Laura
on - last edited on
A new era is upon us! Tomorrow we will be launching Tech Blog: A new blog from Future Shop about everything technology-related. We've gathered a team of topnotch bloggers who will be bringing the latest in tech news, reviews, how-tos and general tech-talk to the Community with new articles everyday!
When the blog launches tomorrow, you'll notice a new look and feel. An important new feature to point out is the header, which is no longer the same as the one used on the futureshop.ca site, it's now a community-specific header, so you can navigate from forums to blogs to videos with greater ease. You'll notice that the blog is fixed width, where our community is currently absolute (takes up the full computer screen) - we're going to be moving the Community over to a fixed width layout next week to be able to implement the new header throughout the rest of the Community and to have better control over the design. It's gonna look fresh and fly.
But back to the blog - when I say a new era is upon us, I mean it. The Community is all about providing Canadians with a place to "connect share & learn" about all things technology, and adding blogs to the repertoire is really going to acreate a new point of view. It's going to be a great pool of resources for people seeking and providing advice in the forums. We do plan to expand the program over the next few months and I'm excited to see where it goes!
But for now, I want to introduce the inaugural blog team that we will be kicking this whole program off with. They are all greatly knowledgeable, talented bloggers and passionate about technology. They are all also very nice people! It's important to note that they are not blogging as "Future Shop employees". Future Shop is not proofing or editing their articles, their opinions are strictly their own and do not represent the opinions of Future Shop. We have an agreement with them, but are letting them have as much freedom as they can within the Community Guidelines.
Enough with the serious talk, here's the team:
[Buzz Bishop] buzzbishop │ cyberbuzz.com
Buzz Bishop is so cutting edge, he bleeds pop culture. He has 7 email addresses, 3 websites and several blogs. He Facebooks, Twitters and Flickrs and when he’s not being all Mr Technology, he’s Mr Dad to Zacharie, Mr Husband to Jen, and Mr Talk on Virgin Radio Vancouver weekday afternoons from 3. Buzz has been on the air at 95.3 for over a decade and knows the Lower Mainland back to front - literally. He used to live in Surrey and now lives on the North Shore. Two little known facts about Buzz - he was part of a team who launched Canada’s first radio station website and he once had a feature role in Breaker High.
[Paul Hunter] PaulH │ nextgenplayer.com
Growing up in Cambridge, Ontario, Paul Hunter has been a gamer enthusiast ever since he received his first PC, the Commodore 64, at the age of three years old. Having grown up with games such as Centipede, Joust, Dig Dug and Pong, Paul has acquired 25+ years of gaming experience. His enthusiasm for gaming culminated in April 2008 when he launched NextGen Player - Canada's Premier Gaming Blog. Paul has reported on major Canadian gaming events such as the Montreal International Game Summit, the Gaming Expo, the Gears of War 2 Canadian launch, and the Amp Your Game National Gaming Tour. He has also had the privilege of interviewing many of gaming's most respected personalities, including Jonathan Blog, Jason M. Paul, the Amp Energy Pro Team and the authors of Grand Theft Childhood.Paul’s original content has been featured on major gaming and news websites including Kotaku, IGN, GoNintendo, GameSpy, N4G and many more. His articles are also widely discussed in some of the world's most popular gaming forums such as NeoGAF, GameSpot, VG Chartz, Play Magazine and the Playstation Underground.
[Tris Hussey] trishussey │ trishussey.com
Long-time blogger and social media expert, Tris got his start in tech
running laboratories and doing tech support. After years of launching
websites for the pharmaceutical industry, Tris jumped into blogging on
a whim and hasn’t stopped yet. One of Canada’s first professional
bloggers and recognized as a leading expert in both social media and
business blogging, Tris continues to charge ahead pushing the edges of
social media with whatever new technology catches his eye. Tris is
sought after as a guest blogger on leading blogs, teaches courses on
social media at BCIT and UBC and is writing an introduction to blogging
book due out in mid-2009. Currently, Tris is the Social Media Concierge
and New Media Specialist for M2O Productions.
[Brad Grier] bgrier │ bradgrier.com
I'm a communications evangelist, writer, blogger, photographer, and
technology aficionado. Also a bit of a Twitter-er, so feel free to ping
me (@bgrier) or read check out some of my other interests at my
personal blog (http://blog.bradgrier.com).
What it’s all about:
I see this blog and my posts as part of a two-way communications
street. My posts in the Future Shop Technology blog will cover a range
of topics including how-tos, product reviews, technology news,
commentary, rants, and documentation of my exploits in technology and
communication. That being said, I'm also looking to *you* for feedback.
Comments, suggestions, all are welcome (as long as they're mostly civil
. Got a topic you'd like me to blog about, or want to see what I
think about particular piece of technology? Then let me know! Ping me
with a Private Message (in the Future Shop Community), or through the
community forum discussions.
Background:
My first involvement in the online world started in the latter part of
the 20th century (the ’80s) with involvement in the Edmonton Apple
& Amiga communities and Bulletin Board Systems.
In the ’90s, I brought the Internet to broadcast television by building
and operating the first website for a regional TV station in western
Canada (CITV Edmonton now Global TV Edmonton).
In this century, I’ve been focusing on community media and community
development, working with leading video games developers, creating an
industry standard model for online communities.
[Mathew Kumar] MathewKumar│ mathewkumar.com
Mathew Kumar, a journalist based in Toronto, Canada, was the founding content director for the Independent Games Festival Mobile, and has written for websites as diverse as CBC.ca, Eurogamer, Rock Paper Shotgun and Twitch Film, and for publications including Edge, The Globe and Mail and Plan B Magazine.
[Klaus Boedker] klausboedker │ seeingthemoment.com
I am really a digital convert. Sure at one time I use to
shoot with a Russian film SLR (with only one of the curtains properly working),
but I distinctly remember trying the first digital camera, a Canon Powershot
back in 2003. Wow!, I thought, this is so cool. Being able to see the changes
in real time when playing with ISO, aperture, shutter speed etc. was quite the
eye opener. Next year with the introduction of the first sub $1000 DSLR (the
original Canon Rebel) I was hooked on digital for good. Since then I have been through the Canon camp, shooting with
the Rebel and 30D and an array of lenses, currently ending up in the Nikon camp
with a D300.
On top of being a digital convert, I am a ‘photo-learner’. Meaning I am always working on learning new aspects of photography and improving my skill set, and I strongly believe in sharing as much of that knowledge with fellow photo enthusiasts. And that's really the direction I want to take this blog in: sharing our pool of photographic knowledge and allowing ourselves to get super-stoked about all the cool new cameras, lenses and technology in the world of digital photography today.
So be sure to check back to the Community on Friday and read the first blogs as they come in. As always, feedback is welcome!
