digitalOttawa The Other Side Studios Game Summit

Nov 10 2005

Get prepared for Web 2.0

Yesterday I attended the latest Zone 5 OCRI seminar, I thought it was a good way to tell the story of 2.0 and thought it would be interesting to blog about it.

“Web 2.0 is a profound shift in how marketing works in the 21st century – markets as conversations. Dynamic, global conversations occurring every minute of every day inside and outside your organization.” – market2world

The Web returns in the control of the users and out of the hands of the multi-million dollar techno-monsters. Simple… it’s the age where content; no… more relevant and directed content is produced by the end users. Most Web Gurus and Masters of our cyberuniverse say its coming and its coming fast.

What is this all about? Well it’s about separating content from design and layout. Using the Web best practices to ensure that your valuable asset (your content) is ready for anything the industry throws at it… mobile devices, new search tools… Now how to do this? Well currently there are some wide industry adopted protocols that you should be aware of and should be used in the development of your next “revamp” this should ensure the end of the never ending cycle of redesigns, IM structure and content management system of your Web voice on the Web. To make your way to Web 2.0 you should get yourself (and your techies) familiar with Extensible Markup Language (XML) (check Wikipedia for more on XML), proper implementation of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) (check Wikipedia for more on CSS); I assume that this is not news to most of you… but to complete the package to get ready for the revolution of the upcoming Web 2.0 you will need to get really familiar with Really Simple Syndication (RSS) (RSS is a family of XML file formats for Web syndication used by (amongst other things) news websites and weblogs. (check Wikipedia for more on RSS). With RSS readers in the palm of your hand you will get what you want when you want it, fast and effective, Google knows this! They are getting ready.

All the bells and whistles of interface application and design tools such as Flash and programming languages such as PHP are good to make your content presentable but ensure that the layer of your content is enclosed within the above protocols then it’ll be your start in getting yourself ready for Web 2.0.

Good luck!


Feb 8 2005

A shop in minutes with cafepress.com!

You’re part of a rock local band, have a product line, you’re an artist or just got some cool graphics and witty slogans and want so slap it on a shirt, a mug or any of just about 80 types of products to sell on-line? I recommend creating an on-line shop with CafePress. CafePress.com is an online marketplace that offers sellers complete e-commerce services to independently create and sell a wide variety of products, and offers buyers unique merchandise across virtually every topic.

Check out my sample store!


Mar 12 2003

Common Look and Feel (CLF) Backgrounder

Source: Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat

In February 1998, Treasury Board ministers made several policy decisions aimed at strengthening the identity, presence, and visibility of the Government of Canada (GoC). In part, the decisions were taken to fulfil the Government’s obligation to provide Canadians with evidence that their tax dollars are used to provide programs, services and infrastructure that is relevant and important to their everyday lives.

The ministers recognized that innovative use of existing and emerging technologies would play a key role in strengthening the GoC identity, presence and visibility. One of their decisions focused specifically on the opportunities inherent in electronic media, and set out a clear mandate for optimizing its potential:

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