Tag: Community

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I’ve overhauled and upgraded my blog

A blog post on a laptop compute screen

Since 2009, this personal blog of mine has run on Blogger, a platform owned by Google. Over the years, it had become obvious that Blogger wasn’t a priority for the folks in Mountain View. Concerned about the inevitability of the platform being shut down I decided to migrate away from it. I considered multiple options and landed on WordPress, which I was already familiar with and which is open source. (WordPress is also a company that offers paid services such as hosting, and also supports the open source software.)

Migration of the blog turned out to be a bigger task than I had thought for a variety of reasons. There were many issues that I needed to deal with and, having started the migration and overhaul in 2019, it took until now to complete.

There were hundreds of broken or redirected links to address. It’s not that surprising that decade-old links to event registration pages were gone, but discovering articles that were only a few years old have vanished was unexpected. It felt like I was doing a restoration, always making decisions about how to handle each broken link. Many I simply removed. For others I found new links to use instead.

The biggest issue was discovering multiple eras of questionable Blogger HTML to sanitize. Plentiful nested DIV elements were only a small part of that mess. In the end, the posts are stripped down and clean, ready for new eyes to read them (and new web browsers to interpret the HTML).

I also spent time refurbishing the images. Many of them had originally been posted in smaller sizes than today’s web users might expect. As most photos were my own, I went back to the originals in many cases and added upgraded versions to the blog.

Happily, I had always run the blog on my own domain name, though Blogger-style URLs needed to be updated with WordPress URLs and appropriate re-directs. That was relatively easy compared with other work.

Finally, I added a few pieces that I had neglected to cross-post over the last few years. They had been written originally for the Zeitspace blog or the Fluxible blog. Collecting them together here makes for a more representative picture of what I’ve been up to.

I’m sure there will be issues that emerge that I’ve missed, and there are things that I’m still working on in the background. But it feels good to have this done.

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Fluxible Benefit Concert was a great success

Kathryn Ladano performing on bass clarinet

Last week’s Fluxible Benefit Concert for Open Ears And NUMUS was a great artistic success, featuring performances by musicians in our own Waterloo Region, but also from outside the region. 

And even better, the financial outcome of the concert was also a great success. With ticket sales and matching dollars from Fluxible and Fluxible TV sponsor Zeitspace, Open Ears and NUMUS are splitting $5,610. At a time when they can no longer deliver live music experiences in person, we know that this will have an impact. 

Nobody knows when either organization will be able to present live music experiences again. But I know that the musicians they present bring artistry and a devotion to their craft and that the result is great musical experiences in our community. 

Finally, Open Ears and NUMUS have a joint Indiegogo campaign going on — check it out.

This post originally appeared on the Fluxible website.

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Zeitspace is supporting Open Ears and NUMUS

Richard Burrows plays a vibraphone and Kathryn Ladano plays a bass clarinet

Zeitspace is proud to call Waterloo Region home. It has a vibrant tech ecosystem that makes the region a natural home for a company like ours. It also has a vibrant creative community that makes the region a wonderful place to live.

Zeitspace has been a sponsor of Open Ears Festival of Music and Sound in the past. This year would have been no different. But then it was different, as this year’s edition of Open Ears was cancelled. And other community events that we care about were either cancelled outright, or pivoted to online versions.

As I wrote back in 2018 when Zeitspace first sponsored Open Ears:

In past years, Open Ears has been somewhat associated with Fluxible, which I co-chair, and where various Open Ears associated musicians have delivered wonderful musical performances as a part of the Fluxible Conference program. (That’s a relationship that will continue this year, by the way, with more details to come.) As well, I’ve been on the board of directors for Open Ears for several years now, doing what I can to support an organization whose mission and activities are meaningful for me.

And, of course, there are many other arts organizations in the region. For example, NUMUS Concerts, like Open Ears, has a long history presenting music in innovative and unexpected ways. And also like Open Ears, many NUMUS-associated musicians have performed at Fluxible.

Fluxible is presenting a concert as a part of Fluxible TV, a streaming event that’s happening on June 4. But in addition Fluxible is streaming the concert separately as the Benefit Concert for Open Ears and NUMUS, expressly to financially support the two wonderful music organizations. And Fluxible is matching dollar-for-dollar ticket sales to make the support even more special.

And in that same spirit of support we’ve decided that Zeitspace will match dollar-for-dollar tickets sales for this benefit concert. Your ticket-buying dollars of support for Open Ears and NUMUS will now go even further.

So if you’re interested, please go buy a ticket now. You’ll enjoy a great concert while supporting two great music organizations.

And if not these organizations or this event, please look for other ways to support the creative community in Waterloo Region (or in your own community, wherever that is). The current focus has to be on survival, but let’s also be thinking about how we can all recover and thrive in a COVID-19 world.

This post originally appeared on the Zeitspace blog.

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Announcing the Fluxible Benefit Concert for Open Ears and NUMUS

Fluxible Benefit Concert for Open Ears and NUMUS

We’ve already revealed Fluxible TV to the world. It’s streaming to screens everywhere on June 4.

Today we have a related streaming event to announce. 

The Fluxible Benefit Concert for Open Ears + NUMUS is also happening on June 4 at the end of the Fluxible TV broadcast. That is, anyone watching Fluxible TV will be able to watch these awesome performances from exceptional musicians, all in support of Open Ears Festival of Music and Sound, and NUMUS Concerts. Many musicians affiliated with these organizations have performed at Fluxible over the years, and we’re lucky to have them in our community.

But not every music fan cares about Fluxible and UX. We do understand that! 

So we’re making the Fluxible Benefit Concert for Open Ears + NUMUS  available separately. And we’re doing it using pay-what-you-can pricing, to make it as accessible possible.The intent is to raise money for these two wonderful organizations that have been sharing innovative and inspiring sounds and music in Waterloo Region for decades. If you can pay more, that’s great for Open Ears and NUMUS. If you can pay less, that’s OK too. Both organizations want to reach as many people as possible with their music.

And there’s one more thing. Fluxible will match every dollar raised through ticket sales for the benefit concert. So the benefit gets even better because every dollar you spend goes twice as far!

Get your tickets now and enjoy some great music. See you next week.

This post originally appeared on the Fluxible website.

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Let’s all meet at Fluxible!

A person standing in front of a screen, presenting to a group seated in chairs

As I wrote previously, Zeitspace is sponsoring Fluxible, Canada’s UX Festival. UX is an important part of our work and our point of view at Zeitspace!

While the Fluxible Conference and Fluxible Workshops are major parts of the week, there’s more. Fluxible Meetups are happening from Monday through Friday, and feature a variety of topics and a variety of formats. And they’re all free!

Each day at noon there’s a UX Brown Bag Lunch session happening at the Communitech Hub. Topics include behavioural economics, ethical design, and UI design refactoring. There are also several site visits. Oracle NetSuite, D2L, and Shopify Plus are each opening their doors to a Fluxible Meetup on an interesting topic. What a great opportunity to meet folks at those places and see what they’re up to.

A perennial topic of interest for many UX folks in Waterloo Region is hiring (or getting hired!). Check out the panel discussion Perspectives on portfolios from the pros to sharpen up the way you think about portfolios.

And a cool old tradition returns as Fluxible teams up with uxWaterloo for a presentation by Google’s Meagan Timney at their Kitchener office. Though based in California, Meagan is originally from London Ontario, so having her back in Southern Ontario is pretty great.

There’s more, so be sure to check out all the Fluxible Meetups for details. There ought to be something for just about eveyone.

This post originally appeared on the Fluxible website.

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Make the Leap of Faith for Fluxible Conference 2018

A crowd of people leaving an auditorium

It’s been quiet here at Fluxible headquarters over the last few months — almost too quiet — with little in the way of announcements. But that doesn’t mean we’ve been inactive, and now it’s time for us to share!

For our first public disclosure of 2018, we’ve decided to be just like your favourite cool band and drop a new album with absolutely no notice. Well, not literally a new album, of course, though it’s certainly within the realm of possibility that we’ll do that one day.

No, what we’re doing instead is announcing that Leap of Faith tickets are now on sale for Fluxible Conference 2018. What, exactly, does that mean? It means that you can register at the lowest possible price, but you’ll need to do so without us having released any information about our 2018 program.

We’re able to provide a little context, though. Fluxible 2018 is happening from Monday, September 17 through Sunday, September 23. As with last year’s exhilarating presentation of Canada’s UX Festival, there’s plenty going on.

For our seventh edition in 2018 we’re presenting a week-long user experience festival, this time made up of four parts. There’s the Fluxible Conference, which is the core of the festival, happening the weekend of September 22 & 23. There’s a day of Fluxible Workshops on Friday September 21. There are Fluxible Meetups happening from Monday September 17 through Friday September 21. And finally, there’s the Fluxible Education Summit, happening in partnership with Wilfrid Laurier University on Friday September 21.

And now you have a little context in order to make that Leap of Faith.

And, in case you didn’t have enough incentive to buy early, this offer is at our lowest rate, but it’s only for a limited time. Sales close on February 14 — Valentine’s Day — so why wait another minute? Get your Leap of Faith Ticket right now. And if you don’t do it for yourself, do it for someone you love! You’ll thank us later for having made your Valentine’s Day such a great success.

This post originally appeared on the Fluxible website.

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Take a leap of faith and love Fluxible

A person on a stage in front of a sceen showing a presentation

Fluxible now has five past editions that we can look back on with pride and fond memories. From a two-day conference in 2012 to a week-long festival in 2016, the Fluxible experience has grown richer and deeper each year, with a large community of attendees having joined us along the way.

This year, we’re again presenting Fluxible as Canada’s UX Festival, with another full week of events in three streams. We’ll present a program of Fluxible Meetups (September 18–22), a day of Fluxible Workshops (September 22), and the crowning two-day Fluxible Conference (September 23 & 24). We’re back at the CIGI Auditorium for the weekend conference, and the Communitech Hub for workshops and many meetups. In addition to all the terrific food, presentations, conversations, workshops, music, and more that you’ve come to expect, we have a few fun surprises cooking that we’re sure you’ll love.

And we’re trying something different this year for registration.

We know that many of you start budgeting for conferences and events earlier in the year than we, in the past, have announced details of our program and tickets sales. That has made for some uncertainty in planning your year. For 2017, we have a new approach that we hope addresses that.

We’re introducing Leap of Faith ticket sales for Fluxible Conference.

Why Leap of Faith? Because we’re opening up ticket sales without having announced a single speaker! How could we possibly expect anyone to register for Fluxible Conference without knowing the details? Well, with five years of Fluxible Conferences to look back on, we think we’ve established a solid record of delivering great programming married to a great experience. We believe that in making the Leap of Faith and registering now you’ll be rewarded with another terrific conference. Plus, you’ll have done so at the best price, as we’re offering our lowest cost tickets for Leap of Faith tickets. But it’s for a short time only, as we close Leap of Faith ticket sales on March 17.

So show your love for UX in general and Fluxible in particular by making the leap of faith and buying your Fluxible Conference tickets now!

This post originally appeared on the Fluxible website.

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State of the City of Kitchener

State Of The City presentation by the Mayor

A crowd of people listens to Mayor Berry Vrbanovic present

I had the honour of attending the City of Kitchener’s annual State of the City event on Wednesday, representing Fluxible along with friend, colleague, and long-time collaborator Bob Barlow-Busch.

The event was held in the magnificent industrial space at 41 Ardelt Place, and featured Mayor Berry Vrbanovic delivering a State of the City address to a large crowd.

Make It Kitchener was the theme, and it was fun to hear the details. There are six opportunities identified in the strategy:

  • Make it Spark
  • Make it Start
  • Make it Grow
  • Make it Urban
  • Make it Vibrant
  • Make it Connect

It’s exciting to see “Support professional development in user experience” identified as one of the ways to get “Make It Spark” to happen. I’m delighted to help drive that through Fluxible!

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Cooking up a career bigos

Bigos in a pot

Bigos, a lovely stew

I had a recent conversation with a friend about working in UX. As we all do, he’s aiming to find a balance of work that is rewarding, provides room for growth, and pays the bills. He has a range of important creative activities that he’s engaged in and he wants to ensure that none of them are being neglected.

Our conversation resonated with my own thinking about my career. Metaphorically, I have a soup of ingredients that are all important to my UX work and that I aim to have aligned with each other. Boltmade is the major ingredient, while Fluxible and uxWaterloo are two other obvious ingredients in that soup. Other ingredients like attending other events, having conversations with various folks in the community, and ongoing readings all go into the mix as well. I’m delighted that these all complement each other as well as they do.

As I talked about this with my friend, he got it right away and declared it to be more of a stew. What immediately popped into my mind was a wonderful kind of stew called bigos.

My mom taught me how to make bigos, and it’s a dish that my whole family loves. One of the great things about it is how it improves on subsequent days as it cooks. Moreover, adding new ingredients on those day renews it and extends it over more meals.

My UX career bigos evolves, and the ingredients that I add over time ensure that it keeps getting better.

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Fluxible dates announced!

Giles Colborne presenting at Fluxible

And, just like that, we’ve announced the dates for Fluxible 2015! Our next edition of the UX party disguised as a conference is happening on September 26 & 27, 2015. As we revealed over there:

Like last year, Fluxible will take place in the Communitech Hub and Tannery Event Centre, in the heart of downtown Kitchener. Some exciting events will happen during the preceding week as well, so stay tuned for details. Further announcements will begin shortly, and we hope you’ll be as excited as we are!

As usual, we have some delightful surprises in store, so stay tuned! And what better way to stay tuned than to join our mailing list? You’ll get all the best news before anyone else!