paulhillsdon.com

Dylan Pattyn, who is currently writing an article for Time Magazine on the issue, has official confirmation from sources within Bell Canada and is interviewing a marketing representative from TELUS who confirms the story and states that TELUS has already started blocking all websites that aren’t in the subscription package for mobile Internet access. They could not confirm whether it would happen in 2012 because both stated it may actually happen sooner (as early as 2010). Interviews with these sources, more confirmation from other sources and more in-depth information on the issue is set to be published in Time Magazine soon. 

[via I Power]

I was under the impression that net neutrality had been taken care of after legislation in the States rejected the major American ISPs plans to shift their business model similar to that of TV. In doing so, ISPs would basically have total control over what sites or services you access on “their” Internet. 

However, here comes news that that win for net neutrality was nothing more than a tiny success in a much larger worldwide battle. It sounds a little out there, but it’s not hard to believe that the major ISPs across the world are planning to collectively restrict the Internet, as we know it, by 2012. What’s absolutely disgusting though is hearing that it’s not Verizon, AT&T, or Comcast leading this transition - it’s Telus and Bell! Of course, Canada already has some of the world’s worst traffic shaping done by Rogers, Bell, and Shaw, so it’s not all that surprising that they want more control over the traffic that’s running through the tubes. And with the Conservatives in power, I seriously doubt that the government will step in and do anything. 

I do believe though that the Internet has been so successful precisely because it is a Wild west - content access or control is regulated by collective consciousness of all users worldwide. We the people will not take lightly to any efforts to restrict the web. 

As one of Surrey’s initiatives under the Cultural Capital of Canada designation, the City has funded a digital art project named “Glocal: Your World in Motion“. Here’s the synopsis from the project’s site:

Glocal is an interactive screen and online artwork now in production by a team of local artists: Sylvia Grace Borda, M Simon Levin, and Jer Thorp. They have envisioned building a massive community media experience that will challenge perceptions about the city of Surrey, Canada’s fastest growing metropolis.

With the use of digital cameras and motion capture, audiences will witness how speed, size, density and diversity have enabled Surrey to exist in local and global (Glocal) consciousness.

All the content produced under the banner of the Glocal project will form a large relational artwork in which ‘moving’ images of Surrey will become a central point of exploration. This interaction will then be repeated internationally through community workshops and public exhibitions. When realized, audiences will be able to compare, contrast and examine the world from all points of the globe – and experience how we all share the same horizons … and how we have a lot in common with others, wherever you are!

So how can YOU become part of Glocal and Think again about what’s cool where you live.
The Glocal team of artists will be residing online and at the Surrey Art Gallery TechLab to guide you on your way. Surrey youth and residents can become partnering artists through a series of mentoring workshops developed by the team. The team will also be producing low-tech toolkits to help you record your world in lots of new and amazing ways….

The project already has a Facebook page and a Flickr pool.

It sounds interesting enough, but I fear “Glocal” will be just another waste of time and money. I found it quite surprising that, as of yet, I didn’t even know this project was even in progress. For such an interactive and multimedia project, it hasn’t seemed to reach out to the local web community at all. Is this just another case of artists sharing their art with no one else but other artists?

Furthermore, the pictures that are currently posted on Flickr are nothing more than a series of boring, webcam shots. It’s like this group of artists is being paid to sit at a computer, make faces, and take pictures of themselves. I want that job!

We’ll see where this goes, but as of yet, I am not at all impressed.

This is part 2 in a series discussing how the digital revolution is currently reshaping society. Don’t know what’s going on? Go back: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Have you heard of the One Laptop Per Child project? If not, it’s probably because you don’t live in America, and the international media is doing a half-assed job of reporting about it (see: social media revolution) despite it’s huge effects it will have on the whole world.

The OLPC was a non-profit project launched by Nicholas Negroponte from the MIT Media Lab. It’s goal was to create a hundred dollar laptop and put it in the hands of children in developing nations. It was supposed to sign up multiple national governments to purchase hundreds of thousands of these laptops, which would allow it to achieve it’s goal price through the economies of scale.

After many meetings and prototypes, the laptop has now been shipped off to several countries and is now in the hands of these children, many of whom have never seen a computer before; who have absolutely no idea of how powerful the machine they are holding truly is.

You see, there were two simple arguments about the OLPC. The naysayers made a clear point of asking what need a child has for a laptop without sanitary conditions, clean water, food, and basic shelter. Those who supported the project, like me, made the case that that laptop has more potential for ingenuity than the combined international aid money that’s been sent around the world for the past decades.

Say a poor child living in the shanty towns of Argentina received a laptop at school. The shack he lives in with his family doesn’t have power, and their only light source is a few candles. With this laptop, and an internet connection, he can instantly find instructions on how to build a simple windmill. After a few weeks of the family saving money, and purchasing materials down in the city, he can create and install a windmill, which could then easily power a lightbulb.

Or, let’s take a less ingenius solution, and something just a bit more common. Let’s say there’s a young teen in sub-sahara Africa who just got this laptop. Her first Google search is “Africa”. She clicks through the links, with one of them talking about HIV. Although she lives in the most infected continent in the world, her teachers don’t speak of it, and her parents don’t understand it. She begins some simple research of the virus. Through this basic understanding of what HIV is, and how to protect yourself from infection, she has now dramatically reduced the likelihood of her catching the disease. She can now explain this information to her family, and although her school may not cover it, she can raise the conciousness of her fellow peers.

Almost thankfully, the OLPC XO isn’t your typical laptop. It’s minimal processor, and small screen are what enable it’s cheap price. Besides, the machine isn’t supposed to be a workstation. But regardless, the XO features some very cool design, specifically made for developing nations, where the machine truly shines:

• the small screen can be read clearly during the day, even in direct sunlight
• it has mesh networking built-in, allowing the OLPCs to allow connect to one another within a certain radius. This networking enables a simple internet connection to vastly expand it’s reach.
• battery life is excellent (I’ve heard of it lasting a good 24 hours)
• with simple power attachments, one can recharge with a hand crank, a pull string, or even a small solar panel
• it’s incredibly sturdy

The amazing thing about this device is that we are giving the children in these developing nations the tools they need to alleviate themselves from poverty. Large scale international aid and charity has never worked as good as we all hoped for 3 reasons:

1. Corrupt governments diverting the money
2. Approaching the problem from a top-down perspective, versus from the bottom-up
3. There’s no incentive for the people to use the money wisely

The microaid programs have been so successful because they eliminate numbers 2 and 3. However, those programs rely on people understanding or learning about investing and social entrepreneurship.

The strengths of the OLPC are similar. They give people something useful, a real tool, directly. And because the governments are paying directly for these laptops, you can be sure that the machines are going to schools.

As the old proverb goes, “Catch a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, he’ll eat for a lifetime.” Well, all a child has to do is some simple research online about fishing and he’s good to go.

Despite slightly missing it’s goal price, the OLPC has been an immediate success on another front. It has created a whole new type of machine, completely changing the marketplace.

Thanks to simple competition, Intel has developed it’s own mini-laptop, called the ClassmatePC, for developing nations. Asus, being a smart and nimble beast, took the developing nations out of the requirements, and built a cheap, small laptop for developed nations - the eeePC - which has proven to be a humongous success. There’s already rumours that several other manufacturers will enter this new market very soon.

Which begs the question, why don’t children in developed nations get access to these computers? Sure, they may not be building windmills with them, but giving children access at an even younger age would continue to revolutionize the Western world.

As I mentioned in Part 3, the age at which people in the First World at owning their own personal computers continues to drop. Right now, it’s a the point where a teenager typically has his of her own computer. Heck, even a number of schools are providing them with one.

But, let’s go even younger. Why not give the 6-12 market an OLPC type machine? If it breaks, it’s cheap enough to replace.

Doing so would dramatically increase our children’s digital literacy, at a much younger age. This in turn would spur technological innovations at a much younger age. You think a 20 something running a multi-million dollar web startup is crazy, wait till his child gets his own personal computer at age five!

The OLPC will not only bring developed nations out of the poverty cycle, which in turns helps balance out the world economy, but will also bring the next billion online into this whole new social global community. Take it one step further into the developed nations, and ingenuity will take another leap forward.

In the last article, I will discuss some more digital tools that are now available to children, and what effects this will have on society as a whole.

This is part 2 in a series discussing how the digital revolution is currently reshaping society. Don’t know what’s going on? Go back: Part 1, Part 2.

As I discussed in Part 2, the Internet is the software side of this digital revolution. As a commodity, it’s relatively cheap to come across, or even available for free in certain areas. This low barrier of entry for the Internet has always been hindered, to a degree, by the hardware side of things. Obviously, if you couldn’t afford a computer, you weren’t about to get online for a serious amount of time. There’s a whole other conversation to be had about internet access at libraries and such, but the strength of the computer is that it has always been *personal*.

Unfortunately, the economics of scale haven’t exactly worked out their magic just yet on computer hardware. That’s not to say that prices have not come down dramatically over the decades - because they most certainly have - but the entry level, up until recently, was still too high for a whole new segment to jump into the market of owning their own computers.

See, whereas the Internet only took into account monthly cost, and speed/bandwidth capabilities, the development of the computer has faced a few more hardships that don’t factor into the Internet’s calculations. Sure, computers decreased in cost, and increased in power and functionality, but along with this new potential, users created whole new applications for their robust PCs.

At one time, a person would only partake in making spreadsheets and word documents on their personal computer - the heavy lifting was taken care of by an enterprise machine (aka: workstation). As computers developed, the lines began to blur, and people began using the machine for graphic design, education, gaming, and, of course, internet access. Then there was the huge jump into the digital age where computers, as Apple put it, were now the certain of your digital hub: a place to store and interact with your movies, music, pictures, and more.

So you see, the advances in processing speeds and storage capacities have been met equally with increased usage of these new capabilities. The downside of this is that nobody wanted or would use an old computer: it just wasn’t capable of doing modern computer tasks on an older machine. This is why computers have remained quite steadily in the thousand-dollar market (yes, there’s cheaper ones nowadays. That’s what I’m coming to!)

A number of years ago, with the advent of Dell and Gateway, computers were made available for under a thousand dollars. However, and this still must be taken into account, computers from these companies are still considered low end simply because their business model is based around quantity and not quality. The upside of this however was the availability of a *personal* computer to whole new markets. In the past, a family would typically share a computer. With the advent of the sub-thousand dollar PC, you could now expect to see multiple PCs in a household, with one for each family member.

And we can’t underestimate the leveling factors this has on the digital divide between citizen’s of lower socio-economic statuses. Many middle class families, who couldn’t previously afford a machine, could now afford to buy one on Boxing Day or at Wal-Mart.

And this is the point we are at now. It is quite common for a household to have several computers, all for separate family members: a laptop for Dad, a PC for Mom and the little sister, and a laptop for the older brother. There’s two interesting points here though:

• The parents, unless one is in business or techno-literate, will typically share a family PC and not request their own personal computers, unlike the typical teenager who would want their own
• There is a undefined age at the moment for children’s access to computers: there’s the age at which they first start using the family PC, and there’s the age at which they get their own personal computer

You used to hear a few years ago of parents buying laptops for their graduate sons or daughters, as a college/university gift. Now, it’s not rare to see a high schooler with a laptop, either bought by the parents or paid for by the teenager him or herself. While they are rarely used in K-12 schools, unlike the ubiquitous laptop in universities, it is still a huge symbol of freedom - something akin to a teenager’s first car several decades ago.

If we are to follow the trend, one could assume you’ll begin to see under 12 year olds with their own computers. I used to scoff at the idea, thinking they wouldn’t have the responsibility or the operational knowledge to handle such a device, but I’ve been slowly changing my mind on this front. Kids from 2000+ were born into a digital world - this stuff is all around them, everywhere and everyday. There’s no point in underestimating their potential for success.

In the next article, I will discuss how the OLPC project has completely destroyed any barriers to entry for computer hardware. We will also see how this ubiquity of hardware and software will effect the current generation of kids: the Millennials.

This is part 2 in a series discussing how the digital revolution is currently reshaping society. Don’t know what’s going on? Go back: Part 1.

Leo Laporte did a keynote speech at Blogworld ‘07, where he discusses his comparisons between old media and new media, what it means to be an internet content producer, and the effects this whole shift will have on our favourite institutions. It’s tremendously interesting, although it will take a bit of time, clocking in at 45 minutes (he starts 15 minutes in).

Leo’s main discussion point is about how the Internet has leveled the playing field, in media, in education, in creativity, etc. It has enabled over a billion people, so far, to connect simultaneously with one another and make their voices heard.We have to be clear about the Internet however, because there’s two parts to every solution: the software and the hardware. The Internet, obviously, is the software part of this. Luckily, access to the Internet, like many things these days, was handled quite well by the economies of scale, bringing us both an increase in speed, along with a decrease in price, as more people started subscribing.

This increase in speed was incredibly important, allowing people to share more than just static HTML pages: images, audio, video, etc. Again, the scaling effect takes hold, enabling not only higher quality content to be both uploaded and downloaded, but also way more of it. I can remember watching the Star Wars: Episode 1 trailer, an exclusive for Quicktime back in the day. The trailer was tiny, and took forever to load on dial-up, but hey, it sure was cool. Before the internet, trailers were relegated to movie theatres and videos. Nowadays, you can get these trailers, and far longer video content, streaming or downloaded, in HD!

You can just as easily compare this to images. We started off with small, low resolution images, and slowly the web became graphic intensive. Now we are at the point where photographers, or just families, can share *all* their photos online, either for free or a very low cost. This would not have happened without the speeds we now have.

Plus, that’s without mentioning the shift from film to digital cameras, something that happening a lot quicker than one would’ve presumed. I can still remember all the pros saying they’ll never switch (now look at them), or going to London Drugs and the salesguy telling us that the 3 megapixel digital was good for small prints but that it could never beat film. The economies of scale again took hold, and here we are.

So sure, people have access to faster speeds and a more diverse Internet than ever before. This is important, but the game changer is what people choose to do with it. This is where we get into social media, or web 2.0 - where what you once thought about the news, information, and networking gets completely thrown out the window. And for good reason.

Old media is a very bland format. It’s the lone teacher preaching editorialized information to a full classroom - except on a much larger scale. This is nothing more than limiting access to information.

Yes, when the Internet first started, people could create their own sites for the world to see. But that didn’t mean the world was watching.

Google made it easy to find stuff on the web. That was a huge shift. But the social shift occurred with Wikipedia: where anyone in the world, even people with no knowledge of HTML, could instantly improve or update a citizen’s encyclopedia. It’s obviously been a proven success, and despite some worries from the laggards, it’s actually been found to be more accurate than most other sites or certified encyclopedias. Just goes to show that we’re smarter when we pool our information together than going it alone.

With Wikipedia, it’s all about the community. It’s the thousands of diehards, constantly skimming pages for updates and verifying information, that makes it all work. And then of course, it’s the millions of people out there, who might want to add their own information on a lesser known topic, or perhaps reword certain phrases to improve readibility, or maybe add their own images to an entry. It’s the community that makes it work. This is the social web.

Let’s take a slightly different example. There’s always been producers and consumers of information and content. As I mentioned earlier, this role of producer used to be extremely limited to the rich and famous. Not so with web 2.0, where all you need is access to the web and you are off. You can blog, you can podcast, you can videocast - *you* are the content producer now. And people are listening.

This low barrier to entry is enabling hundreds of thousands of people to get their voices, opinions, and information out there, which is utterly overhauling the way old media works.

Facebook, flickr, digg, Google’s apps, YouTube, forums, etc.

It’s transforming the web, and society, because it’s taking the internet to the next step. It’s creating connections and networks between all the people online. As most should know, change starts with a discussion. Having these conversations, openly available to a worldwide audience, with the possibility for them to join in on a two way dialogue - it’s an incredible way to level the playing field, whether that’s location, age, gender, income, etc.

And all you need is an internet connection.

I’m beginning a five part series today, which a new post each day this week. The latest articles will each eclipse the one it proceeded, and will shift from providing interesting information to enabling discussion. The topic: how the digital information revolution we are currently living in will dramatically reshape the world in the coming years - perhaps far faster and remarkable than anyone can imagine.

Just to start us all off, here’s an 8 minute slideshow, “Shift Happens”. This video was originally produced for a school board in America, thus explaining the minor focus on education towards the end, and ended up going viral late last year. They recently updated the video with the latest stats and it’s truly some very fascinating data giving us all a sense of the huge societal shifts that are beginning to occur in this world, thanks to the internet.

According to the Canadian police it is impossible to track down everyone who downloads music or movies off the Internet. The police simply does not have the time nor the resources to go after filesharers.“Piracy for personal use is no longer targeted,” Noël St-Hilaire, head of copyright theft investigations of the Canadian police, said in an interview with Le Devoir. “It is too easy to copy these days and we do not know how to stop it,” he added.

St-Hilaire explained that they rather focus on crimes that actually hurt consumers such as copyright violations related to medicine and electrical appliances.

[via TorrentFreak]

There’s been a bit of discussion recently, eclipsing with the large failure that is iMOVE, about how TransLink doesn’t really know how to interact effectively with the web. I think it’s pretty evident in its ugly website, and PDF schedules alone that the transportation authority is somewhat behind the gun. Don’t even begin on social and independent media.

Roland has suggested they hire a social media guru to improve things. Ask and ye shall receive, apparently. TransLink recently posted a job listing on Craigslist and its site for a Communications Coordinator. It mainly talks about writing and publishing The Buzzer, but also mentions “the development and technical set up of The Buzzer online and [adapting] the printed Buzzer to online format and style. [Establishing] rules for the moderated online discussion area in conjunction with the Manager, Corporate Communications and [monitoring] interactive postings, communicating with the public by investigating and responding online to issues.”

Sounds like a social media guru to me! Also sounds like the perfect job opportunity for me, cause Zeus knows that I need one, especially considering I’m broke and Greg Andrews stole that Online Editor position at Techvibes before I even had a change to fight him over it :P

Course, being in Grade 12, I don’t quite fit the requirement of having completed high school, nor of having a certificate in communications or marketing. However, it’s not going to stop me.

I’ve submitted a resume and a cover letter to TransLink for the position. But what’s going to bring me over the top? Why, I put together a preliminary 7-point online communications strategy, something which would obviously need to be developed once someone (hopefully me) gets the job. You need to have a plan of where to go if you ever want to get anywhere, and this is that plan for Translink to effectively work with the web and the online community.

You can read the full document here on Google Docs, and I’ve also copied it over to this post, available below. Please leave a comment on what you think of the strategy, and support for me to get the job! Thanks everyone :D

————————————————————-

As it is well known, and quite obvious by the number of corporations jumping into the space, fostering interaction and two way communication between TransLink and its customers will ultimately improve TransLink’s image and ensure that customers voices are heard. Before we go into specifics, however, there is one main principle for TransLink to remember before beginning the transition from web 1.0 to web 2.0.

Let go to gain more

TransLink will have to understand that it cannot control everything. Customers will be more participatory than ever before. They will contribute heavily to the improvement of the end product - our transportation system. TransLink will have to give up control over certain information, while still maintaining an administrative role to ensure proper information and high quality content is made available.

More specifically, under seven different sections, there are many different ways that TransLink can go about providing information, fostering the development of online community, and engaging new stakeholders in all new discussions.

1. Corporate Domain

The corporate domain is the main face TransLink presents to the world through its main online website. While there may be microsites, or separate portals under TransLink’s control, its main page is the most essential part of the transportation authority being online. To foster interactivity, customers must be able to not only access what they want easily, but have opportunities to have two way communication with TransLink (which will need to be woven intricately throughout the whole website).

• Redesign the TransLink website to the likes of the MBTA’s site. Simplify and update the user interface, while also providing new opportunities for public community interaction with TransLink (i.e. RSS, blogs, etc.). Include a MyTransLink section to favourite specific routes, stops, and trips. Include mobile accessibility to service alerts, route and schedule information, and MyTransLink. Ensure the design is written to the latest web standards, and avoid the use of Flash for important information.

2. Search Engines

This is extremely important, because unless people know the direct web address of the corporate domain, they will find it through a search engine. It is imperative that the corporate domain speaks easily with search engines so that it can be found.

• Along with the website redesign, ensure search engine optimization. This relies of course on good content and navigation, but also on things like individualized title pages and META tags.

3. Outbound and Syndicated Web Communication

This is the more traditional form of communication in that TransLink is providing information directly to customers. It’s one-way communication. This is usually done through emails, newsletters, and more recently through syndication through RSS.

• Capitalize on the TransLink Online Advisory Panel by launching a survey asking what forms of communication with TransLink the Advisors would support and be most keenly interested in (i.e. would people rather have a newsletter, or a blog, or a podcast, etc.). The results would steer this online strategy.

• Ensure all important information on the corporate domain is available through RSS feeds (i.e. service alerts, The Buzzer, news releases). Also provide information on what RSS is and how to use it.

4. Brand Extension

Transportation is a consistently major issue to Metro Vancouverites. Typically TransLink is doing damage control in the media. This is the face that most see when they view TransLink. TransLink needs to use the web strategically to improve its brand, and to increase awareness of it.

• Vancouver’s transportation system is still very young, just like the region itself, compared to most others in the world, but it has an evolving “livable lifestyle” which includes using transit, walking, and cycling. This has developed even more with the advent of climate change, and reducing our carbon footprints. TransLink needs to develop and capitalize on this “livable lifestyle”. Along with the Marketing department, a long term strategy needs to be put in place to develop and market this “livable lifestyle” that TransLink provides. This includes the new two-way communication provided through the online strategy.
• As part of the “livable lifestyle” and the capitalization of the TransLink brand, TransLink should launch an online store to sell Vancouver transport specific merchandise, including shirts, hats, toques, buttons, umbrellas, etc. (i.e. a shirt with the words “The next station is…”).

5. Community and Social Media

This is web 2.0: the social internet. Plainly put, it means two way communication and plenty of interaction. This is something TransLink has yet to venture into very much, and will be a paradigm shift for the transportation authority, but will also yield the most improvements. By facilitating the development of community, TransLink will improve transparency, which will indirectly improve their image to the public. There are a number of ways in which TransLink can engage in this sector.

• Blogging
  • Develop a reasonable blogging policy for all employees, including blogging in and outside of work.
  • Embrace local bloggers. Create and continually update a list of local independent media, foster these relationships through invitations to press releases and face-to-face meetings, and ensure that communication is a completely transparent two-way process.
  • Launch official TransLink blogs. The main blog should be written by the new communications coordinator, based on an online version of The Buzzer, and should feature cross posting to local blogs, a friendly approachable internet tone, behind the scenes looks at the transportation authority, the latest news, frequent updates on planning processes underway, coverage of community open houses, and more.
  • Include sub-blogs, written by departments (i.e. planning, engineering, etc.) for more specific tidbits, insight, and developments. There must be an understanding however that blogs are not just online press releases, but interactive conversations with new stakeholders, and they must be updated, and writers should comment back.
  • Also launch internal blogs for all employees. This will keep everyone informed and under the same direction. For example, have one for the Coast Mountain Bus Company, discussing new bus routes, schedule changes, policy changes, etc.

• Social Networks
  • Have a Translink profile on Facebook. Allowing the public to befriend Translink will support a more interactive image and aid in developing the “livable lifestyle” of Translink. Service alerts, photos, podcasts, and links can be posted on the profile.

• Forums
  • Forums are a unique and difficult creature. Even getting them off the ground can be a difficult issue. Forums require dedicated users, and are constantly evolve based on who participates. While they do support a high level of interactivity and the development of community, it is suggestion that official Translink forums not be developed initially, unless there is a large demand for them based on the survey results.

• Wikis
  • Wikis are another very unique service available online. Its greatest advantage, the ability of anyone to modify a page, is also its greatest weakness. In the context of Translink reaching out to the community, wikis are not suggested, as it would be difficult to moderate the content. However, wikis have been successfully deployed corporately to keep everyone on the same page and flourish better communication and innovation. Therefore, it is concluded that wikis be more researched for potential at the corporate level of Translink with use by all employees.

• Widgets
  • Widgets are micro interactive chicklets with specific purposes. For example, a widget could be used to find movie listings. Widgets can be desktop-based or web-based. The most obvious widgets for Translink would be a next bus widget, presumably desktop-based, while a web-based widget would fit well on a platform like Facebook. Another good desktop-based widget would be service alerts, or latest Translink photos.
  • A fourth widget could be developed, in conjunction with MyTranslink, with users favourite routes, that the public can post on their own sites or blogs. This widget would support the “livable lifestyle” of Translink, by encouraging the public to essentially publicize that they take transit, which in turn, makes it cool.

• Microblogging
  • Microblogging is about blogging small blurbs very quickly. It is essentially making a text message available to the world. Microblogging has been developed by the likes of Twitter, Jaiku, and Pownce. The most obvious function for Translink to microblog would be service alerts. Through these different web service providers, other users can subscribe either to the feed directly through the website, through RSS, or sometimes through mobile text messages.

• Tagging
  • Tagging is basically keywording without a list of keywords. It isn’t immediately evident how Translink could take advantage of this technology. However, by extensively tagging content, search engine optimization will improve dramatically.

• Linking
  • Linking to the public’s content will again improve relations and foster two way communication. Users will be excited about being featured on Translink’s website, and their hits will increase. They will then attempt to develop even better content to get featured again. Linking can be done through a monthly, or weekly featured websites list. Another option would be to develop algorithm based “widgets” that continuously update and change the link list shown (i.e. most popular blog posts tagged with “translink” in the latest 24 hours). Link lists are beginning to be used quite a bit on corporate media’s websites.

• Photos
  • Translink should continue the example set by InTransitBC, in which that private corporation has been actively taking pictures of construction of the Canada Line, many from perspectives not seen normally by the public. Translink could provide photos of new buses, or new retrofits, or new shelters. They should not be locked into the Translink site, however, and it is therefore suggested that Translink have it’s own profile on a popular photo sharing site like Flickr.
  • Translink should actively engage with existing Vancouver Transit photography groups, such as the VanTransit group on Flickr. It should post its pictures in groups, and should feature the community’s photography on the corporate domain through algorithm based widgets (i.e. photos in the latest week, photos rate with five stars, photos tagged “skytrain”).
  • TransLink should continue reaching out to the community of photographers by holding photo contests, or using local photographers for marketing shoots.

7. The Real World and the Virtual World are Tied

More than anything, the web is a supplement to the real world. It opens up new venues and opportunities to make real life connections and discussions. For TransLink to have a truly successful online strategy, they need to translate the opportunities they provide online into opportunities in person.

• TransLink should sponsor events surrounding transportation. For example, public lectures by the SFU City Program. Or, a Vancouver Transit Camp. Be sure to support the events and organizations that want to improve transit. Make sure TransLink is ready and willing to work with others, and help its connections when they need aid.
• Host blogger lounges to develop connections with key stakeholders in the independant media and foster that relationship. Provide bloggers with the resources they may need to create amazing content.
• Host community events such as public forums and dialogue sessions. They don’t have to be about the development of a specific plan - they can be general. They could be about a specific event that recently happened, such as the frequent service changes on SkyTrain when it snows, and different ways to work around such a problem. They could be about facilitating a conversation about reuse of the Interuban. Make it interactive in real life, and make sure those who participate online participate in the real world.
• Extend open houses and public forums through social media. Record the audio and add it to a podcast. Take pictures and post them on Flickr and Facebook. Make a video rundown of the event for YouTube.