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AHA MEDIA has been invited to the LG Canadian Texting Championships 2009 Vancouver Media Challenge!
AHA MEDIA has been invited to participate in the LG Canadian Texting Championships which is coming to Vancouver this Friday April 17th!
The LG Canadian Texting Championships and Media Charity Challenge is back for its’ second annual competition!
LG Electronics is inviting Vancouver media to compete in the ultimate text message challenge to win $1,000 on behalf of the charity of your choice.
This will be a great chance to show off to your fellow media and compete for your favourite charity. We’ll supply the QWERTY keypads; you just need to bring yourself and your skillz.
As AHA MEDIA, strives to be among the best representatives of Media from the Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES), we accept the challenge and wish all our fellow media texting competitors good luck!
It’s for charity – Let’s raise some funds! 🙂
WHAT: The second annual LG Canadian Texting Championships and the 2009 Media Competition. Win $1,000 for your favourite charity.
WHERE: Richmond Centre, Centre Court East (Tim Horton’s entrance)
WHEN: Friday, April 17, 2009 from 12:00pm – 1:00pm *Please RSVP so we can pre-register you or arrive by 11:45am for registration.
About the 2nd Annual LG Canadian Texting Championship:
LG Canada will be traveling across the nation to find the 2009 fastest texter. Regional and online qualifying tournaments will take place this spring, leading up to the ultimate showdown in Toronto on June 29th. Finalists will compete head-to-head at the finals with last year’s winner, Mark “Jervy” Breiva and attempt to take the title of Canada’s fastest texter.
The LG Texting Booth will be set-up at the Richmond Centre from Thursday April 16- Sunday April 19 during mall hours:
Wed-Fri 9:30am- 9:00pm
Sat 9:30am-7:00pm
Sun 11:00am-6:00pm
AHA MEDIA’s April Smith’s 5 Question Video for KontentCreative.com
AHA MEDIA’s April Smith is lucky and honored to be the very first video interviewee for http://www.KontentCreative.com
This interview at http://kontentcreative.com/blog/ was filmed on a Nokia N95 Cameraphone. 🙂
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April Smith
Co-Founder and Producer of AHA MEDIA
youtube.com/AHAFILM
ahamedia.ca
twitter.com/aprilfilms
April Smith is an avid mobile new media livestreaming videographer/photographer using HTC Touch Pro and Nokia N95/N77 cameraphones.
She is a W2 Community Media Arts Centre Programming Assistant and a Project leader/Cheerleader for Fearless Media and for the Fearless City Mobile Project
April Smith is a Co-founder and Producer of mobile media production group AHA MEDIA.
At AHA MEDIA, we are emerging independent mobile social media event reporters and new media hyper local citizen journalists. Based in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside, we cover community news and special events & functions with our ongoing learnings of technology, mobile media production and cameraphone capacity in Vancouver, B.C., Canada
1) What’s the one piece of online or offline technology that you can’t live without?
My Nokia Cameraphone, specifically my Nokia N95 (which filmed the 5 Qs video), N77 and HTC Touch ( where I can livestream content)
2) What is your favourite online resource?
Twitter! It’s a fantastic tool where my friends and supporters can talk and meet! I get to find out information in real time, real opinions from real people. I would have to say that I use it alot more than Google 
3) How many e-mails do you get in a day?
50-60 emails a day and that’s not including all the DM (Direct Messages) or @AprilFilms messages on Twitter. There’s lots of information going back and forth within my day!
4) Tomorrow there is no internet. What do you do?
I would do what I do every day and that’s go out and film with my cameraphone Whether it be in the DTES down an alley covering a new story or to cover a very special social media or twitter event in Vancouver
5) Are you followed or are you a follower?
Both! I follow lots of different people, all sorts of people that are very interesting and I hope to be followed also:) I hope that in this regard, people can share all sorts of information and if you can be the follower and the followee, you’re definitely doing the best of both of both worlds!
A tale of two Homeless Cities – Vancouver and Washington D.C. using cellphones, blogs and emails to get connected
On Sunday April 4th, thousands of Vancouver folks marched in solidarity to support the Grand March for Housing. which demand immediate government action to end homelessness, build social housing, protect rental housing and raise welfare and minimum rage rates.
To empower and build the Vancouver Downtown Eastside community capacity and connectivity, the Fearless City Mobile Project was developed:
The Fearless Mobile City project is a two-way social media system for marginalized residents and artists of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES). It is an interactive communication system that uses Mobile Muse 3’s technology platform, a free wireless mesh network, distribution and training with mobile handsets, and live screens in public spaces. Participate in Fearless City at live events in and around our inner-city neighbourhood to create community generated media while confronting the digital divide.
In this photo, a cellphone is used to take a photo during a presentation by Hendrik Beune
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AHA MEDIA is proud to still participate in Fearless City Project ! http://www.netsquared.org/projects/fearless-city-mobile
From engaging with the public through Fearless projects, we developed our own unique way of doing event coverage and citizen journalism as we build our own AHA MEDIA website.
We at AHA MEDIA are glad for the opportunities from Fearless City that help pique our interest into mobile phone technology and all the ways it has helped our Downtown Eastside Community.
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In another city – Washington D.C. an article in the Washington Post describes how their homeless use cellphones, blogs and email to stay on top.
On D.C. Streets, the Cellphone as Lifeline
Homeless People Turn to Technology to Track Assistance and Opportunities
.A patron of Miriam’s Kitchen uses a cellphone to take a photo of first lady Michelle Obama as she helps serve lunch. “Phones are really a lifeline for many people,” says Adam Rocap, director of social services at Miriam’s Kitchen. (Martinez Monsivais – Associated Press)
Advocates who work with the District’s homeless estimate that 30 percent to 45 percent of the people they help have cellphones. A smaller number have e-mail accounts, and some blog to chronicle their lives on the streets.
When Laura Zeilinger, deputy director of program operations for the D.C. Department of Human Services, conducted housing assessments of a couple of thousand people living on city streets last summer, she was surprised by how many gave her cellphone numbers and e-mail addresses.
“Phones are really a lifeline for many people,” said Adam Rocap, director of social services at Miriam’s Kitchen, a nonprofit drop-in center for the homeless. During a string of attacks against homeless people sleeping downtown in the fall, two victims called 911 for help after they were assaulted, he said.
Please read the full article in the Washington Post on how cellphones help empower D.C.’s Homeless community lives
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