The recent General election provided a good example as CBC followed the chatter via Twitter as voters watched the Leader Debates and flowed out a stream on collective consciousness with their off the cuff, candid reactions to the Q&A flowed to OrmistonVotes Twitter account.

If you aren’t using Twitter, it’s free and fun. If you are, follow happyfrog_ca and pay attention to #vanvotes and other keywords (known as “hashtags” and when preceded with a # sign) to keep a pulse on what the people are feeling/thinking/expressing right now – all in haiku-like length.

And Finally, a By-Election

If you aren’t all voted out yet, great because there is a provincial by-election coming up. happyfrog pal Miss604 has an awesome (as usual) overview BC By-Elections for Vancouver-Burrard and Vancouver-Fairview.

Monte Paulsen gives the low down in The Tyee’s The Hook political blog:

As if Vancouverites needed another fall election, Premier Gordon Campbell has called two provincial by-elections for October 29th in the Vancouver-Burrard and Vancouver-Fairview ridings.

Vancouver-Burrard became vacant in September after MLA Lorne Mayencourt, a B.C. Liberal, resigned to run for the Conservative Party in the Oct. 14 federal election.

Vancouver-Fairview became vacant in July after MLA Gregor Robertson, a B.C. New Democrat, resigned to run as Vision Vancouver’s mayoral candidate in the Nov. 15 civic election.

With some high-profile candidates in the mix, hopefully voter apathy and burnout will be thwarted and the turnout will be high and mighty.

Tags: by-election, democracy, democrats, fairvote, miss604, nowpolling, politics, rex weyler, voting

[Cross posted at: Hockey NW - CBC Radio, Crazy Photo Contest and Canucks Fan Punditry Ahoy!]

The season starts for real this week and there’s plenty going on in Canuck-land. Besides player movement and line combos to sort out, here are a couple of tasty bits and pieces …

Outsider on CBC

I’ll be on CBC Radio One tomorrow (Thursday, Oct. 9th, 2008) on the BC Almanac show at around 12:30 tomorrow to talk about the impending Canucks season – be sure to tune in (and someone do me a favor and record it eh). For fun, here’s me and Roland Tanglao discussing the Canucks Outsider “Alive for the Playoffs” live stream on CBC Radio’s “On the Coast” a couple seasons ago.

Win Prizes with Photos

You may have noticed me and my cohorts from the Crazy Canucks on the transit advertising in Skytrain stations around Vancouver. Wily fans can win prizes including lower-bowl tickets to the open practice (ohhh ahhh) from JJ of Canucks Hockey Blog. To enter, submit a photo with you posing with one of the Crazy Canucks ads. See TCC#65 – Getting our hopes up and/or Miss 604’s Spot The Crazy Canucks Contest for details.

Curmudgeonly Goalie Guest

I’ll be bringing former pro player and outspoken analyst Ian Bell onto the Outsider next week to talk about playing in Europe, playing for Team Canada and how the Canucks look to him this season. Bound to be entertaining (well, the podcast is *always* entertaining right?)

New Pundit Rocks

Have you read the first edition of Joe Tory’s “Black Ice” column? Besides having loquacious opinions about the Canucks, Joe fronts a sonic juggernaut of a band called the Black Tories. You can hear their music in episodes of the Canucks Outsider and/or at theBlackTories.com – be sure to keep an eye out for gigs in your area.

Dave and Richard Loat show their Fists of Fury!

Outsider sells out

The Canucks.com launched a new section, the Fan Zone, to feature social media makers and profile die-hard Canuck fans around the world. Both the Canucks Outsider and Crazy Canucks podcasts are of course in the mix. The Outsider listing even comes with a disclaimer.

For your amusement, here’s the Canucks Outsider feature page, the Fan Zone Guide page and the Crazy Canucks profile page. Next up, i think we need hockey cards ;-)

Description

The original Canucks podcast, the Canucks Outsider is the fan’s audio magazine. Each episode is a unique documentary delving deep into Canucks lore past and present. The shows are recorded on the road, at the rink, or on the porch, but always with a beer in hand.

Canucks Outsider also explores international tournaments, Vancouver Giants, Winter Olympics and hockey culture in general and offer a special welcome to Canucks fans far and wide in foreign lands. Dave is also heard on The Crazy Canucks podcast and hosts the noted “Alive for the Playoffs!” streaming video casts.

What’s there:
After-hours analysis and insight on the Canucks and hockey culture

(Warning! may not be appropriate for younger listeners)

What’s good:
Anecdotes about Canucks history and irreverent recordings from unexpected locations

About

Canucks Outsider host, Dave Thorvald Olson, is a long-time hockey aficionado, published writer and documentary maker. He adds creative insight and literary depth to his deep Canucks roots and vast memorabilia collection.

Dave’s often joined by the wise Dan Funboy who brings thoughtful, pragmatic analysis and keeps Dave in check, along with an assortment other outspoken guests and hardcore pundits

New Podcast – alas with less beer

Finally, a new Outsider goes out late tonight or sometime tomorrow. Thanks to Molson Brew 2.0 for sending me a case of Rickard’s beer while i was recovering from an off-season emergency appendectomy. I am getting my skating legs back just in time for the season! Thanks for the good wishes from the Canucks and you decent folks in Canucks Nation. Prost!

As long rumoured, the The United States of America as represented by the Department of Health and Human Services, has indeed obtained patents on various forms of THC despite the endless litany of claims to the contrary, enforced by life damaging, draconian policies. Thanks to the remarkable Google Patent directory, you can explore the whole patent in details beyond the abstract provided below.

The Google directory is a fair bit easier to explore but here the USTPO reference as well for you wonks:

6,630,507

Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants

Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants – Aidan J. Hampson et al

Abstract
Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and HIV dementia. Nonpsychoactive cannabinoids, such as cannabidoil, are particularly advantageous to use because they avoid toxicity that is encountered with psychoactive cannabinoids at high doses useful in the method of the present invention. A particular disclosed class of cannabinoids useful as neuroprotective antioxidants is formula (I) wherein the R group is independently selected from the group consisting…

Patent number: 6630507
Filing date: Feb 2, 2001
Issue date: Oct 7, 2003
Inventors: Aidan J. Hampson, Julius Axelrod, Maurizio Grimaldi
Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Department of Health and Human Services
Primary Examiner: Kevin E. Weddington
Attorneys: Klarquist Sparkman, LLP
Application number: 9/674,028

U.S. Classification
514/454

International Classification
A61K 3135

Bonus:

Although not owned by the US government patents are rather interesting as well:

7,285,687

Cannabinoids

7,179,800

Cannabinoids

or a general search for cannabis at USTPO

Tags: cannabis, patents, usda, medicine, ustpo, medical cannabis

After years of kajolling and kiniving, the Crazy Canucks podcast – which i brew up with a rag-tag group of ace bloggers and podcasters Radio John, Miss 604, Alanah, J.J. – are getting some love from the Canucks thanks to the Anton Sledgehammer Creative (the Ultimate Canucks search guys). Last season, we did remotes from the concourse at the open practice and will be lounging with them in a suite for a pre-season game next week.

Co-Crazy Canuck, Miss 604 has a beefy post up with the deets – New Canucks FanZone Celebrates Bloggers, Podcasters so i’ll just point you to the Crazy Canucks on the Canucks “fan zone” and slap up some self-referential screenshots of myself and old-timey dave’s hat for posterity.

photoshopped 5 of us, JJ isn’t really that HUGE! ps nice hat head dave

“I heartily endorse this giant card of mystery,” Dave Olson

you got to click a disclaimer to see the website – it’s that dangerous

Regular listeners of Choogle on With Uncle Weed have likely got to know my British counter-part The Dopefiend – we’ve recorded a few shows while i visited him and Max Freakout in London and a trip to the seashore in Brighton, then he and Dopegirl allowed me to return the hospitality with a long North Van visit which resulted in a heap of podcasts including visits with Herby, a true herbsman, hunkered down in a boutique grow room.

Current listeners know that Herby fell into some dicey situation with the law and on the newest Dopecast, i discuss Herby’s situation and the importance of knowing your rights including understanding probable cause, your right to an attorney, and why to shut up when the cops starting yapping!

Go grab Dopecast142 and Subscribe to the whole Dopefiend network even in iTunes

On this week’s episode of the Web’s Favourite Cannabis Podcast, the Dopefiend talks to Canadian Cannabis Crusader Uncle Weed about the difficult situation featuring Canadian grower and Dopecast favourite Herbie, forced to spend his weekends in jail thanks to an increasingly tough stance on Cannabis taken by the Canadian authorities, why it’s not as easy as it may sound to some, and why it’s yet more evidence of injustice in the war on drugs.

The Dopefiend then talks to Uncle Weed about the case of Dopecast listener Snoogins who was busted on a marijuana paraphernalia charge, and why it’s important for all stoners to know their rights and to exercise their civil liberties, and also gets his views on the continuing debate over abuse vs experimentation and his thoughts on the recent Big Chill gonzo extravaganza, knowing your own limits and how you have to decide what constitutes abuse on your own terms, whether there is any value in Nitrous Oxide or MDMA, and how important ritual and careful planning is to a successful entheogenic experience.

Download this episode here: http://media.libsyn.com/media/dopecast/Dopecast142.mp3

Tags: dopefiend, uncleweed, choogleon, herby, public policy, aclu, dopecast, podcast

Check out Marijuana Conversation for a collection of online videos and interviews with common-sense approach to cannabis in the USA including the full :30 video featuring travel documenter Rick Steves. A solid line-up of speakers other than the usual crusty preachers of the erstwhile revolution make a campaign aimed more at soccer moms than Rastafarians if you catch my meaning.

Tags: aclu, rick steves, war on drugs, normalizing, sensible solution

‘WE HAVE A POLICE STATE HERE’: PRINCE OF POT
August, 29, 2008 © Whitehorse Daily Star – reposted for educational use

Marijuana users have contributed more beauty and more richness to the world than anyone else, yet they are hunted down like dogs.

That was the message Vancouver’s “Prince of Pot”, a.k.a. Marc Emery, had for his rapt audience at Doc’s Cafe and Bakery on Thursday evening.

Following introductions from event organizer Chris Gilberds and Dana Larsen, the NDP candidate for Vancouver West, Emery spoke for more than two hours about the benefits of marijuana and the harm inflicted on society by the war on drugs.

“Fabulous profits ( for the drug dealers ) could be ended overnight without prohibition,” said the wiry Emery. “It’s so simple. All it takes is the stroke of a pen.”

A legalized, regulated drug industry would reduce property crime, theft, prostitution and gang violence, said Emery. Police forces could be cut in half, he said, and disease transmission though shared needles would be reduced.

As it stands, he said, an ounce of marijuana can cost $200 to $300. But if the substance were legalized, that price could be decimated to $30 an ounce.

“Prohibition is designed to achieve nothing but its own perpetuation,” said Emery. “It’s a great job-guaranteer for cops. It’s a war that can’t be won.”

The wild profits currently available through drug trafficking make the industry irresistible for many young people, said Emery.

“It makes working at McDonald’s for $8 an hour seem, shall we say, futile.”

The marijuana industry in B.C. is worth $7 billion a year, said Emery, and is second only to the construction sector.

Emery, a longtime cannabis activist who formerly sold marijuana seeds by mail, said he has been arrested 23 times, jailed 17 times and raided by police six times. He’s been jailed in eight provinces and has had $1 million in assets seized by police. He is currently free on bail.

Some of his convictions, which have included promoting bongs and giving hash away for free, are “quite amusing,” he said.

“I’m a very happy warrior. I have no regrets.”

Emery is currently facing extradition to the U.S., where he could receive a sentence of 20 years or longer to be served in a U.S. jail.

Emery said he will be sad if he ends up going to a U.S. prison, but will have no regrets. He added that a 20-year jail term would be a “death sentence” for him since the average life exectancy in American jails is 65. And Emery is already 50.

Emery spoke openly about his reputation as a radical, saying he was once described as the “number one drug trafficker in U.S. history” on the Lou Dobbs Tonight show on CNN.

“There’s only 45 dudes in the world more bad than me,” said Emery, in reference to his standing as the 46th most wanted man in the U.S. Emery also noted he is the only Canadian on the list.

While Emery has sold marijuana seeds through the mail to Yukon customers in the past, he said, this is the first time he has visited the territory.

“I heard your premier is an ex-heroin dealer,” he commented. “I find that fantastic. And they want to put me away for 20 years!”

( Premier Dennis Fentie served time for a narcotics offence in Alberta in the 1970s. )

No police presence was visible at Thursday’s event, which saw upwards of 50 people in attendance, despite an earlier statement from the RCMP that uniformed officers would be present.

“We have a police state here,” said Emery. “Nobody should be in jail for an hour for marijuana. We live in a free society. We should be able to do what we want to our own bodies.”

Emery reiterated the benefits of marijuana use throughout his talk. He claimed that marijuana kills cancer cells, reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, cures morning sickness and is beneficial for pregnant women, increases creativity, and does not lead to violent behaviour.

“You will never date-rape on pot. No one has ever died of pot.”

Emery also said that “it’s a complete slander” to say marijuana users proceed to use harder drugs more often than non-marijuana users.

“I’ve never met an author who didn’t smoke pot. Most journalists smoke pot. Every video game was made by a person smoking pot,” said Emery.

He also cited many prominent musicians such as the late Bob Marley, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones as prolific marijuana users.

“And yet we’re hunted down like dogs. It doesn’t make any sense at all.”

Dana Larsen

Larsen echoed many of Emery’s views, agreeing that marijuana is “the best plant on Earth” and has a “vast array” of medicinal and industrial uses.

Larsen said the war on drugs is an “absolute failure in every way. We have to end Prohibition.”

Larsen urged audience members to ask their local candidates about their stance on drugs, particularly if a federal election is held in the fall.

“When it ends, we’re going to look back on this terrible nightmare and be glad we woke up.”

Gilberds said he encountered several roadblocks during the planning stages of last night’s event.

In his advertisements, Gilberds said, he wasn’t allowed to say the event was a “friendly talk on illegal drugs” or an “open debate on marijuana.”

“I couldn’t say anything. I expected people not to be happy about it, but I expected air time,” he said.

Gilberds said rumours of throwing marijuana plants into the crowd circulated before the event.

“No, this isn’t a smoke-in,” said Gilberds. “It’s a public forum by two people who really believe what they believe in.”

Tags: waron drugs, marc emery, whitehorse daily star, cannabis, marijuana

This Friday night, September 19th, D.O.A. will celebrate their 30th anniversary at The Commodore Ballroom (Vancouver, BC). Led by frontman Joe Shithead Keithley, these punk pioneers will blast through a ton of their bone rattling punk anthems. The boys will also play some of their anti-establishment, kick you in the head tunes from their new album “Northern Avenger,” yeah, the disc that’s drawing great reviews. D.O.A. will be joined in the encore by some of Vancouver’s finest! No, we ain’t talkin’ cops! We’re talkin’ rockingly great guest musicians. See you there.

Ya Hey! D.O.A.

SuddenDeath Records


Interested? Let’s rally up a crew and dig (and possibly document) some Vancouver hardcore history.

Note signed Hardcore ‘81 on the wall of the hockey lounge.

Tags: DOA, Vancouver, punk, concert, dayglo abortions, hardcore, commodore

Press Releases › LEAP Becomes Latest Victim of Government Censorship

Terry L. Nelson 817-573-6927
Jack A. Cole 617-792-3877
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.[b]

Tags: waron drugs, leap, cops, censorship, narco-terrorism

Attention BC-based eco-savvy folks, Vancouver-based web community start-up – happyfrog.ca - releases social networking features for green minded enthusiast to share tips and reviews of local businesses and organizations.

In the beginning, happyfrog.ca was created to help green-minded citizens find businesses and organizations which fit their values and displayed the results sorted by proximity to conserve transportation resources.

Then, happyfrog invited the public to add reviews to the thousands of listings, as well as engage in a community Q&A project to share tips and solve problems.

Now, all the frogs can “auto-magically” share their green favourites with the public with Myhappyfrog. Here’s the low-down …

Sharing your eco-smarts

All registered happyfrog members now automatically have a Myhappyfrog page with a unique address to share with friends.

Once you login to your happyfrog page, you’ll see all the reviews, questions & answers, and blog posts you’ve submitted so far.

To see the new page, just click “Myhappyfrog” on the happyfrog navigation bar – Your personal address looks something like mine: http://happyfrog.ca/user/daveo

Meet the new tools!

Show off your favourites

You can add any listing as a “favourite” and share your preferred coffee shop, yoga studio, or market with the public – handy for you and useful for others. Add a badge to your blog or site to let people know about your happyfrog page with all your faves.

Meet new friends

Outreach to talented, interesting people seeking to exchange tips, share best practices, or get involved in new activities. Add your pals and see their blog posts and other content right on your happyfrog page.

Write a blog article

Have something to say? Step up and let it out on your happyfrog blog. You’ll have an instant audience, a unique address and RSS feed, and your best stuff will be promoted to the “Frogblog” for even more readers (and accolades).

Share your knowledge

Your brilliantly written reviews, probing questions and wise answers are now grouped together on your personal page to show off your wisdom and show people your contributions for fame and fortune.

Haven’t written anything yet? Getting started is easy – you just need something to say!

Getting Started

Check out the Myhappyfrog help desk with annotated screenshots and step by step instructions to use each of the new tools.

What’s next?

Many “frogs” and listed businesses and groups already have a blog, and some bloggers only write about happyfrog relevant content on occasion, so we are crafting a way to import your feed and display on your Myhappyfrog page or directory listing page.

Also on the list is personal tagging to help finds frogs with similar interests. Stay tuned and of course, we love hearing your opinion.

Thanks for your help

We appreciate your help reporting bugs and oddities so we can make your experience even better. Drop happyfrog a note with your observations and thoughts.