Change Everything starts with small steps close to home

Congratulations to Kate and the team at Change Everything for the fine mention of their efforts to help the homeless with toques and warm clothes in the Globe and Mail.

The harsh winter weather has also brought an outpouring of support for those who live on the streets.

It took Kate Dugas only 24 hours on her weblog to organize a drive for clothing for the homeless. The site, launched by VanCity Credit Union, is called ChangeEverything.ca.

Ms. Dugas, the online moderator, posted a blog at noon Monday saying she was working from home after the snowstorm. She felt lucky to have a home and she was wondering how the shelters in the city were coping. She called a women’s shelter in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside neighbourhood. From the sound of things, they could really use some help, she wrote. The shelter was looking for hats, gloves, sweaters and blankets.

Ms. Dugas wrote that she would pick up clothing and deliver it to the shelter if a business could lend her a suitable vehicle. Within an hour, she started receiving responses. Someone wrote that she had a few scarves and a blanket that she would happily donate if Ms. Dugas would pick it up. The postings continued throughout the day.

By noon yesterday, Ms. Dugas had arranged to borrow a vehicle and found others who wanted to help her collect clothing from 10 different locations. She expected to drop off the donations at the shelter last night, Ms. Dugas said in an interview.

Inspired by their efforts, I made a less-epic donation of toques and warm clothes on Tuesday night, including the warmest wool overalls I’ve ever owned, gathered from a few friends. If you’d like to contribute some warm clothes and hats, get in touch with me. If there’s demand I’ll make another trip.

Posted by James Sherrett | Email to a Friend

Filed under: • Work • Community • Personal
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Experimenting with the hCard Microformat

Over the past few months I’ve been paying a bit of attention to the growing momentum behind microformats on the web. What are Microformats?

Designed for humans first and machines second, Microformats are a set of simple, open data formats built upon existing and widely adopted standards. Learn more about Microformats.

Basically they’re a more advanced way of marking up some common content on the web. Things like people, reviews and calendar events. See them all here.

The one thing I thought they were missing were recipes, an almost perfectly standardized type of content that would benefit hugely from being standardized. Imagine no longer wondering how many millilitres are in a cup. Instead, choose your measurement standard and the recipe is translated into that system. Imagine not having to wander through recipes matching what you have to what’s called for. Just search for the recipes with your ingredients. I digress.

To try my hand at getting started I chose the easiest and most useful Microformat - contact information - and used the hCard creator to make myself an hCard. Simple, I thought. I liked it.

Then I tried to add my personal contact information to the Work Industries contact page. Oh. Not so simple.

I’ve got my James Sherrett vCard working to show my information and image. But what I want to do is create a keen way to download my contact information like they have on the Habaneros contact page (click on the contact details link then try the card link: presto!).

Anyone have any pointers? I feel like I’m one simple step away from getting it yet I’m at the end of my technical tether.

Beyond my technical flailings though, I want to point out that my experience with Microformats illustrates the problem on the web: it’s too hard. There’s too much friction to doing it. For Microformats (or any website or web application) to catch on and provide the benefit they promise, which would be a great thing, they have to offer lower friction. It’s simply too hard to do many things today. See the diagram at the top of this post. Do you understand it?

I’m even kind of a nerd about this kind of thing, I use an FTP program, and I’m stumped.

Posted by James Sherrett | Email to a Friend

Filed under: • Services • Web Content • Harebrained Ideas
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YouMail makes voicemail speak in multitudes

Remember my Harebrained Idea for the ‘I’m busy’ Voice Mail? Well today I read on the Under the Radar blog that a company called YouMail has developed a product that does kinda what I was looking for, and more.

YouMail is the new voice mail for cell phones. Among many features, it allows you to record unique voice greetings for anyone who calls you, based on their caller ID. Individualize your voice greetings for friends, family or important callers while maintaining a standard greeting for work and unknown callers.

Check your voice messages from any phone or via the web and forward favorite messages to anyone via email. Have fun with the already infamous DITCHMAIL feature that hangs up on unwanted callers after your custom greeting for them is played.

So it’s kinda what I was looking for, but not quite. I still want to be able to send certain calls to a custom message based on my situation, not based on who is calling. I want the system to work based on me, not based on the technology.

Oh well. It’s a start.

Posted by James Sherrett | Email to a Friend

Filed under: • Harebrained Ideas
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Our Plans for the Long Weekend

Communication over the next few days will be intermittent for Work Industries as we travel to Winnipeg to celebrate the 80th birthday of Joan Sherrett. Tomorrow, November 10th, over the weekend and Monday, November 13th, we may be patchy on prompt replies.

Regular communications will resume next Tuesday, November 14th. Urgent dispatches can be received through the normal communications channels.

Happy Remembrance Day (Canada and commonwealth) and Veterans Day (US)!

Bonus: In Flanders Field

Posted by James Sherrett | Email to a Friend

Filed under: • Work • Personal
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