This week a colleague passed along this beautiful video of Vancouver, developed in partnership with the Vancouver Film School. The goal of this campaign is to highlight how the city has been the hub for many technological advances, start-ups, and innovative entrepreneurs over the years.

“The goal is to put our city on the map as the technology hub that we actually have been for quite some time, by drawing together stories of products and technologies people know about and that have daily impact in a visually compelling way,” said Ian Bell of AppSocial.

Some social media companies featured in the video include Flickr and the HootSuite Twitter client.

If not for the welcoming and nurturing local tech community in which we immersed ourselves back in 2006, we would have not been able to grow our business the way we have. The success stories in this video are inspirational and a great reminder that business in Vancouver is looking toward the future, while building upon the past.

Cross-posted from Miss604.com

To many people, Facebook is the internet. It’s open in a browser throughout the day, it could be their home screen, and on average users are connected to 130 “friends” at a time [Facebook: Stats]. However, even with close to 400 million users (11 million in Canada alone) Facebook isn’t on everyone’s friend’s list.

Recent changes from everything to layout, policies, and terms of use have some people wanting to quit the platform. This has prompted the creation of “Quit Facebook Day” which will be coming up May 31, 2010.

For a bit of background as to why the extraordinarily popular site is seemingly losing momentum, here’s a brief history of Facebook:

Facebook Timeline

2004
February: Mark Zuckerberg and co-founders Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin launch Facebook from their Harvard dorm room
December: Facebook reaches nearly 1 million active users

2005
August: The company officially changes its name to Facebook from thefacebook.com
September: Facebook expands to add high school networks
December: Facebook reaches more than 5.5 million active users

2006
August: Facebook and Microsoft form strategic relationship for banner ad syndication
September: Facebook expands registration so anyone can join (not just school networks)
December: Facebook reaches more than 12 million active users

2007
February: Virtual gift shop launches as a feature
March: Facebook reaches over 2 million active Canadian users and 1 million active UK users
July: I wrote a post about why I use Facebook (and you should too)
October: Facebook and Microsoft expand advertising deal to cover international markets; Microsoft takes a $240 million equity stake in Facebook

2008
January: Facebook co-sponsors Presidential Debates with ABC News, Vancouver hosts first Facebook Awards
April: Facebook launches Facebook Chat and releases Translation application to 21 additional languages
August: Facebook reaches over 100 million active users
The Privacy Commissioner of Canada launches the world’s first investigation into Facebook’s scanty privacy safeguards [Globe&Mail]

2009
February: Facebook updates its Term of Service, backlash follows: “Facebook’s terms of service (TOS) used to say that when you closed an account on their network, any rights they claimed to the original content you uploaded would expire. Not anymore. Now, anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later. ”

December: Facebook reaches over 350 million active users

2010
February: Facebook reaches over 400 million active users
April: A new privacy setting called “Instant Personalization” was launched. It shares data with non-Facebook websites and it is automatically set to “Allow.” Go to Account > Privacy Settings > Applications and Websites and uncheck “Allow”, then repost this to your profile. “Many users take issue with the social network’s now-default opt-out inclusion of its users in new features and services and “How do I delete my Facebook account” has become a top search suggestion on Google.”[ReadWriteWeb]

Quit Facebook Day

When I give presentations about social media for business I usually focus on Twitter and blogs however Facebook always comes up. It’s a great way to connect with millions of users and it’s good to have a presence there. However, in every presentation I have at least two people who were completely unaware about Facebook’s Terms of Service. What you upload to Facebook, belongs to Facebook and they may share your information at will. See: “Shocker: Facebook Does What’s Best for Facebook“.

That being said, many users are rightfully unhappy about the “opt out” information sharing that can now take place on Facebook. This is where “Quit Facebook Day” comes in. Created by Matthew Milan and Joseph Dee they are hoping to organize a mass exodus of users from the platform.

From the campaign’s website:
“Why are we quitting? For us it comes down to two things: fair choices and best intentions. In our view, Facebook doesn’t do a good job in either department. Facebook gives you choices about how to manage your data, but they aren’t fair choices, and while the onus is on the individual to manage these choices, Facebook makes it damn difficult for the average user to understand or manage this. We also don’t think Facebook has much respect for you or your data, especially in the context of the future.”

Still, ReadWriteWeb has us ask ourselves some valid questions:
“And while the sharing of your data sounds quite scary, we have to wonder if this reactionary unchecking is causing some who would otherwise benefit to miss out. After all, are we really all that concerned about Pandora knowing, from the moment we load the site, that we’re huge Weezer fans?”

You may take a look through the updated policy (with changes highlighted) in order to form your own opinion on the matter.

Cross-posted from Miss604.com

Twitter was experiencing the effects of a bug this weekend that exploited the following/follower method (as this post on Mashable explains). This morning, as an after effect of this bug, all users have noticed their following and follower numbers have dropped right down to zero. This means the little corner store down the block has the same follower count as Ashton Kutcher or CNN at the moment.

I’m certain Twitter is working to rectify the problem and it’s not something permanent as timelines are still filling with updates. However, things like this always seem to cause panic, mass hysteria, and the inevitable shouting at inanimate objects such as a computer screen or iPhone. To alleviate some stress in the future, here are a few ways you can back up your Twitter account.

Backupify
John Biehler clued me into the Backupify service a few months ago and it can be used to archive and back up your accounts from Twitter to Flickr, Delicious, Google Docs, WordPress, Blogger, and Facebook. The very basic service is free (although they do have premium options) so there’s sanity to gain from simply singing up.

Backup My Tweets
The Backup My Tweets service will back up your Tweets since they have a limited shelf-life on Twitter.com. It doesn’t back up your followers as Backupify does, but it will provide you some peace of mind. There is a program you can download for your PC that will backup your friends however I have not tried this so I cannot guarantee its security.

The best thing anyone can do right now is wait this out. Do not go on a mass re-following spree as I can only imagine this would muck up any backups or restoration process they might have Twitter has posted an update saying they have suspended following until this is resolved. Stay tuned to Mashable.com or @Mashable for updates since they have been crowned the most influential account on Twitter (well, at least up until this morning).

Update All is right with the world. From the official Twitter account: “Follow bug discovered, remedied. Read our status blog for details. http://bit.ly/dhQ3fF“.

WordCamp is returning to Vancouver in the summer of 2010, welcoming WordPress developers, enthusiasts and bloggers once the Olympics have moved out.

We have a great group of people signed on to organize so far who all want to see this event become a smashing success.

It’s still very much in the planning phases so please follow @WordCampYVR for updates from Duane Storey (BraveNewCode), John (sixty4media), or myself. The website will be up at WordCampVancouver.com and it’s already listed on the official WordCamp directory.

Related: See John Biehler’s post about WordCamp Vancouver 2010 as well.

Last September I ran around the Lower Mainland, from Surrey to North Vancouver, blogging as I went and producing videos as a part of National Digital Media Day.

On September 25th digital media producers and enthusiasts will get together for 24 hours of collaboration and celebration of the medium. An annual day to raise the profile of the digital media industry and celebrate the dynamic work taking place in this sector. In Canada, a massive cross-country event that will include gatherings, lobbying, education and celebrations. In other countries, linked in celebrations and demo camps. [Miss604, tag NDMD08]

It was an effort to raise awareness of the new media sector and how important it is, especially for those in our town which has been dubbed Canada’s new startup capital.

Yesterday as a part of the budget announcements, the Canada New Media Fund got a boost.

[From the CBC] The Conservative government announced $438.6 million in spending to arts and culture over the next two years in the budget handed down Tuesday.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty barely mentioned the arts in a speech that lavished money on tax cuts and infrastructure spending.

However, background documents say the government plans:

$100 million in spending over two years on arts, music and comedy festivals.

$60 million over two years for infrastructure spending that could help in repairing theatres, museums and other cultural buildings.

$28.6 million over two years to the Canada New Media Fund, which creates interactive digital content.

$20 million over two years for a national arts training program.

$30 million for Canadian magazines and community newspapers.

$200 million for the Canadian Television Fund (CTF).

The story was picked up in the Vancouver Sun, which quotes various members of the new media community is Vancouver, from Kris Krug at Raincity Studios to Tris Hussey from Media2O, and Irwin Oostindie.

“In general, I think it is great to see the government embracing and supporting the creative technology industry,” said Kris Krug, president of Vancouver’s Raincity Studios (raincitystudios.com). “I think that having the government put actual money and programs behind it will help nurture growth that is taking place already. They are just trying to put resources behind places that are seeing organic growth anyway. This is definitely not a bailout.”
…
Rebecca Bollwitt, who co-founded the startup sixty4media (sixty4media.com), a social media and WordPress web design company, said Vancouver’s new media could benefit from public-sector dollars. “It’s fantastic,” she said. “On the National Digital Media Day held last September, that was the goal — not to fall off the map. Money is always a good thing and even just being on the radar is a good thing.

I count this as a victory but hopefully it’s just the first of many for the industry that has such potential in Vancouver.

Over the last few months of 2008 Profectio.com began a campaign to find the most influential individuals in Canada. They had an open nomination process for several weeks, following by weeks of voting. Their final tally was based on various metrics (see below) and sixty4media’s own, Rebecca Bollwitt, was on the list.

Rebecca Bollwitt ranked #4 in the country for the “Most Influential Women in Social Media” and the exciting news kept coming as we found out that a good friend of sixty4media, Darren Barefoot was also up there on the list of men.

“It’s always nice to be recognized by your peers and see your hard work pay off,” said Bollwitt. “If even in the form of a link on a website, or a friendly hat tip. I am listed among many amazing individuals that continue to share and create such excellent content, as well as those who have personally helped me grow over the years — it’s an honor.”

Earlier this week Chris Briekss of 6S Marketing launched his list of “Top Twitterers In Vancouver” and within a few hours I was chatting with Gillian Shaw of The Vancouver Sun. As a result, the list was published in yesterday’s paper and sixty4media got a nice shout out.

TOP TWITTERERS IN VANCOUVER
1. http://twitter.com/miss604 — Rebecca Bollwit is a Vancouver blogger and specialist in new media and senior partner in sixty4media.com
2. http://twitter.com/buzzbishop
3. http://twitter.com/hummingbird604
4. http://twitter.com/todmaffin
5. http://twitter.com/techvibes
6. http://twitter.com/dbarefoot
7. http://twitter.com/kk
8. http://twitter.com/wilhelmus
9. http://twitter.com/ColleenCoplick
10. http://twitter.com/tyfn … (Read the rest in the Vancouver Sun)

Rebecca Bollwitt, Miss604 on Twitter, senior partner at 64Media.com sixty4media.com and Twitter veteran, is also on the Top 20 list. “It started out for me just being personal update, like your Facebook status but not on Facebook,” Bollwitt said. “For me personally, it turned into more of a marketing tool for my company… …Once I got on I just started seeing who other people were following and seeing who was adding who. It creates this huge global chain of information-sharing.

It’s always fun to see your company name in the “Business” section of the largest paper in the city. If you’d like to add sixty4media on Twitter you can find us @sixty4media.

sixty4media’s Rebecca Bollwitt is one of the web’s 20 most-visible individuals in Vancouver

This afternoon I discovered that NowPublic, along with the Vancouver Sun, issued a list of “the web’s 20 most-visible individuals in Vancouver.” I am very pleased to announce that I have come in at number 8, which is great news for sixty4media.

Here is the full list of web influencers from NowPublic and the Vancouver Sun (see also: GlobalTV)

1 Darren Barefoot
2 Tim Bray
3 Boris Mann
4 Kris Krug
5 Roland Tanglao
6 Tom Williams
7 Megan Cole
8 Rebecca Bollwitt
9 Arieanna Schweber
10 Tod Maffin
11 Dick Hardt
12 Tris Hussey
13 Alf Hermida
14 Matthew Good
15 Ian Andrew Bell
16 Travis Smith
17 Danny Robinson
18 Paul Sullivan
19 David Beers
20 David Eby

I would like to congratulate the others on the list, whom I admire very much and many of which have all supported sixty4media in their own way over the last year.

I would also like to mention the lovely, brilliant, and talented Megan Cole and Arieanna Schweber who put Vancouver’s women on the map every day with their content production and influence in the digital realm.

As we have been slowly molding sixty4media into shape, we have recently made our very own Twitter account open and available to the public.

Twitter is a popular social media site that combines micro-blogging and instant messaging to an international phenomenon of letting people know what you’re doing. Sounds insignificant to some, but there are more ways to use it other than telling people that you’re hungry or doing the laundry.

For instance, we use a great plugin for WordPress called WordTwit. This was made by our good friend Duane at BraveNewCode, and the whole purpose of it is to make an update to your Twitter account when you publish a new post on your WordPress site. Combined with any other updates we do on the account, you can get the latest news from our site as we publish it.

In the age of iPhones and Blackberries, what better way to connect to your audience directly?

Bryan Tasaka from Mind Over Mountain Adventure Racing (MOMAR) contacted us a while ago about what it would take to get a WordPress blog integrated into an increasingly successful site for their outdoor racing events.

At the time, there was a blog page on the site however being hard-coded in HTML it lacked core blogging elements. Bryan realized a long time ago the effect a change of this calibre could have, but struggled to find something that would coordinate with his main site in terms of function and design. The goal was to integrate a fully functioning WordPress blog that would seamlessly provide more function and interactivity for readers.

When Bryan contacted us, he knew that he wanted to go with a WordPress install on the back end of his site. We did our best to not only give him the tools to easily update his site, but the custom theme we built for the WordPress blog slipped in smoothly among the main site infrastructure. The custom theme was enhanced with social media tools yet we preserved the existing Flash header as requested as it was a crucial part of creating fluidity with the rest of the MOMAR site.

Working with Bryan was a pleasure and he is very excited to begin using his new WordPress blog. We are proud that we could bring in additional functions for his site that are going to help him promote his organization, increase community, and be search engine optimized for potential, new, and existing audiences.

With the integrated blog, Bryan’s publishing productivity has been increased dramatically compared to the time it used to take to custom code each entry on the previous design. Our custom WordPress theme and install allows him to produce and publish content on the fly, from any location, and communicate with his audience while expanding his reach into and beyond the adventure racing community.

It was a lot of fun to design this site, and I know as John is a bit of a trail runner he was amazed at the level of commitment these MOMAR folks have when it comes to adventure racing. We think the work we did for them will only help make that community stronger. After all, you never know who might stumble onto his blog from a Google search and make the trek for one of the events from another continent.

Feel free to visit the MOMAR blog and see our work in action.

There’s a lot to do when it comes to getting a site together, up, and running, so hang tight as we get all of the corners tucked in to really have this thing make sense as to who, what, and why we are what we are.

In the end, we hope to offer our services to anyone who is interested in knowing more about what we know about.  Social media, blogging, podcasting, and all other things related to the internet, we understand that there are people out there that want to know more about these things.  That’s what we aim to be here for.

If you would like to know more, please send us a note on the contact page.