Wow. New Media Producer of the Year Finalist.

845597-media_httpwwwjamescogancomimagescnmagif_DpHhHnkEIbbaJnsThis week I received word that I made the short-list for a Canadian New Media Award. Wow.

cnma_finalistI wear a lot of hats as founder of this network and ‘producer’ of all things dailypixel is probably the biggest. What does being a producer really mean? For me, it means riding on the coattails of an incredible team of people who each play a role and together make up the evolving and growing dailypixel story. I’m merely a conduit and that feels far less like a job, and far more of a privilege to work with so many talented and above all else, passionate people, bloggers, developers, creatives, users, readers, viewers, submitters, coders, advisors and more.

I am blown away by what other people are doing in this country. To be one small part of the growing fabric of the richly talented and creative Canadian new media landscape is super-cool. If my team and I are judged in the future by the company we keep, we’re in great shape hanging with this crowd of CNMA finalists.

Of course, the CNMA is only a sampling of the diverse and emerging new media industry in Canada. From coast to coast, from Vancouver’s NowPublic, to Ottawa’s Shopify there are so many exciting and evolving success stories that dot this entire country’s landscape, on the web, in film, in gaming, on mobile etc. Canadian marketing diva Tara Hunt (now embedded in Silicon Valley) recently highlighted a bunch of Canadian start-ups in a blog post and in an email exchange with me she said “I can’t swing a cat without hitting a Canadian down here”.

Canada’s new media muscle is an undeniable force domestic, abroad, we’re everywhere. Exciting times indeed.

Congrats to Matthew Hornburg of marblemedia, and Patrick Crowe of Xenophile Media my fellow finalists whom I greatly look foward to meeting in person and many more uber-talented people during the May 27-28 CNMA event.

Official Release: James Cogan is one of three finalists to be named “Producer of the Year”

Sleepless in Ottawa

845596-media_httpwwwjamescogancomimagespzizzjpg_tqnIFyCgytrvqliSo you may have guessed by the lack of Northern Voice postings that the conference was a bit of a washout for me. I came down with a high temperature fever after attending the first morning session and that pretty much foiled my plans to attend the rest of the conference. A big-time bummer to say the least. Unfortunately, it looks like I wasn’t the only one to get hit.

On a completely separate note, I have developed some ‘sleep issues’ of late. Once asleep, all is good, but getting there has become a tougher chore than it ever has been in my life. However, my sister pointed me to a website called Pzizz and she tells me that this audio ‘sleep aid’ really works for her. I was totally skeptical. I downloaded it, tossed the sample file onto the iPod and gave it a spin. Guess what? It freakin’ works! At least it did for me. I was sleeping like a baby in no time. I’m still getting far less sleep than I should, but at least getting there has been made a lot easier. I don’t use it every night, but most nights when I feel like my mind won’t shut-off, Pzizz really does the trick. Thanks sis! I’m officially a Pzizzer!

PS: If you’ve sent me an email recently and have not received a response, my bad. My inbox is beyond full. I will get through it all next week.

Off to Northern Voice 2007…

845595-media_httpwwwjamescogancomimagesthenaamjpg_zonIpcDljehbAzwI’m a little late with this post, but I am now in Vancouver for the 3rd annual installment of Northern Voice – Canada’s Blogging Conference. I attended the previous two, and I’m super-excited about meeting and re-connecting with some awesome new media folk, and greatly looking forward to attending a bunch of the planned sessions.

On a personal note, any time I spend in my favourite city is a huge bonus. I’m really psyched about going for some seawall walks and eating some delicious west coast fare. One of my regular haunts is a 24-hour vegetarian restaurant called ‘The Naam‘. I got off the airplane – with a sore throat and runny nose, I always get sick when I travel 🙁 and headed straight for this old-school Kitsilano fave.

More conference posts will follow, probably at the end of each conference day, starting on Friday, February 23rd.

Ottawa Blogger Meetup 5.0

845593-media_httpwwwdailypixelcaimagesmeetupottawajpg_smemnDicBCaqqJEA group of Ottawa-area bloggers braved the frigid temperatures last week and made it to the Clock Tower Brew Pub for our 5th meetup. Thanks again to everybody who came out and hopefully once the weather gets a little more user-friendly we can get more Ottawa bloggers to step out from behind the keyboard and come meetup for a drink and some good chit-chat.

Here is a list of some of the Ottawa-area bloggers who attended our recent meetup:
Aurielis
Dan Jones
Michele Foster
James Cogan
Jeff Parks
Jennifer Spallin
Thomas Leroux
Victor Wong
Zachary Houle
845594-media_httpfarm1staticflickrcom179380550698db4cad8de0mjpg_kdwnpstHdBrvjGd

Video.ca jumps into ‘public beta’

845590-media_httpwwwjamescogancomimagesvideojpg_qkkzDzoitovcrAeWith some trepidation, and a boat load of excitement I just wanted to post a quick note about Video.ca officially hitting ‘public beta’. Which means that for the first time it is now completely open to the public.

Lots of work is still to be done as new features, new language support and overall site refinements are ongoing and will be rolled out in the coming weeks and months. But we did hit some milestones recently and felt that it/we were ready to take the next step.So without further adieu, if you haven’t checked out Video.ca yet, go for it! Post vids, watch vids and spread the good word….Video.ca is OPEN!

Ottawa Blogger/Podcaster Meetup 4.0

845585-media_httpwwwdailypixelcaimagesmeetupottawajpg_lecICGtyopAFzCILast Wednesday both Ottawa bloggers and podcasters merged for a pre-holiday meetup. It was a great mix of people, good and varied topics of discussion as always. The Ottawa Podcasters crew even distributed a free CD loaded with some great audio to everyone who attended. Good times. The next blogger meetup is now scheduled for Wednesday, January 31st.

Happy holidays, happy new year, see you in 2007!!

Here is a list of some of the Ottawa-area bloggers and podcasters who attended our recent meetup:
A. Franklin
Dan Jones
Danny Lee
Dawn Xavier
Dwight Dunlop
Michele Foster
James Cogan
Jason Prini
Jeff Parks
Jennifer Bruce
Jill PyleJohn Wiseman
Zachary Houle