happyfrog moves on – Wrap-up of thanks and such

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)

For the record: happyfrog and 3rd Whale merger press release

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.

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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,

B.C. Green Web Community Adds New Ways to Share

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.

North Shore News Writes about happyfrog etc.

{Re-posted from North Shore News on Canada.com for educational and archival use.}

Going green together online – Happy Frog directory helps green businesses connect
by Rosalind Duane Special To North Shore News – Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Dave Olson is declaring war on paper coffee cups.

“And this is coming from a guy who loves his coffee and hates remembering to take one of those travel mugs, hates remembering to rinse it out and hates remembering to clean it,” he says.

Olson notes that the switch is on to cloth shopping bags, and organic foods, but paper coffee cups and plastic water bottles still need to be done away with.

Five years ago, Olson, a North Vancouver resident, says he got funny looks when he used his own canvas bag for grocery shopping, but these days, options other than the ubiquitous and environmentally unfriendly plastic bags are popping up all over the place. Similarly, 10 years ago, it was difficult to find fair-trade, organic coffee, but that has also changed.

Along with consumers, businesses both big and small are also paying more attention to sustainable practices. It is getting easier (read cheaper) for companies to change their internal practices to include measures such as office recycling, and to offer incentives to employees to walk to work or carpool.

For the past 10 years, Olson has been working in online marketing and has noticed a definite shift in the way business is being done; even big-box stores are highlighting their “green” features.

“It shows that big companies are following the little companies, which is a real big paradigm shift really because 20 years ago, 10 years ago, that certainly wasn’t the case,” he says.

While working in the business world, Olson has also been taking pictures and writing blogs in support of his passion for the environment. About six months ago, he joined in the creation of an online green business directory called Happy Frog.

He says the opportunity to help develop what he calls a “green community” allowed him to put some structure around the grassroots journalism that he was doing.

“We’re really hosting the community conversation about these green and sustainability minded topics,” he says of the directory, which lists various environmental and sustainable-minded businesses from across the province. While the idea for Happy Frog started out as a directory, it has evolved to include reviews and tips from users, and piece by piece, more interactive elements have been added. Olson and his team have also gathered a group of non-professional writers and photographers to attend the upcoming Epic Sustainable Living Expo and report back to the site with photos, stories and podcasts. He says the website is the “social media partner” for the fair, and he wants to profile vendors that may not otherwise be featured in the mainstream media.

Olson notes that over the years as he has been attending and reporting on wellness fairs as a hobbyist, he has learned that by telling stories and letting people know each other’s points of view a lot of progress can be made.

Letting businesses in on the conversation is another aspect of the directory that Olson is excited about. Once listed in the directory, business owners can access their listing and add their own blog. Olson says beyond regular print ads, the online blogs allow business owners to be “authentic” and tell their story.

Each business chosen to be included on the website has to be B.C.-based and has to fit into one of the Happy Frog categories, which include Arts and Culture, Eco Travel, Food and Beverage, Fashion and Beauty and more. Olson and his team then look at what the company is selling and make sure that the company is at least making an effort toward sustainability practices.

“The other big requirement is that they are willing to say publicly, ‘We’re trying to get better. We’re trying to learn how to be sustainable,’” explains Olson.

He adds that the vendors listed may still have improvements to make, but just because the owners aren’t walking to work and wearing recycled burlap for clothes, the business can still be considered.

“We want to be inclusive and help people make those first couple of critical steps.”

Olson says although it’s easy to get cynical about the amount of change that still needs to occur, every little bit helps.

“The little changes beget bigger changes and really snowballs into all of a sudden you find yourself eating organic, shopping with bags, not taking that paper coffee cup, and if we reach a critical mass of people doing that all of a sudden real positive change happens. So it’s really a shift in thinking and habits that starts small and gets bigger,” he explains, adding that his hope for the website is to get people communicating in an authentic, honest manner about environmental issues.

For more information, visit the Happy Frog website at www.happyfrog.ca.

© North Shore News 2008

{NOTE: Re-posted from North Shore News on Canada.com for educational and archival use.}

{Note: Photo by DaveO added to article – did NOT appear in the NS news article}

Tags: happyfrog, daveo, daveolson, north shore news, vancouver, sustainability, green, ecology, earth day, environment, north vancouver, coffee cups, olson, change

happyfrog.ca on Urban Rush TV Programme

happyfrog.ca’s Christy and Dave appeared on the TV programme Urban Rush which airs on the Shaw local programming channel. They had some laughs with the hosts Fiona and Michael and talked about latex mattresses, gluten free beer, web community building and more green tips.

Huge Slacker on Miss 604’s Contest

I guess i sorta excluded myself from my friend Miss 604’s contest since i would feel like i was cheating but really she had great prizes – a trip to see the Vancouver Giants, Vancouver’s WHL Junior hockey team and a fun night out (and much thriftier than the Canucks).

The game was the ‘teddy bear toss’ no less which i attended last year and recorded a Canucks Outsider (Festive Night at the Giants – Canucks Outsider #46) and the year before for that matter (Giants Junior Hockey and Coliseum Flashbacks – Canucks Outsider #17).

The other prizes included passes to Mount Seymour which is one of the three lift serviced mountains here on the North Shore. Located on BC Prov Park land, Seymour has many free and cheap-ish activities around too (tobaggoning, hiking, tubing) and a freestyle terrain park for getting all tricky on your snowboard.

Of course, Miss 604 is true to her altruistic roots with a donation campaign to BC Food Bank along with other causes.

Once i get caught up on another project or two, i gotta figure out what she’s doing with this Skate for a Cure deal whilst planning activities via her Christmas in Vancouver.

What i am saying is, this chick gets it done (and i know yet another cool project she is working on!) and i totally dig her citizen activism about Stanley Park (Stanley Park Tree Planting and the Humbug Hike) and a m very pleased for opportunities to collaborate with her.

Other excuses include all the time i spend rocking projects including the effervescent Rebecca and the other renegades we roll with.

In just the last week or two, we:

• hung out together at Transit Camp (Successful First TransitCamp Vancouver)
• recorded another episode of the Crazy Canucks (TCC#53 – Pittsburgh night in Vancouver)
• brewed up Blogging frog shoppers seeking green gifts in BC quest for happyfrog which she is already rocking out (happyfrog testing team: the reusable bag) along with the oozingly hip Keira-Anne (HAPPYFROG PURCHASE NO. 1)
• attended a super secret lodge meeting of specialness which i cannot link to or speak of at this juncture

Green Biz Review contest

I’ve found myself a day job with BC eco-business and org directory – happyfrog.ca.  To generate some reviews,  my colleagues and I fired up a contest to encourage you to share your ideas by submitting reviews of green businesses and organizations in Vancouver and throughout BC.

Deadline: Dec. 20th the clock stops and we draw a random winner for a $500 gift credit to use at any one happyfrog.ca listed business or organization.

Each qualifying review you leave (make them worthwhile eh, don’t spoil the pond) counts as another entry. This means the more you help others with your tips, the more chances to score the frogbucks for whatever reason you choose (well almost anyhow).

I have a few ideas (buy a goat for an African village, massage gift certificates, donation to a non-profit group, or perhaps a weekend at a Sunshine Coast B&B), but we happyfroggers also want to hear where you like to shop and what you are buying with sustainability in mind.

More discourse at the frogblog: Review a happyfrog Listing and Win a Prize! on the pros and cons of festive purchases and how to get creative for whatever holiday you are celebrating (or not).

Vancouver Transit Camp is a go – Saturday, Dec. 8th at Workspace

Interested in geeking out about all things related to Metro Vancouver’s belaugered transit system? Then punch your transfer for Vancouver Transit Camp.

Mashups, schedules, design, politics, business, seats, routes, maps, outings, and general conveyance enjoyment are all on the table cause this is an “un-conference” meaning you show up and pitch what you wanna talk about an/or vote on other peeps’ presentations.

Karen, Roland, Paul, Jason and more are working diligently to get the word out and make a neat event which costs little more than a $5 suggested donation from the first 100 folks who sign on the muster roll.

We are lining up sponsors (thanks to Vancouver green directory happyfrog.ca!) and invite you to rough up your workplace or wallet for a hundered or two to pay for the sweeeet WorkSpace facility (with exceptional coffee), lunch o’ rama for hungry participants and incidental expenses like cool buttons, art and ambiance.

Being a daily transit roller, I’ve appointed myself as the Seabus Czar and will answer and evangelize this crown jewel in the Translink empire.

I am eager to brew up some transit ideas for tourists trips (how to avoid those goofy, expensive tourist buses and see the real sights of Vangroovy) as well as rail on about turnstiles, advertising and reminiscing about the burbs before the ALRT. And you? Well if you have something to say, get over and sign up, showup and be ready to pitch in with words and thoughts.

Upcoming: Vancouver TransitCamp

Facebook: Facebook event