Martin Hofmann

a personal blog about technology, communications and other stuff that interests me

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The Word on the Street festival

The Word on the Street festival

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Enjoyed spending a couple hours away from my desk at the Word on the Street festival at Queen’s Park in Toronto. Great to see that literature is still such a draw, and how many different independent magazines and publishers are out there.

Sony and Kobo used the occasion to show off their e-readers. Smart move. In a couple years people might all be bringing their Kobos, Kindles and iPads to the festival, and download the latest books directly in the publishers’ tents. And people will line up for authors to do e-signings of their e-books after the readings? Maybe not.

Strange: I switched from newspapers to online news without hesitation, and embraced blogs and social media early on. But I am very attached to printed books. I was given a Kobo earlier this year, and I do use it – but almost exclusively for business books. Novels, stories and poems I still like to read on paper. It will be interesting to see if/when/how my reading habits will change over time. I hope both worlds will co-exist for a while. Can’t imagine giving up printed books. Life is much better with book stores like Ben MacNally Books and The Sleuth of Baker Street.


Canadian authors Giles Blunt, Howard Shrier and Linwood Barclay during the “World of Crime” readings and audience discussion.


University Avenue was closed down for the festival.

The ROI of putting your pants on

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“The notion of saying, ‘What’s the ROI of social media?’ is, at its broadest sense the right notion. But it’s the wrong question. You may as well ask what the ROI of putting your pants on every day is. You know there’s a value to it, but it’s hard to measure. It’s about what specific objectives we’re setting out, how we measure against those objectives, and how those all lead to a better reputation for the company, increasing market share, increasing excitement about the brand.”

Scott Monty, head of social media at Ford, in an interview with Marketing Magnified eJournal, August 2010

Social intranet is not just about adding social features

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Oscar Berg’s article is a recommended read for anyone interested in social intranets. Read it here.

Most people will, if they’ don’t already, come to understand that a social intranet is not just about adding features such as blogs, wikis, activity feeds, social bookmarking and micro-blogging on top of a traditional intranet; it’s about rethinking the purpose of intranets with the intention of bringing the paradigm shift in how we communicate and collaborate that is taking place on the web to the very core of how enterprises are operated and managed.

From The business case for social intranets by Oscar Berg

Found via @thumbtackhead

Rouge Park im August

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Rouge Park ist ein “Staedtischer Wildnis Park”. Er liegt zum Teil noch innerhalb der Stadtgrenzen von Toronto. Es war der falsche Tag (Feiertag) und die falsche Zeit (Mittagshitze) um in Ruhe Fotos zu machen, aber es war ein wunderbarer Spaziergang. Dafuer habe ich aber mitten im Wald drei nette Jamaikaner mit Angeln getroffen, die meinten ich sollte nicht in Richtung See weitergehen – es sei denn, ich moechte zum Festmahl fuer Moskitos werden. Sie hatten wahrscheinlich recht. Und wenigstens war auf dem Rueckweg ein Schmetterling freundlich genug, um fuer ein paar Bilder still zu halten. Ich komme im Herbst wieder.