Andrea represented Canada in athletics from 2002 to 2007, and currently competes as a member of BC’s Disabled Ski Team. She won a bronze medal in long jump at the Para-Pan American Games in 2007 and is a four-time long jump and three-time 100m Canadian champion. She also holds the Canadian record in high jump is also a paralympic hopeful for the Vancouver 2010 games.

Joining Andrea were the Vancouver 2010 mascots. Quatchi, Miga and the official Paralympic Mascot, Sumi all made it down to support Andrea and to spread some Olympic spirit around the Douglas New West Campus. Douglas’ own “Roary the Lion” was also on hand to represent some school spirit.

I caught Quatchi snooping around the buffet table and confronted him. When I challenged him to an eat off for all the glory he ran away.

Andrea spoke strongly about her experiences as an athlete, student, life in general and her work with RBC and Lululemon. She also shared some great stories with us about growing up with a disability and how that made her the person she is today. Saying that she was inspiring is a bit of a cliche, so I’ll just say that no matter how good my excuses are, they all suck compared to the obstacles that she has come across.

Thanks for the kick in the ass Andrea. More pictures after the jump.

Part of my success this time around I think has to do with the fact that I am paying for my own education. Since I’m invested financially, I’m just stupid to waste my own money. Overcoming my propensity to procrastinate has also been quite the challenge and with the importance of group projects, keeping in contact with other people that may not share the strange Dot Com Lifestyle Schedule has been interesting. That prompted me to hunt for an online collaboration tool that would allow me to keep in touch with everyone in my group and to share work and collaborate all without having to physically meet up. That search led me to Glasscubes.

Introducing Glasscubes

Through the power of Twitter, I was approached, or rather, tweeted by Sophie Le Brozec of Glasscubes. I tweeted that I was looking for a web based CRM system that could support my group for collaborating on our term project for Marketing Strategy. She suggested that we try out their new online collaboration software that launched on October 13th of this year.

Glasscubes is an online collaboration tool that incorporates aspects of CRM and Intranet. The software is available exclusively on the web and unlike other more complex CRM solutions, does not require you to install it on a server, or download a client to access it. The clean and inviting interface encourages you to explore and become productive almost immediately.

Glasscubes has created a video that shows off the interface and some of the cool features…

After spending the last couple weeks using with one of my class project teams who is working on some marketing strategy for a winery, I’ve quickly fallen in love with this very useful and affordable tool. Here are few things that I love most about this online tool for sharing, communicating and collaborating.

Cubes for Collaboration

Glasscubes’ “Cubes” function provides for the ability to create workspaces for different projects that you’re working on. For example, I’m working on a project for Pacific Breeze Winery with my group and in order to organize our thoughts, documents and files, we’ve created this space to keep all of the related information together.

The beauty of the cubes is that each one is isolated from the others so that only the people that should be viewing the project can view it. This includes all the tasks, files and appointments related to a particular cube. The cubes also allow you to invite people that may not even be part of your organization to join in with the collaboration on each cube. For example, you can invite your professor in to view the progress of a project you are working on for the class without revealing any other projects you are working on.

Personally Accountable

One of the great features of Glasscubes is the ability for the system to help you see visually what tasks are related directly to you. The “Personal” tab allows you to keep track of all the items related to you, from tasks to current discussions to comments on files you’ve uploaded for further collaboration. If you’re using the CRM functions, you can even see cases and opportunities that are assigned directly to you. To the right, you can quickly see which “Cubes” you’re able to access or are a part of.

One of the things that I liked about the personal tab was the fact that you can schedule in all your availability. This allows your group to select the best times to schedule a meeting or conference call. I really liked the fact that I could also see when people were collaborating on documents and discussions you may have opened, giving you a timeline of all related collaboration.

Connecting With Others, Following Leads and Solving Problems

Glasscubes offers some basic CRM functionality that can be very useful to companies that don’t need a full blown solution. Clients and contacts are added through the “Connect” tab and from that one can effectively manage sales opportunities and even customer service issues. These opportunities or issues can then be assigned to the right person on staff to take care of and they’ll be able to see these assignments in their “Personal” tab when the login. Of course, from assignment to resolution, the steps can be tracked and shared with others in the company.

We never used the opportunities or leads functions on our project with the winery, but having used other more complex systems in the past, the Glasscubes approach is definitely more simple and I can see companies taking advantage of it simply because it is easy to use and understand.

Of course, Glasscubes does allow you to import your contacts from any number of contact management solutions such as Outlook or any other software that dumps to a CSV file. You can even export lists out to use for targeted marketing use.

Effective File Management

As I mentioned earlier, using the Cubes, you can upload files related to that Cube only keeping things private and allowing you an easy way to track what files belong with what project. While this in itself is pretty cool and Glasscubes allows you to upload pretty much anything you want, from MS Office Files, PDFs, to pictures and videos (it even labels the files as a DOC, XLS or IMG etc), the best part of this system is the fact that you can edit files like DOCs and XLS files right in Glasscubes.

After selecting the file and locking it for edits (so that no one else can alter the file while you’re working on it), Glasscubes will launch an editor allowing you to work on the file as if you were working on it in WORD or EXCEL. You can do your edits and then save it as a revision, allowing your group to keep track of versioning and changes. Like most areas of Glasscubes, members of your group can leave comments and suggested changes for you.

Other great features include a useful search function and the ability to label things so that they can be easily found. As you start to label more items, the the labels show up in a list in the right sidebar, and even show how many documents are related to that label.

Lots to Discuss

Like how documents, tasks and even schedules can be related strictly to a single cube, discussions can be related to specifically to a specific cube. We used this function a lot to discuss different aspects of our project from our presentation plans to what additional work and tasks needed to be undertaken to complete our project. This also helped cut down on ineffectual email traffic and allowed us to track our conversations so that we don’t keep repeating ourselves. You can even post polls to democratically decide the direction a project should take.

Outside of the Cubes, Glasscubes labelled the open discussion area as the “Coffee Break” where anyone can post a topic and get feedback on non cube specific items. The Glasscubes put in an example “Coffee Break” post asking about who would be running the NYC Marathon, for example.

What Does It Cost?

As I learned in my CRM class, there is a huge range of pricing for CRM solutions. Most of the time the cost is so high that most businesses that could benefit most from a CRM simply can’t afford it. The best part about Glasscubes is that depending on what your needs are, you start at FREE and can scale with the system as your business grows. The basic FREE account gives you a maximum of three users plus 2 cubes, up to 100 contacts and up to 100MB’s for storing your files: Perfect for most school project needs.

Their most popular account is the medium package ($64US per month) which gives you an unlimited amount of users, up to 20 cubes, 10GB’s of storage, up to 10,000 contacts. This package (along with the lower end small package – $25US per month) allow additional security enhancements including the ability to edit documents online: something that the FREE package does not have and is one of the coolest parts about Glasscubes as I noted. As you head up the product line, you get more storage, more cubes, and the ability to add more contacts.

All of Glasscubes products come with a 28 day free trial so if you’re sure the FREE product won’t work out for you, can take one of their larger packages for a whirl. You will have to enter in a credit card number though which can be a bit of a turn off for some.

Final Thoughts

After a solid two weeks using the system with my class project team, I’ve found this system to be a huge asset to any collaborative project. With everyone on different schedules, this system has been an effective hub of communication and collaboration for our team. We’re able to work when it is convenient and assign tasks as necessary to get the job done, while staying in contact offline, making our online meetings that much more effective. It has also cut down on the huge amount of email clutter we would have dealt with, emailing attachments back and forth and potentially repeating things that we’ve already gone over.

Since launch, Glasscubes has been continually improving their product offering and working out the bugs. You can keep track of all the new developments on their corporate blog. I was really impressed at how quickly an issue I was experiencing at the beginning of my trial was taken care of, even on a weekend. It’s clear that someone on the other end was using effective CRM to solve my problem lickety split.

Whether it’s for school, managing projects for your consulting practice or dealing with sales leads, Glasscubes seems to be a great alternative to more complex and more expensive systems on the market. The fact that it is completely hosted online and can be accessed anywhere by any of your team members is also a huge convenience. I definitely recommend it for anyone that wants to be more organized and more effective when dealing with any task requiring collaboration with others.

PS: We’re giving away an ULTRA Products 750 Watt Modular ATX Power Supply over at Futurelooks. Check out the contest details to find out how to win it!

I was cruising by my blog the other day and realized that I haven’t updated here in over a month. I’m sorry for the lack of updates. It appears that Twitter has ruined me due to the instant gratification provided by a simple tweet out to my followers. I’ve also been quite busy with Futurelooks. As you may have noticed, there is a ton of new content over there and I hope you have a chance to head there and enjoy it. I will try to update here a little more often.

Yes, the picture above is me once again taking down something that is too large for a regular human being. They call it “Bob’s Big Burger”. I had it at some weird eatery that I’ve forgotten the name of while in Fort Saskatchewan for Fragapalooza. The menu”Dared Me to Finish It” so of course I finished it. There is apparently a bigger burger at some dinner which I will need to try next year.

Here are a few noteworthy points about what I’ve been up to in the last while…

Fragapalooza 2009

Fragapalooza is one of the first official LAN Parties I’d ever been to. It is also one of Canada’s longest running events of its kind. Sure, I’ve been to LAN Parties in the past. Heck, I’ve even been to LAN parties before LANs were LANs and we still used modems and phone lines. However, nothing prepared me for being sealed up in a room with nearly 400 gamers for three days and sleeping on Astro Turf: The itchiest substance ever!

The event took place this past August in sleepy Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. Jason Landals, Eric Garay, Michael Kwan and myself made the trek out to the middle of nowhere to spread good cheer by handing out prizes and schmoozing with Futurelooks’ adoring fans that came out from all over Canada and even across the border from the US. We even volunteered Michael to be the “Randy Jackson” at the Rock Band Competition as one of the judges.

Even though I don’t really game (except for playing Portal and Command and Conquer 3) everyone had a fantastic time. It was really great to rub shoulders with PC hardware enthusiasts across the land and we look forward to returning to Alberta for Fragapalooza 2010 next year.

For more coverage from the event including our exclusive videos, check out our coverage at Futurelooks. Dont’ forget to check out our YouTube Channel as well.

Taking My Name Back

Because StephenFung.com wasn’t available, I had to settle for StephenFung.net. However, I never gave up hope of some day owning that URL. So I waited, and waited and waited till the squatter stopped renewing the name. After putting in my bid with GoDaddy, I won my URL for a measly $10. Hoorah!

So from now on, you can either go to StephenFung.com or StephenFung.net to come to my blog

Watching People Pick Up Big Weights

A couple weeks ago, I went up to Lake Country, BC Canada (somewhere near Kelowna) with Kelly “The Machine” Frankson to watch her compete in a local Olympic Weightlifting event known as the Ogopogo Open. Here’s a video of her performance…

Kelly did extremely well and won her weight class and the overall women’s title at the event. We were both rather amused by the fact that the women’s overall trophy had some “dude” on it. Kelly is back in San Jose right now training with some members of the US Olympic team. She also recently launched a nutrition site called Fit4YouNutrition where you can learn how to eat better and be healthier with customized nutrition consultations.

I firmly believe that if it wasn’t for the fact that Kelly kept all the crap food out of the house, I would be absolutely huge based on the way that I eat.

I Really Want One of These!

The Panasonic GF1 is not your ordinary camera. It does look like a point and shoot, but at its heart is the sensor of a DSLR camera and it shoots RAW just like a real DSLR. It also has the speed, manual features and the picture quality and the interchangeable lenses, which are based on the Micro Four Thirds standard.

I’ve always shot NIKON DSLR’s but this new standard has got me seriously thinking about changing over. The reason is because most of the time I use my camera for Trade Shows and Events. Lugging around a huge bag with a large camera body and lenses is quite tiring and having to unleash it each time I want to take a picture gets tedious.I do have to admit that people tend to stand aside when they see your big lens poking through the crowd.

When I travel I strip my D200 down to a single 50mm f/1.8 and no grip. Even still,  it is too large to pocket and there are still places that don’t allow professional cameras. Having a camera like the Panasonic GF1 that gives similar performance in a much smaller package definitely appeals to me and will give me opportunities to shoot where I wouldn’t otherwise.

Even though I know that a true DSLR will still take better pictures overall, this new camera and its small but growing selection of quality lenses really makes it hard not to consider. Any reasons why I shouldn’t?

Going Back To School

Every Fall I try to take a few courses to fill in skill gaps that I might have. Whether it be in Photography or Mandarin, I do try to make an effort to stay sharp whenever I can. Yes, learning to ride a motorcycle counts.

This year, I’ve decided to return to school to finish a Marketing Management Diploma at Douglas College. This will be the first time that I’ve set foot into a real academic classroom in nearly 10 years! It’ll be both terrifying and interesting as I’ll probably be one of the oldest students on campus (besides the instructors).

I’ll be taking two courses starting tomorrow and then one more course in January to finish off my program and grab my piece of paper.

Depending on how heavy the workload is, I might also take another course at Langara College in Video Journalism; a new course that was just introduced this year and is part of their Digital Film program.

When Will I Blog Again Next?

What? You want more? I’ve basically given you FIVE POSTS in one! Well, knowing me, I’ll probably be doing something I’m not supposed to be doing in class so maybe my next post will be LIVE from the land of Academics. That’s of course, provided that I don’t fall asleep in class. I’ve always been very good at that.

For more random updates, you definitely have to Follow Me on Twitter.

The thing I’ve been particularly impressed with about Dave is how he keeps his cool even when his students lose it. This in turn makes his students feel at ease. I wonder if he could teach Kwanye to ride a scooter rather than crashing it? I guess after being on the Vancouver Police Force for thirty years he’s seen it all, but I’ll have to ask him if he’s seen anyone bite it on a Segway in his long tenure on the force.

During the Thursday class, I met up with Dave again with one of the other students and we started the day with a road ride. We ended up doing a lot of turns with lots of stop signs in the suburbs of Maple Ridge including a lot of hill starts and U-Turns. When we got back to the parking lot, he setup cones and he ran us through the Motorcycle Skills Test that we’d be going through to get my restrictions pulled off my license so that I could ride by myself during the day without any supervision. This would of course open up the doors to shopping for a successor to Scooter.

After about half an hour or so of practicing, he informs us that the Motorcycle Skills Tester would be stopping by to do our test. I wasn’t nervous since I was doing pretty good in my low speed maneuvers, but a little notice would have been nice. Wasting no more time panicking, I continued to practice as we waited for the tester to arrive. About half an hour later, tester shows up and it’s show time.

With none of the students willing to volunteer, Dave volunteers the other student. I breathe a huge sigh of relief. Not going first also allows me to observe what the tester is watching for and what things the other rider screws up on. About 20 minutes later, she passes within the maximum allowable amount of demerits. Relief for her. Great anticipation for me. The tester beckons me to take my spot at the line and runs through the first part of the test with me verbally. Part one of the test includes a slow, walking pace ride, a stop, then a u-turn in a box not much bigger than two parking spots and then a slalom through some cones.

I run through the first part of the test carefully and make it through. I’m relieved. The tester goes through the second part of the test and I’m off again. Since the second part is the same as the first, but with a left hand turn to start, I feel pretty good and complete the course and return to the starting area. Next up was the third part and then the final part.

Part three consists of a quick acceleration to about 25 – 30 KM/h, then a wide sweeping right hand turn. At the completion of the turn, you are to accelerate up to 20 – 25 KM/h to a set of cones and then stop before the second set of cones. You are not to stop until the tester says so. I do the acceleration, the right hand sweeper, and accelerate up to 20 – 25 KM/h and wait for the testers signal. At the first set of cones, the instructor dropped his hand and I came to a controlled stop. Not bad. I thought I almost slid the rear wheel which is a demerit. I couldn’t recall.

Part four is the same as the third part, except you start the straight line acceleration with a wide right hand turn. I made the turn, accelerated, hit the sweeper, and then came down the straight stretch to the controlled stop area. The tester drops his hand, I grab the front, then the rear brake and come down for a controlled stop. Perfect. To add to the great finish, the tester tallies up my total and declares that I’ve done the whole test perfectly, with no mistakes. He signs off my test form and gives it to me so that I can take it to ICBC to have my restrictions removed.

Since I rode Scooter in, I twisted his throttle as far as it could go and did a little over the speed limit so I could make it to the ICBC Office to have my license updated. After my license was updated, you get a new piece of yellow paper that limits you only to riding between dawn and dusk. Since getting my license updated, I’ve been out looking at motorcycles and scooters and I’ve narrowed the list down somewhat. I have one more test ride tomorrow and then I’ll share my final choices with you guys.

More Mandarin For Me!

Last year I started taking Mandarin Lessons at Langara College on Saturdays. Although I still suck pretty bad, I know that you can’t learn a new language overnight, or once a week, intermittently, over the course of the year. Hopefully, I’ll fail less next year in Taiwan by continuing my commitment to learn this language. It sucks when you’re more understandable in English than you are in the local language. So far, after my first class back, I feel totally overwhelmed. I really hope I can get back into it quickly.

Speaking of FAIL, after my class on Saturday, I met up with Ed Lau and Leo Chiang for some impromptu “Dot Com Tandori Action” at All India Sweets and Restaurant. It wasn’t an official meet up per se, but I did send out a Tweet if anyone wanted to stop by. This week’s DOT COM FAIL is brought to you by Ed…

Ed likes to season his food. So much so that he decides that the lid of the pepper shaker must come off and he must get all the pepper that is available to him. It’s kind of like how our people like to steal napkins, load up on condiments, and take them home for later use. However, Ed’s interpretation is definitely FAIL. I’m not too surprised though. With a College blocks away, I’d check every shaker before shaking in this hood. PWNED!

School Wouldn’t Be School Without a Hook Up

Unfortunately, I won’t be hooking up at school. My life would be at risk. But it doesn’t mean I can’t live vicariously through someone else…

My little scooter friend decided that while I was back in the classroom, he would get busy with a sexy little number in the parking lot. Oh scooter! You’re such a player! Hopefully, I don’t see little mini-pocket bikes running around somewhere that I don’t know about. I’m sure he’s responsible enough to use plenty of lube and keep the rubber side down.

Taking Much Gooder Pictures

Last year, I took a course that really helped me open up the possibilities when it comes to my photography. Whether it’s just pictures for reviews or for fun, the ten week course put on my Vancouver Photo Workshops really gave me a better understanding on how to get consistently better pictures by avoiding the flash or using lots of flashes. I even got to shoot models. Most importantly, I got to try a bunch of different styles of photography that I would never venture into under normal circumstances. Heck, I even took some shots at a wedding.

This Fall, I’ll be filling in the gaps. I’ll be returning to Vancouver Photo Workshops to do an intensive weekend Photoshop Session for Photographers and a Product Photography Course. Although these are probably things I can read about and learn on my own, it’s no substitute for a hands on experience in an environment where you can ask questions and learn from others. The class starts in October so I’ll report back when things get rolling.

I Thought I’d Never Do It…

Although I had always sworn off getting myself on a motorcycle for fear that I would kill myself on one, I guess the scooter was only the first step. I’m hooked, and there’s nothing I can do about it now. On Monday, I got my motorcycle learners license, and then this morning, I took my very first motorcycle riding lesson.

My first ever motorcycle ride was on a Suzuki Marauder 250. My course will be lead by Dave Clayton at 2wheel 2ition Motorcyle School. I figured a good education on two wheels would be a good investment and would help ensure that I pick up the good habits I need to be safe on the road. Although I’ve had lots of saddle time on my scooter, as I found out today, a motorcycle is a whole different animal.

I guess my fear of learning to ride a motorcycle stems from the fact that I know myself too well. It’s not that I ever doubted my ability to be able to ride one, but what I was most concerned with was the mindset of a younger Stephen Fung. A younger version of me wouldn’t have even considered getting professional instruction or taking my time, stepping up from a scooter and learning proper road sense. Not to mention the impulsiveness and daredevil attitude as a young gun scared even myself at time. Now that I’m older and wiser, I think that I’m finally ready to do something that I’ve always wanted to do.

There’s definitely going to be a lot of learning in the next while and I’ll definitely pass on the good stuff. Stay tuned