Category: Community

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Vegan food with Sean Bonner of Metroblogging

Sean Bonner On a bit of a whim, we were invited to have dinner with Sean Bonner and Jeffery Simpson at The Naam in Vancouver last week or so. Sean was in town on a whirlwind tour of the greater northwest, stopping in Seattle, Vancouver, and Portland to check in on the Metroblogging meetups for each of those cities. Reason being, Sean Bonner is the guy behind Metroblogging, starting the first site in L.A. and now up to 50 cities around the world.

We were able to meet up with Sean and some of the other Metroblogging Vancouver crew, of which Rebecca is a member of, the next evening. Still, it was a neat chance to find out more about the man and his methods of madness in terms of how the network operates on top of what he has gone through to grow the blogging site to what it is today.

What is Metroblogging?

Metroblogging started off as a more locally focused alternative news source in Los Angeles and has turned into the largest and fastest growing network of city-specific blogs on the Web. We got sick of reading local news that was syndicated from the other side of the country, or was just repurposed national chit chat that had nothing to do with our city. We created our first blog as a throw back to the days when a local news paper focused on local issues, and you could walk down to the corner coffee shop and chat up the reporters whose column you read earlier that day. This idea didn’t stay in one city for long and before we knew it there were Metblogs in Chicago, Portland, Karachi, and Vienna. Today there are over 50 Metblogs in countries all over the world. Local politics, event reviews, lunch recommendations and ways to avoid that big traffic jam downtown. If it’s happening in our cities, we’re on it.

We are bloggers first and foremost, and we love our cities. Even the parts we hate. [metblogs]

The project that Sean now heads is daunting, to say the least. It was interesting to learn about the trials and tribulations of the original structure of Metroblogging and the recent migration to WordPress to run the back end for all their city sites. That kind of a roll out has got to be a challenge, and there has been a lot of elements to work through for them.

Now with the hard parts are out of the way, Sean gave hints as to things they are working on because finally, with a WordPress engine running the site, they have the ability to start doing things they’ve been wanting to do for a really long time. I’m just not going to tell you what they are because you’ll have to check out the nearest Metroblogging city to you.

Side note, The Naam[googlemaps] on 4th Street in Vancouver is amazing. Vegan food that even non-vegans would love. I could have been fine with the sesame fries and fried tofu, but the chilaquiles were pretty awesome.

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Drupal Camp Vancouver this weekend

It’s harsh to mention this now, but Drupal Camp Vancouver is this weekend. If you haven’t signed up to attend, then you’re out of luck. It’s been sold out for the last few weeks, but that does ensure that this gathering and sharing of knowledge all related to good things Drupal should be a good one.

Drupal Camp Vancouver

I am fortunate enough to be able to attend as well as helping out with the behind the scenes of getting things lined up with some of the sponsors for the event. Working with DaveO, we were able to make sure that they and we were all good to go for a spectacular weekend of talking Drupal.

Unfortunately, my day job prevents me from making Friday’s events until late afternoon, but I’ll be getting into what I can on Saturday. I’m not sure what my coverage of the event will be like this weekend, but be sure to check in on Rebecca to get some insight to the action from her recap from here and there.

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Launch Party Vancouver 3

I had the opportunity to hang out at Launch Party Vancouver 3 on January 25th at the Lamplighter in Gastown. It was chalk full of all sorts of people in the ever so progressing Vancouver tech scene. Even though that is a geeky thing to say, good and interesting things are happening in the Vancouver tech community.

Kdon taunting Duane

As the wine seemed to be never ending, I took my camera around and took some various shots. Taking photos with flash is never to my liking, but I’m adjusting more and more to how my new toy works. See all of my photos from the night here, but ace photographer Duane was officially on the prowl with his gear here.

Photo by Duane Storey
Photo credit: duanestorey on Flickr

Speaking of photos, one of the reasons we were there is that Rebecca was invited for a photo shoot as being one of the top women in tech here in Vancouver. Can she code in C+? Probably not, but as fast as she has taken to learning PHP and becoming a crack WordPress ninja tells me that she could learn it pretty quick if she wanted to. She also kicks some butt at her day job, so you could say that she’s really on top of her game.

Probably the coolest thing that I can’t stop talking about from that night is the free, 1GB thumb drive that were given away courtesy of Sun. Yes, the same Sun that you are thinking of, and they were there for the official launch of a software platform specifically aimed at helping tech startups be tech startups with their Startup Essentials program. Notice a theme there?

I didn’t take nearly enough time to explore the other folks who were demoing their products at the event as much as I took the opportunity to get caught up with some faces that I haven’t seen in quite sometime. Life has become too hectic to see everyone that I’d like, so it’s good to get a chance to get reacquainted.

Dave and Jordan

If you’d like to see more details on the various folks demoing their latest and greatest, check out launchpartyhq.com.

Looking forward to the next edition of the Launch Party Vancouver. It’s a great way to keep the community in Vancouver familiar with each other. Otherwise, it’d just be a bunch of faceless people with products and URL’s. Gathering for good drink and food is a nice touch, geeking out optional.

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Making and keeping friends with blogging

I’m trying to fulfill a bit of a promise to my buddy Andy about the things I have learned from blogging. I think that anyone who does blog learns something, and that all makes us a slice of an expert in whatever it is that we are launching out into the world of the Internet. That can be kinda scary because it is the whole world, and there are moments that, when you get into the depths of blogging, you need to take a step back and examine where you are with this whole thing.

Stats: The Forbidden Love 3 I guess this comes from looking at the total number of posts that I have made last night, and it surprised me.

After 3.5 years and 66 entries ago, I passed the 1000 post mark.

No need to bust out the champagne or give me any pats on the back, but the significance is worth noting. When I did start blogging in January 2004, I kept things pretty low profile. For a few years before that, I journaled by hand, and a college course in nonfiction writing gave me some inspiration for wanting to do more of something I’ve found to enjoy. Not saying I was or am great at it, but it was the kick starter for developing my own style and voice for what I wanted to my writing outlets to become.

My family picked up on the blog first, and after moving to Vancouver, it’s a great way for them to keep tabs on my adventures, not to mention the same thing about some of my friends. However, not all of them are as tech savvy or hip to the whole social media/networking/web2.0 thing.

Down the Hatch
Photo credit: duanestorey on Flickr

Then there is that fact that I moved to Vancouver and knew only Rebecca. There’s a handful of other people that I knew through her and are still good friends with, but making new ties would be a lot tougher if it wasn’t for blogging. In fact, blogging is what led to the camping trip from the past weekend, and that is a real unique thing in my mind.

I equate it to my first year in college because I got stuck in temporary housing for almost the whole fall semester, living in a dorm lounge with six other guys. The awkwardness wore off in a few weeks, and pretty soon you all start hanging out together, taking road trips, and being good pals (of which we all stay in contact, for the most part).

Canucks Open Practice
Photo credit: miss604 on Flickr

Blogging, for me, has turned into that, but on a much different level. I have been able to meet some really great people and develop friendships that are building into a community like I have never experienced before. We all do our own thing, and when you actually meetup, you already have something to talk about and expand the back story on. In turn, those experiences can lead to more material to write about later. It’s an intriguing circle, if not tons of fun.

When I think about it, I hate the idea of defining what we do as blogging as much as it is actual writing. Those who write for a living, in the literal sense, will disagree, but there is merit to the things we post about. It might not get published in a hard cover book or The New Yorker, but there are things that we say and do that can affect the world, even if it is just one person, on a variety of levels. Within that, you breed a community that establishes a variety of friendships.

DemoCamp Vancouver
Photo credit: miss604 on Flickr

Whether it’s tech, podcasting, hockey, tv, movies, or whatever, the things I write about allow me to share my thoughts, opinions, and loves. Then, I’m able to become apart of so many communities and make some really amazing friendships.

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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.