Category: Business

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sixty4media

sixty4media I keep having troubles figuring out how to start this post because this has been something Rebecca and I have been working on for months. It’s not a brand new announcement because we have rolled out a bit of a “soft launch” with the company we have formed, but I’m proud to publicly announce, on my blog at least, the formation of sixty4media.

sixty4media is dedicated to sharing our knowledge and offering our years of expertise with several key services.

We have each managed to bridge technologies in our own way and so far it’s been paying off. Our knowledge of the new media realm has lead to our profiles showing up in various magazines, online publications, newspapers, and radio programs individually. However together we have discovered that pretty much anything is possible and it’s time to give back to the community here in Techcouver, and around Metro Vancouver. [sixty4media]

With the abundance of social media, blogging, and podcasting that Rebecca and I do on the web, this is the natural progression of taking our knowledge into the professional realm. People consistently ask us for our time and knowledge about these elements that we know about, so it makes sense for us to pool together our resources and help those that want to get into the things that we are doing and seeing how they can use it professionally.

Going back to what I said about a soft launch, we have already had a few clients asking for our services, and those projects have been extremely fun to work on. However, it’s more than having clients to work for as much as it is giving back to the community that has taught us so much. For us, that comes by teaching others what we have learned and sharing that information to those who are anxious to learn.

When it comes down to it, these are the things we love to do. Consulting, blogging, web design, and social media are tools available to many people who are not sure how it can help their online presence, so that’s where we come in. If you want to contact us, you know where to find us.

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Trying to make money off John Chow

I am constantly amazed by John Chow. He’s a making-money-online mad man. As much as I would love to make as much money as he does off his blog, I am far from obtaining the success that he has.

One thing that the guy does is give away free things on his site every so often, and he has something that I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on. Consider this my formal entry.

John Chow dot Com, a blog that helps you make money is giving away a 24″ wide screen LCD monitor! To enter, you just have to write about it. This is my entry. Now give me the monitor! The contest is sponsored by BluFur, who wants to let you know that they’re hosting Canada and the rest of the world.

I think that making this post is all I have to do to get my name put into the hat. 🙂

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JPG Magazine is the way not to do things

I am not a huge contributor to JPG Magazine but have been a big fan of what they’ve been doing with overall concept of what JPG has been. In fact, I signed up for an account to vote on submission of friends so they will get published in their magazine. Kris Krug[flickr], John Goldsmith[flickr], and Mr. Jacob Stewart[flickr], better known as “Cosmo” from the Clubside Breakfast Time podcast, were the handful of people who got me to sign up, vote for their submissions to make it into the next edition of the magazine, and also check out some of the other stuff there.

I might not be the greatest photographer in the world, but time could be well wasted digging through submissions. At least I am able to recognize worthwhile work and understand the art that is presented.

Then today, Goldsmith posted this image to his flickr, which led me to this post, written by the man who co-founded JPG Mag. To the heart of the matter:

Unfortunately, issue 10 will be the last one that Heather and I will have a hand in. We are no longer working for JPG Magazine or 8020 Publishing.

Why? The reasons are complicated, and the purpose of this post is not to air dirty laundry – it’s just to let the community know why the founders of JPG are no longer there. We owe you that much.

In one evening, Paul removed issues 1-6 from the JPG website, removed Heather from the About page, and deleted the “Letter from the Editors” that had lived on the site since day one. Paul informed me that we were inventing a new story about how JPG came to be that was all about 8020. He told me not to speak of that walk in Buena Vista, my wife, or anything that came before 8020.

Here’s where the whole “not lying” thing comes in. I just could not agree to this new story. It didn’t, and still doesn’t, make any business sense to me. Good publishing companies embrace their founding editors and community, not erase them. Besides, we’d published six issues with participation from thousands of people. There’s no good reason to be anything but proud of that. [powazek]

After reading this, and you should read the entire post for the complete story, I’ve deleted my account as well. Granted that I have done very little with JPG Magazine, there’s very little making me want to increase my interaction, not to mention that all those people I listed above have done the same thing. Call it a revolt, protest, or what have you, but the reputation that once existed is quickly falling apart.

Deleted my JPG Mag account

If you want to kill off a community, then this is a good example of how to do that.

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CCM is RBK

I’ve asked this question to Rebecca numerous times, and it totally drives her nuts when I do that. Today, I actually remembered to look it up.

CCM Does CCM still exist on their own or have they been gobbled up like Nike did to Bauer?

The answer is that they do exist, but the brand name is owned by RBK, or Reebok. However, there is no direct melting of the two brands when it comes to hockey equipment. This is particularly interesting because RBK is the big sponsor behind superstars like Sidney Crosby, but CCM[wiki] is a long time leader in the manufacturer of hockey equipment. Reebok uses superstars to push their company, but CCM is such a staple in the sport that the name is strong enough to exist on its own.

When Nike grabbed up Bauer, the brand almost immediately became “Nike Bauer“[wiki]. For now, CCM is still sold on it’s own name. However, “CCM RBK” or “RBK CCM” is just way too ugly to say. Good to know that they haven’t devoured the CCM namesake, yet.

The same can’t be said for Koho[wiki]. They were an offshoot of CCM, so that was turned into what is RBK today. I used to drool over Koho goalie equipment all the time, and it stands to reason that even Roberto Luongo[wiki] uses their stuff almost exclusively. However, there is just something about Koho that is just not as cool as having RBK’s logo on your pads. Who else to use a side by side comparison for this other than Mr. Koho himself, Patrick Roy[wiki].

KOHO vs RBK
Tell me that having “KOHO” written all over your pads isn’t a tad more menacing than the swooshing, almost flowing RBK designs. Comparatively, Koho even stands out a heck of a lot more, meaning quality advertising. At least Reebok knew enough to not mess with the CCM branding… yet.

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The vowels of the internet

I’ve been going to the last few Metroblogging Vancouver meetups, and there are usually a lot of interesting conversations. Some of them, as you can probably imagine, stem into the realms of being slightly geeky.

For instance, the point was brought up that there has been a natural progression of using vowels as a prefix to a website domain, company, or product name. For the life of me, I’m not sure where the letter “A” fits into all of this, but “E” and “I” have been front and center for nearly two decades now. Email, iTunes, iPod, and so on. Keep going down the line and one starts to wonder about “O”, “U”, and (some times) “Y”. What’s the next, new, hot thing going to be? What way will these letters be used and abused?

Of course, how can you not talk about YouTube? Everyone is now that Google just picked it up for a pretty penny. Someone brought up the idea that it should have been “uTube” and not “YouTube”. This would have fit into that natural progression in the world of Web 2.0. I’m not sold on it, but the thought made for some good laughs.

However, utube.com does exist. Thing is, they don’t do anything with video.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Utube.com, a Web site owned by a supplier of used tubes and pipes, has been swamped with visitors confusing it with online video service YouTube Inc. and has been barely operational since Google Inc. said on Monday it would buy YouTube for $1.65 billion.

“I’m at a point now, all I want to do is to make the site work,” Ralph Girkins, owner of the site belonging to Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment Corp., told Reuters on Thursday.

“Today, it’s been up the longest it’s been up for a week — an hour and a half,” said Ohio-based Girkins.

utube.com is the sixth most popular U.S. manufacturing Web site, ahead of Whirlpool Corp., according to data provided by HitWise.

On Monday, Girkins told Reuters an intermediary who said he was acting on behalf of YouTube had offered $1 million to buy the Internet address, but he turned down the offer and was holding out for $2.5 million to $3 million.

A YouTube spokesman said it had not made an offer and had no plans to do so.

On Thursday, Girkins said he had received about 20 phone calls from people who offered to sell his site for him. He has not been in contact with Google or YouTube, he said. [reuters]

Now it could be that this guy was thinking way ahead when he registered this domain, but he's certainly sitting on a gold mine. I find it fascinating that there is nothing Web 2.0 to the site itself. It makes complete sense that people would think that when they hear people talking about YouTube, they would think "utube" when they sat down at a browser.

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Godin declares job interviews are dead

I’ve known about Seth Godin for a long time now and don’t read his stuff nearly as much as I should. CNet mentioned a recent post on his blog that declares job interviews being a thing of the past. It’s well worth the read, and a few of the points stuck out to me.

I’ve been to thousands of job interviews (thankfully as an interviewer mostly) and I have come to the conclusion that the entire effort is a waste of time.

At least half the interview finds the interviewer giving an unplanned and not very good overview of what the applicant should expect from this job. Unlike most of the marketing communications the organization does, this spiel is unvetted, unnatural and unmeasured. No one has ever sat down and said, “when we say X, is it likely the applicant understands what we mean? Are we putting our best foot forward? Does it make it more likely that the right people will want to work here, for the right reasons?” […]

The other half is dedicated to figuring out whether the applicant is good at job interviews or not.

I should have learned this lesson in 1981, when my partner and I (and three of our managers) hired Susan, who was perhaps the best interviewer I have ever met. And one of the worst employees we ever hired. Too bad we didn’t have a division that sold interviews. [sethgodin]

Godin goes on to basically say that the best way to interview some one for a job is to actually make them do the task you are hiring for. It’s the only, true way that you can assure yourself that you are hiring the right person for your company.

I’ve gone to a good number of interviews since coming to Vancouver, but my immigration status has prevented me from getting a handful of jobs. That doesn’t mean I won’t apply for a job. Getting an interview is always worth the time, if not making valuable contact with people you wouldn’t mind hiring you when the time comes.

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