In the Quest for Canadian On-Line Retailers

While sniffing out interesting canadian to add to North of the 49th, I came across the London Drugs site. It's fantastic.  It's got options. It's Canadian. It completely rocks, with an easy design and interface, the online selection is better than most I've seen.  And for those of us who are east of Manitoba, London Drugs isn't really drugs, it's a WHOLE lot more.


Technorati Tags: Canadian online retail, London Drugs

Wireless Number Portability Pushes New Bell Incentives

Interesting news today out of the Globe and Mail - Bell is finally doing something interesting in terms of stemming what could be some significant churn when wireless number portability turns up next week. For $10/month you can call any bell number, wireless or wireline, and it doesn't eat your monthly mobility minutes. I like it.

globeandmail.com: Bell upstages wireless competition with new plan

Bell Canada, confronting intense competition from cable-TV companies and other rising entrants in the phone business, is offering a new rate plan allowing Bell Mobility clients unlimited local calls to and from other Bell mobile and fixed-line phones.The so-called Bell to Bell plan, starting at $10 a month, lets users conduct as many local calls between Bell numbers as they want at any time of day without using airtime minutes in their rate plans.

Technorati Tags: Bell, Wireless number portability

Making the Browser Migration: Flock to Firefox

I never thought I’d do it… switch away from Flock…. but for some insane reason, it’s eating all the memory on my Dell work-laptop. To the tune of over 200,000 bits of memory. Really really. It was so painful yesterday I had to convince a co-worker not to hang up on me in Netmeeting. I could feel his pain.

And now, it’s the rather annoying exodus of bookmarks and add-ons and settings that need to make the trek to Firefox as well.
I already miss my little Flock bits. But I can’t take the appetite it has any longer for my memory.

To the Flock Gods: Please fix the memory leaks!!!


Technorati Tags: Flock Memory Leak, firefox

Am I too Old for Facebook?

It’s a slightly embarassing question, all things considered. Now that I’ve got a Facebook profile, I am understanding the interesting implications of the service. It’s easy, it’s adictive, it’s geared for 20-30 somethings who are social creatures.
It’s all point and click and click some more. I can change my status to “At a Party”. In fact, I might leave my status set to “At a Party”. ;-)

I’d l love to see the mobile version of this. I’d like to be able to map parties, and the people in my network, to see if we are all close to a party, or if there are a bunch of us in one spot.

I like that the privacy options are all customizable, and that people can’t become your friends without some sort of knowledge about you. And even then, you can opt out.  I was surprised that facebook was able to check my gmail contacts and add the people who were in my contacts to my friends list, pending their approvals, of course.  It’s goof proof and fast and intuitive.

Still, the question begs an answer - am I too old for facebook?


Facebook | Julie Kivell

Technorati Tags: Facebook

Have You Hugged Your "Referrers" Today?

A quick scan of my referrer log today revealed that a good 50% of my referrer traffic in a week comes from The Good Blogs.

HUG


A snappy, two-hander handful in the past week has come from The Zero Boss.

HUG

Kudos to www.a-rain-of-frogs.com - the referrers from you are a testament to your smart followers ;-) In 2 days, you have added some serious traffic value.

Have you hugged your referrers today?


Technorati Tags: Referrers, The Zero Boss, The Good Blogs, A Rain of Frogs

Where Were You in 1992?

I was up to my eyebrows in usenet, willingly going to the library at the U of G early to get caught up on emails, and skipping classes to create my own world in a MUD (multi-user dimension).  It was awesome. It was pre-windows.  It was the raw internet that no one knew about.  It was in a time when a PC was out of the financial realm of most folks…

Alec Saunders points out that the new “Say Everything” generation is really just a cyclical arc, that the tools and activities that youth today are involved in are really just updated tools from the ‘90’s.  He has *so* hit the nail on the head. It’s not new. 

In 1992, I had a Lynx created web page. And wow, it had most of the details that my site does now about me, perhaps even more. And chat!?!? Spending hours in a MUD does tend to make you pale, but I’ve created friendships that still exist to this day. And no, I’m only a pseudo-geek.

I too read The New York Times article on the Say Everything Generation….. It’s not a phenomenon, it’s not particulary avante garde or cuttingedge.  It’s finally the rest of the world getting caught up with whatwe were initially doing 15 years ago.  How embarassing would that befor one of the 15 year old Facebook groupies, thinking they are new andwild and unique? ;-) Heh.

The “Say Everything Generation”? Old hat… — Alec Saunders .LOG

The ”Say Everything” generation is a 20 year arc, finally reaching its peak. It didn’t start yesterday.

Technorati Tags: Alec Saunders, Say Everything, Lynx, Usenet, MUD

Why Do I Blog?

To my surprise and chagrin, I've been meme-ed! Thanks to Adrian over at A Rain of Frogs, I've been tagged with the "Why do I Blog Meme.

It's a good question, and a hard one to answer.
I think it all started in 2000, when I realized an ex was reading the analog diaries stuffed in my bedside table. For shame.
That episode begat the LiveJournal Era.
From there, it seemed to escalate.  Before I knew it, there were half a dozen different Live Journals, all created with various audiences and topics in mind.  This was back in the day when LiveJournal was the only game in town. That lasted a few years, until I realized that I could grow up a little.

Why Blog?
The Wiz often asks me that exact question.  For me, it's about building relationships and having conversations.  Learning, sharing the learning and hopefully having it lead where I least expect it.  I've been writing since I could write. I'm one of those oddies who've have a written history forever.  This is significant, as my long term memory is for shite. My blog keeps track of the topics I'm thinking about, what I'm working on and what I'm interested in.  Without it, I wouldn't have an anchor for my thoughts.  Take that as you will.

Blogging reminds me that everything is public, and personal privacy is just a few mouse clicks from being lost. When you can be approached at a conference with a question of "Are you jules@jules.ca" - you realize that your backyard is incredibly huge, and that there are many people in it :-)

Jules.ca is technical (mostly), and is my public persona, in all its odd and oddly interesting glory.
North of the 49th is curious - and fills a void in the Canadian Blogosphere. Plus, it also allows me to keep track of the goodies I find on the 'net. If someone else gets value, that's just gravy. It's still just in its infancy. I watch it grow daily.

So - why do YOU blog?




Technorati Tags: Why do I Blog Meme, Adrian

Opening a Can of Freaking Worms

:-)
Bless The Zero Boss’s heart, and his wicked tongue. I had no idea of the can of worms I would be opening with my commentary on profanity in the blogosphere. The soap is on me…

My intent was to highlight the use of profanity in *popping* attention, not so much of a moral discusssion on the declining state of the internet.  But this is good too…

That being said - The Zero Boss has some very interesting comments as well ;-) Although I think they may have missed the point as well.

Folks: nothing is forgotten, nothing is lost, everything can come back and bite you in the ass when you least expect it. Nasty blogs and the postings within them will follow you around long past their best before date. No one is anonymous any more. ‘Nuff said.



Technorati Tags: profanity, swearing, The Zero Boss

Blog Swearing

I’m noticing a proliferation of potty mouths on the internet lately. Swearing, that is. Sure, it’s eyecatching in your RSS reader, but once the novelty has worn off, what have you got left?


The jury is out for me still - I think I can count on one hand how many times i’ve dropped a doozy, I’d like to save those biggies for really big deals.  For the shock effect, you know?  I’ve got a feeling that if my blog voice adopted the language of a drunken sailor, no amount of profanity would make people interested… ;-) Not to mention the fact that your blog history will follow you around like a wee puppy for the rest of your life. I suppose that is fine - if you indeed are a drunken sailor….

What say you? Is swearing acceptable in blog-land?


Technorati Tags: blogs, swearing

North of the 49th Brings Canadian Content

One of my 2007 goals was to create a new media vehicle, be it a blog or some such related bit of digitali, that would be ouside of my standard interests. While reviewing some of the blog award winners in both Canada and the US yesterday, it occured to me that there really isn’t a great Canadian Blog bringing Canadian yummy goodness to the population.

And on that premise, North of the 49th was created… Bringing Canadian treats and tickles to Canadians and the rest of the world.
I agree, it could be a challenge, what with the limited Canadian retail presence.  No one said that creating greatness was going to be easy. That being said, it’s a little bit retail, a little bit culture, and a whole lotta Canadiana.



Technorati Tags: North of the 49th, Canadian Retail

Canadian Vs US Blog Awards

Curious - the difference between the Canadian and US Blog award nominees/winners.

The Canadian flavour - brought to you by myblahg.com features a majority of blogs i’ve never heard of before. Is this an indication of my limitiations?  Or an indication that Canadian blogs are just below the radar?  I was hoping to come across some of the excellent Canadian blogs I read:

• Darren Barefoot
• Matthew Ingram
• Photojunkie
• My Name is kate
  

But no - the only recognizable blog nominee was Rick Mercer, and despite his plugs each week on the Rick Mercer Report, the majority of the content that he’s got is simple regurgitation of his weekly rant.

On the US blog side, I recognize and read a good 40% of the blogs that are mentioned. It’s important to note that these blogs are not just US blogs, but from all over the world.

Go ahead - take a look at each blog awards site. You be the judge.
I’m not sure what a comparison suggests, perhaps it’s simply a process and procedural problem for how blogs are validated and chosen? Perhaps the Canadian version is still working out the kinks in the selection/voting process?
I was hoping to discover real Canadian talent…. only to find…. yeesh.

Using Digg in a Whole New Way

Who would have thought - popular digg - used to sniff out the breaking news and popular blog postings of the hour, could also have a sideline application.
I've stayed away from digg, it's too arbitrary, not to metion corrupt for my tastes. But I've just discovered a side application for it. It's a comments conversation for blogs that don't allow comments. Easy. Dead easy.

The followers of Violent Acres, hungry for conversation, since Violent Acres doesn't allow comments in her blog [and for good reason, likely], have started "digging" VA's postings; and then contining on with the conversation in Digg. An interesting new twist to an existing application. I'm constantly amazed at the innovation and creativity that seems to bloom from nowhere. Necessity - the mother of invention.

Digg - How to Amaze Your Friends and Family With Your Eerily Accurate Psychic Read

Technorati Tags: Digg, Violent Acres

Shame on You: The Blogoshpere Gets Nasty on Scoble

The sweet baby jesus is crying.
Good lord, the blogosphere is reacting like a woman scorned with the announcement of Robert Scoble’s speaking engagement with PayPerPost.
It’s not the end of the world folks, it’s a smart guy doing a speaking engagement. A speaking engagement with an organization who is going to likely change the rules of how blogging and advertising work together.

I’m not a huge fan of PayPerPost, but you have to give them credit.  They have completely changed the rules, changed the way we think about advertising, and are playing by a different game.  Changes make people jumpy.  Rule changes can freak out the best of us, case in point: the NHL rule changes.  I’m not saying that PayPerPost is recreating the playing field of the blogosphere, but they are certainly involved in the conversation.

That being said, why wouldn’t anyone who’s interested in changing the rules or changing the game also be interested in the conversation?  I have a feeling that Robert Scoble is very much interested in the conversation, not to metion the game.

Shouldn’t we all be? The uproar and “holier than thou” attitude of some of the A-Listers is a little fickle, considering that they are supposed to be the grandest supporters of conversations.

Good luck Robert, have a fantastic conversation. And don’t forget to change a few rules!

“PayPerSpeech” disclosure « Scobleizer - Tech Geek Blogger

Technorati Tags: PayPerPost, Robert Scoble

Update on Thursday, February 8, 2007 at 06:25AM by jules

Further backlash to the PayperPost debacle?

Now our wee friend Mr Scoble is getting a little of the digital cold shoulder?

Could the blogosphere really be so very childish, or is it just co-incidence?

Too many questions for Thursday morning at 6:26 am 

My Blogging Z-List Meme

Mark Evans led me to Billionswithzeroknowledge.com, which led me to The Viral Garden, and the idea of a Z-List of Bloggers.  Although, truth be told, there are more than a few folks on the list below who have risen above the rank of Z Lister. :-)

The idea is that publicizing Zlisters will pull more and more wheat out of the chaff, making a better experience for both writer and reader. Now that’s an appealing idea, akin to The Good Blogs (which, by the way, has over 11,000,000 blogs in it’s widget)
Go ahead, copy the list into your own blog, add blogs that YOU like (try and stay away from the A-lister blogs, huh), and see what happens!


The Idea Dude
Steve’s Tech Journal
Telecom Trends
Ali Thinks
I’m Not Bored
Zazzafooky
A Rain of Frogs
My Name is Kate
jules.ca
Creative Think
Soloride
Movie Marketing Madness
Blog Till You Drop!
Get Shouty!
One Reader at a Time
Critical Fluff
The New PR
Own Your Brand!
OTOInsights
bizandbuzz
Work, in Plain English
Buzz Canuck
New Millenium PR
Pardon My French
Troy Worman’s Blog
The Instigator Blog
AENDirect
Diva Marketing
Marketing Hipster
The Marketing Minute
Funny Business
The Frager Factor
Mindblob
Open The Dialogue
Word Sell
Note to CMO:
That’s Great Marketing!
Shotgun Marketing Blog
BrandSizzle
bizsolutionsplus
Customers Rock!
Being Peter Kim
Pow! Right Between The Eyes! Andy Nulman’s Blog About Surprise
Billions With Zero Knowledge
Working at Home on the Internet
MapleLeaf 2.0
darrenbarefoot.com
Two Hat Marketing
The Engaging Brand
The Branding Blog
CrapHammer
Drew’s Marketing Minute
Golden Practices
Viaspire
Tell Ten Friends
Flooring the Consumer
Kinetic Ideas
Unconventional Thinking
Buzzoodle
Conversation Agent
The Copywriting Maven
Hee-Haw Marketing
Scott Burkett’s Pothole on the Infobahn
Multi-Cult Classics
Logic + Emotion
Branding & Marketing
Popcorn n Roses
On Influence & Automation
Bullshitobserver
Servant of Chaos
converstations
eSoup
Presentation Zen
Dmitry Linkov
aialone
John Wagner
Nick Rice
CKs Blog
Design Sojourn
Frozen Puck
The Sartorialist
Small Surfaces
Africa Unchained
Perspective
gDiapers
Marketing Nirvana
Bob Sutton
¡Hola! Oi! Hi!
Shut Up and Drink the Kool-Aid!
Women, Art, Life: Weaving It All Together
Community Guy
Social Media on the fly
Jeremy Latham’s Blog
SMogger Social Media Blog
Masey.com

Technorati Tags: Z-List Meme, blogging

PayPerPost Acquires Performancing... Gulp

Man, i love Performancing. Now it's going to feel funny. Funny strange, not funny haha.

PayPerPost just announced today that it's bought up Performancing. Just another angle to increase respectability? Despite the disclosure requirements, and the legal implications now of *not* disclosing, it's still hotly debated as to the value of pay-per-post.
I use performancing for editing, as well as to see what different traffic stats are registering for this blog. I wonder if this announcement will affect the other folks who have been using performancing?
Man.


Technorati Tags: Performancing, PayPerPost

Canadian Shoppers - We are Small but Mighty B!tchy

As I wrap the last of the pressies, I have a smug smile and a feeling of relief.  Again, for the 3rd year, I’ve been able to avoid shopping, and still managed to get presents and gifts bought for everyone on my list. In fact, this year I bought more than i budgeted for, and loved it all.


I’m the kind of girl who adores shopping, and abhors malls, people, parking and crowds. It’s all on-line baby, it’s all on-line.  I’m on a first name basis with my UPS dude, and the Canada post dolly.

Mark Evans talks about the canadian e-commerce chicken and egg scenario, and says that Canadians are browsers, and it’s impacting the Canadian ecommerce industry.  No retail store wants to set up an e-commerce site, because they are worried that no one will visit and buy. Canadians don’t really buy because there are no good canadian e-commerce sites. And it’s not been until recently that it’s become easier to buy from the US. Borderfree helps, but I want to see Borderfree help Canadian consumers buy stuff in the states (from sites who won’t ship to Canada), not just American retailers wanting to ship stuff to Canadians.

Hey Canadian Retailers, Guess What? I managed to buy only half of what I wanted from Canada. The rest came from the US.  Finally US e-tailers are figuring out how to ship to Canada on the cheap. They are eating your Canadian lunch, and if you dn’t get your Canadian shit together, the US e-tailers are going to be eating your dinner as well. How much do you think an average Canadian Family spends at Christmas, all told? I’d say between $2000 and $5000. Aren’t you sad that most of my spend went to the US?

The average Canadian spends about $900 on Christmas presents each year, or roughly $30-billion altogether: more than annual sales of tobacco, alcohol and lottery tickets, combined.

Where did I buy good stuff?

• LL Bean
• Walkabout Farms
• Signals - this is the most outstanding store - and the delivery was so very fast!!
  
• art.com
• Etsy
• The Body Shop - this one was wacky - they set up a Yahoo store for Canadians - it wasn’t the prettiest, but wow! It worked, and it was fast, and it kept me from going to the mall.
• Hockey Geeks
  
• Goalie Monkey
• The Grand River Toy Company - My only real Canadian Store. 1000 times better than ToysRUS
• Cafepress
• Chapters
  

Canadian retailers who really need to get their e-commerce shit together (and don’t deserve my link):

1. Canadian Tire - don’t be an ass and tell me there are only certain things I can buy online.
2. LaSenza - you can do better - especially with the LaSenza Girl Site
3. Le Chateau - you simply suck. Thanks for a *window* into what you have in your stores, so I can look before I leave the house.
4. Pier 1 - yes Pier 1, there really is a Canada.
5. Urban Barn - your stores are nifty, you are an outstanding competitive force for Pier 1 and The Pottery Barn.  Best of all, you are Canadian. Get your ecommerce mojo together! You aren’t so good that I *HAVE* to shop live in your store.

I don’t particularly care if you’ve been naughty or nice, just have a reasonable on-line shopping cart, ship to Canada and Santa Jules will make sure you get something good in your stocking.

Technorati Tags: Canadian ecommerce, Mark Evans, Borderfree

The Dumbness of Email

And it’s not even email’s fault.
I subscribed to Red Herring last month, as a christmas present to me, and I’ve been anxiously waiting for the first issue to arrive (I should go and check the mailbox again after this posting).  This morning, I received an email from Red Herring, telling me to hurry and renew my subscription, and I could get 2 years for the price of 1.

Sheesh. That’s a little premature.
You can’t tell me that they don’t know when I subscribed, or when my subscription REALLY is ready to be renewed. Why wouldn’t they make a smarter linkage between the email server and the customer database server? Why blanket their customerbase with renewal notices, when the vast matority of them probably aren’t in the *renewal window*? Laziness.

It’s not just Red Herring, it’s almost every organization who sends out email to its customer base. The laziness of not really caring about customre specific information.

In another life, The Wiz worked for a web company that specialized in software and customer databases that would allow companies to send VERY smart emails. It was an outstanding platform that would marry customer personal preference with email content, and then also track the success of those email programs.

Imagine a Canadian Tire email, that was tailored to YOU. You would receive an email if the tools you liked were on sale. Same deal with Shoppers Drug Mart, or even Pizza Pizza.  These retailers know almost everything about the preferences of their customers, yet do nothing to tailor the email experience. It’s all about relevance. We push for relevance in voice communication (think Iotum), why not with email communication?




Technorati Tags: email relevance, Red Herring, Iotum

To Get Ben Metcalfe into Quadruple Digits...

…on Technorati.
Tis the season.
Happy Blogidays, Ben!


Technorati Tags: Ben Metcalfe, Technorati

Free Advice from Robert Scoble and an Adventure

Oh!  I love freebies. And I love the roundabout way I came across this one!
From my blog, I found Miss Rogue in mybloglog and one of the neat new posts in her community was by Mike Cassidy kidding about Robert Scoble being a Rascal.

And that's when I found out Robert had some nifty free advice. I love it when adventures take you someplace new.


Help a San Jose Mercury News columnist blog « Scobleizer - Tech Geek Blogger

Technorati Tags: Tara Hunt, Robert Scoble, Mike Cassidy

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Who's in *YOUR* RSS Reader?

RSS - my guilty pleasure. Part newspaper, part shopping list, part procrastination tool. It's the only thing I do in the morning between 6:30 and 7:30.  3 cups 'o coffee and my reader; catching up on who's saying what, and what's going on in the world.  If I didn't have a reader, I'd never have known that Fiji went through a government change ;-)

In my RSS reader:

• Rob Hyndman***pretty damn savvy for a lawyer
• etc.***for those times when you have time.  Always has something worth poking around at.
• factory City***just because I also really like Horse,Pig,Cow
• Telecom Trends***how else would I know what the CRTC has up its sleeve?
• Alec Saunders .LOG***VoIP is a big deal. Alec knows all about it.
• Matthew Ingram***Pretty much the techiest newspaper journalist there is (especially since Mark Evans defected to the blog world.
• The Good Blogs***it just goes without saying.
• How To of the Day***because some days you want to know how to do things.
• Digital Photography School***always handy to sprinkle in some real learning.
• The BIG NYC Adventure***the story of a gurl transplanted from Toronto to NYC
  
• craphound.com***he's from canada, he's a scifi writer, he's done 7 billion cool things. Nuff said.
  
• Dooce***everyone needs Dooce
• Successful Blog***a girl can always dream
• the.idea.dude***ideas are GOOD.
• a rain of frogs***blogs are not always simply about the good side
• ProBlogger Job Board***for when I want to think about career changes
• Mighty Goods***quite possibly the best for shopping
  

Plus a zillion more..... who's in YOUR RSS reader?


Technorati Tags: rss reader, jules dot ca

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