Category: Technology

Northern Voice 2008 Mosaic

I really appreciate Duane Storey’s 1600 Reasons to Love Northern Voice. Made of 1600 images from Northern Voice 2008, it is available via Flickr (where you can see the individual photos that comprised this), as well as Duane’s own site. nv08_mosaic_duanestorey

This is one more example of the creativity and size of the conference, and kudos for Duane to capture it in this manner!

Technorati Tags: ,,

The Tiki Room at Northern Voice 2008

The official opening of Northern Voice 2008 took place this evening at the Tiki Room, in the Waldorf Hotel in Vancouver. Good food, good friends, and some wonderful new colleagues made for a wonderful evening. I expect to have a lot of more specific blogging, as well as a health share of liveblogging (come see my presentation on Friday!), over the next few days.

I uploaded the pictures I took to Flickr for all to enjoy and share.

Northern Voice 2008

Technorati Tags: ,,

Blogging from the Airport

I wonder why airports, which are generally public institutions, still charge for wireless Internet access? I suppose it is still not seen as part of the public good to have such access.

It is nice that British Airways at terminal 7 allows for broadband, but not a person in the terminal was using this “complementary” access. After all, who carries around the wires to plug-in anymore?

Terminal 7 Internet Access, JFK

Given that I am typing this and will publish it to the Web once I DO have wireless access again (without paying a full day for it though I am only here for less than an hour), I will maintain the original date and time of this post.

Travel Prep Checklist in Electronic Age

Since I leave on Wednesday for Northern Voice in Vancouver, it seems there is no better time than the present to get ready to go. I can pack on Wednesday following my Master Packing List,  a list I created that includes a check-off of every item (suitcase and carry-on) I need to bring with me (or consciously exclude) from any trip I take (I hate forgetting the camera recharger or a pencil with Pos-It flags for whatever it is I am reading).

However, I am now doing the more “silent” items involved in preparing for the trip, those beyond merely gathering everything together and throwing it all in a bag. These are some of the digital items I need to consider, like a check-off list, when I am preparing to travel:

  1. Archive and Backup Outlook – This should go without saying (and insofar as it does we tend to forget) that archiving items in Outlook and then backing up the Outlook folders themselves is a good practice to do on a regular basis anyway. This involves more than just automating the processes and then having them run.
  2. Backup Personal Folders – The second step, just as critical as the first, is to backup all these files, and indeed all personal folders on the computer to an external storage device. One never knows when something problematic will happen, such as breakage or worse, so being prepared means being backed up. I often let this step go and do more infrequently than I should, but this is something I plan to do later tonight.
  3. Remove Old Photos from the Camera – When I take photos, I usually move them to my computer then consider uploading to Flickr if appropriate. However, there are times that I neglect to get these photos off my camera, and they tend to accumulate there. Getting ready for a trip where I am planning to take a lot of photos, I need to free up as much memory as possible (prior to my computer backup, of course!).
  4. Charge Bose Headphones – I do not use my Bose headphones very often outside of when I fly, and thus the battery tends to lose its charge. The headphones are useless in an uncharged state, and I really do need to get some sleep on this red-eye so I will make sure they are fully charged.

Is there anything else I am missing?

Technorati Tags: ,

Northern Voice Facts

Northern Voice 2008Thank you, Darren Barefoot, for creating a one-pager of specifications and historical information about Northern Voice 2008.  

Darren is one of the architects who brought Northern Voice into existence several years ago, and has managed to get me to plan traveling back there, for a second time, all the way from New York.

While billed as Canada’s personal blogging and social media conference, this is a friendly and very informative (in a pleasant networking) environment, where I will be presenting some work on Liveblogging in the conference’s first ever Internet Bootcamp.  

I can’t believe the conference is next week; I am sure in two weeks from now I will be bursting with ideas and next steps and suggestions and resources and new contacts / colleagues / friends. If only all conferences I attend could net so much.