<![CDATA[Rob Cottingham · Storify]]>http://storify.com/robcottinghamNodeJS RSS ModuleWed, 22 May 2013 00:55:45 GMT<![CDATA[I hate it when I click a link and it leads to...]]>

I asked folks on Twitter to complete the sentence "It pisses me off when I click a link and it leads to..."

Storified by Rob Cottingham · Thu, Jan 10 2013 16:05:57

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]]>http://storify.com/robcottingham/i-hate-it-when-i-click-a-link-and-it-leads-tohttp://storify.com/robcottingham/i-hate-it-when-i-click-a-link-and-it-leads-toFri, 11 Jan 2013 00:04:59 GMT<![CDATA[Goodbye, Gerry Anderson]]>

It's the puppet shows people seem to remember, with Gerry Anderson's obituaries rife with Thunderbirds and Joe 90. But for me, the biggest impact came when he turned his imagination to live-action television - and sparked my life-long love of science fiction.

Storified by Rob Cottingham · Thu, Dec 27 2012 16:14:32

Thunderbirds guru Anderson diesThunderbirds guru Anderson dies
Gerry Anderson, the creator of hit TV shows including Thunderbirds, Stingray and Joe 90, has died at the age of 83. He also created Capta...
It started with UFO. From the hyper-kinetic opening credits, to the way all that puppet experience translated to incredible miniature-based special effects, to the locations (a moon base! space! underwater! a futuristic secret headquarters), it was like nothing I'd ever seen before.
UFO (TV series) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaUFO (TV series) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
UFO was the Andersons' first totally live-action TV series. Despite the assumption of many TV station executives, the series was not aime...
UFO - TV Series - Opening Sequence · thetormentsofhell
A lot of it went over my head... but as long as my dad was there to fill in a few key blanks, I got the gist of the story.
I wasn't the only one to be completely captivated, but there weren't enough of us to make UFO a commercial success. After 26 episodes, I had my first crucial media awareness experience: a beloved show being cancelled.
UFO Series Home Page - "UFO" TV series from 1970UFO Series Home Page - "UFO" TV series from 1970
All about Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's 1970 British Sci-Fi TV series &quotUFO&quot
Half a decade later, my hunger for science fiction was being only fractionally satisfied with sporadic Star Trek reruns. Then Gerry and Sylvia Anderson turned their attention to live-action TV again, turning a failed proposal for a second season of UFO into a stand-alone series.
Space: 1999 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaSpace: 1999 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Space: 1999 is the last in a long line of science-fiction series that Gerry and Sylvia Anderson produced as a working partnership, beginn...
It's only now that I can see how much of UFO they retained – the rapid-cut opening credits, the, ah, not-entirely-natural dialogue, the superb attention to design and detail – and how far they'd come in those intervening five or six years.
Space: 1999 - TV intro (season 1) HQ (1975) · fabster3333
For a glorious few years, there were Space: 1999 reruns (first season, thank you very much), Doctor Who on TVOntario and, on the big screen, Star Wars. Those latter two, of course, reached a much larger audience. But Space: 1999's production values and willingness to risk bending my mind a little stand out from that time. Not to mention finding a few episodes spit-scary.
Space 1999 - 1x08 - Dragon's Domain · whiteraraavis
A lot of it doesn't hold up, of course. (UFO's treatment of women was... ugh.) But the imagination behind those two series, along with the technical execution and artistic vision (SID! Eagles! the UFOs!) mean they still have a remarkable hold on me.
And as it turns out, I'm not the only Rob Cottingham to be deeply affected by Gerry Anderson's work.
Special Guest - Shane RimmerSpecial Guest - Shane Rimmer
Shane is renowned as the iconic voice of Scott Tracy from the original 60's Thunderbirds T.V series. In addition he has appeared in three...
Thank you, Mr. Anderson.
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]]>http://storify.com/robcottingham/goodbye-gerry-andersonhttp://storify.com/robcottingham/goodbye-gerry-andersonFri, 28 Dec 2012 00:14:32 GMT<![CDATA[Some communications highlights from Campaign 2012]]>

Some of what caught NOW Communications' eye in the 2012 US election campaign

Storified by Rob Cottingham · Tue, Nov 06 2012 16:42:00

Stage · prioritiesusaaction
"Rafalca Romney" -- 30 second TV ad · karinmoveon
MAP: Has Fox News Campaigned For Republicans Near You?MAP: Has Fox News Campaigned For Republicans Near You?
Fox Figures Engaged In 42-State Effort To Elect GOP Candidates ››› ››› BEN DIMIERO, ERIC HANANOKI, & OLIVER WILLIS At least 32 Fox News h...
Why Obama Now · whyobamanow
Closing ArgumentsClosing Arguments
The White House releases its closing argument in an infographic ......
Bill Clinton Robocall 2012 · simonganz
Obama Responds To 10-Year-Old's Heartfelt Letter About Her DadsObama Responds To 10-Year-Old's Heartfelt Letter About Her Dads
Ten-year-old Sophia penned a letter to Obama telling him how happy she is that he agrees with her on the topic of marriage equality. You ...
Mitt Romney has made it clear that he'd be ... · Facebook
Diana · clairemccaskill2012
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]]>http://storify.com/robcottingham/some-communications-highlights-from-campaign-2012http://storify.com/robcottingham/some-communications-highlights-from-campaign-2012Wed, 07 Nov 2012 00:42:00 GMT<![CDATA[Jim Green, one of Vancouver's great civic leaders]]>

From the historic renewal of the Downtown Eastside and the Woodward's redevelopment, to the Portland Hotel Society, to InSite, to the city's thriving arts scene - in pretty much every big initiative to make this city fairer, more affordable and more liveable, you'll see Jim Green's hand at work.

Storified by Rob Cottingham · Thu, Feb 16 2012 22:38:44

I've only met Jim once, helping him with a speech in his 2005 mayoral campaign. But I was immediately struck by how he combined thoughtfulness with a clear sense of purpose, driven by the urgency of the issues he was confronting. I'd have loved to see the kind of mayor he would have been.
Jim Green sign for November 19th election · roland
Henriquezpartners
The Woodward's redevelopment, for which he led the fight at City Hall, is only one part of his legacy - but it's probably the most visible and striking one.
the old Woodward's W · phandcp
The Woodward&#39;s Experiment | Vancouver MagazineThe Woodward&#39;s Experiment | Vancouver Magazine
Sep 1, 2009 ... From his book-crammed office on the sixth floor of the Dominion Building on Hastings, Jim Green has monitored the reinv...
0729201112077 · roland
Woodward&#39;s W Rises Again » Vancouver Blog Miss604Woodward&#39;s W Rises Again » Vancouver Blog Miss604
Jan 15, 2010 ... The giant red “W” atop Woodwards in Vancouver is make a .... artist Stan Douglas , former city councillor Jim Green, de...
IMG_2111 · Jack Zalium
Redevelopment Without Displacement at archimemoRedevelopment Without Displacement at archimemo
Feb 6, 2012 ... Jim Green on the Woodward&#39;s Redevelopment. February 6, 2012 | YouTube · jimgreenbw_600wide.jpg. In the Gastown Proj...
The Honorary Jim Green « SFU CityThe Honorary Jim Green « SFU City
Nov 15, 2011 ... Jim Green asked me to let you know how much he appreciates .... it and the one that followed that – proved not to have...
The Gastown Project: JIM GREEN · VancouverSunOnline
And here's the vision his group advanced (winning the popular vote as well as tying for the judges' recognition) in the city's recent ideas competition over the future of the downtown viaducts:
re:connect Submission Gallery - Vancouver Viaducts & Eastern Corere:connect Submission Gallery - Vancouver Viaducts & Eastern Core
Viaducts gone! Let's realize the dream of our anti-freeway heroes of yesterday with a bold new strategy of parks and public places. Showc...
The news today that his lung cancer has recurred has sent shockwaves through the community, and for very good reason. We live in a better city because he dedicated himself to making it better - and better not in the sense of bigger or faster, but in the sense of offering richer lives and more rewarding opportunities to everyone who lives here.

Good luck with your fight, Jim. And thank you.
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]]>http://storify.com/robcottingham/jim-green-one-of-vancouver-s-great-civic-leadershttp://storify.com/robcottingham/jim-green-one-of-vancouver-s-great-civic-leadersFri, 17 Feb 2012 06:38:44 GMT<![CDATA[Storify for WordPress - brought to you, apparently, by Gina Trapani and me]]>

If you haven't checked out Storify yet, you're missing out on a treat. This curation service allows you to seek out Tweets, Facebook updates, YouTube videos, Flickr photos, blog posts and more – and then weave them together to tell the social media story behind a particular topic.

Storified by Rob Cottingham · Wed, Jan 11 2012 13:17:01

Storify makes that whole process ridiculously easy - downright fun, even. But the process of publishing a Storify story in WordPress? A little less so. Which led Gina Trapani to post something yesterday, and me to chime in:
Well, guess what flashed across my HootSuite screen this morning, not 12 hours later.
My god, I thought. So the people at Storify see Gina Trapani's tweet, then they see mine, then they notice I say not only "yes" but "hell yes", and they haul their development team out of bed and say, "Build this! Build this right now!"

(Either that or it was already underway and was going to be launched today anyway. I suppose that's possible. I kind of prefer the scenario where my tweets wield the power of life and death over the tech industry, but if you have to burst that bubble, fine.)
Now you can create Storify stories from the WordPress dashboardNow you can create Storify stories from the WordPress dashboard
You asked for it. We heard you. Now you can now create Storify stories for self-hosted WordPress blogs from directly inside the Wordpress...
The plugin creates a Storify tab on your WordPress dashboard; from there, you can build a Storify post and then add it to your blog.

The response has been pretty happy –
– although Mat Wright points out a not-insignificant hiccup:
And indeed, while it worked just fine in Chrome, the Storify plugin's interface was only 100 pixels or so high when I loaded it in Firefox on my Mac. I found a workaround in Firebug, but it didn't work for Mat. Fortunately, the good folks at Storify swooped in with breathtaking speed to reply.
We'll see how that turns out &mdash; I wouldn't be surprised if Storify's developers had a fix before sunrise tomorrow.

Update: And so they did.

The big question is whether this - terrific as it is (and that's plenty terrific) - will be as far as Storify goes with WordPress integration. The plugin basically loads an iFrame with the Storify interface; deeper integration would involve turning Storify into a content source for the WordPress editor, perhaps with a sidebar widget containing the Storify search and results box. (A little like Zemanta, except with manual, intentional search and striking visuals instead of Zemanta's text analysis and simple text links, related posts and images. Say, has anyone mashed those two up..?)
Zemanta - blog publishing assistant: related images, articles & posts for bloggers
Zemanta blogging helper suggests images, links, tags and related articles while you write your blog post and promotes your content. Avail...
You would then have all the bells and whistles you've installed in your editor, including access to your blog's media files, plus whatever custom functionality you've added over the years, but you'd also have the power of Storify's impressive interface. And instead of the Storify post appearing as an iframe inside your WordPress post, with its own fonts and style attributes that may not match yours, it would blend seamlessly into your blog.

The technical questions involved aren't minor, but the larger issue for Storify is probably the loss of the content and social activity that users are currently generating on their site.

Of course, it's in the nature of us end users to tell a company that's just created something really cool "That's nice. Now here's what I want next..." And this is really cool, and I suspect it will make me use Storify a lot more often here.

As you can probably tell, I built this in Storify. I did it in Firefox, too, using my little Firebug hack, just to be ornery.
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]]>http://storify.com/robcottingham/storify-for-wordpress-you-betchahttp://storify.com/robcottingham/storify-for-wordpress-you-betchaWed, 11 Jan 2012 21:17:01 GMT<![CDATA[Vancouver Inauguration Ceremony 2011]]>

The Creekside Community Recreation Centre is stunning, from its modern, airy interior to its spectacular False Creek setting. So what better place to inaugurate the Mayor, City Council, School Board and Parks Board?

Storified by Rob Cottingham · Mon, Dec 05 2011 22:20:05

Confirmed: @MayorGregor is wearing a kilt. #vanpoli #fashion http://twitpic.com/7oy88o · Stephanie Ip
@nikisharma2 honoured as MC for Inaugural ceremony.#vaninaug http://yfrog.com/oed4yffj · Mike Lombardi
#vpd drum at the Mayor and Council inauguration ceremony @ Creekside Community Recreation Centre http://instagr.am/p/Xi9G1/ · Vancouver Is Awesome
Great day for #vaninaug. Congrats to @MayorGregor and our City Councillors! #vanpoli http://pic.twitter.com/CmxY5wp0 · Marcella Munro
At the inauguration for @MayorGregor and Vancouver council - congratulations to all of you! #vanpoli http://yfrog.com/gyny1scj · Mike Kushnir
Mayor Gregor Robertson and councillors-elect at inauguration. @bcitnews #vanpoli http://pic.twitter.com/60mkaag2 · Rafferty Baker
#vaninaug Ovation for new mayor and council http://pic.twitter.com/b28qt3bQ · Rob Cottingham
And there's the new council! #vanpoli http://twitpic.com/7oymkz · Stephanie Ip
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]]>http://storify.com/robcottingham/vancouver-inauguration-ceremony-2011http://storify.com/robcottingham/vancouver-inauguration-ceremony-2011Tue, 06 Dec 2011 06:20:05 GMT<![CDATA[TabCloud: save and sync your Chrome and Firefox tabs]]>

Storified by Rob Cottingham · Thu, Oct 27 2011 01:00:28

I'm the kind of person who often has a lot of tabs open. A lot. Right now, the count is somewhere north of 50, all of them in Chrome.

Not surprisingly, that's slowing things down. And since I'd switched to Chrome a year ago or so because I was finding Safari slow, and I'd switched to Safari because I'd found Firefox slow, naturally I wondered if the latest version of Firefox would be any faster.
The answer is yes, it's snappier and seems to be more stable, and I may well switch to it for a while.
But that's another story. This is the story of how the process of discovering that led me to a powerful browser tool.

That tweet led to a very sensible suggestion:
That works wonderfully, and would be the perfect solution except...
Then along came Laura Rogers with a brilliant one-word suggestion:

TabCloud is "a browser tab and session manager which allows you to save groups of open tabs to access later or on another device."

Operative phrase: "on another device." While Chrome (like recent versions of some other browsers) allows you to do things like bookmark all of your open tabs and recall them later, TabCloud allows you to store that list of tabs online, using an account you authenticate with your Google Profile.

Then, later on, you can reload that list of tabs... in the same browser, or in another browser, or even on a completely different computer. (TabCloud works with Chrome and Firefox, and also comes as an Android app.) You just need to be able to authenticate again.

If there's one limitation, it's that you can't publish those collections of tabs so anyone could load them with one click. But this is still a mighty handy tool.

For instance, I can easily imagine having a few suites of tabs that would be useful for presentations, client demos, keynotes or trainings. Being able to load them up anywhere I could get my hands on a copy of Chrome or Firefox (provided I could also install the TabCloud add-on) could be a huge timesaver.

Let me know if you've taken TabCloud for a spin, or if you've come across anything similar (especially if it's useful for the Safari/Internet Explorer crowd).

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]]>http://storify.com/robcottingham/tabcloud-save-and-sync-your-chrome-and-firefox-tabhttp://storify.com/robcottingham/tabcloud-save-and-sync-your-chrome-and-firefox-tabFri, 08 Jul 2011 00:00:28 GMT<![CDATA[Ah, Victoria - I've missed you.]]>

Storified by Rob Cottingham · Thu, Oct 27 2011 01:27:29

I love Vancouver. I love the people, the beaches, the forest, the buzz of the place. I love the stores, the restaurants, the social media and tech community, the social change folks, and the size.

But I spent last night in Victoria, where I haven't lived for more than 14 years. And I have to admit: I do miss the place sometimes.

Esquimalt and Victoria · RobCottingham

I flew in on the Helijet through nearly cloudless skies - an experience guaranteed to rekindle my affection for the place. (It didn't hurt that the flight was on the peppy little Helijet, not the big minivan-like Helijet. And they give you a mission-control-style headset in case you want to chat during the flight. All in all, it felt more like Magnum PI and less like a commute in a Toyota Sienna.)

Strapped in and ready to fly · RobCottingham
Everything I've loved about the land and sea around Victoria and Vancouver Island was on full display: emerald water, eagles drifting by below the helicopter's skids, secluded coves and kayakers (to whom I apologize for the racket as we passed by overhead).
Gulf Islands marina · RobCottingham

All of this was in aid of getting me to Social Media Camp Victoria, where I delivered an after-dinner speech with Nancy White graphically recording and providing desperately-needed harmonies. (Yes, there was singing. Yes, it was a capella. Thankfully, the Twitter stream confirms it wasn't the kind of torture you might think.)

Social Media Camp Victoria 2011 (dinner and after-dinner at Clive's Lounge) · Raul P
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]]>http://storify.com/robcottingham/ah-victoria-ive-missed-youhttp://storify.com/robcottingham/ah-victoria-ive-missed-youSun, 05 Jun 2011 10:38:37 GMT