Twitter must evolve

Retweeting—copying another person’s tweet and crediting them using an @mention—is an extremely popular use of Twitter website/application. One which was unplanned for when Twitter was first developed. In the development team's words, "Retweeting is a great example of Twitter teaching us what it wants to be."

However, this use is also working against what Twitter was designed for: short, simple, person-to-person communication. All the tagging, hash-tags, and bit.ly links are clogging the tubes of communication, and something has to be done about it.

For example, the New York Times places a link to an article in their feed, one of your friends finds it and relays it with a re-tweet. One of their followers finds it interesting and does the same. By the end of it, you’ve got three tweets all directing you to the same link—one which you may not be interested in yourself. It’s a lame self-promotion strategy that is turning the micro-blogging site into unreadable code that offends the eyeballs. (RT@bentheintern @newyorktimes bit.ly/ty79m #newmedia #socialnetworking– it’s all over the screen!)

Twitter is working hard to remedy that, after recently announcing a new project to officially support and better incorporate re-tweeting into its user interface.

Hopefully, this means they’ll be shoving all the tags and hashes somewhere else, away from my poor retinas. They could take a cue from rival online communication tool Facebook, adding a ‘like’ feature where people could simply state their enjoyment of an article and spare us the visual assault—put it somewhere else, give it another page or something.

The site was not originally built for passing on links in this way. Indeed, the question that is asked when you look at your input space on Twitter—What are you doing?—is rarely ever answered, in my experience.

Passing on links to interested people is all well and good, but Twitter is turning into a tagging and linking machine that lacks the inter-personal connection that it was designed to create. It is imperative that Twitter be redesigned to incorporate and separate tagging, linking, and retweeting from original messages, or soon, it will turn into a glorified RSS feed—and I’ll have no reason to read or contribute.

Thousands Raised as La Vendemmia 2009 Stomps on Cancer

It was the perfect Sunday in Ottawa to be stomping grapes, making pasta, flipping pizza dough, and raising money for cancer research. The 2009 La Vendemmia Grape Stomp brought out hundreds of people looking to do their part in raising money for the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation by dipping their toes in a barrel full of cold grapes.

Since 1997, La Vendemmia has been Ottawa 's Celebration of Italian Wine & Food held in the heart of Little Italy, Preston Street. On Sunday, September 20th, 2009, hundreds of locals kept the tradition alive by partaking in traditional Italian activities.

Those in attendance included Mayor Larry O'Brien, MP Jim Watson, Stuntman Stu, and the always entertaining master of ceremonies, A-Morning's Bill Welychka. All of which spent their morning squishing grapes and mingling with the hundreds in attendance.

Bleachers were set up for the grape stomping event at the Adult High School on Preston Street, where 36 teams competed in a series of timed events.

With the recent street reconstruction taking place along Preston Street, it was a heart-warming surprise to see so many people in the community showing their support for the area and for cancer research. This year's event saw a drastic increase in participation, as more and more people in the Ottawa region have heard about this one of kind event.

"Last year we saw 25 teams participate," said Tara Beechey, Event Manager of the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation. "We were fortunate enough to see 36 teams sign up this year, and over $12,000 was raised!"

The Marketing Breakthroughs team (pictured above) was also in attendance to help do their part for cancer research. These hard working stompers were able to raise $890 for the cause.

For a listing of all the results and participants, visit Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation's 2009 Grape Stomp page.

Marketing Breakthroughs helps kick off Army Week

The Canada Retirement Information Centre (CRIC) could not have picked a more ideal day to celebrate military families, and Marketing Breakthroughs was there help lend its support.

With both the War Memorial and Peace Tower looking on from across the Rideau Canal on a beautiful sunny day, about a thousand people gathered inside Ottawa’s historic Government Conference Centre to kick off Army Week and thank families from CFB Petawawa.

“We think an afternoon of worry-free fun is the best way to show the military just how much they mean to us,” said CRIC President Franco Frangione.

The event featured speeches by local Mauril Bélanger and John Baird, local Members of Parliament, as well as Lieutenant-Colonel Keith Rudderham, Base Commander at CFB Petawawa. There was a ‘best dressed in red’ contest, where attendees showed off their “Support Our Troops” outfits, and free boat tours courtesy of Paul’s Boat Lines. All this in addition to a delicious free Barbecue.

The entertainment kept up throughout the afternoon, as stilt-walkers, jugglers, magicians, and a live band performed for the attendees, most of whom were dressed in their favourite red shirt.

The event went off without a hitch, thanks to the help of the CRIC, Paul’s Boat Lines, and members of the Marketing Breakthroughs team, who donated their time to organize the event and even paint some faces.

"Events such as this allows soldiers’ families a venue to celebrate,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Rudderham. “It makes them feel extra special about the fact that their mother or father, brother or sister is in the military."

Boost your SEO with online articles

If you’re looking for links to boost the Google juice flowing to your blog or website, online articles can get the job done.

Article-hosting websites, such as isnare, articlealley, and ezinearticles are looking for authors to contribute information on all sorts of topics. Whether your topic is dog clothes, Ottawa apartment hunting, or gardening, they will accept and publish your article, providing you meet some basic requirements.

How does this boost your search engine ranking, you ask? Most of these websites allow embedding HTML into your article, allowing you to link back to your website or blog. Not only does this make search engines like Google consider your blog more authoritative, but you may also receive some direct visitors to your site through these links.

Your site rises through the rankings, and the article site has another expert at its disposal. It’s win-win, and your website analytics will thank you for it.

Public broadcasting, now hand-held

Some folks may complain that CBC is increasingly irrelevant in our modern 24-hour news and Internet world. Everyone seems to blog constantly, CNN reports more news than any person would ever want to know, and Twitter is delivering information directly into our cellphones. How can Canada’s public broadcaster possibly compete with that?

Well, they’re giving it their best shot, and the results are quite pleasing. The CBC was an early adopter of podcasting, creating the internet-only CBC Radio 3 (also available on satellite radio), and released it to great success in the iTunes store. Now they’re moving into new avenues for mobile devices.

Now the CBC has jumped onto the iPhone bandwagon, creating a website, specifically for mobile devices (and especially the iPhone). Readers in Canada’s capital will be happy to hear this includes the Ottawa regional news website.

On Aug. 1, CBC debuted its radio app, allowing iPod Touch and iPhone owners to stream Radio 1, 2, and 3, and access on-demand audio programs.

The app has risen to #14 in the iTunes Canada store, clearly demonstrating a demand for this kind of product, at least among Apple enthusiasts. The app is so easy to use, even a person with no iPhone experience could figure out how to stream the local Ottawa station. And best of all, it’s totally free.

If the CBC continues to embrace new media and mobile technologies, there may still be a place for it in the hearts, minds, and cellphones of Canadians after all.

Does online outrage hurt sales? Not if you’re Ikea

Online petitions are the norm these days. They’re so easy to distribute, sign, and present to concerned individuals that going door-to-door with a pen and paper has become as antiquated as rabbit-ear antennae on a TV.

These petitions are sometimes the result of a misstep by an organization. Citizens and consumers take to the internet to express their concern, outrage, or support for bold decisions. In Ottawa, petitions run the gamut of topics, from “More and free scooter parking downtown”, to “Virgin Radio ads must come down!”

Furniture store Ikea and its recently released 2010 catalogue present an interesting case study in online outrage. Graphic designers and typographists took to twitter and popular blogs to express their disgust with Ikea for switching their catalogue font to Verdana (a standard Microsoft font, originally made for easy on-screen reading) from its formerly synonymous artsy font, Futura.

I received the Ikea catalogue days before I came across this story on the graphic design blog. It seemed like the same furniture, and the same design philosophy to me. But it’s a big deal to a select community, and vocal few.

Blog commentors cried, “Verdana doesn't feel ‘Ikea’ at all,” and, “Instead of standing out, they try to blend in. It’s a shame.” Fans of the old font have collected more than 4,000 signatures at petitiononline.com – no small feat, but a drop in the bucket in terms of Ikea’s customers and overall sales.

An Ikea spokesperson recent stated that only experts are interested in the font change, and the average furniture-buyer won’t even notice it. In other words, they’re expecting the outrage to subside, and regular sales to continue. Graphic designers are upset, but it won’t prevent people from coming through those big blue sliding doors.

They’re trusting that their products will see them through this minor controversy. And I have a feeling that soon, even designers will be heading back to the store for a $149 VIKA on which to do their work.

Saving the World One Design at a Time

Ottawa native David Berman is a pretty interesting guy. He is a Fellow and the Ethics Chair of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada, a vice-president of Icograda, the world body for graphic design, a Canadian communication designer and author, President of the first elected board of the Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario, and an international keynote speaker. He is also the author of the recently published book "Do Good Design: How Designers Can Change the World." The book builds upon the graphic design code of ethics that Berman introduced, which embraces social responsibility for graphic designers in Canada and is used as the benchmark internationally. Berman explains that "designers create so much of the world we live in, the things we consume, and the expectations we seek to fulfil. They shape what we see, what we use and what we waste." He argues that "the same design that fuels mass overconsumption also holds the power to repair the world." Berman definitely offers some food for thought. What do you think? Do graphic designers have the power to make the world a better place?

Luigi Successfully Brings Preston Street to Life

It's been a long summer for the social media savvy 5' 8" cardboard cut-out known as Luigi. His mission was to let patrons know that despite backhoes, bulldozers, and safety fencing cropping up all over Preston Street in Ottawa's Little Italy, the neighbourhood was alive and well!

The campaign, which started in early May 2009, was an ambitious attempt by the Preston Street Business Improvement Association to try something completely new as a way to draw awareness to the businesses in the area during the street construction.

In what was expected to be a simple contest, whereby participants would follow Luigi's clues on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and various other websites to determine what business he was visiting, turned into something considerably more exciting and far more influential than predicted.

Although hundreds of submissions were received in the Catch Luigi Contest, including countless media hits, it was the public's unusual embrace of the Italian cartoon chef that really surprised those working on the campaign.

"By mid-summer, Luigi had really become a source of information for people interested in what was going on in Little Italy," says Caitlin Hines, Project Manager at Marketing Breakthroughs, the marketing company responsible for the character's success. "Ottawa spent the summer talking to Luigi online, which helped to give Luigi a life of his own."

Hundreds of people throughout the summer would log on and ask Luigi all sorts of questions, including his favourite Preston Street restaurant, the best place to park their cars in Little Italy, and his opinions about Michael Jackson. There were very few topics not discussed. People genuinely embraced the Italian chef.

On August 31st, the contest closed with Luigi posting his last clue of the campaign. Although the total numbers have not been confirmed, Derek Smith of Marketing Breakthroughs predicts that over 400 submissions were made in the contest.

"We are thrilled with the results of the Catch Luigi Contest," says Derek Smith, Marketing Breakthroughs Social Media Specialist and Luigi's personal assistant. "One lucky person will be walking away with $5,000 worth of Preston Street gift certificates."

The winner will be announced at this year's La Vendemmia Grape Stomp taking place on Sunday, September 20th. Luigi will be in attendance to award the grand prize.

"The Luigi campaign is a perfect example of how social media is changing the way people communicate," says Hines. "Not only did Luigi drum up much needed awareness for the Preston Street community, but he also established himself as a guide to what's going on in Ottawa's Little Italy."

By Spring 2010 the Preston Street revitalization will be complete. In the meantime, Luigi would like to remind everyone in Ottawa:

"Excusa the Mess! We're building a new Little Italy!"