Dear Conference Attendees,

By the time you read this, I’ll be different. Between now and when you look at this report, things will happen that change me, influence me, and make me newer. Unfortunately, the paper version of me will never reflect that. Although, I’ve waited as long as possible, and included the latest information, research, and articles, there will be newer information by the end of January, when this paper gets distributed.

If only there was a way to write, edit, and publish up-to-the-minute information and have a medium that would allow everybody to read it. If only people had devices that could recieve and display text, images, and videos instantly. If only there was some worldwide network that could pass this information around, and the technology to make the whole process simple! If only…

Perhaps someday, we’ll find a way.

Sincerely,

The Paper-Based Version

Hello All… Now that the holidays are behind us, and everybody is back to work, it’s time to catch up with all of Left Button’s projects. It was a busy couple months, and there’s been a lot going on, so check out what we’ve been up to!!

Projects - Through Novembers, December, and January, LBS continued to build blog sites, wikis, social media programs, and online courses for clients in the U.S. and Canada. This weekend, our founder Brian Chick, will be presenting at the Association for Continuing Legal Education (ACLEA.org) conference in San Francisco. His presentation will focus on the lessons learned while instituting wikis and other online software in legal education capacities.

Toronto Film Challenge - In November the Toronto Film Challenge was relaunched as a Left Button project. 33 teams competed in a 48 hour challenge, and produced some great films. More than $10,000 worth of prizes were given away to the winners, among the 300+ competitors. The TFC will be running its next event in April.

Crisis Commons - While CrisisCommons.org is an international organization working on organizing themselves on a global level, Brian Chick and the CrisisCommons Toronto team (Heather Leson, David Black, and Melanie Gorka) have been on a whirlwind speaking/meeting tour, working on building in Toronto and across Canada. After presenting at the Red Cross Emergency Management Conference in Niagara, guest lecturing in the Masters of Disaster Management course at York University, and being panelist at the Haiti: Lesssons Learned seminar at York, they’ve also been meeting with the Ontario government and other foundations looking forward towards the potential of the organization in Canada.

Other - Looking ahead, Left Button Solutions will again be sponsoring a Learn to Curl event, to benefit the Red Cross. April 16th at the Royal Canadian Curling Club, we’ll host a day-long event where participants will learn to curl, play some games, and raise money for charity. Last year’s event raised more than $1,600, and we hope to make more this year!!

Left Button Solutions is proud to be a sponsor of Random Hacks of Kindness Toronto. The following is from the RHoKTO site:

We’re really excited to join people around the world for one weekend of hacking, sharing and engaging on problem definitions for humanitarian aid. The two-day hackathon will have main stages on five different continents, and a variety of satellite events in cities around the world. Programmers, coders, developers, storytellers, designers, and project managers will spend two days attacking problem definitions provided by established charitable organizations like the UN and the World Bank. Over the course of the weekend, the hackers will form groups and develop technical solutions to these problems.

The CrisisCommons folks who organize the Toronto CrisisCamps felt that this sort of event was right up their alley, so they teamed up with OpenData, Unspace, Remarkk and Hackto.ca folksto make sure that Toronto would host a satellite event. With space donated by the University of Toronto, and food sponsorship coming from a variety of local businesses, more than 60 people have already registered for the event. We still need help with sponsors to feed our people.

The Toronto RHOK event will actually start on Wednesday, December 1st with a reception at Camaraderie co-working space. The attendees will meet, greet, mingle and brainstorm as the problem definitions are explained. Once they’re familiar with the objectives and with each other, they’ll return on Saturday at 8 am, with laptops and coffee mugs, ready to attack their projects.

At the end of the weekend, each solution will be presented to the group and prizes will be awarded to the most functional, useful, and innovative projects.

RHOK-TO (Random Hacks of Kindness, Toronto) would like to thank the local sponsors who are providing locations, food and drinks for the attendees of this event: TinEye, idée Inc. , MacQuarie Group, Architech Solutions, Jonah Group, TechSoup Canada, Planet Geek, Left Button Solutions, Syncapse, Camaraderie, University of Toronto, and Tucows Inc.

Left Button Solutions is proud to announce the return of the Toronto Film Challege, a competition for filmmakers to create short films in two days or less. The first event will take place the weekend on November 12-14, 2010, starting Friday evening at 8pm and  concluding 48 hours later.

Competitors are provided with a challenge pack that could include a prop, a line of script, a genre, or a theme that must be included in the 8-minute film. Filmmakers must write, shoot, edit, and deliver their finished product by 8pm on Sunday. Everyone is welcome to participate, from industry professionals, to film students, to anybody else with access to a video camera. Groups are capped at a maximum of ten participants.

“I’m very excited to be able offer this opportunity to Toronto’s film community again,” says Brian Chick, the event’s new organizer. ” I participated in several of the original challenges and look at them as amazing experiences, both from a professional and personal perspective. We had a lot of fun making movies, but also learned a lot about the craft and how we worked together under pressure.”

“This is a wonderful opportunity to filmmakers to try new things, be creative, and get some real-world experience making films,” said Chick.

The orignial challenges were run by Michael Dawson and ran twelve times between 2005 and 2008. “We’re excited to have Brian spearhead the relaunch of the Toronto Film Challenge and bring competitive filmmaking back to the streets of Toronto,” said Dawson. “We’ve always been amazed at what can be accomplished by the talented filmmaking teams who enter the Challenge.”

Dawson estimates that over that time, prizes totalling more $100,000 were distributed. Some challenges were 48 hours, while others were 24. Several were also specifically themed, like the popular fall 24-Hour Horror Challenge.

Chick and Dawson both believe that this is a very necessary outlet for Toronto film-makers. “To try something different, and to be creative, under pressure can take practice. We’re giving people a chance to try something new with their crafts… albeit with a tight deadline,” Chick said.

Dawson added, “With no time to second guess their decisions, each team comes up with an incredibly inspiring and creative film.”

Questions should be directed to: info -a-t- torontofilmchallenge.com

In an event that saw online collaboration become face-to-face interaction, the first CrisisCommons International Congress took place in Washington DC last week. Representatives from 25 cities, 10 countries, and 5 continents gathered at the World Bank Headquarters to discuss the future of CrisisCommons, and CrisisCamps, the impromptu goodwill hackathons that popped up en masse following the earthquake Haiti.

Left Button’s Brian Chick was on hand to take part in shaping this organization, along with almost 70 others from all over the world. A combination of developers, coders, communications experts, disaster response professionals, doctors, and lawyers, were all part of the Congress, and all given a voice in trying to decide what direction the organization should take, and just how much of an organization there should be. This was a community based on openness, collaboration, sharing, and equality, so any sort of organizational hierarchy needed to respect that.

To all involved, the experience was described as incredible. Aside from the progress and discussion, the international collection of like-minded individuals was inspiring and motivational. Everyone left Washington with a renewed enthusiasm and is now working on making the strides set forth in the board room.

I was fortunate to inherit some tickets to a Net Change Week panel called “The Future of Web and the World” at the MaRS building. During the presentation, featuring Dr. Gerri Sinclain, Dr. Lucy Bernholz, and John Thackara, there was much discussion of Crisis Camps (mainly due to Dr. Bernholz). If you’re familiar with Left Button Solutions, you know that we’ve been involved as participants in CrisisCamp Toronto, and also as a sponsor, supplying coffee, snacks, and blog hosting.

Following the panel discussion, I was able to offer a plug for the Toronto group, and invited people to talk to me about the program, and how it works. I handed out a few business cards, all of which point here, so I wanted to list some of the resources people might want to check out for further information regarding Crisis Camps, and Crisis Commons.

• CrisisCamp Toronto - our blog can be found here.
• CrisisCommons (the organizing body) lives at CrisisCommons.org
• CrisisCommons Wiki is where all the project, camp, and organizing information lives.
• There are also Google Groups for CrisisCommons and CrisisCampTO but all major happenings will be blogged or tweeted.
• Speaking of Twitter, you should follow: @CrisisCommons, @CrisisCampTO, @HeatherLeson,  and of course, @leftbutton

As stated in at the panel discussion, the next big thing for CrisisCommons is an upcoming international congress, happening in Washington DC in July. There, the group will develop some governance, some policy, and some direction to help refine the global effort that has mobilized more than 2,000 volunteers in more than 25 different cities.

Again, thank you all for indulding the shameless plug… feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

On June 9th, Left Button Solutions will be offering a free session at Camaraderie Co-Working space in Toronto. It’s called “Social Media for Small Business” and is intended to be a crash course introduction to Facebook, Twitter, and some potential uses of these tools in a small business environment. For people who have yet to embrace these Web2.0 tools, this is a good place to start.

The event is being hosted by Camaraderie, a co-working space for small business and freelancers in Toronto. It is free to attend and there are 25 seats available.

To register, please visit this link: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/710565320

Hope to see you there!

This is a new version of a video produced by Erik Qualman (@equalman on Twitter), author ofSocialnomics. It makes some interesting points about the popularity of social media, and what effects it has on businesses an marketing. At Left Button Solutions, we understand this ever-changing dynamic and want to help your business stay up-to-speed with your social media, and Web 2.0 initiatives.

Anybody who knows me knows I love curling. Most of my nights in the fall/winter and many of my weekends are spent at curling clubs playing in leagues and tournaments. Recently, we decided to combine some our business, with some of our hobbies, to raise money for a worthy cause. Left Button Solutions teamed up with Rock Solid Productions to create “Curl for Haiti” a day-long event that invited experienced curlers and rookies alike to spend an afternoon curling, eating, and drinking.
Promoting the event using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, we quickly filled the event to its maximum capacity of 80 people. All proceeds went to the Red Cross, to aid with their humanitarian and relief efforts helping Haiti Recover and rebuild following the earthquake (I should also note, there was a CrisisCamp meeting in Toronto on the same day to help offer technical help to volunteer organizations in Haiti and Chile).

Thanks to our sponsors at Wellington Brewery, we were able to raise more than $1,500 for the Red Cross. Thanks to everybody involved, and we hope we can run similar events in the future.

Following the earthquakes that devastated Haiti, humanitarian aid is hugely necessary in the country. Not everybody has the money, the time, or the resources to fly down there to help offer medical attention, aid in the rescue efforts, or volunteer in some other capacity. CrisisCommons.org, however, has created opportunities for techie folks all over the world to pool their resources and volunteer efforts to create useful projects to help those in need.

Left Button Solutions has gotten on board with CrisisCamp - Toronto, the local chapter of CrisisCommons. So far LBS has built a blog to use as a central coordinating location, but in the future efforts could expand to a wiki, or other multimedia projects. LBS is happy to be on board, and grateful to CrisisCommons.org for making the opportunity to get involved so simple.

The Toronto group is headed by Heather Leson and plans to have their first meeting on January 24, 2010.