january 2012
I can't show much due to corporate privacy rules, but this is one screenshot from the redesign we were planning for Canpages.ca: a local discovery site focused on all of life ... entertainment, services, shopping, products, and more.
We built a stunning user interface, and were just about to pull the trigger on the build, when our corporate parent pulled the plug on us.
I'll always regret not being able to take this vision to reality.
december 2011
Christmas is worth celebrating. Here's how I helped my company get into the spirit.
It's definitely indie quality, but it was a fun project that really brought us all together.
June 2011
This is the Canpages ONE video, showing the full range of Canpages products. I didn't produce this video or lead this project. But I did throw in a monkey wrench that changed everything.
During the first script review, I suggested reframing the entire video from a customer's perspective ... as opposed to ours. All agreed, and our prototype customer was going to be called John.
At the last stage, however, we decided to name him Bill. The rest is history.
September 2011
A speech I gave at SOHO Vancouver, focusing on social media for small and home business operators.
I enjoy speaking to both individuals and groups about topics that I'm passionate and knowledgable about, and social media is one of them. The talk was very well received, and it was great fun.
The video that SOHO staff took was only of me, so to ensure that you can see the presentation slides as well I played it on my computer while scrolling the the slides at (mostly) appropriate moments ... capturing video along the way.
May 2011
A few screens from the updated iPhone app I produced for Canpages.
It's fully buzzword compliant, with SOcial, LOcal, and MObile baked in, but the core app promise is simple:
find everything local, now.
Nice features include hands-free voice search, augmented reality to find that pesky coffee shop hiding behind the bus, and videos and photos of local businesses.
It's
on iTunes right now, and it's rated 4+ out of 5 stars.
April 2011
Put a small team together to whip up a beautiful little HTML presentation of our key products and services ... which doubles as a mini sales force automation tool which sales reps can use with clients to customize solutions and build quotes.
The kicker? It works both online and off, for all those times when reps are out of WIFI and 3G range.
March 2011
Last year we were rebranding Canpages. I led the phase of the project where we defined who we were and what we wanted to be.
DDB Canada led us through their process for rebranding, including answering 10 key questions. This is their slideshow, but most of the messaging is mine.
After this phase - done in mornings and evenings while at SXSW - I handed the project over to our marketing manager, Cathy Greer, who had been on vacation, and Colin Osing, our Director of Marketing.
January 2011
Wrote and exec-produced a video ad for Canpages to run on Canucks.com on the NHL network. The video highlights Canpages' mobile apps ... focusing on what users can do and why they should care.
This is the best kind of project: fun, cool, exciting, collaborative, and most of all, creative.
December 2010
Part of my role at Canpages is to manage our mobile apps. One of my first projects was to complete production of our Android and BlackBerry apps to complement our existing iPhone app.
Our apps enable mobile search on the go ... virtually instant access to any local businesses or services, with a great voice search interface. Plus of course, you can check on traffic cams, do a reverse lookup, and find people ... everything you need to find the perfect je ne sais crois in your neighborhood.
Get our Canpages apps here
September 2010
As part of our partnership with Intel - and at their request - we customized and released 2 apps on the
Intel AppUp store for Atom-powered netbooks. EasyBits Quick is a quick launcher, and EasyBits KeyGo is a typing game.
I worked with Intel to select the applications, then directed our developers in customizing them for the AppUp environment.
The goal for us was simply to support our partner Intel as they are working to establish their app store. We then exhibited them at the Intel booth at
IDF 2010 and the first-ever
Elements conference.
July 2010
After almost 2 years of building technology for 1:1 computing in schools as EasyBits Software, we spun off a new company: EdSys Educational Systems Inc.
I led a team of designers, web developers, and Flash developers in releasing our first site,
edsys.com.
The site showcases our product portfolio and key strategic partner, Intel, and features a dynamic front page that provides almost a full-screen window into our most important software suites.
July 2010
I was invited to join the board of
DiverseCity, a registered charitable organization in BC that serves the needs of the immigrant community.
DiverseCity is a unionized organization employing over 150 people with an annual budget around $8M: all focused on helping recent immigrants to Canada become independent, connected, and empowered in their new country.
The nomination was
confirmed at the subsequent AGM, and I'm enjoying the opportunity to help people and learn more about our culturally diverse communities.
May, 2010
After 5 years and many courses and more papers than I care to remember, I'm finally finished my
master's degree in educational technology at the
University of British Columbia.
It's been a real challenge completing this master's degree between fairly heroic work schedules, travel, family, home, and other aspects of life in the 21st century ... I'm happy and proud of the accomplishment.
I'm also very pleased with my final grade: slightly over a 4.0.
April 2010
At the request of our partners in Portugal, I wrote an article on the future of educational technology which was translated into Portuguese, and published in
PCGuia, a leading Portuguese tech mag.
Fortunately, if you don't read Portuguese, I've re-published the article in the original English on
Scribd as well as
on my blog, Sparkplug9.
March, 2010
Released the golden master of the Inspirus suite of software to Intel - software that our teams have been working on for over 18 months.
Inspirus is the default user interface of Intel's windows-based Classmate PCs for schools. The CMPC enables 1:1 laptop programs in education, and Inspirus customizes the operating system for educational purposes.
I worked with Intel's leadership in Shanghai, California, Portland, Cairo, and Ireland, and our teams in North America, western and eastern Europe to deliver this suite of 5 significant applications to Intel on-time and golden quality.
March, 2010
Spoke at the Intel Learning Series Alliance summit in Las Vegas on EasyBits' suite of tools for 1:1 technology programs in education.
Part of my talk focused on the challenges of technology in education ... some of which I expressed in a
related blog post.
February 2010
The Olympic Games were in town, and I joined in the spirit by volunteering.
In the opening ceremonies, I was a skater in Peaks of Endeavour. In the closing ceremonies, I was a hockey player fighting, dancing, and skating while Michael Buble performed on a giant Mounty hat.
It was fun, it was memorable, and it took a half-year of rehearsals: many evenings and weekends! I'd do it all over again.
October, 2009
I chaired a session of the
Asian Conference on Education 2009, held in Osaka, Japan.
The topic was Technology, Culture, and Society, and I also presented a paper on the influence of Google in contemporary learning: 'Intelligence in a sea of data: Teaching and learning in the Google generation.' (
Paper,
PPT,
Notes)
It was a wonderful opportunity to meet people from dozens of Asian countries, and the reaction to the paper was very positive.
June 2009
Disney and Asus teamed up to bring out the Disney Netpal ... and tapped EasyBits to differentiate the UI and provide parental controls.
I led the team customizing a web browser, email application, parental admin panel, and entire GUI overlay of Windows XP for Disney, marketed as Disney Desktop. (Note that this video is an Engadget interview with a Disney PR rep.)
(Update: Disney sent me
a thank-you gift, and Jieun Kim, who led the project on the Disney side,
recommended me on LinkedIn.)
May 2009
Invited as a
speaker to present at eLiberatica 2009, a conference on open source technology in Bucharest, Romania.
I spoke about OSS in education, having used open source tools and frameworks (Moodle, Joomla, Perl, Linux, PHP, MySQL, Postgres, etc.) to build and launch three learning management systems (LMSes) for tens of thousands of North American schools over the past decade.
The gentleman in the red shirt is David Axmark, co-founder of MySQL. Later, Monty Widenius spoke about MySQL and OSS.
December 2008
The Intel Classmate PC has a unique user interface customized for schools. I led the team customizing a complete education-friendly GUI for the CMPC.
It features quick one-click access to frequently used applications; a user-customizable tray for immediate access to common gadgets, a safe web browser, safe email, and much more.
Plus, the UI is customizable by schools or districts via a server-based configuration tool, and teachers can customize available applications, privileges, and desktop themes for each class, if they choose.
September 2008
After leading the creation of a new planning system,
onTRAC, for K-12 students, I exec produced a video explaining what it is and how it works.
The video is brief, entertaining,
and educational. We did it on greenscreen and then replaced the background with white for a very clean, simple look that was easy to overlay with animation.
Currently being used in thousands of schools with over 10 million students ...
August 2008
Campus is an e-learning site with a mixed-source technology infrastructure: open source core, proprietary user-management layer and skin.
This site brings all Premier online resources together, where 25 million users can access courses, product support, and more.
E-learning courses on Campus take advantage of social media such as YouTube and Flickr, and include embedded content from SlideShare and Scribd.
August 2008
Not much I can say about this, except that it was a real pleasure working for and with Joel - he taught me a lot.
Joel just recently moved on to a position with Pearson Education as a VP in their teacher assessment unit.
The recommendation, by the way, is visible on my LinkedIn profile, along with others from colleagues, direct reports, and business associates.
May 2007
One of the physical products among the 35+ I managed. This planner was created in partnership with Franklin Covey, and contains 7 Habits intellectual property from Steven R. Covey.
This page introduces a monthly topic with great simplicity, focus, and emotional impact. I wanted the images and copy to be as tight as a great magazine advertising spread.
To achieve that, I wrote and art directed this page personally to give our writers and designers a very clear sense of my vision for the product.
March 2007
In 2007 our flagship product line was failing. I was given one month to analyze why clients were leaving and design a plan for growth.
My plan was accepted, and I embarked on a $250,000 project to stabilize over $40 million in revenue.
This is a slide from my presentation to company executives outlining the problems - and the solution. Note the tag cloud design aesthetic.
June 2006
Consulted with a suicide prevention agency, Telecare BC, to clarify web opportunities and requirements.
I helped the Telecare board of directors create a web presence that conveyed their brand ... and their core message of care and hope.
January 2006
Just one piece of an integrated marketing campaign involving personalized direct mail, personalized websites, inside sales, and outside sales.
Note the fields for first and last name on the postcard; the website was also customized with name and known preferences.
August 2005
In spite of the questionable design dictated by header and sidebar brand standards, this was one of the simplest calendar-creation sites online in 2005.
Heavily AJAXed, very visual, with instant desktop-like responsiveness, this site let anyone build a fully custom calendar ... after which we automatically routed it to a distributed network of digital printers via a sophisticated allocation algorithm.
No-touch web-to-print is simple for business cards, but not for complex customizable products. We made this application sing.
October 2004
Go is an e-learning site my team built in 2004-2005 with heavy doses of multimedia, manageability, and assessment.
Go is built on a Mambo/Joomla framework in PHP with several thousand lines of custom code for in-depth reporting and surveying tools.
Eventually we added Get Set, another product with extensive e-learning components.
Hundreds of thousands of students across North America have had access to these resources.
