This blog has moved. Please update your rss feed readers to http://feeds.feedburner.com/danielerossi2.

I’ve also moved all my previous posts to the new one. Oh, speaking of which, this blog has been moved to danielerossi.ca. I’ll be devoting this site to my comics.

See you there!

Here’s a sweet discovery (if you pardon the pun). Godiva tins make great holders for Moo cards! Starbucks have similar tins but you have to distort them a bit in order to make the Moo cards fit. The Godiva tins are a little longer than the cards but widthwise, they are perfect.

Describing the benefits of Twitter can be difficult. Lately, however, I’ve been stumbling upon fantastic explanations which live up to Twitter’s inconspicuous usefulness. If you’re still scratching your head on figuring out how twittering what you’re doing can be useful to anybody, I recommend the following 2 links:

1) Someone made a fantastic visual aid and uploaded it to YouTube. I found this one out through Twitter.

2) Another helpful explanation was written by Bill Thompson of the BBC.

I can totally relate to Bill Thompson’s experiences. And here’s why:

I first heard of Twitter at PodCamp Toronto 2007 before it took off at SXSW shortly after. I loved the concept however, like most people, I spent the better part of the year trying to figure out a practical use for it.

Birds of a feather

None of my offline friends and relatives care about social media (kids in developing nations with XO laptops are more wired). So I started off using Twitter to follow strangers and people I’ve met at PodCamp Toronto and then PAB in June 2007.

It was after PAB when I found Twitter being a great tool to for keeping updated on what my new friends were doing.

Be it projects they are working on, weirdness they encountered, a site they found interesting, even asking for help on a technical issue.

Status messages you can reply to.

Twitter doesn’t replace in-person conversations or even e-mail. It’s just tiny bits of info that wouldn’t necessarily need e-mails. Messages on Twitter, or ‘tweets’, are more like quick phone calls. Status messages you can reply to. Or perhaps it’s the closest thing to telepathic thoughts.

I was recently able to keep track of a friend’s experience at the InDesign conference in Miami and configuration of her new MacBook Pro. As Bill Thompson describes, it was like being there.

Not much work invovled

The sweet part of the deal is all this track keeping is done at a glance. It isn’t laborious or intrusive like e-mail or Facebook.

Plus, you have the option of sending and receiving tweets via your mobile phone.

At PodCamp Toronto 2008, Twitter was the most used tool for keeping updated on post-conference meet ups. On my way to dinner, I received the following tweets on my phone within minutes of each other:

“Baton Rouge is full. Meeting at Irish Pub”
“Irish pub is crazy. We’re at Mr. Greenjeans”
“Upstairs at Mr. Greenjeans”

Twitter is like an after-party which never ends

And after PodCamp Toronto 2008, I am still having conversations with fellow attendees on Twitter. It’s as if the unconference never ended!

Of course, like all social media tools, Twitter isn’t for everyone. For me, it works because the people who I interact with are regular users.

PodCamp Toronto 2008 has come and gone and it didn’t not disappoint. All my expectations were surpassed. I learned a lot, met up with a few old friends and made new ones. Best of all, I came out of it with A LOT of ideas for my podcasts and future ones, too

I won’t go into detail (secrecy is so much fun!) however I am really excited about my ideas and can’t wait to get started on them. Why are there only 24 hours in a day?

There was lots of Twitter love this year and some truly useful sessions (just like last year). The sessions I attended were:

Social Media & Networking Starter Guide by Chris Brogan
I already know about social media and networking but I’d never pass up a chance to hear Chris Brogan speak. His enthusiasm for community is contagious and you always learn something new no matter how much you think you know ;)

Living On The Cloud - how I have (mostly) given up desktop applications by Tommy Vallier. His presentation made me want to run out and get the MacBook Air (despite my PowerBook) and move to a cloud (with real estate prices these days…).

Soundwalking and Creative Listening by Victoria Fenner struck a chord with me because audio art is another passion of mine.

Podcasting your Passion: How to be Creatively Motivated by Steve Saylor really got me excited about being a creator. I’ll definitely be talking about his presentation on my next SpudCast.

Stand up and Breath! Vocal Techniques for Podcasting by John Meadows applied techniques singers use to podcasting. Brilliant!

Who’s Listening? How to avoid 3 big communication mistakes and boost your audience at the same time by PJ Wade was a joy to sit in. PJ’s enthusiasm for creative business planning was a perfect fit for fine tuning your podcast to your audience.

Open Source Podcast Production Tools by John Meadows and Sean McGaughey was a fun comedy show and educational. Edutainment!

Wikis: the what, where, how and why by Martin Cleaver gave me a whole new perspective on planning uses for wikis. Martin is also the organiser for Toronto Wiki Tuesdays.

The last session was a panel discussion on ooVoo moderated by Jay Moonah, Mitch Canter in Nashville, Laura Fitton in Boston, Mitch Joel in Montreal and Andrea Vascellari in Finland!

I also participated in the Q&A panel discussion about social networking in The Mentor’s Lounge moderated by Tommy Vallier which I recorded for the upcoming episode of my Stuttering is Cool podcast.

All sessions were streamed live on the Internet and will soon be archived for viewing on the PodCamp Toronto 2008 video archive page. I will have to the chance to see all the sessions I missed!

A great, big thanks to all the orgsanizers of PodCamp Toronto.  I didn’t take many photos (too much learning going on!) however they are posted on my Flickr page.

PodCamp Toronto 2008 was just as fantastic as last year’s. I have a lot of things to write about however for now I want to direct your attention to an interview of me by John Meadows of his brilliant On The Log podcast (which looks into the future from a rear view mirror).

We talked about if using the computer to make art counts as art. Doesn’t the computer do the art for you? I love the name of this episode: The Pen is Mightier than the Plug-in?

John Meadows also presented “Stand Up and Breathe! Vocal Techniques for Podcasting ” at PodCamp Toronto 2008. The video archive of it should be available here soon.

I’ve uploaded the final set of progress photos of the paintings I’m working on. You’ll see them on my Flickr set called Paintings in Progress. The reddish one is complete (the one in the photo above). The blueish one will take a while. Check out the photos to see why.

SpudCast number nineteen is up. Best of all, it’s short!

The main theme of today’s show is be begging and pleading you to send in comments and tell me about yourself :) Also, a friend drops by to teach us Spanish and I give a brief mention of the upcoming PodCamp Toronto 2008.

Improv comic #4 is up. You can see it here. Once again, I was in over my head with responsibilities and I missed my own deadline that I set for completing this one! Anywhoo, it’s here! And it’s short! I asked for a wedding faux pas and a song.  The result…?

Sorry about the over large video. I’ve had an impromptu epsiode of Sketchy Adventures tonight on Ustream. Nothing too riveting. I found out I can’t draw :P Ok seriously, it’s a short show because, well, I didn’t have enough time. Next time for sure.

My apologies for also taking a while to position the webcam. Makes for truly riveting viewing.

I received my first order of MOO cards tonight! I made them for my Stuttering is Cool podcast and I must say, I am very, very impressed with their quality and attention to detail! I’ll post photos of what I mean when I receive my second order which I placed a few day later. That order is for my danielerossi.ca site which I plan on handing them out at PodCamp Toronto on the weekend of February 23.