Here’s a quick little post to acknowledge a pretty impressive milestone for the Tech Community in Armadillo’s hometown of Calgary.
If you haven’t heard, “iStockPhotos”:http://www.istockphoto.com/index.php is turning ten years old today and to celebrate they are “launching a mini-site, giving away a slew of prizes”:http://istock10.com/ and are “now one of the top trending topics on Twitter”:http://istock10.com/twitter/.
As one of our preferred service providers, by providing High-Quality stock imagery at an affordable price, iStock has done wonders for the Web Design community. Without their services, the development of many of our projects would not be possible.
But on a more local note, as a Calgary-based company iStock have given back even more. Through a trickle down affect of knowledge and talent, iStock has probably provided more to the growth of our community than many people know. Many of our fellow competitors, freelancers and partnering consultants have cut their chops and learned the ropes of the industry by working for iStock. By fostering a pool of great local and international talent to staff their operations, one of the great by-products has been the injection of new ideas and new talent into the Calgary community. Their presence at Democamps and other events has helped spread ideas and design concepts. Without their presence, the blossoming community in Alberta wouldn’t be as strong as it is today.
So to iStockPhoto, HAPPY BIRTHDAY and all the best in the future.
As previously mentioned SXSW is long over and the overviews are starting to roll in. As usual, I’m a little late with my final blog posts. So instead of waxing poetically about the conference, here is a run down of some of the links that you should have a gander at. They cover the entire spectrum of the conference, from influential thinkers to upcoming design techniques to new tools for business:
Social Media Thinkers & Shakers
* “Chris Brogan”:http://www.chrisbrogan.com/my-plans-for-sxsw/ and “Julien Smith”:http://inoveryourhead.net/, the two brains behind the exceptional book Trust Agents. If you are involved with building an online brand or personal brand, invest in this book.
* Washington DC Visual Information collective “JESS3”:http://www.jess3.com.
* Uber-entrepreneur “Gary Vanyerchuk”:http://garyvaynerchuk.com/, who is an amazing inspiration for people looking to build a Company brand.
Web Typography
* “Samantha Warren”:http://www.slideshare.net/SamanthaWarren/sxsw-2010 a fantastic designer who is pushing the World of Web Typography, with some great poster based design.
* “Jason Cranford Teague”:http://www.jasonspeaking.com/index.php/about/ wrote a book called “Fluid Web Typography”:http://www.peachpit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0321679989, which is a fantastic and straight forward break down of the up coming shift towards Web Typography.
Interesting Takes On SXSW and Design Culture
* A Graphical representation of the SXSW Conference thorough a series of “Moleskin notebook sketches (via. Roh Design)”:http://www.flickr.com/photos/rohdesign/sets/72157623522676011/
* Unhappy Hipsters, a collection of “Wallpaper magazine photos with unhappy hipster commentary”:http://unhappyhipsters.com/
New Tools For Everyone:
* “Wufoo.com”:http://wufoo.com/signup/ a simple web site that allows anyone to develop simple and stylish web forms.
* “Mapscripting.com”:http://mapscripting.com/way-cool, which is a pushing the boundaries of what Google Maps and Yahoo Maps can do for small businesses.
* “Grasshopper.com”:http://grasshopper.com/how-it-works/ is an inexpensive Toll Free phone office service for small businesses. (There is also a Canadian Equivalent called “RingCentral”:http://www.ringcentral.ca/ which Canadian businesses should check-out)
* “Launch’s take on Leave Your Job Start An Agency”:http://www.lunch.com/reviews/Leave_Your_Job_Start_An_Agency-1439609.html, the feedback to our talk from SXSW
* From our good friend Andy at “NonImage”:http://www.nonimage.com, is the amazing Invoicing app called “FreeAgent”:http://www.freeagentcentral.com/?referrer=31l1ldro, which will revolutionalize how freelancers control their own books.
* “OneForty.com”:http://oneforty.com/ the ultimate resource for Twitter apps to leverage for your business.
* A great presentation on the power and beauty of “Co-Working and how it will change our own way of working”:http://spinuzzi.blogspot.com/2010/03/sxswi-what-coworking-tells-us-about.html. If you are interested in coworking in Calgary check out “Coworkyyc.com”:http://www.coworkyyc.com.
