posted on September 16, 2013 by
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In the Online Classroom this Autumn, Teaching Interactive Storytelling

BCIT StoryToGoWe are excited to be starting a whole new chapter of teaching and storytelling for us this Autumn, with our first post-secondary accredited online course in Interactive Storytelling available through BCIT StoryToGo’s Media Storytelling Department (formerly Part-Time Broadcast Studies). This means that anybody can register and take this course from anywhere in the world, on their time, and they don’t have to be a regular student of BCIT. Pretty cool!

It also means for us, that we, ourselves have been experimenting with both new methods of digital storytelling and teaching to better reach our students. So we have created course videos, webinars, step-by-step technology manuals, interactive quizzes, and discussion boards … and that is just been the beginning. We look forward to experimenting with new ways of connecting and engaging with our students as the Course gets underway.  As the Course content has already all been built, we also love that this now places the emphasis in teaching, on engaging with our students, and trouble-shooting with them, as they begin to build their own interactive storytelling projects. Here’s a little of what you can expect from the Course:

 [youtube Cm3WBgelWS8]

Our course is not the only new online storytelling course this term through BCIT StoryToGo‘s Media Storytelling Department. Thanks to Steve Dotto, Marty Strong and I discussed storytelling and the online courses available through BCIT StoryToGo last week on the Dotto Tech Radio Show on AM 650. You can listen to the broadcast here:

The three Courses available online through BCIT StoryToGo’s Media Storytelling Program this Autumn, include:

You can also catch an online course with Steve Dotto, as he launches his own series of online courses in Email Management and ProTECHtivity.

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posted on August 22, 2013 by
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‘Tis The Season-For Back To School!

As summer winds to a close, it’s time to gear up for another school year.  We would like to offer  some helpful advice to make the most efficient use of the time you have to prepare.  The whole family needs work and play together to make the mental and physical adjustment successful.

Yes...It IS that time again!

Yes…It IS that time again! (photo by Quinn Dombrowski)

Begin by slowly moving your sleep and wake schedule closer to that which will be required during the school year.  You don’t want that first early morning to be a shocker!

Play some family games that require thinking.  Fall back on the oldies, but goodies: Pictionary, Charades, Scattegories and trivia related games.  A new personal favourite of ours is Snake Oil, a very creative game that builds strong communication skills.

If your children have not been doing any academic work throughout the summer, it would be a good idea to print out some cummulatative review worksheets from the grade level they just completed.  Have them begin to write compositions by providing purpose driven topics.  For example, ‘Write a review of all the television shows you watched this summer, or video games you played’,  ‘Review and recommend different phone apps’.

In order to avoid last minute stress, start organizing school materials now.  For once, take the time to find out which markers are dried out and which pens no longer work! Start planning for those dreaded daily lunches and experiment to find different options with ‘summer taste tests.’

If your child is a school-age actor, plan to have a meeting with his/her teacher within the first week of school.  Gather the teacher’s contact information and decide on a mutual policy for missing school.  This will save you time when your child books a role.  We recommend creating a set kit that is always ready to go.  Be sure to pack paper, pencils and other miscellaneous school supplies.  Days on set can be long so we suggest  including a good book and educational games.  A mini version of your set kit can be made to take along on auditions.

At Ahimsa Media we are always available to help you with transitions between home, school and set.  We hope everyone has had incredible summers and that all of our past and future students have a successful school year.

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posted on January 7, 2013 by
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Happy New Year!

Hope you have enjoyed a holiday filled with good health, enjoyable company, and relaxation.

As people head back to work this week, we thought we’d take a moment to wish you all a Happy and Healthy New Year, best said in pictures in our Holiday Card.

 

Ahimsa New Year

 

If you still have time off this week or wish to revert into holiday mode on your weekends this month, here are some ways to unwind with our tradition of sharing a holiday activity: Vegetable Scrap Gardening (on Erica’s new speaking site) and Holiday Decorations for the Birds (on a client’s site).

Enjoy!

With Warmest of Wishes,

Erica, Lori, Emme, Brie and the rest of the Ahimsa Media Team

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posted on May 31, 2012 by
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Great People We Meet on the Road, Speaking on a Sustainable Future in Tourism

One of the things I have been loving about all of the great traveling we’ve been doing with Roamancing this past year are the lovely and interesting people we’ve been meeting around the world, including the two in this video, Mohamed A. El Monem and Audrey Scott:

 

[youtube Yx0M46_WWkw]

 

Mohamed is the host of a couple of Shows on Egyptian Satellite TV and an excellent interviewer, especially as he was translating on top of that.  Audrey and I also had fun debating some pretty weighty topics with him.

Audrey, like us, is a digital storyteller, and I might add, an excellent one.  She and her husband, Daniel Noll, have been focused on digital storytelling around travel with their site, UncorneredMarket.com. Also similar to us, they focus on the human side of travel, waking people’s minds up to cultures around the world.  They are beautiful people inside and out, and I feel very fortunate to have spent a fair bit of time with them the past few months.

 

Mohamed and Audrey on Egyptian Satellite TV

 

I am excited for tonight, as they will be speaking on Sustainability in Travel in Vancouver, which means I get to sit back and listen to a few more of their stories.  Pleased to share that there are still tickets, so you can enjoy them too. Here are the details:

 

  • What?  Future of Tourism Vancouver
  • When?  TONIGHT – May 31st, 2012 at 6:45 pm
  • Where?  The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts (777 Homer St., Vancouver)
  • Cost?  By Donation
  • Register:  Future of Tourism Vancouver Eventbrite
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posted on May 3, 2012 by
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UNWTO Travel & Media Conference: #WeVisitEgypt ‘Real’ Time Digital Travel Storytelling Presentation

For those of you that sadly could not be with Audrey Scott and Daniel Noll of Uncornered Market and I at the UNWTO Tourism and Media Conference last week on Egypt’s Red Sea, here is a slide share of our presentation on our #WeVisitEgypt ‘Real’ Time Digital Travel Storytelling Demonstration.

 

UNWTO Travel & Media Conference: #WeVisitEgypt ‘Real’ Time Digital Travel Storytelling Presentation

 

With any luck, we will also get our paws on the video that was shot of our presentation to share with all of you too.

 

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posted on April 18, 2012 by
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#WeVisitEgypt ~ A Digital Egyptian Travel Tale

Courtesy of Audrey Scott & Daniel Noll of UnCornered Market

 

We are Roamancing Egypt (again)!

As some of you may be aware we launched Emme Rogers and Brie Mason into their latest digital, interactive transmedia tale this past summer, Roamancing ~  a travel tale in search of those most elusive of creatures: love and romance.  We’ve been having fun with it and for those of you that are familiar with Emme, I am sure you can imagine the silly shenanigans and characters we’ve met along the way, from being presented with a key to City of Yorkton with the fabulous Katrina German to forever bumping into a few delightfully mischievious Blues Men that have wormed their way into our hearts and our stories. With a trip to Egypt this past December to speak at the International Organisation for E-Tourism Conference in Cairo, Lori Yearwood and I decided that like many of the wonderful storytellers that we work with, it was time to weave ourself into our own tales.  I am glad we did, as I had a lot of fun telling a tale or two with Lucy Duck and the Roamancing Red Boots in Egypt, and I am proud to say I am the first of our team to have done the Roamancing strut overseas (even if I looked ridiculous in doing so).

 

Lucy prepares to enter the Mosque

 

One of the realisations from being in Cairo during demonstrations in Tahrir Square, was the impact of mainstream media images on people back home.  I was perfectly safe and having a grand time, yet perceptions from media images in North America were that Egypt was in a state of violence and chaos.  The biggest threat to me?  Too many marriage proposals.  Here are two posts I wrote on the topic, upon returning home:

It struck me that when we’ve seen images of rioting in Canada, no one worries for ones safety in still visiting the country.  That is not the case with Egypt, as the culture is so different from our own.  Yet I felt welcomed and safe in visiting Egypt and saw how damaging the media images from Tahrir Square have been to Egyptian Tourism, a major player in the Egyptian economy.

 

Hmm … Clearly the ‘flat’ aspect of the bread making was lost of me.

 

It is for this reason that we have been consulting with the Egyptian Tourism Authority on using digital storytelling to share the wonderful and exciting travel experiences that you can have in Egypt in ‘real’ time. I am also pleased to share that the Egyptian Tourism Authority has similarly been consulting with two of the wonderful digital storytellers and fellow speakers that I recently met in Cairo, Daniel Noll and Audrey Scott. Daniel and Audrey are the husband-and-wife storytelling team behind the award winning travel blog, Uncornered Market. For over five years, they have continuously travelled around the world, inspiring others to create their own life and travel experiences.

Together with Audrey and Dan, I will be heading to Egypt from April 21 – 29, 2012 with Emme Rogers, Lucy Duck, and the Roamancing Red Boots in tow to share our adventures in Egypt in ‘real’ time and demonstrate for the World Tourism Organisation (UNTWO) Conference on Media and Tourism: Partnering with the Media in Challenging Times how digital media and travel bloggers can be used to change the conversation about tourist destinations challenged by negative perceptions related to current events.  As a part of this, Dan, Audrey and I will be hosting an informal session with the Egyptian Tourism Authority at the beginning of the  Conference on Thursday April 26th, 2012 to demonstrate our #WeVisitEgypt digital storytelling campaign.

 

Audrey Scott & Daniel Noll of Uncornered Market in Cairo

 

We invite you to join us on our Digital Egyptian Adventure by following along with the hastag #WeVisitEgypt on your social networking feeds, as well as through uncorneredmarket.com, roamancing.com and emmerogers.com.  Furthermore, we invite you to join us in demonstrating to Tourism how effective digital media, including social media and blogging can be in sharing a message. Here are some ways that you can become involved in the #WeVisitEgypt Campaign:

  • Share what we are doing in Egypt and the #WeVisitEgypt hashtag to your media channels;
  • Follow #WeVisitEgypt on your social networking channels and retweet content that appeals to you;
  • Interact with us on our adventure at @UMarket, @Roamancing, @EmmeRogers and @EricaHargreave; and
  • Share your own photos, video and blog posts from Egypt with the #WeVisitEgypt hashtag (and we will do our best to retweet them).

Thank you in advance for whatever ways you decide to join in the #WeVisitEgypt Adventure.

Best wishes,

Erica Hargreave

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posted on February 14, 2012 by
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A Very Cool Example of Innovative Transmedia Storytelling from a Chronicle YouTube Post

With having worked extensively with film and television, in training, strategizing and implementing digital and transmedia storytelling, we are aware that it’s been a struggle to get filmmakers to think in advance of how to tell their stories to multiple platforms and to leave a budget for it to be done properly.  Our Message? Remembering that we are storytellers and telling a story, and that this is just as important to your digital feeds, as it is to the screen, to engage and titillate the audience’s imagination. It is for this reason that we get so excited when we see innovative examples of transmedia storytelling from films and television series.

This is exactly what we found recently with this youtube video and real world event, acting as a teaser for the movie Chronicle:

 

[youtube dcDN409ZBv4]

 

Thanks to the Roam Mobility Blog for sharing this!

Wish we’d been following this through from the start to have seen how the full campaign transpired.

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posted on January 9, 2012 by
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Copyright, the Web and SEO

I am constantly amazed at how many people seem to think that in the digital space it is okay to cut and paste other people’s work. They will cut and paste full blog posts written by others onto their site and use photos without the proper permissions, neglecting to credit and link the sources.  I’ve seen this with my students, which results in an immediate ‘0’, but more concerning I’ve seen this in grad students work, grad students who are being paid as editors of online publications. Worse than that I have seen established businesses doing this, even production companies that are trained in copyright law and will threaten legal action the second anyone shares their video content on youtube.  What they don’t seem to realize is pirating other people’s writing and photographs on the web is the same thing.  It is copyright infringement. This is why you need to hire professionals to manage your digital voice and not assume that an intern or your IT person has the skills to be the front line voice for the company in the digital space.

To put this into book terms, this would be like somebody stealing a whole chapter of someone else’s book and sticking it into their book.

 

Hard at Work Coming up with a Complimentary Solution

 

Not only is it copyright infringement and shows you lack all creativity, but it also dings you with search engines.  Search engines, like Google, discount your site when they find duplicate material elsewhere on the web. So it does not pay to cut corners in this way.

Professional Photographer, Ralph Velasco photographing Dan & Audrey of Uncornered Market in Egypt

Now if there does happen to be a post by another organization or individual on the web that you wish to draw eyes to on your site, here is how to do it, to be complimentary, meet copyright law and prevent getting blacklisted by search engines:

  1. Write an original introduction of your own introducing the blog article you want to highlight;
  2. Share a quote from the blog article you wish to highlight;
  3. Post a link to the original blog article you wish to highlight; and
  4. End the post with some original writing of your own.

The same goes for photographs.  If the photo you wish to share on your site does not have the Creative Commons license on it, ask the photographer’s permission, credit and link them, and compensate them for it’s use. If it does have a Creative Commons license on it, then you still need to credit and link the photographer, preferably to their professional site.

Remember quality content takes time to create and it needs to be respected and credited.  You wouldn’t want your content pirated, so don’t pirate the content of others.

 

 

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posted on January 5, 2012 by
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Happy 2012!

2011 was a year of challenges, both personally and in business.

In terms of Ahimsa Media, it was a year that saw much growth in the company in a positive way, in which Lori and I really were able to make some informed decisions on the direction we wanted to take the company.  It was also a very busy year for the company, in which we:

  • Built the social media strategy around a number of television series;
  • Managed the digital storytelling, digital audience building and social networking for 6 TV Series and Films;
  • Wrote successful funding applications for clients;
  • Taught at 3 Post-Secondary Institution across Canada, including a grad school lab;
  • Spoke around the World at film festivals and travel conferences on the digital space;
  • Launched a new transmedia travel property, Roamancing, with Emme Rogers; and
  • Sat on the Advisory Board for Merging Media and the Adhoc Advisory Board for a new Digital Program at a Post-Secondary Institution.

It even ended personally with 2 marriage proposals in 2-days, but then I guess that’s Egypt for you.

As we head into 2012, we look forward to exciting new challenges, growing as speakers around the world, building in the travel industry in addition to the fun we have with the film and television world, and of course, a little Roamancing (before long we shall have this word in everyones vocabulary, as really who doesn’t want to roamance).

 


Happy New Year everyone!  Wishing you a year of love, health, happiness and a whole of fun, wherever your adventures end up taking you.

With love and laughter from,

Erica, Lori and the rest of the Ahimsa Media gang

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posted on October 26, 2011 by
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Merging Media 2011

Two principles that Ahimsa Media has been built upon are education and the sharing of ideas and collaborating with others.  This is what we did back in the day with Megan Cole and Bridging Media to encourage the conversation between technology, digital media and traditional media.  When Megan and I got busy on other projects, I am glad that others picked up where we left off with the conversation.  Most notable of these is Vancouver’s Merging Media Conference, which I have had the honour of sitting on the Advisory Board for the past two years.

No Conference is ever perfect, but this one rates highly in my books, because it encourages a conversation with media makers and technologists from a number of different sectors, including traditional media, emerging media, social media and gaming; and it invites in a number of different voices and opinions from around North America. On top of that, Merging Media provides the opportunity for people to connect through networking events, B2B meetings, and a Master’s Class. For me these are the key ingredients to evolving our ideas and creating the future of media.  It is thanks to events, like this, that we have built a valuable network of colleagues, partners, contractors and friends over the years.

Can Convergent Roulette at Merging Media 2010, photographed by Liz Kearsley.

Merging Media 2011 takes place in Vancouver this week – Thursday October 27th & Friday October 28th – and it is not too late to take part.  You can still sign up.

Some of the highlights:

  • An impressive list of speakers (I’d mention them all, but there are a lot of them, including many that I adore and love listening to) on some interesting topics, including gaming, monetizing, technology, traditional media in an interactive landscape …etc.
  • International B2B (Business to Business) Sessions
  • The VEDC Innovation Gallery where our BC Technology companies will be demoing their latest ‘Tools of Engagement’.

I am also pleased to share that we will be pitching our latest project with Emme Rogers and friends, Roamancing, as a part of the Pitch 360. This is not only a project that we are having a lot of fun with, but that truly reflects the nature of this events, as it combines the efforts and creativity of a number of people world-wide from traditional media, emerging media, social media and gaming.

Hope to see you at Merging Media this week!

Erica

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