Lee Dunbar

Mar

31

Elgin Fraser Remembered

March 31, 2008

elgin2.jpg


This weekend past I took my kids to the second annual Elgin Fraser Champions Cup. This fundraising event started last year, to celebrate the life of little Elgin Fraser who, at only 3 years of age, succumbed to cancer just moments after witnessing his beloved Ottawa Senators defeat the Buffalo Sabres to move onto their first ever appearance in the Stanley Cup final. Elgin passed peacefully doing what he loved most – watching the Ottawa Senators with his family. This young man was the very definition of a Canadian hockey fan. He lived and breathed hockey.

This year, his mother announced that in addition to other great work, the Elgin Fraser Foundation, along with the Candlelighters participated in purchasing a suite at the Scotia Bank Place so they could send children fighting cancer to hockey games and other events.

Having been touched by childhood cancer myself when a close relative passed away at a very young age, I have witnessed how uplifted a child can be when they have something good happen to them. My cousin was fortunate to have met Bill Cosby at the height of the popularity of the Cosby Show. Bill was here doing a live show at the Ottawa Ex, and it was arranged for him to go to the Children’s Hospital to meet my cousin. That was better than any medicine could have been. He was also sent to Disney World with his family for a vacation through fundraising in the small town where he lived and through contributions from the Make A Wish Foundation. His older brother and sister, who were supportive beyond belief, took him to many events. The family members and community rallied behind him – even going as far to have a fundraiser to purchase a hair piece for him.

I guess that’s my long-winded way of saying that organizations such as Candlelighters and Make a Wish are very important and they make a huge difference in helping young children struck with disease make the most of their lives. They are very worthy of support.

So kudos to the organizers of this event, and a heartfelt appreciation to Elgin’s mother for having the strength to work to help other children struck with childhood cancer in the memory of her young son who showed great strength and courage during his short time here.

Links of interest:

Tags: Community Stuff
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Mar

31

Monday Round-Up

March 31, 2008

The New Yorker has quite an in-depth piece about the state of newsprint. The industry has reported a 42% decrease in market value in the last few years and since 1990 a full 25% of related jobs have disappeared. It has been long known that the Internet would take a big bite out of print media, but what seems to have alarmed some people is just how quickly things have accelerated.

On a similar topic, the New York Times has an article about how youth are relying on social networks and online tools rather than traditional media to read – and share – important news stories. I had my eyes opened a little during the last federal election. I created a blog and developed a few satirical videos that I uploaded to a video sharing site. I was amazed at how quickly the videos received hits, (each one into the thousands), and spread across the blogosphere. Bloggers were linking to, and even embedding my videos into their blogs – and the twist was that they were bloggers supporting different political parties and ideologies.

Search Engine Watch columnist, Marty Weintraub, has an interesting article outlining how religious, political wars are being fought over Google’s search engine rankings. In particular, he discusses how Jews have fought to lower the ranking of an anti-Semitic web site using what is called ‘Google bombing” techniques.

 … and for something completely different …

Are we there yet?

The SimpsonsUniversal Studios has launched a microsite for the new Simpson’s attraction that will be opening very soon in Orlando, Florida. I’m a huge Simpson’s geek, and it was quite the tease to see the ride when I was just at Universal at the beginning of March and not be able to go on it. Well, there was some consolation in the fact that I was able to take my son’s picture in front of the Kwik-E-Mart.

Tags: Community Stuff, Search Engine Stuff, Web Stuff
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Mar

28

eh_ad_300x250.gifThis Saturday, the World Wildlife Fund would like us to join millions of others – including individuals, government agencies and corporations – in over 150 countries who will be turning off their lights between 8PM and 9PM local time to demonstrate our commitment to fighting global climate change.

How do we commit to fighting global change outside of taking part in Earth Hour? The WWF has a list of very simple, common sense suggestions.

This issue was really brought home when I recently watched a segment from BBC’s Planet Earth series called, “Ice Worlds.” In this episode, we watch the plight and eventual starvation of a male polar bear. We watch him struggle to walk across the ice as the platform drops out from under him and he is eventually forced to swim 60 miles to find hard ground. Tired, weak and nearly half his normal size, the polar bear desperately attempts to feed and eventual succumbs to starvation and a wound suffered while fighting with a herd of walrus.

What the WWF is asking of us is really of very little inconvenience. Turn off the TV, lights and computer when no one is in the room. Unplug appliances if you are going away for more than a couple of days – a study in Australia shows that a full 10% of energy is used by appliances and electronics in stand-by mode. It only takes very little from many of us to make a large difference.

While the science behind global warming – cyclical weather patterns vs. human-created disaster – can be debated, reducing consumption of power still makes environmental and economic sense no matter what side you are on.

Next time you’re walking out of a room, remember that flicking off the light switch is far easier than swimming 60 miles and succumbing to starvation. /end of blatant guilt trip.

Tags: Community Stuff
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Mar

24

Monday Round-Up

March 24, 2008

Happy Easter Monday, hope everyone had a great weekend.

 Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock, a game developer, talks about how his company deals with piracy – they don’t. In a post on his blog, he explains that developers shouldn’t focus on the number of users, they should focus on the number of buyers. He argues those who aren’t purchasing your title never will, so focus your energies and resources on creating a better product and user experience for the people who are buying your product. Maybe the RIAA should read this post.

Tired of having to remove all the trial software that manufacturers load onto new computers? Sony is offering ‘Fresh Start’, a service that removes all of the bloatware from your new computer – but you’re going to have to pay what amounts to $150 extra.

Google Sky is now available on your browser. Visit the moon and see bookmarks where the moon landings occurred.

Disney traditionalists are up in arms as it has been confirmed that the ’It’s a Small World’ dark ride, a Disney favourite, will be rehabbed. The Imagineers will be adding Disney characters, and removing some sections of the current configuration (rumoured to be the rain forest) to do so. The ride was originally designed by artist Mary Blair based on Walt Disney’s original vision to create a ride promoting global harmony and understanding through the innocence of children. The purists feel that the addition of Disney characters will homogenize that concept.

Tags: Brand Experience Stuff, Customer Service Stuff, Design Stuff, Experience Design Stuff, Marketing Stuff, Technology Stuff
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Mar

20

This video is amazing and creepy all at the same time. It demonstrates the organic, lifelike balance and movements of Boston Dynamics’ BigDog prototype. Pay particular attention to how the robot recovers from being kicked and slipping on the ice. The AI required to accomplish the feats demonstrated in the video is mind boggling. From a technological point of view this is off the charts. From a social point of view, many are already questioning the use for such a machine. Not quite clone warriors or cyborgs, but George Lucas and James Cameron were on to something.

Also a great example of viral video. Just do a search on YouTube and see, a) how many times the video has been uploaded and b) how many hits the videos have received in a relatively short period of time.

Tags: Advertising Stuff, Design Stuff, Neat Stuff, Technology Stuff
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Mar

20

bestbuy.gifBest Buy has joined other retailers in the US such as Future Shop, Circuit City and others who are reaching out to customers who purchased HD DVD players. They are offering a $50 gift certificate to people who purchased an HD DVD player from them before February 23, 2008 – and really, if you bought one after that date you should have known what you were getting into.

This is a good move. On the PR/reputation management side of the equation, it comes off as a feel good story. Brian J. Dunn, president and chief operating officer for Best Buy was quoted in a press release as saying, “At Best Buy, we understood and shared our customers’ frustrations as they were being asked to choose one format or the other. Now that the format war is over, we hope these gift cards will reassure our customers that we will help them make a smooth transition into the right technology for their needs…” … and I’ll add, “…and we are confident that with these $50 gift cards, they will be purchasing their new machine from us.” ;)

Best Buy states that this program will cost the company $10 million. That’s a lot of gift cards – and more importantly a lot of customers who have already adopted the technology (high definition players) that will be looking to replace the obsolete technology. And – maybe more importantly, the need to get in and sell as many of these players and titles as they can before they are replaced with newer emerging technologies. The customers who purchased HD DVD players are the low hanging fruit for Blu-Ray and PlayStation players so this action will certainly result in sales and there is a good chance that consumers will also see this as good will.

Tags: Advertising Stuff, Brand Experience Stuff, Business Stuff, Customer Service Stuff, Marketing Stuff, Retail Stuff, Technology Stuff
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Mar

17

Monday Round-Up

March 17, 2008

Well, back from a nice long vacation in sunny Florida. We had a fantastic time – mostly spent right on the Disney Resort with an added excursion over to Universal, (I am sure Disney hates hearing that!). Of course the best part is that we missed about 70 centimetres of snow that was dumped on those back home. A special, special, special thank you to our neighbours who kept our driveway nice and clear. :)

As with our last trip there, the “Disney experience” has served as great inspiration and has generated about 1000 ideas. I look forward to posting some specifics in later posts.

 Well onto the round-up.

China has blocked access to YouTube because of videos showing the violence and protests in Tibet. Clearly, China is not a place where residents can take full – or even much – advantage of social networking and web 2.0 technologies. The conflict between our interest in human rights vs commerce is a complicated one when it comes to China. It is a market with potential for hundreds of billions more in trade, and yet the actions of the Chinese government towards its people is clearly objectionable to most of us. It seems as a society, we have taken a “hold your nose” approach so we can get our cheap goods at the local Wal-Mart or make a deal that is profitable for our company.

Google has a patent application to interrupt online video signals with advertising. There is a trend to show a sponsored message at the beginning of an online video – especially when it comes to web sites hosted by media companies. As a consumer I find this acceptable, I understand that companies need to turn a profit and there is great opportunity for advertisers to reach a targeted market. But at the same time, it would be annoying to have a 30 sec video served in the middle of a minute long clip.

The music industry wants to charge all broadband users $5 /mo. to subsidize them to compensate for sales lost to P2P file sharing. I have an idea – lets charge an entrance fee to anyone who steps into a store or mall to cover retail losses due to shop lifting. Let’s charge a monthly fee to library card holders to subsidize authors who do not sell books because people can borrow them for free. The music industry has mismanaged the impact of the ‘net from the very beginning. This is their problem, they need to come up with a solution instead of these ridiculous ideas of subsidization – especially since they will be charging some people who do not even download music. There are a number of opportunities to meet the needs of consumers and still make a profit. Instead, they used their resources and effort to fight the technology instead of embrace the technology and use it to its full advantage. The ‘net offers clear opportunity for record labels to actually increase sales, (the long tail theory for example), but they have blinders on and have largely ignored many opportunities – and for that I have no sympathy. There is no excuse to charge what amounts to a 10% tax to broadband users to subsidize an industry that is losing money due to its own mismanagement and misdirected focus.

Tags: Brand Experience Stuff, Business Stuff, Community Stuff, Retail Stuff, Technology Stuff, Web Stuff
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