Roland Tanglao's Weblog

QUOTE

The Moose is Loose in 2008!

Want to speak or lead a discussion? Then fill out the speaker submission form (speaker submissions close Monday December 10).

Got an idea for a topic or discussion but don't feel like speaking on it or leading a discussion? Then check out our Call for Ideas (we've seeded the list with two initial ideas: microblogging and mobile blogging but these are just examples!) and add your own idea and rate others' ideas!

END QUOTE

UPDATE: For those who are academically "challenged" like myself, you  don't need high grades in school or anything academic like that. It's all about contributions, need, a high quality  blog post, video blog or podcast and diversity!

According to dictionary.com, bursary is "British English"! Is this true? For those who are British English challenged, a bursary is the same as a scholarship. We've received several interesting applications already! Apply today and see you in February!

From Get a Travel Bursary for Northern Voice | Northern Voice 2007:

QUOTE

This year Northern Voice is offering six travel bursaries of CAN $500 each. The organizing committee will be awarding these bursaries based on a number of criteria, including:

* The contributions you can make to the conference
* Your level of need
* The quality of your submission
* The diversity you might bring to Northern Voice

We’ll announce the recipients of the bursaries on February 2nd, 2007. The bursaries will be paid out via cheque mailed out to recipients or picked up on the day of the conference.

To apply, write a blog post, or record a podcast or video blog post describing why you want to come to Northern Voice. Then submit it via our travel bursaries page.

UNQUOTE

The speaker submissions are flowing in (submit today, the more the better; all you need is a good abstract on a relevant topic), the organizers are meeting, we're updating the website, and the registrations are coming in. In other words, the sprint to Northern Voice 2007 is on! [Thanks to Darren for the cool graphic; get your own Northern Voice 2007 graphic!]

Some great news about Northern Voice 2007 (which I am one of the organizers of):

1. Speaker Submissions: The Deadline has been extended to December 1st as Lauren wrote. You don't have to be famous or a professional conference presenter: we're looking for both fresh and experienced voices who wish to present or chair a panel on topics related to the blog-o-sphere, videoblogging, podcasting, virtual worlds like Second life, the two way web/read write web/web 2.0, blogging 101, podcasting 101, etc. It's all about the abstract. If it's well written and topical, your chances will be much higher. Submit today!
2. Registration is open now! Pre-register and save $10. That's right it's only $30 for a single day and $50 for both days as opposed to $40 for one day and $60 for both days at the door. I bet we'll sell out like last year so pre-registration is recommended. Register now!

I had the N91 firmware blues. I was having the theme reset problem and various other weird problems (including a beta version of ShoZu crashing randomly) reported by others as a problem with the V1.00.028.13 29.03.06 RM-43 version of the N91 firmware that I have (apparently V1.10.030 05-05-06 RM-43 and newer versions fix these problems as reported at mobile 9) until I reformatted the hard disk.

Fingers crossed, things are working now (for me a phone isn't working until ShoZu works :-) ! ). It looks like my problems were due to one or more of the following

1. the firmware version
2. the Nokia podcasting app (which is in beta)
3. the Nokia Wireless Keyboard app (which doesn't officially support the N91 but I was assured would work)
4. puTTY series 60 v3 beta or
5. the ShoZu beta

which were the only apps I had installed (and yes I am well aware as an ex developer of the perils of running beta software which is why I am not flaming or blaming anybody :-) ! ).

I must admit I was skeptical but the Nokia Podcasting app (currently in beta) works quite well and it works with video podcasts like Rocketboom (I tested out Rocketboom's 3GP feed at http://www.rocketboom.com/vlog/tele_daily_enclosures.xml and it works well!)

I think Jon is onto something. Mesh sounded great (could people blog more podcasts and videoblogs of the conference please? That's it, my goal will be to make sure that Northern Voice 2007 is 100% podcasted and videoblogged at decent quality, sorry Tim but not everybody can do awesome HD video for everything) but we are missing the common Web 2.0 thread that "meshes" everything together which I think lies somewhere in open source, ubiquitous inexpensive broadband (fixed today and mobile tomorrow), RSS, people (not just white male Californians, but women, Canadians, Indians, Filipinos :-) , etc.) and "Silicon Valley everywhere" (including Vancouver in my biased opinion with great startups like sxip, Dabble DB, eqo, etc.)

FROM Jon Arnold's Blog: Mesh Conference - Final Thoughts:

QUOTE

There was lots of good content and obviously some great energy. I'm sure the successes of the show were a happy mix of good planning and putting everyone together to share and feed off each other. I definitely learned a lot, but for someone who is on a steady diet of VoIP and telecom conferences like VON, Internet Telephony and Globalcomm, this is a different world in many ways. Didn't hear much talk about VoIP or podcasting or SIP - stuff like that. But that's ok - Web 2.0 is about so many things.

And that's where the challenge lies for me. A lot of great perspectives were put forward at Mesh - both from the speakers and the attendees. However, there wasn't a lot of connecting the dots - maybe by design - but I'm left with the feeling that for as much as I learned, I still don't have a sense how these things fit together.

This actually brings me back again to the Mesh logo. You can't help but be drawn into that image and the energy it seems to radiate - which is exactly what happened at the show - so, kudos for the logo designers. The energy was there alright, but like the logo, I didn't really feel that all the strands - yellow, blue, green, etc. - connected. They're oscillating around each other, and bumping into each other a lot, but never really intersecting or truly meshing into a unified form. At the end of the day, much like Earth at Creation, I'd like to see this humming mass of energy and chaos sort itself out and unravel nicely like a ball of yarn.

My conclusion is that this did not happen, and I'm concerned that for some, the conference was just a blur, like this....

END QUOTE

[Cross posted from Corante Podcast Blog]

This morning at 7:50a.m. Pacific, I was on CityTV Vancouver'Breakfast Television for about 5 minutes. I spoke with Simi Sara, the host, on how easy it is to podcast and I demoed Odeo (which works through a web browser like Internet Explorer; here's the 7 second podcast Simi and I recorded on the Breakfast Television). All you need is a computer with a microphone, an internet connection and Odeo (free, unlimited 3 minute podcasts!), a story, something to say or a cool sound. What I didn't get a chance to say was: play around with Odeo and then when you get serious, move up to a non free commercial provider like Audioblog (my friend Eric Rice's podcasting and videoblogging service) or libsyn (just to name two).

Check out my other podcasts at Dogma Radio.

For me, the more you pay, the less you get when it comes to conferences. For $100, Podcast Hotel Seattle 2006 was even better than the original one in Portland. Still grassroots, still vital but with more bands and more great discussion. Looking forward to the next one. More later!

Lots of thought provoking and interesting questions at today's VFS DIY Podcasting session (presentation: PDF, Powerpoint, Keynote organized by New Media BC which I co-presented with the most excellent Robert Ouimet. We learned a lot from the questions. Great crowd! Here is the list of links (if you know how to use del.icio.us, please add your own):

http://del.icio.us/tag/vfsdiypodcasting

And then afterwards, I wandered over to the excellent Blogs and Wikis at the VPL. It was great hearing Brian Lamb and Mark Schneider discuss blogs and wikis. Can't comment much more since I missed their presentations!