The Unknown Studio

So long, you delightful scamps!

On Sunday morning last week, I received an email from Jeff Samsonow and Sally Poulsen, the creators of theEdmontonian.com, one of the city’s most beloved blogs. They said that two weeks hence, they’d be closing up shop. I paused. I yelled. I swore. I called my girlfriend over to the computer screen and we both read the message in disbelief.

“Other projects,” they said paraphrasically in their email, “are jumping around in our heads, and we can’t pursue them without moving on from the Edmontonian.”

“OUTRAGE!” I responded, frightening my girlfriend, and our cat, who both read on in dismay. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 30% [?]

Just a quick update.

The very excellent hosts of CJSR 88.5 FM’s Tuesday morning show “Makin’ Whoopee” are having Scott and I on their show tomorrow!

At 8:06am — and I’m serious, we’ll be on right after the BBC news — Scott and I will join Chad and Colin for their special brand of early-morning mishegoss. I’ve been promised danishes as well, so those boys had better pull through. I can be a real grouch in the morning.

Remember: tune your FM dial to 88.5 tomorrow morning — at 7am, if you want to hear the boys’ eccletic show from the start. We’ll join you all at 8:06am!

Popularity: 10% [?]

It’s not everyday someone turns two. You might even say it only happens once in a lifetime. And while most douchebag children get a chance to experience this milestone, it’s nothing but hard work, perseverance, sticktoitiveness, and other ridiculous made-up phrases and portmanteaux that allow a hyperlocal podcast to mark the occasion.

Our colleagues from the League of Extraordinary Media — videogame podcast UserCreatedContent — are celebrating their birthday this Saturday, May 29, starting at 6pm at Hi-Tech Gaming. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 13% [?]

I’d like to be honest with you: I have a bit of “camp” overload. It seems like every other event in this city uses the suffix “-camp” as a descriptor. DemoCamp, ChangeCamp, TransitCamp, MediaCamp… The unconference model is alive and well in Edmonton. And it’s everywhere. And I feel that it isn’t always the most successful model for conferencing, though I suppose the same could be say about more traditional conference formats. So I was a little apprehensive about how the day would go.

And I have to say, the organizing committee unconferenced Saturday’s first MediaCamp Edmonton to great success. I’m already looking forward to the next one. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 22% [?]

Yes, dear reader, I still live. And, equally astonishing for many of you, I still write. On occasion. Really, I hope to post more in the coming days. In the meantime, Adam sent me an e-mail today that required some following up on, and I have decided to write a little bit about it.

The e-mail: Such Tweet Sorrow – a Shakespearean play performed over social media. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 21% [?]

I received word today that one of my favourite local television personalities, Global Edmonton’s Lynda Steele — host of the Early news co-anchor of the News Hour — has abandoned her popular Twitter account. No reason was immediately given by Steele or Global. And as someone with a vested interest in social media, as someone who fully recognizes the value of these tools, I can’t help but feel that Global Edmonton has more or less entirely missed the mark.

Mack Male quoted another prominent social media citizen, Chris LaBossiere today regarding this whole issue: “Organizations don’t have conversations. People do.” Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 70% [?]