Twitter Weekly Updates

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Look, I randomly drew something with actionscript.

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So this is something I do. I write Actionscript (flash) that draws for me. I basically write a little program that takes a symbol and duplicates it after the previous one for a certain amount of time. Every time it does, it randomly decides where to go and gets a little smaller. Once in a while, it randomly chooses to split in two separate branches. When it reaches a Random amount of symbol duplicates, it puts a leaf at the end and starts a new branch, and so on, for a random amount of time. You’ll notice that in the middle, the word visage is written. The ends of the letters are where the branches start. Why visage? Can’t really remember where it started but it has become a habit to write visage everywhere in my code and illustrations. Here is how it looks:

 

5 tech resolutions for 2012

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Here we go again. A new year has come and with it, lots of good will and resolution. Here is what I intend to  improve in my life in 2012 on the tech side.

1. Paper B’gone
I know it may be wishful thinking but there is no reason why not to scrap paper altogether. I’ve owned an iPad from the first weeks it came out and more and more, is see ways to get away without paper. Paper is perishable, it gets dirty, and is bad for the environment. Also, consider this. Your information is far from safe on paper. Anyone can read what’s on a piece of paper. At least with digital, it takes skills to break into information. That’s it for me! No more note books, printed reports, post-its, printed photos, printed Power point decks (hopefully, no  more power point, ever, please).

It also means no more books. I’ve been reading on the iPad for quite some time now and I love it. With all the e-Readers available, there is no reason to waste paper on printing books. And to those who say that they love the smell of books too much to reade on an eReader, well my iPad smells pretty good, and you can always keep an old book close to you if it helps. Get over it.

2. Socialise and make contact.
Social media is here to stay. I’ve used social media for quite some time now but to say that I maximize my use of it would be lying. There is so much potential as a marketer, as a business man and as a leader in the retail fashion industry. Time to put social to profit.

As a side note, I would like to reach out to all traditional marketer who haven’t got their hands into social media. YOU ARE MISSING THE BOAT! I know some marketing professionals who still haven’t created a facebook, or twitter account. Let alone linked-in, tumblr, instagram, foursquare, or even a blog. It may not be too late, get on it.

3. Denounce the “Black Hat” web.
I often call this “the secret web”. Most people, even marketing professionals, don’t know that part of the Web runs on cheating and shaddy practices. When I tell people that I can buy 50 000 facebook likes for $9 000 they fall of their chairs. He same goes for twitter followers, product reviews, backlinks and SEO. Spam is not only of the e-mail kind and even Fortune 500 companies use black hat techniques to win the SEO and social game. I intend to denounce these practices and stay on the good side of the force.

4. Bring mobile into the fashion retail environment.
The challenge is big. The retail fashion industry is a traditional one. I still don’t know how to go about it but I intend to improve the user experience in store using mobile. QR codes, geo fencing, in store product review, social check-ins, mobile checkout, here I come.

5. Be an agent of change.
This has been  my fight for the last decade. Business leaders need to change their ways, to adapt to new technologies. The general population is doing it amazingly fast but for some obscure reason, business leaders are incredibly slow to move towards new technologies and news ways of communicating with consumers and engaging them into their brand experience. This year I will be an agent of change.

Hope this all works out.

Thinking forward in the fashion retail industry with iShopShape

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I’m only a few years old in the fashion retail industry but old enough to understand that it is a traditional one that is a bit reluctant to change and is comfortable in it’s good old ways of working. As I work on putting in place an e-commerce solution for Mexx Canada, I need to find creative ways of working within this traditional world to deliver an outstanding user experience. Part of this experience is goes through photography.

Enter the world of imagery for fashion e-Commerce.

The challenge is huge, especially for Mexx who has a new collection every month. There is an incredible amount of items to photograph, edit and optimize for web. Also, there is a timing issue. Items need to be photographed as they are received at our distribution centre so they can be on the web site asap. Working with samples is not an option as colours are often not final and details may be added before the style is finalized and ready to be sold.

There is hope.

Yesterday, my CEO forwarded me a link that got me very excited. http://www.ishopshape.com/. These guys think forward and they do it for the fashion industry. Check out this light table named Styleshoots. It is fully automated, controlled with iPad and very sexy. Not only does it eliminate the need for close cutting but actually does a much better job than that. It manages transparency and does it well.All of this in a few seconds. Check out this video demo and tell me you are not impressed!

Styleshoots – a short tour from iShopShape on Vimeo.

 

I am not sure about the exact cost of this amazing tool. Although i heard it was in the likes of 35K $ This kind of expense justifies itself easily in the e-Commerce context.

But iShopShape doesn’t stop there. They developed an array of tools that help fashion retailers in many different fields. From Visual presentation (see Mockshop) to collection design and visualization (SampleRoom), iShopShape does it all.

It is refreshing to see a company that think outside of the box in the fashion retail industry.

 

How to add your self-hosted WordPress blog to Klout

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Recently, there was a lot of frustration around Klout not allowing users to add their self-hosted WordPress blog to their Klout profile. Users were able to add a WordPress hosted free blog. Frustration came out of the fact that typically, self-hosted blogs have more influence taht the free hosted kind. With Klout’s inability to add self-hosted blog, Klout is actually giving more influence to less tech savvy bloggers.

But wait there IS a way. Follow these steps:

1- Install the Jetpack plug-in into your self-hosted WordPress blog.

This will connect your blog to wordpress.com and give it some abilities usually reserved to wordpress.com users

2- Once install, you will have to activate Jetpack and authorize it on your blog. If you haven’t already registered to wordpress.com, you will have to do it to be able to authorize.

3- Go back to your Klout.com profile and click on the wordpress icon to add your blog.

4- Use your wordpress.com credentials to connect.

5- That’s it. There is no 5

With these steps completed, if your blog has influence, you should see a considerable increase in your Klout score in the coming weeks.

Enjoy