Over at Capulet, we do a fair bit of business writing. It’s mostly for our technology clients, and usually white papers, web content and so forth. We regularly do case studies, which are short documents describing how our client’s customers happily used their products or services.
This involves interviewing our client’s customers, which is harder than it sounds. The customers are busy, and random interviews with service providers are often a low priority.
I was trying to think of a way to make the process simpler, and wondered if there would be a market for a site that facilitated interviews:
It might offer similar functionality to When Is Good, enabling the interviewer and interviewees to agree to a time.
There would be some kind of form-creation service, so that interviewers could create interview templates for interviewees to complete.
Interviewees could type in their answers, record an audio answer using their computer’s microphone, or maybe call a number where they’re asked each question by a creepy computer voice and their answers are recorded.
Maybe there’s a kind of sign-off or approval process which enables interviewees to review the final interview text.
Even as I write this it seems like nail in search of a hammer, but I’m curious what you think. Is this a stupid idea, or just marginally idiotic?
I have this old Harris Tweed, three-quarter length coat that I’ve probably had for a decade. My brother bought it nearly twenty years ago off of a street vendor in New York City (I’m reminded of Rent). It always fit me better than him, and I eventually secured complete control of the thing. Here’s a photo of me wearing it from (holy Flying Spaghetti Monster, has it been that long?) nearly six years ago (that’s Boris, obviously, and Lee took the photo):
That same year, I got it relined by a somebody who reads this site. In exchange, I set up a blog for the tailor. It’s a really cool coat. Its label reads that it was “completely produced in the Outer Hebrides from pure Scottish wool”:
However, the thing is coming apart at the seams, and it’s time that I retired it. I was thinking that the fabric itself probably still has some life left in it. It might be cool, for example, to have some kind of tweed man bag made (maybe like this one, courtesy of Todd?).
In case it’s not obvious, I’d have some professional or skilled amateur actually do the work. I am utterly talentless in the fabric arts. Well, I can sew on a button, but that’s about it.
What do you think? What else could my coat become?
We just finished up our second UBC class on social media marketing. I will be glad to have possibly two whole weeks where we don’t leave Victoria. We’re probably going to teach the course again in the fall.
In any case, I wanted to share a couple of artifacts from the class. First, we used a wiki page to assemble a list of questions that people in the class wanted answered.
Additionally, we bookmarked a bunch of links on Delicious (because, sadly, Ma.gnolia suffered a meltdown). These are a combination of examples we used in class and additional resources that we thought the students might find useful. I thought I’d share, in case there was something in the 60-odd links that appealed. I’ve embedded the most recent six below, and the rest are over on Delicious.
This cup travelled over 2000 kilometers from the forest to your lips. Slow global warming by using a travel mug.
Here’s how I read that:
We’re entirely comfortable selling you an environmentally insensitive product, but want you to feel guilty about giving us your money. Plus, [as filmgoerjuan points out on Flickr] we’ve been unwilling or unable to find a more sustainable source for cups.
I suppose this cheeky chastisement might work with the UBC crowd, but I think it just redirects blame away from the coffee shop to the consumer.
I was going to leave a suggestion in their suggestion box, until I saw this:
Taken – 5.5/10 – Liam Neeson stars as a vengeful father whose daughter is abducted in this low-rent Euro-thriller. It’s an entirely forgettable film, with the exception of one terrific, gripping moment during the abduction scene. Neeson is apparently impervious to harm, so there’s rarely any question about the outcome.
He’s Just Not That Into You – 5/10 – A movie packed with star power, but ultimately episodic and soulless. It’s a kinder, gentler Closer or Friends With Money. Jennifer Connelly stands out with the best performance, but the many plot lines make the film feel hurried and hollow (I’d have cut Drew Barrymore and her storyline). Also, the film seems to entirely disprove the premise of the book. I want to write a blog post about movies based on non-fiction essay-style books, such as this one and Fast Food Nation. I think I’ll wait until I see a third one, though.
Frost/Nixon – 8/10 – He’s not subtle, but Ron Howard is a gifted storyteller. Thanks to Howard’s skill and the leads’ outstanding work, I was never bored. It’s also an incredibly watchable historical drama, and a great introduction to the details of the Watergate scandal. Like many filmed plays, it’s a lovely small success.
That comparison reminded me that I’d had the same thought when I met Robert back in 2004. At the time Boris generously invited me to a kind of impromptu geek lunch in Yaletown. Robert and Maryam were there, as were Tim and Lauren, Stewart, Cal, Roland (hey, I like the new theme). I met all of them for the first time. As it happens, we talked about how Vancouver could host a conference about this ‘weblogging’ thing. Northern Voice was borne over Thai food.
I mention all of those folks not to be a name-dropping douchebag, but to highlight my favourite thing about Northern Voice: the vibe. I think the conference maintains a lot of the easy, inclusive attitude of that day. I attend a lot of formal and informal events, and Northern Voice seems to strike a happy medium of sufficiently organized chaos. I can’t say for sure, but I get the sense that that (dare I say it?) energy makes it easy to meet new people, and hopefully diminishes some of the social barriers that exist at other events.
Almost everybody at that lunch attended this year’s Northern Voice. Maybe that’s a reflection of the current conference’s comfortable atmosphere?
I think Gnomedex was probably a big influence on Northern Voice’s vibe, as several early organizers had previously attended Chris’s great events. They have a similar feeling of a level, open playing field. I’d also give some credit to the conference venue. The Forest Sciences Centre has a gorgeous atrium and seating area that encourages casual interaction.
The Best Northern Voice Yet
A couple of people I spoke to said that this version of Northern Voice was the best one yet. I’d tend to agree. A big congratulations to the organizers who did a great job with everything, from recruiting sponsors in difficult times to building a really strong speaker lineup. A few observations that struck me about the weekend:
The conference is so much more diverse than it was five years ago. In the first year, I remember that the crowd was 80% male. This year we did a quick count and it turned out to be about 55% male, 45% female. It’s a sausage party no longer. I have no proof of this, but it also feels more diverse in terms of the age and ethnicity of attendees.
When one of the organizers asked “how many people are new to the conference this year”, at least 60% or 70% of those in the audience put up their hand. That’s really terrific, not what I expected, and probably reflective of Northern Voice’s popularity problem.
There were some sponsor prizes to give away, so I helped Travis devise some fiendish, space-specific trivia questions to ask using the Northern Voice Twitter account. My favourite question was “how many mustachioed men were in the 1948 Forestry program graduating class?” The graduating class portraits were hung on the walls of the building, so you had to hunt the right one down. Surprisingly, the correct answer was “two”.
I happened to notice that the registration list for PodCamp Toronto is about 850 people long. They’ve obviously got a much larger population base to draw upon, but I can imagine that Northern Voice could be nearly that big if it wanted to be. I think that’s the most important question going forward: how big does the conference want to be?
Which, in truth, is pretty unremarkable. Hordichuk, for the non-Canucks fans, is a fourth-line enforcer whose principle job is to work hard and occasionally beat on other players. This was last Friday, and apparently he was returning to Vancouver to be with his wife who was having a baby. I wouldn’t have recognized him–James pointed the NHLer out to me.
We saw his driver first, a huge bald man in a black trench coat. To our amusement, he was carrying a sign that read “Mr. Darcy”. Maybe, I thought, he’s just a lonely Pride and Prejudice fan? I snapped a quick photo of the two of them, waiting for Mr. Darcy’s luggage.
How big is that guy? Hordichuk is listed at 6’1″. I know the perspective is off, but that is one large driver. You’d imagine that an NHL enforcer probably doesn’t need much off-ice back-up. But you get the sense that, to quote The Bourne Identity, the big guy knows how to handle himself.
Thanks to Mongrel Media, I have, oh, about 40 movie passes to a screening of One Week (caution: auto-playing video ahead), a most Canadian movie starring Joshua Jackson. Here’s the trailer:
Gordon Downie, Tofino and the Stanley Cup? Most Canadian movie ever. Incidentally, is that an actual NHL player at about 1:50? I don’t recognize him.
The film also features the lovely and talented Liane Balaban. I first saw her in New Waterford Girl, a really charming Nova Scotian film. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth a look.
Mr. Jackson, I should add, has done an admirable job of sustaining and bolstering a career that could have died with final episode of “Dawson’s Creek”.
The screening is at the Scotiabank Theatre on Thursday, March 5th at 7:00pm. If you want a couple of free passes, come find me at Northern Voice.
