In terms of workshops dedicated to the development and discussion of Content Management Systems (CMS) we’ve recently had DrupalCamp, WordCamp, and now it’s time for Canada’s largest-ever Joomla! Day.

On June14th 2008 from 9:00 AM to 5:30 please join us to celebrate what could be the largest Joomla! Day in Canada! We will be getting together at the Vancouver Public Library and there you get to meet many of the people who actually created the Joomla! CMS framework. [RMDstudio]

Tickets are $25 and include refreshments and a Joomla! Day t-shirt, check out the RMDstudios blog or the Tazzu blog for more information.

I must admit, I’ve dabbled in all sorts of open source platforms and although my time with Joomla was minimal it’s still great to see that it has such a widely supportive user base.

The thing I love about living in the West End is that once you walk in a block from the bustling Robson or Davie Streets the sound of cars and crowds turns into lawn mowers and birds chirping. Green grass grows in small corner parks like urban savannas while sunbathers find a level surface on which to stretch out and avoid the game of frisbee being played over their head. One of such metropolitan refuges is Barclay Heritage Square and one of its main features is Roedde House.

Photo credit: superliciousness on Flickr

Roedde House at 1415 Barclay was built in 1893 for Vancouver’s first bookbinder, Gustav Roedde. In 1927 the house was sold by Gustav Roedde in 1927 to H.W. Jeffreys and it later became a boarding house called the “Oehlerking Rooms.”

The City of Vancouver bought the Gustav Roedde House [in 1966] and made it the centrepiece in what came to be called Barclay Heritage Square, bounded by Barclay, Nicola, Haro and Broughton Streets in the West End, and which features nine historic houses built between 1890 and 1908.

Photo credit: superliciousness on Flickr

In 1990 the restored Roedde House Museum opened its doors for community events and tours. Having done many tours of Victoria during our girls weekends, I’ve become pretty familiar with the architects that formed our big coastal cities in BC, however I had no clue that there were murmurs that Francis Mawson Rattenbury built Roedde House. Rattenbury being the designer of the Vancouver Art Gallery (former Court House) and Victoria’s Parliament Buildings and Empress Hotel [VancouverHistory].

John and I have yet to make our way over to Roedde House for a tour (Tuesday to Friday, 2:00pm to 4:00pm), or even Sunday tea (served from 2:00pm to 4:00pm) but it’s definitely on our list of things to do. They also do group tours by appointment, lecture series, musical evenings special events, and you can book the entire house for a small dinner party at a per hour rate.

Due to family business this morning (which always comes before the blogging world) I had to miss about 85% of DrupalCamp Vancouver.

The good news is that John was here all day and the first words out of his mouth when he saw me were, “whoa! there’s some really cool theming going on.” This leads me to believe he’ll have much better wrap up posts than I will so I’ll simply syndicate some information and pics.

All photos here are © Roland Tanglao, click on the pics for their links on Flickr.

Information from the sessions can be found on the DrupalCamp Vancouver website and I’ll try to get a couple posts out of John as well.

VIDFEST (Vancouver International Digital Festival) 2008 is fast-approaching and I’m just now beginning to comprehend how many elements, conferences, galas and events all fit under its 4-day festival umbrella.

The Vancouver International Digital Festival is an event for the top creative minds working in digital media. Join visionaries from games and digital entertainment, Web 2.0, interactive design, animation and mobile applications, at this annual ‘must-attend’ in Vancouver, Canada. [VIDFEST]

Here is some more info from their “core facts” sheet:

There are several local webby companies up for PopVox Awards and anyone is encouraged to head to the website and vote for your favourite in categories ranging from Best Digital Animated Short, Best Mobile (Game) to Best Do-Gooder site (Social Change Initiative) or Homegrown Award (Best BC-based Venture).

Some nominees close to my heart include, ChangeEverything, Strutta, MemeLabs, Now Public, and the Knob Hockey folks (just to name a few).

Here’s a quick condensed version of the festival schedule overall:

May 21st - VIDFEST and VIGS Opening Reception at the Vancouver Art Gallery

May 22nd - International Partnering Forum (IPF) and Convergence 2008 (featuring my panel, yay!), then Happy Hour

May 23rd - Creative Exchange Conference (featuring speakers such as Heather “Dooce” Armstrong and Chris Anderson of Wired with the Keynote), Schmooze Lounge and the PopVox Awards

May 24th - Pitch ‘n’ Play and Recruiting Fair

There’s a TON of action going on having to do with all facets of digital media. You can purchase single tickets for Chris Anderson’s keynote, or daily passes for each of the mini festivals within starting at $50 for the PopVox Awards ceremony only, going up to $375 for VIP, and $875 for a joint pass for VIGS and VIDFEST.

Here are a few more tips and tricks that I’ve come across in the Twitter microblogging community:

Twemes: First introduced at DemoCamp by Rochelle Grayson, Twemes is a website that comprehensively sorts and categorizes the things people Twitter about as long as they put a hashtag in front of it. Example, those currently at DrupalCamp Vancouver will be Twittering and including #DCV08 in their updates. If I go to Twemes, or the DrupalCamp website that is aggregating the Tweme, I can see filtered updates specifically pertaining to #DCV08 because of that tag.

Hashtags: I discovered this months after Twemes was released and it follows the same concept although you need to add a “bot” to your account to use it. For Twemes, you don’t need to do anything except start using a hashtag in your keywords/updates.

TwitBin: An alternative to Twitterfox, this slips your Twitter steam into your Firefox sidebar.

Twidget: Add a Twitter widget to your Mac’s dashboard.

Twitter Local: Hat tip to Jeremy Latham for Twittering about this earlier. You can filter updates to only view those from people within your geographical vicinity

Twinkle: Hat tip to Jenn Loether and John Biehler: “A location aware Twitter client. It features a slick presentation not unlike the web version of PocketTweats but also locates you and enables you to see who else is using Twinkle near you.” - [JohnBiehler.com]

Twitter Tweet Sheet: “There’s one things that annoys me about Twitter. Okay, there are two things: 1. They are always down. 2. There doesn’t seem to be one official place (including their own site) to get a complete list of mobile and IM commands.” - [Jason Theodor.com] Jason compiled an “easy to print” card that you can take with you for on-the-go Twittering.

From TweetClouds

And just for kicks you can read more about “Top Twitter Apps” on these lovely sites:

Surrey’s Good Citizen Award was handed to Jim King this past week for his work “…as an executive director since 1997, being a past-president of the Surrey Chamber of Commerce and a founding member and past director of the Surrey Tourism and Convention Association” - [Surrey Leader].

The award is given to an individual each year who has performed outstanding service for the betterment of the community.

Photo credit: Squeaky Marmot on Flickr

Recent recipients also include Volkmar (Wally) Sandvoss in 2007 and Bruno Zappone in 2006.

Surrey’s first ever “Good Citizen” was Len Shepherd.

“Len Shepherd was a Surrey municipal council member from 1932 until 1937. In 1937 he was elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly serving the Delta riding, covering the area of Richmond, Delta, Surrey and Langley. In his very first term as MLA, Len Shepherd presented a petition to this very House with over 3,100 names from the people of the Fraser Valley, asking that the new Pattullo Bridge be free of tolls. Very quickly, he became an avid advocate for the working people.” [Debates of Legislative Assembly]

This all makes me wonder what ever happened to Vancouver’s Good Citizen Award? Strolling the archives on VancouverHistory.ca I kept coming across recipients of the “Good Citizen Award” like Pearl Steen, Sister Frances, or Arthur William Delamont but it made me wonder if this award still exists today.

The first Good Citizen was fire chief John Howe Carlisle in 1922 and the title was since bestowed upon maybe good souls in the community every year but I haven’t heard of any new recipients since the 1980s. I believe there are awards for volunteers in Vancouver, but I’m still wondering whatever happened to the city’s recognition for its outstanding (and often selfless) members of the community with the “Good Citizen Award”.

Regardless, I’m pleased to see the folks of Surrey doing good in their neighbourhoods, schools and businesses. Congratulations to Mr. King for being Surrey’s 2008 Good Citizen of the Year.

Thanks to the effort of many hardworking folks, DrupalCamp Vancouver officially launched this evening at Flux Bistro in Gastown.

Drupal is a free software package that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website. [Drupal]

Until Saturday evening the city will be overrun with Drupalists from across this great nation to learn, discuss, code and partake in some of the following:

John and I had a chance to talk to Glenn of Image X Media, chat with a few familiar faces, give DaveO lots of hugs, then send our tired selves home.

If you’re heading to the sold out DrupalCamp make sure to tag any photos on Flickr with “dcv08” and hashtag your updates in Twitter with “#dcv08“.

A few months ago I was interviewed as a part of a video series by Reachd, a local firm that teaches and preaches the values of SEO. They are now offering video blogging seminars (learn how to make video, how to promote it etc.) and with the cost of signup comes a Flip Camera for all those who register.

Not surprisingly, the workshop registrations soared and they have now sold out the first event. However, you still have a chance to win your way in if you head over to the Techvibes Blog and drop a comment on this post over the next two weeks.

Their first 20-spot session on May 13th is sold-out but they’ve added a 2nd workshop on May 28th and set aside a free seat (and video camera) for a Techvibes reader. [Techvibes]

The workshops are 3 hours long (2pm to 5pm), the registration fee of $200 includes the fancy new camera, and will take place at Ceili’s Irish Pub. I had a chance to use Colleen’s Flip last night and I have to say, it’s a pretty slick compact video-making device.