Marquis Côté

Developers In Pain - Hug a Developer Today

Marquis — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 22:53:26 +0000

Little over a year ago this clever video was produced by/for Craig from Devshop by some of the guys in town: Scott from ThinkSM, Tobi and Cody from JadedPixel, Mark from Axionic, Sonny from Ramius.

The initial idea of “Free Hugs” came about from the controversial story of Juan Mann, a man who’s sole mission was to reach out and hug a stranger to brighten up their lives. Make sure to watch his video. In this age of social disconnectivity and lack of human contact, the effects of the Free Hugs campaign became phenomenal. As this symbol of human hope spread across the city, police and officials ordered the Free Hugs campaign BANNED. What we then witness is the true spirit of humanity come together in what can only be described as awe inspiring. Join the Ottawa Chapter Facebook Group or the Global Free Hug Facebook Group.

In the Spirit of the free hugs campaign, PASS THIS TO A FRIEND and HUG A STRANGER! After all, if you can reach just one person.

Kudos on the video guys! It’s been re-posted on YouTube by a number of users with a total today of little over 100,000 views :)

GCPEDIA, bringing people and knowledge together

Marquis — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:42:08 +0000

GCPEDIA has been officially launched this past October at the annual Government in Technology (GTEC) conference in Ottawa. Only available within the gc.ca internal network. GCPEDIA is an initiative of the Chief Information Officer Branch, Treasury Board Secretariat, with support from members of a Steering Committee and its participants.

From its “About” page we can read:

GCPEDIA will enable public service renewal by creating an environment where public servants can:

Learn from each others successes and failures

Build on the great work of others

Eliminate duplication of effort

Find and publish tools and models

Share knowledge and expertise

Work collaboratively

Build and preserve corporate memory

Ultimately improve the way we deliver service to each other

GCPEDIA is a collaborative proposition that does not need, and should definitely not have, a large formal organization running it. Rather it should provide a stable environment with a limited number of rules in which communities can form, develop, and share knowledge.

It may be a while before something like it is opened up to all Canadians and allow them to participate in conversations around federal government policies and initiatives, but it’s certainly a step forward! Kudos GoC!

Today’s wiki stats:

Today there are 1,432 registered users. There are 5,250 total pages in the database. This includes “talk” pages, pages about GCPEDIA, minimal “stub” pages, redirects, and others that probably do not qualify as content pages. Excluding those, there are 1,260 pages that are probably legitimate content pages. 824 files have been uploaded. There have been a total of 217,985 page views, and 26,269 page edits since GCPEDIA was setup. That comes to 5.00 average edits per page, and 8.30 views per edit.

In the Media:

The article makes OpenText look like they are associated with GCPEDIA, when they are not.

The Code Factory - A virtual office in the heart of Ottawa

Marquis — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:58:49 +0000

It’s nice to see that the concept of virtual office for start-ups still lives. As a previous owner of incubator Borealis Network 2000-2002, I enjoy being involved in similar business models. A friend of mine, Ian Graham has successfully opened his venture “The Code Factory” on the corner of Queen and Kent. The facility offers a wide variety of services for the student, freelancer, start-up and small business from a comfy spot to settle down with a coffee and work the afternoon in the quiet public area cafe style area to leasing a private office on a short term contract.

Make sure you stop by and challenge someone to a foosball game on the table we (digitalOttawa and The Other Studios) have donated to The Code Factory.

In the Media

Game Summit’s Premiere Event

Marquis — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:13:34 +0000

What triggers me to create new companies or get involved to make a friend’s idea a reality? Sitting down at one of my favourite coffee house spot chatting one on one with another crazy creative guy like myself, always turns out to be a possible recipe for new adventures! And that’s what happened this past spring, sitting down with a long time friend of the family catching up after loosing touch for many years, Corey and I did exactly that we cracked up our piggy bank of nutty ideas and it was born… The premier Game Summit event of 2008 launched at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, Ontario on October 11th. As the first of many Game Summit events to come, it opened its doors to table-top gamers of all kinds. The 2008 Skirmish provided plenty of space for board gamers and people who like a light pastime as well as those who are die-hard hobbyists by having discrete areas which cater directly to the tastes of a wide variety of gamers.

The event was really interesting, Corey and I realized by looking around the room that this could actually work. Our sponsors were amazing. Toys On Fire and The Comic Book Shoppe both gave us tons of stuff to just give away for free. Really nice. Games Workshop gave away tons of stuff as well as doing a Q&A session. Reaper Mini gave us 108 bottles of paint and 40 miniatures for the participants to sit down relax and learn painting tips. Almost everyone got to leave with something they didn’t have when they came in.

So we’re in the middle of planning our next one for the weekend of Feburary 28th. Two full days with more games, more tournaments, more activities, entertainment and merchants! We also launched our new community site for Gamers. (www.gamesummit.ca/blog/)

The iPhone: I-Life in my pocket

Marquis — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 18:55:17 +0000

I’ve had my iPhone for almost a year now. There’s no way I would consider using any other mobile device today. I’ve been playing around with iPhone Apps and making iPhone friendly sites for a while now and I must concur that Apple has just delivered us the beginning of the “Mobile Age Revolution”.

Here’s my top iPhone Apps list:

Updated 2008-08-15

My Top Productive iPhone Apps:

My Top Useful iPhone Apps:

My Top Social Media iPhone Apps:

My Top iPhone Show off & Play Apps:

City Hunters Hits on Canada Day

Marquis — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:42:13 +0000

The Other Side Studios wants you to explore your city, snap some photos and party Canada Day away with an exciting new event called City Hunters. This July 1 in Ottawa’s ByWard Market, teams of Hunters will set off from Pub.101 on a scavenger hunt with digital cameras in hand to snap pics of cool and interesting items while having a lot of fun exploring this gorgeous part of the city. After checking off as many items on their list as possible, Hunters will come back to Pub.101 for the judging, food, drinks, prizes and a great party. Cost is $30 for a team of two Hunters to enter together and $20 for a solo Hunter, and will run from 10 AM until the mid-afternoon (or stick around for the evening if you feel like it). It’s the best place to be on Canada Day and combines the best of seeing the Ottawa sights along with a great party in a popular pub. And it’s early enough in the day that it fits right into everyone’s Canada Day plans.

The Other Side is really proud to put this together and watch it happen. The Hunting itself is a lot of fun, but we’ve also put together a lot of really terrific prizes. Hunters also keep their pics at the end so they can remember the great day once it’s over. And look where it is: Is there a better way to spend Canada Day than partying within a stone’s throw of the Parliament Buildings? For as low as $15, there’s nothing in Ottawa that’ll give you a better time.

The Other Side Studios is a company dedicated to incubating and growing creative startup events and ventures. Established in 2004, The Other Side is currently producing several exciting ideas which are born from entrepreneurs in the Ottawa region.

My Social Media Circle

Marquis — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 19:14:34 +0000

Here’s a good overview on how I use social media on a daily basis.

Stay Informed & Participate in Conversations

Google - Main search engine
Google Reader - RSS reader, here are a few of my feeds:

iTunes - A few of the video podcasts I subscribe to:

Create

Not everyone is a creator of content.

Stay Connected with Social Networks / Media

Communicate and Collaborate

Gmail / Gtalk (imkreativitea)
MSN Messenger (imkreativitea)
Skype (marquiscote)
Google Docs

Please note that I can do most of this anywhere from my iPhone. Create your own Social Media Circle by downloading the PSD.

A Wiki Government could lead to a true democracy

Marquis — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:23:09 +0000

We claim to be living in a democracy but we have also come to believe in an administrative governance of professional experts is the best (if not only) way to organize decision-making in the public interest. Experts decide on acceptable levels of mercury emissions in the air and the standards for digital copyright laws.

“The justification for this professional decision-making, articulated by theorists ranging from Max Weber to Walter Lippmann, is that while citizens can express personal opinions based on values, they are incapable of making fact-based decisions on matters of policy. For Weber, the complexities of modern governance call for “the personally detached and strictly objective expert.” Only institutionalized and governmental professionals possess the expertise, resources, discipline, and time to make public-policy decisions. And citizen participation is hard to organize and administer, and even harder to scale. It is one thing for 10 bureaucrats to debate a policy and come to an informed consensus; try getting the same result with 10,000 people–or 10 million.” - Beth Simone Noveck’s posted on the Democracy Journal

We are now seeing the voice (screams) of the people all over while we understand that there are available collaboration tools today that can create a huge shift of power from the professionals to a grassroots movement. People have now the opportunity (and want to) to take part in an on-going conversation with their Government by participating more than voting once a year. The future looks like we can produce government decision-making that is more democratic.

The above screenshots of the Proof of Concept for the Collaborative Library Wiki from The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat shows they have begun to explore the use of Wikis and other Social Media tools. Our baby steps continue towards a better connected world.

CDC on Second Life, could Canada follow?

Marquis — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:57:02 +0000

Nedra Weinreich posted a great article on how U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) took advantage of the Second Life hype to build their CDC Health Fair within Linden Lab’s virtual world and pushing social marketing to the next level by leveraging social media.

Nedra writes how the initiator of the project at CDC was able to make it happen, she tells the story how John first started exploring Second Life and had convinced the powers-that-be within a 4 month period to build a CDC virtual presence. John seems to be the CDC’s go-to guy for their health communications “Special Forces” by not only setting up new communications offices in various parts of the agency but he is contently exploring how social media can be used to promote public health, and he plans to continue to serve as the CDC’s virtual face in Second Life.

I decided to check it out, I logged on and teleported to the CDC Island.

I’ve been consulting for the CDC’s Canadian equivalent, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) since February 2007, with the mission to educate senior managers and staff and begin the deployment of new communication tactics to reach stakeholders and targeted audiences by taking advantage of social media and new technologies. The CDC has not only pioneered the use of social media within the public sector in virtual worlds but has also initiated conversations with their Health Marketing Director’s blog.

On a side note, Mike Kujawski on his post MARCOM 2008 Debrief mentions hearing that Library and Archives Canada has bought some property on Second Life.

Thank you Nedra for your article and Kudos John!

Hey Google - Look At Me!

Marquis — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:24:22 +0000

It’s about time I post something on Search Engine Optimizing (SEO)! We’ve all gone to Google and found what we were looking for - right? But did we? Maybe there was better information available, but because the Web page had not been crafted to respond to Google’s criteria, it ranked low down on the search results list.

Not only can Google be used to find information, but also to reach the intended audience. Most Web writers want their content to be retrieved by Google and displayed on the first page of the search results. Accomplishing this requires an understanding of the various factors that have an influence over this powerful search engine. Of those various factors, which are the ones that Web writers can manipulate?

Tips on Google’s searching priorities:

Page title - what you see at the top of your browser has the most effect.
Breadcrumbs - a series of links appearing above the text which form a navigation trail back to the entry point of a website.
Main title - the wording of this should clearly indicate what the content is about. Generic titles, e.g. ‘Links’, should include distinguishing information.
Sub-titles in the document - these too should relate to the topic.
Content of the first paragraph - this should contain as many of the relevant keywords, that a user might employ to find content on a particular topic, as possible.
Complete text of the document.

If Web writers ensure that words are strategically selected and placed, they will be harnessing the muscle of Google and making it a mighty partner. Both partners, working in unison, can connect the right information with those searching for it.

Keep in mind that there are a number of other important elements that contributes to pushing that search result up, such as domains .gc.ca and .org have better ranking as a credible source, also the amount of links from other credible sites to your site pages ads value to your ranking score.