Olympic Passion

It's no secret, Raincity staffers have demonstrated their passion for anything Olympics, Open Source and Social Media over the past 5 years...

During that time, as individuals and as a company we have had the honour to attend, cover and enjoy two Olympic games.

Raincity Studios is listed along side 9 other companies in the current issue of WE. The West Ender Cover Feature:Made In Vancouver.

Our city is a hotbed of creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. From the fashionable to the ecological, here are 10 businesses — new and established — we think are at the top of their game.

We are honored and exited to be featured with some of Vancouver's greatest and most innovative companies.

Tags:

• Drupal
• pioneer
• raincitystudios
• robertscales
• technologist
• Vancouver

We've seen a lot of changes at Raincity Studios over the past six months.  This transition has not necessarily been an easy road, but we're finally beginning to see the fruits of our labour.  After closing down Bryght, restructuring our management team, moving out of the Gastown offices and repaying a majority of our liabilities, we're happy to announce that the first phase of our transition action plan is nearly complete.  And now, as we head into Autumn and the

Your support is kindly needed

South by Southwest 2010 is just around the corner and once again it is time for the community (YOU) to help select which panels will make the cut! I submitted an idea for a session on "Social Media and the Olympics" and I hope you'll consider voting for it. I think this session will be especially relevant since SXSW will be taking place after the closing of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. We'll be sure to have plenty of stories from trenches!

Please Vote "YES"!

Social Media and the Olympics: A Case Study - Robert Scales + panelists

Coverage of the Olympic Games is dominated by IOC's contracted rights-holder and accredited major media conglomerates however some feel there is a role for grassroots documentation of both sporting events and the cultural context. The related conundrums are discussed by social media makers who covered several Olympics Games.

You can also see "Then and Now.. Citizen media and the Olympics", a video recording of the panel I co-hosted at Northern Voice 2009.

Who Am I?

Robert Scales is one of the Co-founders of Raincity Studios - a pioneering open source and Drupal development agency in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is an advocate of Social Media and is often witnesses espousing on open source business models.

As a gonzo journalist, Scales has covered events including the Olympic Games in Turin and Beijing, the Dali Lama's visit to Vancouver and rock bands and tech luminaries at SXSW. Besides the various social media channels, his reportage appeared in MSM outlets as diverse as the BBC, 21st Century Herald (Shanghai), and Warsaw Daily.

Winner of a 2006 Canadian New Media Award, Robert also teaches at Vancouver Film School and acts as an advisor on various Boards. He participated in the Canada World Youth cultural exchange program as well as various social change workshops and training programs. He frequently presents at (un)conferences around the world about open source tech, business and culture.

How can you connect with me?

• Scales on Facebook
• My You Tube Channel
• Scales' Flickr photostream
• Twitter
• My Olympic coverage via Beijing 2008 Social Media Backpack

Thank you for your Support!

Over the past five years at Raincity Studios, we've built a talented and diverse team of drupalers, open sourcers, travelers, photographers, bloggers, vloggers, innovators, cultural transformers, and social media experimenters.   We've developed and hosted hundreds of websites and in many cases, we've helped our clients achieve their goals.  We've also helped train hundreds of drupal developers and played an active role in helping grow the drupal community around the world. 

We're very proud of our track record, but we're the first to acknowledge that we've also made mistakes along the way.  We've seen projects fail because we weren't being direct about the poor business model or lack of planning. We've seen projects go broke through mismanagement and we've learned many valuable lessons about cost control, communication, project management and accountability. We've watched some communities flourish while others turned into ghost towns.  All of this has taught us a lot about business development, sustainability and our strengths and weaknesses as a studio.

It's also taught us that you can't just keep doing things the same way.  Just as the same development solution is not perfect for every client, the same operational model is not the right fit for every business.  More importantly, we've learned that our operational model needs to be adaptable to accommodate the changing nature and scale of our business.   We've always prided ourselves on being an agile and innovative company and we've never wanted to get too comfortable with our success, so we've been taking practical steps to restructure our operational model and reorganize our offerings.  We've been researching the best way to go about doing this by consulting with trusted friends and individuals for whom we have great respect.  We're very grateful for the advice and support they have provided us and it's made us optimistic about the possibilities we can create for ourselves in the future.