Category Archives: Lists + Awards + Profiles

some lists, interviews and riffs, from sundry media sources about: tourism, social marketing, renegade documenting and outsider art-making

Memo: “document in the way which feels natural to you”

Embark on Personal Archeology, in this case, at Dome Wonderland, Metchosin

Re: Personal Archeology

Document in the way which feels natural to you. Doesn’t have to be a “blog”, can be a notebook with coloured pencils, or buy yourself a fountain pen, or an audio recorder.

Importantly: Tell your stories in the way that feels comfortable like your favourite pair of shoes – then add context, and interestingness. The rest is up to audience to breathe life into it. 

Then do again and again (regardless of outcome beyond self-enjoyment).

Media: Mattocks + Jamaican Flag #Whitecaps, July 2012

“Caps Achieve Lift-off” The Province Sports, July 23, 2012 with Darren Mattocks, Barry Robson, Gershon Koffie, me and brother Dan

At a July 2012  Whitecaps match vs San Jose Earthquakes, Jamaican speedster Darren Mattocks scored a big goal and, in celebration, hopped the barrier and grabbed the Jamaican flag I was waving, then paraded with it onto the field, received a yellow card for his troubles and brought the flag back – (now it is at Dan’s house?). The Province newspaper ran a photo as the cover story the next day. 

There are more artifacts of evidence of the incident (and what appears to be another match with similar outcomes) as various media outlets picked up the goodness (thanks to folks who captured and sent along for archival amusement), ergo:

Cheering from the Southside section with Jamaican flag (source unknown)
With noted Vancouver media personality :) and my pal Rebecca Bollwitt @miss604 with the flag of note after a match
Celebrating with Mattocks, Robson and Koffie from the Southside (source unknown)
Celebrating with Mattocks, Robson and Koffie from the Southside (source unknown)
1) Mattocks grabs the flag on Sportsnet Pacific TV (note: was this a different game?)
2) Mattocks grabs the flag on Sportsnet Pacific TV (likely) (note: was this a different game?)
TSN / Team 1040 Radio shows me and Brother Dan (to my actual right) and other Southsiders celebrating with Barry Robson, Darren Mattocks and Gershon Koffie

Media: Leadership and Ideas (at Hoot) / Vancouver Sun, Jan. 8, 2011

Media: Leadership and Ideas (at Hoot) / Vancouver Sun, Jan. 8, 2011 by Jenny Lee

See also: Hitchhiking + Leadership for Student Leaders at UBC – Roundup

Media: Olympics Media in Georgia Straight, Feb. 2010

Media: TNMH Geek Speak in Georgia Straight, Feb. 2010, captured at some point…

Read Geek Speak: Dave Olson, True North Media House in it’s entirety, in context (also archived in this repository). The article runs from one of many photos my pal Vancouver photographer Kris Krug captured of my mug…

Media: TNMH Geek Speak in Georgia Straight, Feb. 2010, captured June 2020

 

Pub: “Flying High” (collage art and interview) – RainZine (Vancouver), Summer 2010

Pub: RainZine (Vancouver) / Summer 2010, cover

“Flying High”(collage art) and “Who is this DaveO Guy Anyhow?” (interview) in Rain Zine (Radical Art in Nature) Summer, 2010

Pub: RainZine (Vancouver) / Summer 2010, Kris Krug photo essay
Pub: RainZine (Vancouver) / Summer 2010, Dave Olson interview by Anita Olson
Pub: RainZine (Vancouver) / Summer 2010, “Flying High” collage art by Dave Olson
Pub: RainZine (Vancouver) / Summer 2010, DVD mixed media
Pub: RainZine (Vancouver) / Summer 2010, back cover

See also: Let it Rain ~ “Flying High” boardgame-inspired art & interview in DIY Zine

Media: Social Olympics in 24Hrs Vancouver, 2009

Kris Krug and Dave Olson discuss social coverage of 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics with Bob Mackin as in 24 Hours Vancouver, July 16, 2009
Printed detail of Kris Krug and Dave Olson discuss social coverage of 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics with Bob Mackin as in 24 Hours Vancouver, July 16, 2009

Excerpt:

Social media strategist Kris Krug said talks are underway to host the True North Media House in the W2 Community Media Arts Centre.

“We’re just a bunch of kids who are doing social media and online media and we just want to cover the Olympics,” Krug said. “We’re banding together to share sources, resources, photographers, places to work, press briefings.”

Krug and Dave Olson are leading a local new media group that sought access to the Games through VANOC and the B.C. 2010 Winter Games Secretariat.

“We were shut out and frozen out at every step of the way,” Olson said.

Krug said the International Olympic Committee is reluctant to open the doors wide to new media, fearing that it will erode the value of international TV contracts.

They adopted an if you can’t join them, beat them with kindness strategy and conceived the True North Media House.

See also: Business in Vancouver tells the True North Media House story + archived link 

Media: Fan-centric filming (MovieSet) / Vancouver Sun, June 10, 2009

Dave Olson, Director of Fan Communities
Dave Olson (me :)) holds section of Vancouver Sun newspaper with article by Gillian Shaw which he wrangled / interviewed about an erstwhile online movie promotion which community – Photo by Quinn Bender

Gillian Shaw of the Vancouver Sun newspaper shared the MovieSet story with her readers in an article called “Online and on the set” on June 9, 2009.

The article ran as a full page on the Entertainment section and you can explore two versions online in both the Technology and Entertainment sections. The print edition includes a screenshot of the Behind the Scenes vidcast show with Shaun and Eric, while the online version features a video with Director of Fan Communities Dave Olson giving a tour of MovieSet.com (including Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus).

The article kicks off by asking: Care to wander onto the set of a movie shoot, chat with the actors, see the inside story on the stunts?

Well, do you?

{snip}

The article quotes the erstwhile leader of the “social media renegades,” Dave Olson, who relates the focus on fan participation as the key to traffic growth and enthusiasm for the site, using our recent Death Warrior campaign as an example (links/snippets added):

“It empowers fans to go out and evangelize and start the conversation,” said Olson, who became director of fan communities for Movieset in January, after successful stints at a number of Vancouver digital companies including Raincity Studios where he curated an award-winning blog and helped launch Phones for Fearless, a campaign to support eastside artists and residents.

“The movie business has been slow to come to this style of marketing,” said Olson. “It is bubbling up from the grass roots.”

Movieset.com is a boon for indie films and it’s attracting attention from larger studios.

For small very specialized films, such as Death Warrior, a mixed martial arts film that included livestream video among its offerings for fans, Movieset allowed it to find a core audience that shared a passion for the action film.

“We found out where fans of that genre hang out, we communicated with them in their language and we invited them to take part,” said Olson. “We even gave away the bloody sweatshirt that Georges St-Pierre was killed in to a fan at the end of it.”

Finally, Ms. Shaw’s article outlines some of the other tactics we’ve used to bring movie fans behind the scenes and a call to action for movie makers of all kinds ~ from indies to majors ~ to hop aboard the MovieSet cluetrain:

“The site’s front page is refreshed daily and we’re outreaching to fans through Twitter, a Facebook trivia application and a behind-the-scenes vid cast,” said Olson.

While it still goes against the grain to loosen their grip on content, traditional studios are stepping aboard.

“Studios one by one are starting to realize there is some value here,” said Olson. “They see it is a conversation that is going on and it will go on without them.

“They are saying ‘we should start to participate whether we want to or not.’”

Related:

Dave Olson gives a tour of MovieSet.com

Riff:

Indeed, there are now excellent examples which demonstrate the power of MovieSet’s two-headed monster. Cast and Crew members are employing our tools to streamline their daily workflow, they deliver content directly to their movies page including still photos, videos, news, or blog posts.

Once uploaded, the rich content gives the social media conversationalists an opportunity to reach out to an engaged community of fans interested in the film. Fans then become active contributors by following, supporting and commenting throughout each phase of production. And so on, and so on …

Read the full article: Online and on the set [archived link] by Gillian Shaw (@gillianshaw on Twitter) in the Vancouver Sun, June 9, 2009 –

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Online and on the set Attached as .pdf

Note: Cross posted from: Vancouver Sun Article helps spread the fan-centric MovieSet Vision

See Also: Movieset in Vancouver Sun + Video interview

Media: Fan-centric filming (MovieSet) / Vancouver Sun, June 10, 2009 by Gillian Shaw

 

Media: Slow Train Coming (Cascadia Trains) / Vancouver Courier, Oct. 22, 2008

from the article by Robert Alstead, Oct. 22nd, 2008
from the Vancouver Courier article by Robert Alstead, Oct. 22nd, 2008

I was interviewed (and used loquacious quotes like “super lame”) for an article about train travel in the Vancouver Courier.

I am including my quotes and a few other snippets about my pet-rant, ergo: inadequate train travel between here and points south – as well as the photo by Dan Toulguet so it doesn’t disappear…

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Slow train coming

Robert Alstead takes a journey north by rail from California and wonders if Canada’s vanished passenger trains will once again carry us from coast to coast – Robert Alstead, Vancouver Courier Published: Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Dave Olson, who works in marketing for Gastown web design company Raincity Studios, travels six or seven times a year by train, on business and pleasure. “I don’t care for jet travel because of the incredible hassle and huge eco-footprint,” says Olson. Like many, he would take the train more if he could. “I like the pace and not having to drive, I like the rhythm and the scenery you normally don’t see, the rail yards and seashores and forgotten neighbourhoods. I find the train-riding experience somehow charming, even poetic and certainly creativity stimulating,” he says.

However, he complains Amtrak’s evening train south is hardly convenient for trips to Olympia or Portland, seeing as travellers must make an overnight stopover in Seattle. The Amtrak Cascades is also infrequent and often booked up. Amtrak does offer several “train buses” which Olson has found “super lame” with long border waits. He’d rather take the car if there are no seats on the train, although it did mean a $124 parking bill and a chipped windshield on a recent three-day trip to Seattle. “I know we would’ve enjoyed some work or playing cards or meditating on the train,” he rues.

##

However, the Amtrak Cascades offers a good example of the difficulties faced in enhancing rail services.

For years, Amtrak has wanted to add a second roundtrip train between Eugene and Vancouver. However, congestion due to heavy freight movement on track this side of the border meant that a new siding needed to be added to allow trains to pass. For six years, Canadian and U.S. officials and railroad owners Burlington Northern Santa Fe had been unable to hammer out a deal over who should pay for the upgrade.

That means that a second Amtrak Cascades has been running only as far as Bellingham. Then in March of last year, spurred on by the onset of the 2010 Olympics, B.C. transportation minister Kevin Falcon announced that he was committing “up to $4.5 million” (reportedly 57 per cent of the upgrade cost) to build the siding.

In June last year, Premier Gordon Campbell marked the new service on the platform at King Street Station in Seattle by exchanging a large symbolic train ticket with Washington Governor Chris Gregoire in a photo op.

The siding was completed months ago. Amtrak is ready to go. But the service hit the buffers due to complications with the Canadian Border Services Agency, which reportedly wants $15,000 per day to clear the train.

Graham says the matter is in the hands of the B.C. government. A spokesperson for the province says it’s a federal government issue. Faith St. John, spokesperson for the CBSA, said she could not comment on the matter “because we are in discussions.” But she did say that “decisions to provide CBSA services at a new location or to expand current services take into account human resource requirements and the ability to provide security and service to the public.”

She could not say when the matter would be resolved.

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Update, the article “disappeared” from the internets (mostly), 

Print version of Slow Train Coming

Web version of Slow Train Coming [archived link via WayBack]

Media: Zhonka + Wi-fi / Olympian (WA) Dec. 15, 2005

Media: Zhonka + Wi-fi / Olympian (WA) Dec. 15, 2005 / cover
Media: Zhonka + Wi-fi / Olympian (WA) Dec. 15, 2005 / article quotes by Dave
Media: Zhonka + Wi-fi / Olympian (WA) Dec. 15, 2005 / date for the record

Media: “Zhonka ISP…” (at Clubside with Jay) / The Olympian, 2003

Media: “Zhonka ISP…” (at Clubside) / The Olympian, 2003 / p.1 (business cover)
Media: “Zhonka ISP…” (at Clubside) / The Olympian, 2003 / p.2 (inside)