Author: Bruce Elgort

You’ll find this technology professor – an award-winning instructor at Clark College – working hard to inspire and challenge his students with meaningful web development and programming experiences. With a skinny vanilla latte (no foam) in hand, Bruce loves to tinker and test the boundaries of existing and emerging technologies, to then guide hungry minds through memorable, educational journeys to showcase with passion the ever-evolving innovations of society. An industry leader, Bruce is known for co-developing Elguji’s IdeaJam software, and is recognized by IBM as an ‘IBM Champion’ for being an innovative thought leader in cloud technologies.

A Splash of Color

The Vancouver Watersheds Alliance, its partners and numerous local artists have given Vancouver’s Main Street a splash of color. The murals remind residents that what flows through our storm drains eventually leads to our rivers. If it’s not rain, it doesn’t belong in the drain!

I love this idea and I’m excited to go walk through the City of Vancouver to find them all.

Cheryl Bledsoe: Ubiquity of Social Media and Social Media as a Social Service

Yesterday Cheryl Bledsoe, Technology & Accreditation Manager at Clackamas County Communications, delivered an outstanding talk at Clark College. I have seen many talks on social media, but none of them ever resonated with me the way in which the stories Cheryl shared did. This talk is a “much watch” for any company, organization, educator or person who utilizes one or more of the plethora of social media platforms. I would also encourage you to share it with your friends, colleagues, and family.

Here is the schedule of speakers as well as videos of past speakers. Also, please subscribe to Business Web Practices Speaker Series YouTube channel.

Cheryl, on behalf of Clark College, thank you!

 

This Weeks Business Web Practices Guest Speaker: Cheryl Bledsoe

Our guest for week 4 of the Business Web Practices Speaker Series will be Cheryl Bledsoe who for many years been fundamental in helping define and implement the role of social media in time of crisis and emergency, most notably in roles in management in both Clark and Clackamas counties. You will likely come away from this session with new insights about the importance and potential of the web and social media in our society at large. The title of Cheryl’s talk is “The Ubiquity of  Social Media and Social Media as a Social Service”.

A schedule of all of the speakers participating in this year’s series as well as the video archive for the series can be found at http://bit.ly/CTEC165 and you can subscribe to our new YouTube CTEC 165 channel at http://bit.ly/CTEC165Videos.

This event will take place on Wednesday, October 12, 2016, at 4:30 PM in Foster Auditorium at Clark College. All are welcome.

Here is some more information about Cheryl:

Cheryl Bledsoe is the Technology Manager for the Clackamas County 911. She is also the Executive Director of the Virtual Emergency Management Association (www.virtualema.org) which aims to build partnerships between emerging technical companies, emergency services and higher education. Cheryl first became familiar with social media as the Southwest Washington. She has been responsible for implementing local, regional and state social media footprints which have included policy development, website redesign and managing blogs, Facebook and Twitter communications. Her most notable accomplishments have included the development of Virtual Operation Support Teams (VOST) to monitor social media during incidents of national and international significance and her creation of 30 Days, 30 Ways which has been one of the largest online social media games running each September during National Preparedness Month since 2010. She speaks regularly at national conferences, consults with government agencies and provides training to diverse audiences. Despite her incredible resume, she is probably best known for accidentally creating the hashtag #CookingWithCheryl by burning hard-boiled eggs, marrying her geeky fingerpainting partner from kindergarten at the Church of Elvis and, despite believing she would never have children, has spawned two little humans that are the light of her life.

 

I’m Too Old

A week or so ago, I was bantering over text messaging with Chris Martin about some blog posts I made. Chris suggested that I add to my posts how I felt about the topics. I replied “I’m too old. I’m done creating and enjoy consuming”. Man did that open a podcast of worms.

I’ll be the first to admit it, over the past few years I have been heavily focused on delivering exceptional class experiences for my students at the college. My “creative” work had been put on hold. As many of you know, it’s my creative work that created such things as OpenNTF.org, The Taking Notes Podcast, Elguji Software and IdeaJam and even this blog.

Well, Chris fired back with this “Getting Work to Work” podcast which stuck a chord with me and truly inspired me. I’m happy to report that I’m back to “creating”, while not at the same capacity I once was able to, I’m back and I’m typing. Thanks Chris for your motivation, friendship and “push”. Please listen to this inspirational 8-minute podcast entitled “I’m Too Old”.

Listen to “I’m Too Old” >

Peter Ramsing: The Ongoing Adventures of a Front End Developer

Here’s the video of Peter Ramsing‘s talk entitled “The Ongoing Adventures of a Front End Developer” which he delivered at Clark College on Wednesday afternoon. Let me just say that web development technologies have been rapidly evolving over the past several years. A day doesn’t go by when a new language, library, tool, technique isn’t trying to grab your attention. Peter talks about this and how important it is to maintain your focus. On behalf of Clark College thank you, Peter.

Here are some links

to things mentioned during Peter’s talk.

Reflections on John Furniss – Fine Woodworker Video

A few days ago when I posted a link to the latest “Innovators of Vancouver” video I neglected to include my thoughts about it. Let me first say that as a child each and every Saturday, I participated in a group at the Industrial Home for the Blind (now known as the Helen Keller Institute). The group was comprised of 5-7 kids who were challenged with a visual disability. Some had vision similar to mine, and others were completely blind. We typically would spend our time going to parks, playing games and horsing around.

I always wondered as a child what would become of these kids and how they would fair as adults given their challenges. Well, this video struck a chord with me and showed me exactly what they are probably are doing today. I’m sure they are asking themselves the same question of me and others.

Frankly, I know that my parents were concerned about me and my ability to lead a life with limited vision. I’m glad that they don’t have to worry about that anymore.