This Position In A Nutshell

A development (programming) position with a heavy focus in LAMP (PHP) with the option of contributing to our design and Flash work.

About Us

Resolution Interactive Media Inc. (ResIM) is a leading Canadian digital agency whose core competency is delivering exceptional web projects. If you have a background in and a passion for web development we want to hear from you.

About You

You consider yourself a bit of a tech guru. You've been building complex web projects for a while and are passionate about new technologies.

What You'll Be Doing

• Writing code for data-driven web projects and rich interfaces
• Designing interfaces and application layouts
• Contributing to our in-house code frameworks
• Providing assistance to non-production managers with technical requirement clarification and end-user documentation
• Attending production meetings and working with other production team members to solve problems and create work plans
• Contributing to the larger enhancements for existing projects

What We're Looking For

• Wonderful verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent organizational skills
• Strong eye for detail
• Team work skills
• An enthusiasm for usability (ease-of-use)
• Exceptional interface visual/conceptual development skills
• Exceptional problem determination and creative problem solving skills
• Ability to hand code web projects and create/maintain reusable code

Technologies/Languages You Need To Know

• HTML/XHTML
• XML
• CSS
• PHP
• SQL
• Javascript

Technologies/Languages That Are A Bonus

• SVN/Git Experience
• UNIX Environment Experience
• Objective C / C#
• Actionscript 3

Required Education/Experience

• Minimum 2+ Year College Diploma in a new media field (Web Development, Graphic Design, Multimedia Design, Programming or similar)
• Ideal candidates for this non-jr position should possess 2+ years of agency experience
• Demonstrated ability to develop complex projects in AMP. (Apache, MySQL, and PHP)

Terms

Permanent Position. Resolution staffers enjoy a competitive annual salary in a relaxing, open, collaborative environment with excellent medical and dental benefits.

What To Submit

Your resume and a couple of samples that you feel show off a little of what you can do. You *must* provide an example of your *best* work to be considered for an interview.

Submission examples:

• Code samples
• Screen shot galleries
• URL's to websites/projects that you've developed

Please send your resume and portfolio URL in confidence to hr@resolutionim.com.  Only those candidates we'd like to interview will be contacted.  ResIM is an equal opportunity employer.

There you have it.

This means the majority of your customers and clients will be interacting with your web site and your business through a device they hold in the palm of their hand.  It's not enough to simply be present, you should have a plan that centres around providing value through a mobile version of your web site or a platform-specific application.

Below is a case study video presenting our latest mobile project, a practical iPhone application for the window film industry:

The strategy and development team at ResIM can help you make sense of it all and deliver something that is sharable, valuable, and in-line with existing business objectives.

For more information on how we can help, or to simply chat about the future of mobile and how to provide value to your customers, give us a call at 519-936-6674 or email jonathan@resolutionim.com

ResIM is looking for a part-time administrative assistant to:

• Receive and forward telephone and electronic communication (ie. answer phones and manage email)
• Assemble and proof documentation
• Prepare and send invoices
• Schedule meetings and take minutes
• Manage databases and lists
• Execute basic bookkeeping tasks
• Initiate projects using multiple web-based software applications
• Perform basic office administration tasks such as filing, mailing, and photocopying

Here's what you bring to the table:

• An exceptional ability to organize people, tasks, and information
• Willingness to learn and contribute
• Smiles (like the free kind from your favourite fast-food restaurant, only better)
• 1-2 years professional administration experience
• Post-secondary education in a related field

It would be really cool if you had:

• Knowledge of web technology and trends
• Digital or traditional marketing agency experience

You'll be working in a very relaxed environment where quality, performance, and dedication are mandatory from each member of the team -- including you.  We work on high-availability, high-impact projects for corporate clients and large institutions across the country.  Oh, btw, there are some perks available too:

• Competitive salary
• Comprehensive benefits package
• Flexible work hours based on your needs

If you think you'd be a good fit please send a resume to hr@resolutionim.com with the subject line: I'm an admin superhero!

In our annual review with Window Film Systems last year we presented a concept: "what if we created an iPhone application that allowed your customers to see what the view from their window looked like with solar film applied?"

The answer to this question is now available for free in the iTunes App Store.

We developed an app that allows consumers and B2B purchasing-folk to take photos using the built-in iPhone camera (or choose existing images from the camera roll) and apply one of three solar window film products.  Next, users of the app can save the 'filmed' photo to their photo gallery or email it (along with the name of the film).

Give the app a try and let us know what you think (download from iTunes).  There are a couple of updates planned for the next release but we're always up for feedback

In this post we'll look at the work we're doing with Samsonite Canada.

Samsonite Canada selected us to plan, design, and grow their brand online.  We're starting with a brand-focused web site and social media presence and building to full ecommerce over the next quarter.

At launch in early April the new Samsonite Canada web platform will feature rotating product information modules, details on collections and sets, an historical timeline, and brand-building video.

Need new luggage? This handy locator uses Google Maps to pinpoint the independent retailer nearest you.  If you're in London, Ontario that retailer happens to be Kingsmills.  Just sayin'.

We helped Samsonite Canada initiate a Facebook presence and have watched a small fan base grow into a robust and involved community.  To emphasize the longevity of the brand (100 years in 2010) we suggested a contest allowing fans to tell the Samsonite story through photography while entering a draw for new luggage.  Visit the fan page here.

Stay tuned for additional posts later this week on other projects we've got in development.

Just before launch I remembered to grab a screen capture of the previous Cambrian site:

And now for the 'after' shot:

If you're interested, here's a little background on the project:

The strategic direction for the new Cambrian College web site was set by a group representing real people expected to use and benefit from the site. Starting here allowed us to ensure the pieces that fell into place as the project progressed were built on a foundation set by actual users.

Audience research and wireframe usability testing were implemented at varying points in the project to address user concerns, validate or eliminate assumptions, and guide the project from a macro perspective.

Having identified a valuable and interactive experience as a key success factor across all self-identified groups we created from scratch, again using actual members of the target audience, a series of visually enhanced testimonial videos. Each video is integrated seamlessly with the web site allowing it to become part of an overall experience.

From a visual perspective the site borrows elements from Sudbury's natural surroundings while using artistic elements to convey a sense of modernity and progress.

Technically, the site is built on MOSS 2007 allowing staff and faculty to quickly update and manage content as the College grows and changes.

Feel free to send along any feedback or questions you have about the site -- we're always happy to help.

Over the span of a week earlier this month I spent three days on location serving as 'executive producer' for the production (fancy, I know).  Just recently the set photographer sent along some black and white gems from the shoot:

Director Francois Driessen (left) and I deep in conversation.  I wasn't nearly as angry or intense as this shot makes me look.

DP Gary Elmer and First Camera Assistant Chris Arnold configure the rig before getting underway.

Reviewing footage with our client.  That's ResIM's very own Mike Almond peeking out from behind the door - captured!

We used a 7D DigiCine and SteadyCam for this shoot -- cool things on the way!

The 7D in action capturing part of the 'during your visit' scene.

Tools of the trade

Watch this space in early March for an announcement on the launch of the project.

The perfect web project is one that runs smoothly from start to finish with a client who's expectations are consistently exceeded.  I find my account and project management role is made much easier when I'm involved in setting and managing these expectations.

Here's how we do it at ResIM:

Cost

Being super-transparent with cost is the best policy.  

By qualifying leads according to their acceptance of a certain budget range we're able to get around the less important stuff (cost) and pay more attention to the more important pieces (client and user goals, project planning, creative, etc.).

To help in this area we've started publishing pricing on our web site.  Others like OnWired, Blue Flavor, and Slim Kiwi are doing the same thing.

This approach helps ensure the leads coming from our site have already considered cost while eliminating the 'I have $2,000.00 and want to build Facebook' folks.

Planning

There's much debate (older post) on the subject of creating a functional spec but it's something we do for every project.  

Describing how the site or application will function before it's built firmly sets expectations and creates the scope creep boundary.  Uncovering additional features before the development team is unleashed is much better than a retrofit or rebuild halfway through. 

A thorough planning process combined with the review limitations I mention below allows us to arrive at a pretty firm launch target, which is also included as part of the functional spec (we call it a Project Outline).

Creative

 A recent addition to our process is the provision of a visual theme prior to presenting our clients with an interface composite.  The theme includes things like font, texture, colour, and photography and ensures expectations regarding these key elements are in the open before design time.

I'd also recommend trying something like these 'Moo'd Cards' created by John O'Nolan -- great stuff.

Revision Limitations

Nobody, not even the client requesting them, likes to go through rounds and rounds of revisions to creative or planning.  To help mitigate this I include the following notes (not fine print) in our proposals:

On planning:

On creative:

On site review:

You don't have to be over-the-top in displaying these but in the interest of transparency, hiding them in fine print isn't the best idea.  I like to include these bubbles immediately following the corresponding description in the proposal.

I'm a big believer in using an open process where expectations are set on a mutual basis and consistently managed from start to finish.  Knowing where we have to be makes it easy to go above and beyond.

We're thrilled to welcome Samsonite Canada to the ResIM client family! 

In our role we'll be responsible for launching a Canadian ecommerce presence for Samsonite and managing marketing efforts in the digital channel, including social media.

For nearly 100 years, Samsonite has leveraged its craftsmanship and heritage to become a world leader in the luggage and travel industry.  Today, Samsonite continues to be an industry leader in product design and innovation. Samsonite’s tagline - ‘Life’s a Journey’ - embodies the brand, symbolizing the role Samsonite has continued to play in the multi-faceted lives of the global traveler.

Stay tuned for updates as we push this iconic brand to online success in Canada.

For more information on how we can help integrate your Sage system into customer facing web applications talk to us!

Here's how Website Grader describes their service:

"Website Grader is a free seo tool that measures the marketing effectiveness of a website. It provides a score that incorporates things like website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors."

I like the service as a starting point for evaluation, here's why:

1. Beyond keywords.  There's a ton of learning that needs to happen around the idea that search engine optimization is simply about keywords.  I like that Website Grader uses one of the most important factors of SEO (inbound links) as a component in their grading algorithm.
2. Beyond SEO. Sure, things like content, keywords, meta descriptions, and inbound links are important to SEO, but SEO is only one component of digital marketing.  Among other things, Website Grader uses the inclusion of a contact form or email newsletter registration form and the publication of an RSS feed as key grading points.
3. Social popularity. With a seemingly endless number of places for online conversations to take place it's very difficult to measure the effectiveness of a web site in one quick evaluation.  By using Digg submissions and Delicious bookmarks in their grading algorithm Website Grader is only scratching the surface, but at least these components are considered.
4. Speed.  It only takes a couple of seconds for Website Grader to return a grade that covers a wide range of criteria.  A proper marketing evaluation takes much more time and is quite detailed but I like that Website Grader provides a decent starting point.

It should be said that a more detailed evaluation of SEO, email marketing effectiveness, and the social media conversation is necessary prior to providing recommendations or making changes to a digital marketing program.  If you're looking for a starting place though, go on and give Website Grader a shot and let me know what you think.  

For an opposing opinion and some great comments from the people behind Website Grader, check this post out.  The business model HubSpot is using behind Website Grader is pretty obvious too, so take that into consideration.

Happy grading!

Well, we received our wake-up call about a month ago when Owain Johnson, the first employee we ever hired, nervously announced he was leaving the company to move back up north to be closer to friends and family.  I must admit, it takes balls to make a decision like this and I applaud Owain for putting himself first and jumping at an opportunity that doesn't come around often.  As they say 'Don't be afraid to go out on a limb. That's where the fruit is.'

Owain, the dedication and commitment you've shown over the last four years has been remarkable and no doubt is a cornerstone of our success.  It was just the three of us for quite some time but you stuck it out through the trials of a fledgling business and were always there supporting Brendan and I.  

Good luck in your future endeavors, even if it involves building applications on an inferior operating system ;)

Kathryn Kozell, Coordinator Quality Initiatives at the LRCP, commented, "During the RFP process, the selection team was impressed with ResIM's patient and family-focused approach, their vision for the project and the collaborative strategies they employed in meeting the needs of our special patient and family population."

London Health Sciences Centre has been in the forefront of medicine in Canada for over 130 years and offers the broadest range of specialized clinical services in Ontario.

A PDF version of the official media release is available here.

Jon: I found it very interesting how much these speakers discussed CSS3 and the idea of pushing the boundaries and coming up with an experience for the user that may be different based on their browser. They mentioned how it's not a big deal to have an extra little nice feature added by CSS3 to a site that may only be seen by a small percentage of users, because other users won't know what they're missing out on. Another big idea brought up by each of the speakers was to take risks, as Mike Kus noted "Progress and innovation in design requires exploration. In exploration there is risk." I find it's very important to try to keep my designs from getting old and boring and too much the same, and that it takes risks to come up with something new and innovative. I really feel like they were trying to push everyone in that direction to continue to innovate and change the web and how users interact with it. 

Andrew: As I mentioned on Twitter, the overarching theme of the presentations today was progressive enhancement. So what does that mean? Basically, we need to reward users whom are using better browsers. This can be accomplished by using CSS3 properties such as box-shadow and border-radius, and Safari-only animations like rotate and zoom. As designers, it's our responsibility to use these things, and push boundaries, so we don't let the web flounder in it's current state. Most of the speakers pushed "moving forward" with these new technologies, and some even went as far as to suggest giving IE6 text-only stylesheets to accomplish this. As Jon mentioned, other speakers that weren't getting into the technical side of things presented general design tips, and pushed taking big risks with your designs "just to see what happens." I came out of the conference feeling empowered and confident in the decision to provide enhancements to better browsers while serving graceful degradation to older (or less powerful) browsers.

Overall, we had a fantastic FOWD experience. Keep your eye on this site for more detailed posts about some of the speaker presentations.

An engaging speaker, he opened up the eyes of his audience to the many considerations that must be taken when creating a truly accessible website. One thing that hit home immediately is Derek's abhorrence of the common CSS reset style: "a { outline-style: none; }". Many of us designers use this CSS rule to eliminate the ugly borders around clicked images in Firefox, without realizing that it greatly hampers accessibility. Users who must use keyboards to navigate sites can no longer tell where focus is, and therefore the site becomes immediately and completely unusable to them. Other important things I took away from Derek's presentation:

Think of Ajax like a dumb waiter: You know those things they have in old houses that send food up and down from the kitchen? Well, you wouldn't serve a banquet through one of those, right? This is a great way to think of Ajax. Need to make a request for a small percentage of changes to the site? Ajax is your answer. Changing a large portion? A page reload might not hurt.

Make the mental model match the process: This one is important, but also hard to explain in a blog post. Basically what it boils down to is exactly what it says. Make your app behave as in the same way you think. If a path through your app has to be re-ordered in order to match the mental model, so be it.

Iconography should be on the content level: Iconography is part of content, not style, and therefore should be in the content level of your site, not a css background image.

Pay attention to source order: The order your elements are in the source is the order a screen reader will read them out in. Make sure this is the order you want.

Retain focus: Retain keyboard focus when using ajax to retrieve things, or put the focus where it should be, like inside the lightbox you just opened.

Tabindex is important: Assign tabindexes to the elements in your form. Let the source order determine the tab index for your forms, but assign a -1 tabindex to something that you want to give keyboard focus to programmatically.

Test correction paths: Don't just test validation failing and succeeding, test correction paths as well. Sometimes these paths are the most important, and yet most often overlooked.

Derek's final point was that accessibility should be thought of throughout your entire project's workflow, and not just a rubber stamp at the end of the project. This is especially important when Flash apps are introduced to the mix, as it's almost impossible to make a Flash app fully accessible once it's already been developed.

Overall, Derek made a fantastic and eye opening presentation. I'll see if I can get his permission to re-publish his slides here, as there is an abundance of points that I can't touch on in a singular blog post.

So we'll start it off with some of the basics. The web is meant to be as open, accessible and universal as possible in order to reach as many users as possible in the quickest and most effective amount of time. Molly touched on the different web philosophies, such as it being:

• Accessible (available to all people)
• Universal (universal across modalities)
• User Agent Agnostic (available to any browser)
• Platform Agnostic (available to any platform)
• Global/Local (available to a range of languages and cultures)

• Encourage practical, accessible and meaningful interactivity
• Encourage a "write once, play anywhere" philosophy (CSS, Javascript)
• Provide proven standards-related technical and management benefits
• Embrace backward compatibility and progressive enhancement

Probably the most common challenge now a days is designing and developing for Internet Explorer 6. We discussed the reason why it isn't necessarily going to be going away anytime soon because it is tied so heavily into the Windows OS that making big changes to it takes many years and lots of testing to make sure it works in all versions of Windows. As well, many users and companies still rely heavily on certain technologies integrated into IE6 that they can't work without. This makes it very challenging to support IE6, as we don't want to restrict our web sites from reaching their full potential in order to support outdated browsers.

Now to the future - there is some very interesting and exciting stuff coming down the pipe in terms of new web based technologies such as HTML5 and CSS3. HTML5 is going to help to bring a whole new experience to the web, one where even more of the functionality of a web page is going to be in the structure of the page instead of just in the behaviours of the page. The canvas tag, and being able to embed video straight onto a web page are just a couple of the exciting features coming from HTML5. And the best part? All major browsers are committed and ready to go full on with it!

CSS3 is also very exciting and has a lot of new ideas and functionality that has never been seen in CSS before. Features such as multiple backgrounds, opacity, media queries (which I thought was really neat), and font-embedding. 

There is definitely a lot more to learn about when it comes to web standards and where it's still evolving and moving towards, I will be sure to try and stay on top of it and continue to learn more about how the web works and how we can bring it all together to the end user.

The event was a success on all accounts.  Thanks to all who attended, the ARTS Project for being great hosts and to the ResIM team for all their hard work.  

The LCD pictured above is running a Flash application that uses the Twitter API and Papervision3D to pull in and display tweets marked with the hashtag '#rx09.'  When posted, each tweet (including the account avatar) appears in a large view before dropping back to a 3D stream of all previous tweets.  Stay tuned for a web release of this app soon.  Thanks Andrew, nice work on this one.

People had a ton of fun with this LED/spray can piece by Brendan.  This application uses infared light at 850nm captured using a special IR camera (behind the projection screen), allowing light blobs to be sent to interface technology such as Flash.  In this case the light blobs created a spray paint effect allowing our guests to decorate the canvas without paint.

It's not the greatest shot but the iMac in the background is running an augmented-reality application that is able to recognize faces by detecting areas of light/dark in face-like configurations. The detection technology is based on "Real Time Face Detection in Flash" from Squidder.com.  Great work Geoff.

Jon watches while guests try out the new web site.  Jon and Owain put a ton of work into this piece while throwing together a loop of the case study videos we've compiled recently.  I can't forget to thank Kyra for her calm demeanor and grace under fire -- definitely a welcome addition!

We all had a great time bringing this event to life and look forward to doing it all over again at 'RX10'!

Check our flickr pool for more photos, or take a peek at them in the sidebar on this page.

Dan Martell, besides being a really energetic post-lunch speaker, was full of shareable ideas, real stories and tips for digital communications that aren’t always obvious. He opened with something that I have thought about every day since the conference: “Your website is NOT a brochure. It has the potential to operate as a 24-hour salesperson.” I’m curious about how far I could take this analogy (would you hire someone to represent your company if they dressed in polyester sweats … and you weren’t Adidas in the 70s)? Another post perhaps!

Martell says that instead of thinking of conversions as something you do after generating traffic and following up - that web marketers should turn the process around. Convert first, follow up and then begin your version of traffic-building and in-bound marketing. To do this well, you need to figure out what on your website is high value (and there better be something). Make it easy for people to ask you a question or get in touch. Follow up with everybody who engages with you and do it within 24 hours … because building an audience IS lead generation.

Another highlight from the afternoon was hearing Dharmesh Shah speak. Co-founder and CEO of Hubspot and author of OnStartups.com, he is self-deprecating, funny and full of extremely useful SEO and marketing tips for various platforms:

Blogs

1. To brand or not? Company blogs are shared LESS.
2. Blog post titles are for humans!
3. Rarely shared: Product info, free trials, software documentation.
4. Frequently shared: New market data, education content, top-notch content.

Facebook

1. Facebook Advertising: The cheapest form of market research on the planet.
2. Fan pages are better than groups.
3. The next wave of Facebook search is not for ex-girlfriends: It’s for local people-based services (real estate brokers, wedding photographers etc.) … built-in authenticity!

Twitter (Or How to Increase your Chances of Being Re-tweeted):

1. Longer words are more likely to be re-tweeted (interesting because it’s non-intuitive).
2. Use the word ‘please’ (but don’t abuse it).
3. Tweet in the afternoon.

Shah jokes that when we send it, we call it ‘Direct Mail’ -- when we receive it, we call it ‘Junk Mail’. Remember that digital junk mail is even easier to filter out than the glossy paper that clogs our mailboxes. Make marketing about creativity and not cash. Good marketing doesn’t convince people just to buy - it convinces them to sell.

--

Did you attend meshmarketing? What did you think?

About Us

Resolution Interactive Media Inc. (ResIM) is a leading Canadian digital agency whose core competency is delivering exceptional web projects. If you have a background in and a passion for web design/development we want to hear from you.

About You

You consider yourself a bit of a tech guru. You've been building complex web projects for a while and are passionate about new technologies.

What You'll Be Doing

• Writing code for data-driven web projects and rich interfaces
• Contributing to our in-house code frameworks
• Providing assistance to non-production managers with technical requirement clarification and end-user documentation
• Attending production meetings and working with other production team members to solve problems and create work plans
• Contributing to the larger enhancements for existing projects

What We're Looking For

• Wonderful verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent organizational skills
• Strong eye for detail
• Team work skills
• An enthusiasm for usability (ease-of-use)
• Exceptional interface visual/conceptual development skills
• Exceptional problem determination and creative problem solving skills
• Ability to hand code web projects and create/maintain reusable code

Technologies/Languages You Need To Know

• HTML/XHTML
• XML
• CSS
• PHP
• SQL
• Javascript

Required Education/Experience

• Minimum 2+ Year College Diploma in a new media field (Web Development, Multimedia Design, Programming or similar)
• Demonstrated ability to develop complex projects in AMP. (Apache, MySQL, and PHP)

Terms

Permenant Position. Resolution staffers enjoy a competitive annual salary in a relaxing, open, collaborative environment with excellent medical and dental benefits.

What To Submit

Your resume and a couple of samples that you feel show off a little of what you can do. You *must* provide an example of your *best* work to be considered for an interview.

Submission examples:

• Code samples
• URL's to websites/projects that you've developed

Please send your resume and portfolio URL to hr@resolutionim.com.  Only those candidates we'd like to interview will be contacted.  ResIM is a kick-ass and equal opportunity employer.

You might say that I’m biased, then, towards the mesh franchise -- that I don’t have the required objectivity to assess the quality of the conference -- but I would argue that meshmarketing had to work that much harder to make me sit up and take notice. Let’s face it, I’ve been overexposed.

I’m happy to report that it offered me not only a moment of true inspiration, but a nice handful of tools to take home with me (and that’s not even including the sweet This Is Not A Paper Cup by Rightsleeve).

As Hugh McLeod began his morning keynote, I knew that some people in the audience would be grumbling to their neighbours. I knew from some recent experiences at social media/digital marketing events that people wanted Data, Relevance (!) and How-to Manuals from these conferences. McLeod’s keynote was … a little different.

McLeod talked about Bronislaw Malinowski, Kula and the Trobriand Islanders. He noted that what people were doing on the Internet now with social media, they had been doing for thousands of years in different ways. People create meaning by interacting socially with objects -- physical and otherwise. The ritual of Kula is only meaningful because it is shared -- because it is social.

When asked what he would offer to the audience as a takeaway, he replied: Share What You Love -- and when asked to provide an answer to the question specifically for marketers, he said: Social Objects. People socialize by relating to objects -- these objects on the Internet can be videos, photos, stories, personalities or games. They are the things we find and share and talk about, so make it easy for people to talk about you or your product or your story by making things shareable.

These words stayed with me for the rest of my day and personally, I think a keynote should set the tone and take you into Big Idea Places, if you’re lucky. I enjoyed going to the South Pacific with my coffee. And as an anthropology undergrad, I was just happy to hear the name ‘Bronislaw Malinowski’ again.

[More to come in 'meshmarketing part 02' on the rest of my day!]

Why?

To thank our clients, vendors, and friends and to officially launch our brand new web site. This event is a great opportunity to meet new Resolution team members and to see the digital elixirs we've been concocting over the last year or so. Join us for cocktails and appetizers at The ARTS Project (http://www.artsproject.ca/) in London, Ontario on October 29th 2009 from 5:00 - 8:00 p.m.

There isn't a schedule of events so don't worry about missing anything -- just make sure to leave enough time for a couple of drinks and to check out the mad interactive displays the team has been cooking up.

Here's a Google Map to both the ARTS Project and nearby parking.

See you Thursday!

With the importance of blogging covered, the next question I generally receive is 'I can hardly handle the work I have on my plate now, how in the world will I be able to consistently update a blog?'  Here are some answers to that question:

• Set a schedule for as far ahead as you can.  Sit down, brainstorm, and use a schedule template like this one (PDF) to come up with as many topics as you can.
• Don't go it alone.  If you work with a team of six, for example, each person would only have to commit to writing four posts per year in order for your blog to be updated twice monthly.
• Help yourself remember. Use applications such as Evernote or social bookmarking services like Delicious to remember web sites, news articles, and blog posts that have sparked an idea you could write about.
• Don't worry. Try to stick to your schedule, but don't lose sleep if you haven't posted in a couple of months.  A few blog posts are better than none at all.

Blogging is an enjoyable and rewarding exercise that doesn't have to be overly time consuming. If you have further questions about blogging, or aren't sure how to get started, feel free to get in touch with us.

Zander defied our preconceptions in every way.

The co-op student that walked through our doors was a rock-star high school Flash developer, and contributed in a more-than-major way to a number of projects over the course of his stay here. We kept him on as a paid full-time employee over the summer, and are happy to report that our first co-op student experience was a resounding success.

Zander left us (with an open invitation to come back any time) at the beginning of September to persue his post-secondary education at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. We presented him with the parting gift of a copy of Halo 3, all the while knowing he doesn't own an Xbox on which to play it.

This video picks up with Zander cordially accepting the game, not knowing his real gift was stashed away in the women's washroom:

Zander is @onefifth on Twitter. You can also follow @ResolutionIM to keep up with the goings-on at Resolution.

Third Tuesday
Shel Israel came out to the Berkeley Street Theatre to talk to a crowd of over 200 people about his new book, Twitterville. Co-author of Naked Conversations, Shel shared some of the stories that appear in the book that demonstrate how Twitter is changing the way we live, do business and build community. Unlike other ‘how-to-use-twitter-to-make-money’ books, Twitterville focuses on remarkable personal stories and is more of an anthology than a guide. Read the AdAge review of Twitterville here.

Casecamp Benefit 2009
Where to begin? This year’s casecamp featured a full afternoon of talks on social media, marketing and the power of the kittycat. I hate to pick favourites but I find that I keep returning to Ben Huh’s presentation - he’s funny, sure - but he also offered a couple of simple and valuable insights into how he built such a huge and profitable online community (i.e. The Cheezburger Network).

Monetizing community means that you have to get to a scale that matters.
Scaling is a function of business, so UNDISTRACT your company.
Human nature has a tendency to admire complexity but reward simplicity.
People choose to make their startups complicated for very human reasons (ego, pride, assumptions, sacred cows, secrets) and these are obstacles to success.

I also really enjoyed the presentation by Matt Wyndowe from Facebook. He shared some of Facebook’s insight into the question of how communication tools affect social network size. The newest ‘type’ of communication is what Facebook calls The Stream (Facebook’s Twitteresque newsfeed that allows you to ‘like’ or comment on people’s updates, photos and conversations). This kind of interaction has increased the size of our Active Network (the network of people in your life that you engage with and influence on a weekly basis - family, friends, co-workers) by allowing 2x the amount of communication you can take in.

For example, have you noticed that we are starting to get used to the stream? I find that I wish I could ‘like’ (or dislike) articles and advertising on other sites but the functionality just isn’t there yet. How would your organization’s website function differently if people could interact with it in the same way we do with Facebook? Something to consider.

I would be out of line not to mention Jason Scott, who kicked off the day to share his story about his cat Sockington (@sockington), who has more Twitter followers than Snoop Dogg, Kevin Spacey, Paris Hilton and Lady Gaga. What else can I say? People who like cats ... like them a lot. The real takeaways?

I hate bad and evil marketing and I hate bad and evil marketers.
Only robots would say, ‘A brand is like a relationship with a friend.’
Twitter is NOT a big, fat networking ATM.

TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival)
Unrelated to social media, but highly relevant to me personally, I saw the North American premiere of Werner Herzog’s My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. I am a die-hard fan, so I enjoyed them both but I have to say that the latter really blew my mind. I didn’t expect it to be so funny.

I was also extremely pleased that Herzog came out to introduce the Thursday afternoon screening of Bad Lieutenant and even stayed for the Q&A - it had premiered at TIFF on Tuesday and I was NOT expecting to see him again after the opening of My Son, My Son. He was incredibly gracious and entertaining and I was doubly pleased that I was sitting in the third row for his surprise appearance. WOW.

What We're Looking For

    • Wonderful verbal and written communication skills
    • Excellent organizational skills
    • Strong eye for detail
    • Team work skills
    • An enthusiasm for usability (ease-of-use)
    • Exceptional interface visual/conceptual design and development skills
    • Exceptional problem determination and creative problem solving skills
    • Ability to hand code web projects and create/maintain reusable code

Technologies/Languages You Need To Know

    • HTML/XHTML
    • XML
    • CSS
    • Javascript
    • PHP
    • SQL
    • Actionscript

Nice To Have's

    • Objective C
    • ASP.NET (C#)
    • Experience with Subversion/Git

Required Education/Experience

• 2+ Year College Diploma in a new media field (Web Development, Multimedia Design, Programming or similar)
• 5+ years experience in developing commercial data-driven web and flash projects.
• Experience managing a team of web developers and production staff.

Terms
Permenant Position. You want HOW much? Let’s chat!  Resolution staffers enjoy a competitive annual salary in a relaxing, open, collaborative environment with excellent medical and dental benefits.

What To Submit
Your resume and a couple of samples that you feel show off a little of what you can do. You *must* provide an example of your *best* work to be considered for an interview.

Examples of what you could submit:

    • Code Samples
    • Screen Shots Of Interfaces You've Designed
    • URL's to Websites/Projects That You've Created

Keep in mind we’re a digital agency so it’s your web/screen applicable stuff we’ll be looking for specifically.

Please send your resume and portfolio URL to hr@resolutionim.com

Standard disclaimer: Only applicants chosen for an interview will be contacted. ResIM is an equal opportunity employer.

The grassroots volunteer-driven initiative began in 2006 with support from TechAlliance, Fanshawe College and the City of London, and a goal to foster involvement, investment and voice for 25-44 year olds, a demographic key to London’s future job market, assessment base and philanthropic sector.

In the past three years, EL has hosted four “think tanks” (attended by several hundred young leaders), to collect new ideas to help improve London for the future; connected EL volunteers to positions on dozens of local nonprofit boards and special committees; paired talented ELs with business and community mentors; hosted a number of professional development seminars and educational opportunities (including an event with author and philanthropist Seymour Schulich); and provided ongoing opportunities to socialize, network and build-relationships.

Today, EL counts approximately 800 individuals as members and nearly 100 local organizations as partners.  

For more on this exciting news please see the official notice on the emerging leaders web site.

When people ask me to give a brief synopsis of who I am and what I’ve been up to for the entirety of my working life, I find it difficult to summarize. That said, I’m always up for a challenge, so here goes:

I am a communications professional who has spent considerable time pondering the effects of web design on my clients’ business goals. My background is in public relations and marketing and I have been fortunate to work closely with clients whose needs bridged those disciplines. I cut my teeth at Thornley Fallis Communications in Toronto (working mainly with clients in the consumer and technology sectors) where I found myself surrounded by social media savvy colleagues and clients who were ‘ready to go there’. It was a fabulous place to explore the intersection of traditional public relations, digital marketing and social media possibilities.

Working with clients such as Visa Canada, Sharp Electronics and Travelocity provided me with insight into the communications needs of diverse industries and gave me the tools and the confidence to strike out on my own over the past year.

As I mentioned, I’m always up for a challenge.

I’m looking forward to working with Resolution not only because they’re doing some really exciting work but because they’re also pretty cool and much better at thunderstorm golf than I am.

To get the project rolling we spent a day in the City experiencing it as tourists. Check out the Flickr set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/resolutionim/sets/72157621637753443/

First, I recently took part in a 60-second pitch contest put on by the good people at TechAlliance and was fortunate enough to be a finalist, capturing third prize.  To check out my pitch and those of the first and second place winners please visit the official TechAlliance announcement.

Next, I was a guest on AM 1290 CJBK earlier this week discussing Twitter and the web for business.  Check out the audio here: http://www.resolutionim.com/images/jonathanOnCJBK.mp3

And finally, we're all pleased to announce the addition of the Canadian Agra Corporation to our client family.  CA has selected us to build a series of public web properties starting with a product site for their Bio-Cube brand.  Thanks CA, we look forward to working together!

Here's the official posting:

As an Associate - Accounts and Strategy at ResIM you’ll be responsible for maintaining and building strong client relationships through coordination of account service activities, regular contact with clients, and the organization of internal resources.  You’ll be fully versed at all times on the status and good standing of all ResIM accounts, and be prepared to step in to support the production team, correct problems, and resolve issues.

This position is critical to the ongoing health of ResIM client relations and, consequently, to the ongoing health of the company.

This position reports directly to Partner - Accounts and Strategy.

Duties:

• Assists in drafting web design and web strategy proposals.
• Seeks out new business opportunities with new and existing clients.
• Analyzes web/interactive properties for effectiveness and recommends improvements.
• Organizes audience research and usability testing sessions.
• Serves as primary contact for select clients.
• Attends client presentations and meetings.
• Responds to queries and follows up on client calls and emails.
• Consults with production team in creation of client web sites and interactive media.
• Attends networking and community events and industry trade shows
• Promotes ResIM at every opportunity.

Qualifications:

• Sense of humour
• Post-secondary degree or diploma in business, marketing, advertising, or sales.
• 3 years experience in a web marketing or account management role on the agency or client side.
• Above-average understanding of the web, social media, and digital culture.
• Demonstrated ability to generate new business.
• Superior communication and interpersonal skills.
• Excellent presentation abilities.

Rewards:

• Competitive base salary
• Generous commission structure
• Medical and dental benefits package
• Relaxed work environment
• Quarterly ‘out of office’ experiences

Please forward a PDF or MS Word version of your resume to hr@resolutionim.com.  It’s great of you to apply but please don’t call and remember that we’re only going to contact those we’d like to interview. ResIM is an equal opportunity employer.

Trent Universityʼs online virtual tour (www.trentu.ca/takeatour) has been honoured with a 2009 Gold Quill Award of Merit by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and has won a Bronze Award in the 2009 Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE) Prix dʼExcellence.

The tour was designed and developed by Londonʼs Resolution Interactive Media (ResIM) (www.resolutionim.com) as part of a broader strategic marketing plan to increase awareness and encourage applications to Trent University.

“Research tells us that one in five students uses the web as their primary source of information when considering universities. We also know that close to 50 per cent of students who visit our campus will register as Trent students,” said Marilyn Burns, director of Marketing & Communications at Trent University. “We needed a way to allow students to tour our exceptional campuses from anywhere in the world – and to hear about the distinct qualities of Trent from the students and professors themselves.”

“The tour is a well-planned convergence of strategic planning, user experience design, web development, video, and motion graphics” notes Jonathan Kochis, Partner - Accounts and Strategy at ResIM. “From the beginning it was important that we deliver an honest, informative, and target-audience appropriate online experience that wasnʼt over-produced or disingenuous.” Since its launch in March 2008, Trentʼs online virtual tour has had over 85,000 visitors.

The tour has been promoted through a targeted campaign on Facebook and other advertising  that drives traffic to the Universityʼs 50,000-page website. Features in the tour include a graphic “fly-in” that situates Trent in North America; video of student and faculty “heroes” who speak about different aspects of the University; photo galleries; information about the cities of Peterborough and Oshawa; and various entry points to the Trent website.

The International Association of Business Communicators is a professional network of more than 15,500 business communication professionals in over 80 countries. Well over half of the IABCʼs members are private sector organizations. According to the 2009 Chair of the Gold Quill Awards, “entries are judged rigorously against international criteria that consider strategic alignment and tangible outcomes as key measures of excellence.”

The Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education is the professional association for educational advancement professionals. CCAE judges gave the tour a near perfect score and a “unanimous bronze” stating that Trent “succeeded where others couldnʼt with virtual tours.” ResIM is a specialized interactive marketing studio providing exceptional online strategy, web design, web development, and digital marketing services with a strong practice in helping clients engage youth audiences online.

------------------------------

For more information, please contact Jonathan Kochis, Partner - Accounts and Strategy, Resolution Interactive Media at (519) 860-6674 or jonathan@resolutionim.com

After several requests, my client sent the following email:

As per my voice mail and reply e-mail sent to you last week, please remove us from your mailing list.  Your lack of respect for this request simply dictates that I will not contact you in the future when I have a need for your services.  If you are going to include the option to be removed from your mailing list (which is the only way e-mail marketing campaigns should be sent), please provide a valid e-mail address.  The address you provided below is always 'returned to sender'.

I probably would have said something quite similar. 

Now, here's how the email 'marketer' responded:

Please don't go there with the whole "we will never call you" It's not my fault, I am just a small business trying to advertise without blowing thousands of dollars on meaningless ads and what not. I will rip my administrators head off first thing Tuesday Morning. You can't win these days No soliciting-Take me off your list- Remove- Leave us alone. How can anyone ever expamd a company that they have invested so much blood sweat and tears into if they have to sit in a welded metal box until they go Bankrupt :(

The business owner has clearly fallen victim to 'immediate email response' syndrome and not given himself time to cool off.  He's also not accepting fault for something that, as a business owner, falls squarely on his shoulders. The best way to handle this scenario would have been to quickly remove the name from the mailing list and follow-up with a brief 'sorry for the inconvenience' email.

As discussed in my PodCamp London session (PDF version of slides here) and expanded by Dave Fleet in his post "Youth vs. Adults: Strong Ties/Weak Networks", teens seek stronger ties that just aren't available through Twitter.

Twitter, as compared to Facebook or MySpace, is much less personal and is more frequently used to build large, weak-tie networks.  In fact, it's estimated that over half of Twitter users are over 35.

The above facts and observations lead me to frequently recommend Twitter as a tool to strengthen ties with alumni as opposed to communicating with recruits or even undergraduate students.  As always, having sound social media policies in place and using a segment-specific mix of tools and platforms is always the best approach.

• McKenzie Lake Lawyers
• Case 'N Drum Oil
• Toadjumps.com

While on the subject of enjoyment I'm pleased to announce that ResIM will be playing a part in post-PodCamp festivities.  As part of our sponsorship role we've organized a free shuttle to transport all participants between the Station Park Hotel and Windermere Manor.  Jump on the big yellow school bus starting at 7:15 p.m.

In addition to the 'PodCamp Party Bus' we'll be supplying free drink tickets to those interested in having one on the house.  Just look for the geeky looking web guys.

Don't forget, if you're really bored between 10:30 and 11:00 a.m. feel free to drop in on my session, 'Youth, Social Media, and the Web.'

For more on PodCamp London please visit http://www.podcamplondon.com

See you Saturday!

I was thoroughly impressed by the Mesh experience, including the facility (MaRS), organization, and speaker roster.  Anyone involved in the digital space should definitely consider attending Mesh '10 next year.

Instead of regurgitating content I've already written I'm going to provide links to the daily conference recaps as found on my blog:

Day one: http://pearsandeggs.com/?p=56 (highlights include a keynote by Kiva's Jessica Jackley and sessions on social media, web marketing, and open government).

Day two: http://pearsandeggs.com/?p=58 (highlights include a keynote by Toronto mayor David Miller and sessions on word of mouth marketing, social media marketing, and social media analytics).

Enjoy!

Of course, the flip side of that benefit is the challenge that every citizen with a dial-up, cable, or satellite Internet connection expects their municipality to provide them with simple, intuitive, and usable content.

We started the Port Colborne project by forming a user council consisting of residents, business owners, city council members, and city staff.  By simply asking 'What do you expect to find and do on the new web site?' we were able to accurately define user needs, prioritize content on the home page, restructure the information architecture, and provide a visual experience that sends appropriate messages to all target segments.

Here's what our client had to say about working with us:

"Jonathan, Brendan and staff are professional, courteous, and have a strong knowledge base. The team at ResIM are very aware of time restraints and deadlines, deliver what is promised, and worked well in a municipal environment.  I would strongly recommend this company."

Check out the site here: http://www.portcolborne.com

I'm a grade 12 student from A.B. Lucas Secondary School and have been participating in a co-op program placement here for just over a week now, and I can truthfully say it's been a great experience. Jonathan and Brendan went out of their way to get me on board, even after a typo in my resume left them with no way of contacting me in person (I'll never do that again...) and they have continued to keep me involved in the day to day inner workings of the business.

I've helped out where I can, and am slowly learning some of the more technical and practical aspects of the job, like how they stay organized, while still quickly, efficiently and accurately delivering results to their numerous clients. The casual yet professional environment makes working here feel like working with real human beings rather than Web Site Production robots.

I really didn't expect to fit in quite so well or be involved as much as I have been, but I'm nothing but grateful for it and am definitely looking forward to the weeks to come.

As a sponge for new information I took in all kinds of useful tidbits.  Here are my three biggest takeaways, from a more macro perspective:

1. Hey corporate world, it's time to be open and transparent!  As Chris Brogan mentioned in his session 'Heresy, Hypocrisy, and Sin', companies spent the last half of last century building giant walls around their processes, policies, and business practices.  The time for this to change has come.  All business owners, managers, and staff need to be open with clients and customers without fearing the dreaded release of information that may give competitors a leg up or drive customers away.  If there's something in your operation that you're afraid to tell people about chances are you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.
2. It's OK to make money.  Again, this point comes from Chris Brogan (I did attend more than one session, seriously!).  At last check I had to pay staff and rent and don't ever recall a time when food, gas, or an internet connection was free.  There's absolutely nothing wrong with charging an appropriate amount for your services.  Just remember to be honest and manage expectations early.
3. Find your niche.  Sylvain Grand'Maison hosted a session on finding your niche as it relates to podcasting.  The same notion is true for business in general.  At times it may seem difficult to create content for or reach out to only one, narrow segment of your potential target audience (at least I know it is for me), but as the saying goes 'riches are in niches.'  Every business needs a competitive advantage; niche marketing is an excellent way to create separation among market entrants.

I went on a bit of a clean-up campaign this week to get things back in order and this sort of carried on to my personal files on the computer. I came across some photos and videos that I had captured last year while working on some interesting projects. 

One of them was an interactive kiosk that we developed for a partner to help students pull current events and bus times on campus. This one was developed in Flash and was connected to a back-end database so that administrators could update the content remotely. Designing for touch screens is a lot different than a traditional screen, you have to over-simplify, show lots of movement response, and give audio feedback among other things.

This video was a capture of the first rough test of the interface, we later cleaned up the clicks and removed that nasty pointer.

There has been a lot of hype over touch displays lately. They've been around forever but have made some breakthrough improvements as of late. Microsoft launched their Surface computer not too long ago and touch seems to be taking hold in the personal device industry. The big leap has been 'multi-touch' technology, this lets you interact with the interface using more than a single point of reference at one time. Quite cool. I've had multi-touch on my phone since I traded in my brick Erricson last summer, it's very intuitive and I think it's safe to say we can expect to see this stuff cropping up everywhere.

I wonder how long before I'm cleaning up the pile system on my computer desktop rather than my physical one, lets hope soon, cause I can write scripts for that!

This shot shows the new brick wall and productivity-enhancing television at the front of the space.

A close-up of the productivity-enhancer.  Really, it hasn't been too bad.

View a slideshow of the Flickr set for more: http://www.flickr.com/photos/resolutionim/show/

'After a comprehensive re-branding project our company required a website platform that would clearly convey our new image while providing flexible CMS functionality.

The search was centered on finding a web provider that would support our significant international growth and keep the site relevant with the sport and consumer base. 

Resolution IM was able to deliver a fantastic new site that has immediate front-end impact while providing intelligent back-end capability.  The Resolution team promotes a collaborative approach and truly appreciates generational relevance.

With their guidance we feel confident our website and image can maintain a competitive advantage in the increasingly important business of web based marketing and sales.'

Check the new web site out at: http://www.hudsonboatworks.com

What's interesting to note is that 70% of all failures among teens were the result of 'giving up' on the task as opposed to performing the task incorrectly or exceeding a predetermined time threshold.  This certainly supports Mr. Nielsen's point about a dramatically lower patience level.

On the topic of 'giving up' I should point out that on average teens gave up a full 16 seconds before reaching the failure time threshold of 00:01:30. 

Taking into account the testing environment and the desire to succeed at a given task I would assume that, in unmonitored browsing, a teen may abandon a task somewhere between 50 seconds and one minute.  This of course is a very broad generalization that could be impacted by numerous variables but at the very least is founded on research.

In all, my findings support those of Mr. Nielsen even though it's difficult to test reading and research skills on a navigation-centric wireframe.  Teens certainly behave differently than adults when it comes to locating information online and should be carefully considered if they're a key target segment of your next web deliverable.

Today, however, something landed in my inbox that I'd like to share.  Below is an actual piece of spam I received from a moving company here in London, Ontario:

On a day when we're supposed to remember those who died for the standard of living we have today it seems wrong to attempt to satisfy a marketing objective. 

Honouring Remembrance Day by increasing market share and offering special incentives?  Call it a fall promotion or perhaps a pre-winter event, anything but associating a promotion with Rememberance Day.

For more information on Remembrance Day in Canada please visit: http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=history/other/remember

A high level of visual impact, tight brand integration, and a focus on Hudson athletes combine to deliver a memorable and effective experience for visitors.

User research revealed that the Hudson target audience wanted to know who was rowing Hudson boats and what kind of success these athletes and teams were enjoying.  Our solution was to focus on relevant, professional photography each with explanatory captions.

The entire site, including the products section, is managed via our custom content management solution.

A big thanks to Craig, Jon, and the rest of the Hudson team for allowing ResIM to be part of such a great project.

For more, please visit http://www.hudsonboatworks.com

Members of the City of Port Colbore target audience take part in a participatory discovery session facilitated by ResIM at City Hall.  The knowledge gained from this exercise will form the foundation of City's web redesign project. 

Involving actual users in the development process is a huge part of our workflow here at ResIM.  Here are some interesting points and tips I've learned through experience:

1) You can assume, but you need to know for sure.  I've had numerous common assumptions overturned during the usability testing phase - it's incredible to closely watch as someone uses a web site.

2) If you ask, they'll answer.  Gathering members of the target audience in a group and asking them to provide suggestions that are important to them usually yields passionate responses.

3) People are more important than technology.  You can build the most powerful, technically complex application in the world but if it doesn't meet the needs of the target audience and provide real benefit to them it is a wasted investment.  People generally don't care how a task is accomplished behind the scenes instead the real impression is made by how much utility is created by the application and how easy it is to use.

A student anchor getting ready to deliver information about his role in the NU neuroscience lab.

We've just wrapped up an incredible shoot at Nipissing Univeristy (NU) in North Bay, Ontario.  The material we captured will be used to form a series of high-impact web videos aimed at bringing to life the many opportunities available for both future and current NU students.   I'm always amazed at the stories these students have to tell and how great they are on camera with little or no prior experience.

A big thanks to Lisa and co. for their incredible hospitality during our three days at NU.

Stay tuned for the release of the finished web videos on the NU site - you won't be disappointed.

Cambrian College is a college of applied arts and technology in Sudbury, Ontario.  The largest college in Northern Ontario, Cambrian has over 4,400 full-time students and close to 90 full-time programs.  An additional 9,000 registrations are taken annually for part-time personal, professional and human resources development courses, workshops and seminars.

The USA Men's Eight (bronze), Canadian Men's Pair (silver), and Canadian Lightweight Women's Double (bronze) all row Hudson boats, manufactured right here in London, Ontario. Our congratulations to both the athletes and Hudson, stay tuned for the launch of the new HBW web site in October.

The SchoolShift team selected ResIM to plan, design, build, and implement their project due to our experience with youth-targeted initiatives and post-secondary institutions.

Make sure you go over and check SchoolShift out, they're currently seeking feedback and comments so let them (or us) know what you think.

http://www.schoolshift.com

Thanks PHM, this is going to be a great project!

The new version of Firefox features better security including prominent EV SSL, improved performance, and even better rendering for us W3C fanboys. If you haven't tried Firefox yet, I highly suggest you check it out.

An automated payment and approval process ensures training registrants will be able to get started right away without delays for approval.

Feel free to visit the site and let me know what you think:

http://www.thesalescoach.ca

The intent of this post is not to suggest one outlet over another but to provide you with some of the information necessary to make an informed decision. The analysis below looks at various local online advertising opportunities in London with the exclusion of pay-per-click. Incoming links are a key SEO strategy so I've decided to examine various outlets according to their Google PageRank and Alexa Ranking (the lowest number is best here). Here's what I've found:

• CanPages.ca. Google PageRank: 5/10, Alexa Rank: 91,000
• Yellowpages.ca Google PageRank: 7/10, Alexa Rank: 6,400
• London Chamber of Commerce Google PageRank: 4/10, Alexa Rank: 275,000
• The Phone Guide Google PageRank: 4/10, Alexa Rank: 6,000,000
• London Link Google PageRank: 3/10, Alexa Rank: 3,600,000
• LondonDirectory.ca Google PageRank: 1/10, Alexa Rank: 2,192,000

Of course, cost and the audience you stand to reach are important parts of any online advertising opportunity so you'll need to pay close attention to these when analyzing your options. The above information should at least give you an idea of how each outlet sits according to Google PageRank and Alexa.

http://www.resolutionim.com/content/portfolio

Flash forward a few years and who knew that it would make such a dramatic comeback with developers, getting a sort of revitalization by the community. Not to mention improved support (on the consistency side of things) among browsers.

I found this little gem in my surfing this week, a very impressive re-production of Super Mario, completely in 14k Javascript no less! Wow!

http://magazyn.elementfx.com/?p=4

http://www.devlounge.net/friday-focus/friday-focus-040408

Thanks Devlounge, and thanks to Sasha for letting me know about it.

Here's what's changed in the new release:

- Added interactive installer script
- Fix folder adding/renaming inspired by #1484800
- Localize folder name in page title (#1484785)
- Fix code using wrong variable name (#1484018)
- Allow to send mail with BCC recipients only
- condense TinyMCE toolbar down to one line, removing table buttons (#1484747)
- Add function to mark the selected messages as read/unread (#1457360)
- Also do charset decoding as suggested in RFC 2231 (fix #1484321)
- Show message count in folder list and hint when creating a subfolder
- Distinguish ssl and tls for imap connections (#1484667)
- Added some charset aliases to fix typical mis-labelling (#1484565)
- Remember decision to display images for a certain message during session (#1484754)
- Truncate attachment filenames to 55 characters due to an IE bug (#1484757)
- Make sending of read receipts configurable
- Respect config when localize folder names (#1484707)
- Also respect receipt and priority settings when re-opening a draft message
- Remember search results (closes #1483883), patch by the_glu
- Add Received header on outgoing mail
- Upgrade to TinyMCE 2.1.3
- Allow inserting image attachments into HTML messages while composing (#1484557)
- Implement Message-Disposition-Notification (Receipts)
- Fix overriding of session vars when register_globals is on (#1484670)
- Fix bug with case-sensitive folder names (#1484245)
- Don't create default folders by default
- Fixed some potential security risks (audited by Andris)
- Only show new messages if they match the current search (#1484176)
- Switch to/from when searcing in Sent folder (#1484555)
- Correctly read the References header (#1484646)
- Unset old cookie before sending a new value (#1484639)
- Correctly decode attachments when downloading them (#1484645 and #1484642)
- Suppress IE errors when clearing attachments form (#1484356)
- Log error when login fails due to auto_create_user turned off
- Filter linked/imported CSS files (closes #1484056)
- Improve message compose screen (closes #1484383)
- Select next row after removing one from list (#1484387)

1. Auburn Developments (http://www.515stecatherine.com). We created the visual experience, built the site, and integrated it with our custom content management system.

2. DeCloet Structures (http://www.decloetstructures.com). The design team at ResIM did a great job on this redesign including a build demonstration and an intelligent Flash banner. This site is also powered by our custom CMS.

3. Toronto Glass Film (http://www.torontoglassfilm.com). This light, optimized web site is going to really help generate interest and leads through search engines.

Last night however, I noticed something on a local web site that really caught my attention (and held it). On the home page of this particular site I was 'greeted' with the following message, in a very prominent location:

What's wrong with this? A couple of things come to mind:

1. Warning, this is a new and improved site.

The entire feeling surrounding a warning message is one of negativity, especially when paired with the colour red and a clearly recognizable icon. What's wrong with a new and improved site? To me, this is a good, perhaps even newsworthy bit of information. Definitely not one warranting a warning.


2. We're not quite done fixing what was broken but we don't care if you see it.

This is like me going to a job interview wearing skinny jeans with zippers at the bottom and a stained muscle shirt (never again). In short, the message immediately communicates that something is wrong and that visitors should expect to see things out of place. Again, an immediate negative connotation that doesn't need to happen.


3. The most important news we have for you is a warning.

The placement choice for this warning makes it the most prominent thing in the content area on the home page, the eye is immediately drawn to it. The company has won numerous awards for excellence in its field but the visitor wouldn't know because the warning message overshadows nearly everything else.

Since I'm not in the business of calling out other professionals and local businesses I'm going to keep this one strictly confidential. My suggestions are merely that and likely worth about as much as you had to pay to read this post.

As the lead agency on this project we started by emersing ourselves in Trent culture and becoming familiar with the beautiful Peterborough campus. Armed with adequate knowledge and only a 6-week window in which to plan, design, film, build, and launch the project we set-out on an incredible journey including on-site filming, transforming students into actors, creating an open interface, and building an intelligent, attractive solution.

The continuing aim of the project is to familiarize prospective students with Trent and its various campuses and impress them virtually just as much as the physical experience impresses during an actual campus visit. Real students giving honest testimonials in HD video combined with a clean, expansive interface and intelligent programming allows us to effectively communicate with the target audience without the over-use of visual elements typical of pieces targeting a similar demographic.

Stay tuned for more posts on the technical nuances of this project, I think you'll be quite impressed.

Visit the site: http://www.trentu.ca/takeatour

About You
You love modern design. You know the name ‘geek’ is a badge to be worn proudly. You've been in an argument more than once about your favorite distro. You may have been called a Mac fanboy/fangirl at least once in your life. Firefox is your friend.

What You’ll Be Doing (while not loosing to Brendan at Halo)

• Producing graphics showing web interface concepts and web layout designs
• Writing code for data-driven projects and rich interfaces
• Implementing interface designs in HTML using heavy CSS styling
• Generating and integrating custom Flash components into projects
• Providing assistance to non-production managers with technical requirement clarification and end-user documentation
• Attending production meetings and working with other production team members to solve problems and create work plans
• Contributing to the larger enhancements for existing projects

What We're Looking For (besides another new nurf gun target)

• Wonderful verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent organizational skills
• Strong eye for detail and excellent understanding of design principals
• An enthusiasm for usability (ease-of-use)
• Exceptional interface visual/conceptual design and development skills
• Exceptional problem determination and creative problem solving skills
• Ability to hand code web projects and create/maintain reusable code

Technology

• HTML
• CSS
• Javascript
• PHP
• SQL
• Actionscript

Tools

• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Illustrator
• Adobe (Macromedia) Fireworks
• Adobe (Macromedia) Flash
• Adobe (Macromedia) Dreamweaver

Required Education/Experience

• Diploma in a new media field (Web Development, Multimedia Design or similar)
• Experience in developing data-driven web and flash projects

Terms
You want how much? Hmm…well that will make us broke. Let’s chat though.

What To Submit
Your resume and a couple of URLs you feel show off a little of what you can do. You *must* provide an example of your work to be considered for an interview. Keep in mind we’re a web agency so it’s your web applicable stuff we’ll be looking for specifically.

Please send your resume and portfolio URL to hr@resolutionim.com

Standard disclaimer: Only applicants chosen for an interview will be contacted. ResIM is an equal opportunity employer.

Since the wireless data landscape in Canada is dominated by a select few monoliths the rates for said data are beyond acceptable. So, to start, I've decided to use my iPhone as a mobile phone/iPod/organizer while taking advantage of its wi-fi capabilities while at home, the studio, or the numerous other places I can find and join a network.

Here's what I like (love) so far:

1. Easy to Sync. After connecting the device to my MacBook I was immediately presented with an iTunes interface with overly-simple instructions on how to bring music, video, contacts, and iCal events from my notebook to the iPhone. iPhoto also opened automatically and displayed the photos I'd taken with the phone.

2. Touch Interface. Something about all the touching, tapping, sliding, and scrolling is very rewarding. I'm going to have to find a safe way to clean the screen from time to time. Coming from an older Samsung flip phone I just love how easy it is to add a contact by tapping and using the on-screen keyboard.

3. Call Quality. I realize some of this has to do with the network but nonetheless am very impressed with the clarity of the calls I've placed to date.

4. Visual Representation. When I browse a web site it looks just like it does (only smaller) on my workstation or notebook - no downgrading, no 'text-only' - all visual formatting remains in place. The same goes for email.

These are just a couple of the things I enjoy so far. The keyboard will take a little training and the screen does smudge easily but I'm happy to deal with these minor cons in order to experience the multiple pros (like attracting unusual attention in the dressing room after hockey last night).

Founded in 1964 Trent University is a liberal arts and science-oriented institution located along the Otonabee River in Peterborough, Ontario.  

For more on Trent University please visit http://www.trentu.ca

I encourage you to take a moment over the next few days and throw a couple of bucks their way, bandwith is expensive you know!

Our proficiency with Flash from both an interface and ActionScript programming perspective along with my training and experience as a continuing education instructor helped see us through to the final selection. Needless to say we're absolutely thrilled with this most recent success and look forward to helping bring K-12 education to life in Alberta!

Visit the blog often as I'll be posting more information about the work we've completed as it's released.

Jonathan

• 13-17 years of age
• Male or female
• Familiar with the web and using it to register for various services