Lynda Sez » HICKTech

Wild Life

rgdaniel — Mon, 05 May 2008 01:19:01 +0000

The garden is fully awake now, all budding and greening up, and we’ve had several visitors to the pond. The heron is so touchy I’ve only seen it in full flight from a distance, but a pair of mallards are much more tolerant (except when the dogs go to greet them). My greenhouse project came together, with Bob’s help: we made a former pheasant pen into a harbour for tender plants, using only a large roll of plastic and a nifty stapling tool. We repurposed odd bits from the pens we demolished inside the shed to make adjustable vents. It’s already a handy spot for several dozen cuttings from an old privet recently hacked down by one of Mum’s neighbours, plus all the seedlings I started a few weeks ago in the house.
I’ve stolen several hours on sunny days this week to get out and dig in the dirt, but it was no sacrifice to spend a whole day at the second annual HICKTech, a great tech conference in Owen Sound. It was a great combination of good speakers, interesting subjects, and superb food. We’re doing our best to support the sponsoring businesses, stocking up from Neustadt Brewery and the 100 Mile Market. Excellent craft beer and four-year-old cheddar — doesn’t get any better than that.

Great Keynote

rgdaniel — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:31:18 +0000

First speaker of the day (aside from our Mayor Lovell, who was cheerful and concise) was Heather Champ, community manager for Flickr. Excellent presentation on shepherding online communities, as Flickr has done for millions around the world. I think aspiring community builders in the audience might have wondered what it takes to be so successful — topic for another day, I guess.

HICKTech kicks off

rgdaniel — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:23:33 +0000

We’re here at the Bayshore in Owen Sound for the day I have been waiting for — premier tech conference, well conference of any kind in these parts, HICKTech. The speakers got piped in by Charles Meanwell. The coffee is wonderful!

HICKTech – the Hick Part

rgdaniel — Tue, 01 May 2007 18:57:59 +0000

Just listened to the best session so far – Karen Gillan told the tech story of the Bar 5 cattle company, an international breeding and sales operation. You can’t call this a farm, it’s more of a conglomerate of farming enterprises, doing business all over the world in sales of semen, embryos, live cattle and meat. She talked about some of the challenges of using technology in a rural area, not least of which is the uncertainty and speed of internet access. At their Markdale location, she has high speed satellite service, except when the hay wagon is parked between the house and the barn.
Richard Weait spoke with passion on the magic of mapping, featuring OpenStreetMap. This free mapping software effort is just gaining a foothold in parts of Canada, but many kilometers of the UK and Europe have been mapped by volunteers tracking their neighbourhoods with GPS units. Contributors working alone or in teams upload their data to be shared by the rest of the mapping community using the open source tool. Owen Sound is still a blank — lots of opportunities to make your mark if you’re into self-made mapping.

HICKTech Session Start

rgdaniel — Tue, 01 May 2007 15:02:04 +0000

HICKTEch got off to a fine start this morning with Ann-Marie Collins talking about managing the digital assets at the Bruce County Museum and Cultural Centre. She noted that the museum and archives is gradually moving into the 21st century but has a backlog of about 45 years of material and objects to catalog and organize into their asset management databases. This centre needs an archivist, says Ann-Marie, herself an archive assistant, but to me she has the passion and intelligence that make her an excellent candidate for the job.