I was in New York last week to meet with PR, advertising and marketing agencies interested in ICUC Moderation Services. In total I did eight capabilities presentations and I’m very pleased with the reception I received and I’m looking forward to working with some great agencies on some exciting new projects.

I got to town late Wednesday night for meetings on Thursday and Friday. The first evening and most of the second was spent putting proposals together and planning the next day’s events.

This video was shot the second night when I was able to put the work down for a couple hours and take the deck out for a ride sometime around 9pm. I skated over to the UN building past the Chrysler building and then took a cab down to the Brooklyn Bridge. I skated down through the financial district to get a view of the Statue of Liberty. Much to my surprise there were fireworks on Liberty Island - this was a pretty righteous bonus.

From there I headed back North by ground zero and through Greenwich Village by the famous White Horse Tavern and eventually back up to the Empire State Building - where I was told to beat it - and finally on to Times Square.

I had fun shooting this, amazingly the camera was never stolen as I had to leave it alone a few times. Good thing it’s small I could hide it in bushes and under garbage.

I hope this makes you smile, maybe even laugh. Have a great Monday. :)

There are many places an agency can bring in partner solutions to increase margins yet outsourced UGC moderation is still a relatively new and unknown option. Agencies, like every other company, are constantly looking to be more profitable, or simply stay profitable, and a content moderation partner can open the door to new revenue (or increased productivity, and this should mean more revenue).

By outsourcing content moderation agencies can not only free up creative staff to do what they were hired to do but now an agency can offer a service that requires a lot of manpower without having to worry about the HR issues.

Content moderation is a tedious task if done by an experienced moderator can be done a lot quicker and with less error than by someone who has 30 tasks to complete and moderation is just one of them. By focusing on one task moderation companies can generally go through content a lot quicker than agencies are able to do in house. This translates into less hours and less money.

Another benefit of the outsourced solution is the cost per hour. Content moderation services from Winnipeg to London to New York are all in and around the same rate. Depending out what they’re doing and how many hours a day they are putting in you can expect to pay no more than $50 per hour - drastically lower than agency fees.

These savings can either be passed straight through to the end client or treated as a white label solution and billed as agency hours. Suddenly the outsourced content moderation solution starts to make a lot more sense.

What’s important to keep in mind here is the volume and the time it’s taking to moderate the content. If it’s a situation where the client is happy if the content is moderated once per day and in house staff can do that in a few minutes - and they don’t mind moderating on the weekends and holidays, than an agency will likely not benefit from working with a moderation partner.

But if you have content that needs to be moderated on a strict schedule with a quicker turnaround, or there is just enough content to be burdensome, agencies may want to look into what options are out there. It’s possible this obstacle has just become an opportunity.

Here are just a few shots I took while in Seattle for the Blogwell conference last week.

Shots include the first Starbucks, Pike Place Market, the most amazing wood sculpture I’ve ever seen - I found this at the Seattle Art Museum - and of course some obligatory shots from atop the The Space Needle. Also, there is one shot that is strictly a nod to welders - those brave, determined souls.

Enjoy!

I’m back on the road so it seems like the perfect time to reflect on the past two weeks of solid Toronto time. I made some friends, met a lot of interesting people and had some very unique to Toronto experiences.

I’m a social person so I generally like running into friends wherever they may be. Out here friends are few and far between so what’s been great has been being lucky enough to run into people I’ve met through business. I’ve ran into more than one client of ours on public transportation - I’ve been told this is common in the downtown Toronto area. It’s a great feeling to see a familiar face. I’ve also run into people  on the side walk who I’ve been making efforts to speak with - those chance meetings are very valuable and just won’t happen in Winnipeg.

Living here has been easy, spreading the word of ICUC Moderation Services has definitely been a challenge. Talking about what ICUC does and the value of our services is an easy conversation to have because the value is easy to see – getting people to sit down and have that talk is where the challenge exists.

My job has been just as much about educating and informing as it has been about selling. We are in a unique space where our core competencies center around moderation when most people are talking monitoring – two very similar words with very different meanings and often used interchangeably incorrectly.  

When I’m out there sending emails, making calls and reaching out to those who work in social media I still come across, “we already have a monitoring solution” or “we don’t do monitoring yet”. I say, “that’s great, can we talk about moderation?”

To me it’s like being in a furniture store and saying to the salesman, “listen, stop showing me sofas - I already have a dishwasher.”

It’s a tough row to hoe but it’s getting better. It seems with every call I make and every day I spend talking about ICUC, our moderation service and our people powered solution the awareness grows.

The bottom line is I’m having fun and making progress and I get the sense most of ICUC – getting close to 150 of us by now – are having just as much fun as I am. 

I flew from Cincinnati down to Orlando to participate in the trade show aspect of this years NAA MediaXchange conference.

I arrived Friday afternoon and headed down to the Amway Arena to see the Magic and the Knicks play - the game was fun, I had a great conversation with the guy beside me as we watched the Magic run circles around the Knicks.

Saturday I meet up with Chuck Dueck - ICUC’s Director, News. Although I’ve talked to Chuck many times this was the first time I actually got to meet him in person. Not getting to meet your co-workers is an unfortunate side affect of an entirely virtual office.

Chuck use to race cars, something I did not know until I met him in Orlando. He invited me to come along to a dirt track an hour and a half North of Orlando for some racing on Saturday night. Initially I was hesitant to go along, mostly because of my own preconceptions about what happens at the track. In the end I did and was glad I went.

At the track I was really outside of my element. It was a new experience and I did not realize it would be as profound as it was. I found the racing to be entertaining but what I found more entertaining than the cars was watching the people watch the cars. It’s hard to explain, but if you ever get a chance to visit a dirt track on a Saturday night in northern Florida, I suggest you go - and then call me, I would love to hear about your experience.

The next day we visited a blues bar for supper, another great experience I was lucky to share with Chuck and his wife.

Monday the trade show started and went until Wednesday. It was interesting to see the various reactions of the people who stopped by the booth. From, “Why would I pay you to do that?” to “Thank God I found you. Please, please help.” Guess who of these two people generally had the larger online community.

Keith came down for a day to speak at the conference about the benefits of having user comments professionally moderated. His talk drove home the point of consistency: consistency in time the comments will be viewed, taken down, or responded too and consistency in moderation guidelines. All very important - if not the most important - things when news organizations are attempting to grow online communities and in turn online readership.

Wednesday the show ended mid afternoon and Chuck invited me to go for a drive with him and his wife down to the coast. I had never seen the Atlantic Ocean so I was more than willing to go along. It was beautiful and exhilarating and another moment I will remember for years to come.

The visit to Orlando was a success in many ways. ICUC has new business and many new contacts and an understanding of the MediaXchange event. And I have a much better understanding of our company, I have a much better understanding of the pain points of the news industry and I have two new friends where I use to have two distant co-workers.

What does ICUC see at NAA’s mediaXchange?

April 13th, 2010 (8:32am) Dustin Plett

As people passed the ICUC Moderation Services booth at mediaXchange yesterday afternoon I found myself imagining what a similar trade show would have looked like in the past. When traffic slowed I let my mind wander…

It was easy to imagine groups of men and woman standing in front of the latest printing press technologies and endless aisles of paper and ink suppliers. I imagined pens, pencils and pads of paper. I imagined typewriters and eventually micro-cassette recorders and finally digital recorders and computers and word processors. I imagined what this would have looked like only five years ago when the thought of putting content online for free seemed risque and ridiculous and no one except a few kids from Harvard College had ever heard of Facebook.

When I would snap back to reality I would see the people I had imagined, only a few years older, but instead of excitement there was a general sense of unease and trepidation. This is not the same universe that surrounded the print media world only a few years ago and everyone in attendance is keenly aware of this.

I watched as many people who have been in the journalism field for many years walked up and down aisles with blank looks as they passed booth after booth of tech solutions to help monetize everything from new content, to outsourced content, to re-purposed content. And software solutions that promised to add value to publications by supplying endless amounts on data on readership location, readership engagement and reader sentiments.

I felt sorry for the old guard who had made this the proud medium it is today and who now seemed to be on the outside looking in. And truth be told that time they remember, that simpler time, is something I envy a little.

However, that feeling of longing for a simpler time is always replaced by the excitement of what is happening before my eyes. News is reaching more people and becoming more accessible than ever before – that’s exciting. And I can appreciate when you take the tangibles out of an industry that hinged on a deliverable that was always held in two hands it does seem bizarre. But it doesn’t have to be scary.

For the new journalists and the men and woman entering this industry in a variety of capacities there is enthusiasm about being on the cusp of something new and grand. There is excitement in being a part of something – or a time – that will be looked back on as a revolutionary time for the industry.

ICUC Moderation Services is enjoying this ride and we love being a part of giving every single reader a voice. We invite all those attending this year’s mediaxchange event to join us in welcoming in this new era of truly social media. ICUC Moderation Services is a small piece of the puzzle but we can’t help but to think professional reader comment moderation is – and will continue to be – an integral part of any successful newspaper’s online property.

If you want to talk social media and find out how effective moderation can enhance your online properties consistency, value, and bottom line come find me at the ICUC Moderation Services booth on the trade show floor.

Back on the road… I made the trip to Cincinnati last week for the Blogwell conference. One of five Blogwell events ICUC Moderation Services has sponsored this year.

The Wednesday afternoon conference was a great experience for our team (Alisha Paul, ICUC’s Social Media and Marketing Manager, and I) to share with the approximate 250 other attendees what we do and how we do it. Along with sharing our services we also watched as eight speakers presented case studies and talked of the success they’ve found in social media.

Aside from the conference I also visited eight fantastic shops in the Cincinnati area. These shops ranged in discipline from design to PR to advertising to marketing and their eagerness to understand what was happening at the forefront of social media was inspiring. I did not walk into one office where after presenting ICUC Moderation Services my audience did not express interest in working with us and see value in our core competencies.

For business, this trip was a success and I look forward to growing the relationships with the new friends I made in Cincinnati.

As for the people of Cincinnati, they are generally pretty hard on their city - I found myself constantly defending it. So, to all Cincinnatians, “your city isn’t that bad, I enjoyed it, be proud of it!.” Everyone I met, from company executives to concierge, and from cabby to construction worker, were all polite and very helpful.

Aside from work I took some time to take in the sights and sounds of the city. Seeing the Ohio river was a really touching experience for me. Understanding what that river divided, freedom from slavery, is really a hard thing for my mind to grasp growing up in rural Manitoba were freedom was nearly limitless. I walked across the John A. Roebling suspension bridge, completed in 1866, and thought how easy it was to cross this river today and how 200 years ago people were dying to accomplish what I did in only a few minutes.

In the end, I would say if you get the chance, visit Cincinnati. If not for the sights, for the people. And if your company wants to send you to Cincinnati for a conference, don’t scoff at it. You’ll be rewarded for your journey to the American heartland with great people, great service, and Graeter’s ice cream.

The last 72 hours have been interesting, here’s the brake down of the last 3 days to put what I’m going to write in the next couple days into perspective.

Saturday 7:30am Wakeup

8:30am Met Dad for breakfast

12:00pm Hit the highway after stopping in to see the banker and getting a tarp for the box of the truck in case it rains.

5:00pm Starts to rain, go to put on tarp and realize I grabbed the wrong size despite knowing what size I needed. Dumb mistake, luckily my mattress prevented most of possessions from getting wet. Unluckily my mattress is more of a sponge than an umbrella.

5:30pm Leave Dryden, as I leave I say, “I’m going to need gas in 2 to 3 hours.” Dad says, “no problem, there is a truck stop in about 200 km, we’ll be fine.” We carry on.

7:45pm Turns out Petro Canada thought a gas station was just taking up valuable real estate on an otherwise wide open parking lot and got ride of it.

8:30pm Pull into the only gas station open between Dryden and Thunder Bay - sweating and cursing anyone I thought could be held responsible for the lack of fuel over the last 300 km.

8:45pm Leave the gas station - with a new tarp! This gas station sells tarps of the exact size I need, right beside the welders. Bizarre - but I took it as a positive sign.

10:30pm Arrive in Nipigon to a big flashing sign that reads “Highway Closed due to dangerous driving conditions.” We pull into a truck stop and get the word from the drivers pulling in for the night. The road is described as horrible, one especially animated fellow claims he has 8,000 lbs of ice on his truck and trailer. Dad says, “that’s bullshit” and we move on. He says, “how bad can it be?” It’s impossible to argue with this.

12:00am Driving 50 km through a snowstorm. Dad says, “see, the road’s open.” It’s impossible to argue with this.

6:00am Through the storm alive and well!

8:00am I’m hallucinating and start swerving trying to avoid stone cubes I’m imaging on the road. My swerving wakes up my Dad who says, “maybe I should drive.” It’s impossible to argue with this.

10:30am I wake up as we pull in to grab a coffee on the East side of Sault Ste. Marie. After a coffee we are back on the road and I’m behind the wheel after resting for the last hour and a half.

1:30pm As we fill up with gas in Sudbury I say, “something’s up with the truck, it’s not sounding right.” We pop the hood and realize the alternator is going, it’s very hot and grinding away. I had noticed the vault gauge jumping a bit in the last few weeks so I knew it was on its way out. We drive across town with the alternator grinding away and pull into Canadian Tire with horrible, horrible noises coming from my poor truck. Luckily Canadian Tire has a rebuilt and all my tools were easily accessible. I bought the replacement and my Dad and I had the new alternator in within half an hour.

2:30pm Joyfully talking about how lucky we are the alternator went when it did and not in the middle of nowhere during the storm last night.

5:30pm We are 30 km from Toronto and BOOM, grrrrrrlrlrlrlrlr - at least that’s how I remember it sounding. A tire blew out and we came to a stop underneath an overpass. Very lucky considering it was raining like crazy. This time the tools - jack and tire iron - were not as accessible as were my tools. We had to unload everything from the cab to get at the tools. We were tired and this was hard to do.

6:00pm The spare is on and we are at Canadian Tire again - this time buying a new tire.

8:00pm At a hotel in northern Toronto.

9:00pm Asleep

7:30am Awake

9:00am Visit first apartment I was interested in.

11:00am All the paper work is done - I got it, that was easy.

12:30pm Not so fast - someone else got it, sorry.

12:30 - 1:00pm Sit in my truck and curse everyone who I feel is responsible for this cruel injustice.

1:00pm - Resume search for apartment

1:00pm - 5:30pm Let down after let down (I don’t want to relive this by writing it, but it was rough and I was thankful my Dad was along to remind me to be patient.)

5:30pm - I notice landlords aren’t answering calls anymore - the day is over and I still don’t have a place to live. I start focusing on smaller places where I think there is a better chance of getting an answer.

7:00pm Close to giving up. I see one more place, I pull in and am greeted by one of the sweetest ladies I’ve ever met. Her name is Magda, she shows me my dream apartment but it’s more than I wanted to spend. She says she likes me and shows me an equally amazing place but a little smaller and on the North side of the building. It’s a few hundred dollars cheaper and I say, “I will take it.”

7:30pm I walk out of the tower - only 3 blocks from ICUC’s new office on Mowat - with a new address!

SO, here I am now. Tired but relieved. It’s been a long 3 days. I’m moving in first thing tomorrow morning. I will fill you in later tomorrow on the days events. Until than, goodnight.

I’m so proud of the company I work for. I’m truly happy to say I’m a small part of this organization. Check out this story about online content moderation by The Globe and Mail.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/once-more-into-the-breach-of-online-comments/article1474571/

A quick run down of the now “for sures” about my move to Toronto:

• I will rent a place
• I will try hard to live close to where I work and a little further from downtown than I would have originally liked (the new ICUC Moderation Services office is on Mowat in Liberty Village and I would love to be able to walk to work)
• I will drive out to Toronto with my truck, roughly 2,400km. I wont sell it until I’m settled - think of it as a safety blanket
• I will be living in Toronto by April 1 - don’t be fooled, this is no joke!
• I will try to see as many friends and as much of my family as possible before I leave - I have a sister in Vancouver, that might be tricky
• I will leave on Friday, March 26 at the latest - I’m not sure if I will drive state side or take the Canadian route over the lakes. Suggestions?
• I will arrive in Toronto on Sunday or Monday, March 28 or 29
• I will likely travel alone but let me know if you’re down for a road trip
• I will immediately begin to look for a place to move into by April 1 - is this too little time, let me know your thoughts?
• I will visit my brother in Ottawa on the days between finding a place and moving in
• I will move in April 1, maybe second if the place has to be cleaned or something else
• First day in the new office will be Monday, April 5 at the latest. Hooray!!

Am I missing anything? Do not hesitate to let me know if you see glaring flaws in my plan. Also, does anyone know of places renting near Mowat for a reasonable price? Let me know if you have any leads, if you find me a place I will take you out for the best cheeseburger money can buy!

When you live in Manitoba you need to be creative when it comes to a pass time such as ice climbing. Because Southern Manitoba largely sits in the Red River Valley it is really flat. And not just flat like no mountains flat - more like watch-your-dog-run-away-for-three-days, flat. In this video I am “summiting” the highest ice wall in Manitoba - the 60’ man-made ice tower in St.Boniface, Winnipeg. My buddy Mark and I do a lot of rock climbing but this weekend was our first time with the ice and it was incredible. What are the chances of finding a real waterfall somewhere around Toronto to climb, does Niagara falls ever freeze? Can I climb it? Is that a dumb question?

Also, for this I choose the awesome Flip supplied soundtrack titled Perfect Saturday - it just seemed fitting, and it made me laugh.

Hey Everyone, I just thought I would post a video to say hi and explain a little about myself and what I hope I can accomplish with this campaign.

WINNIPEG – January 20, 2010 – Where should I live? What is there to do in Toronto? How big is this city anyway? Those are all questions Dustin Plett, business development manager for ICUC Moderation Services Inc. will be asking Torontonians this month through a new social media campaign as he moves to the city to increase our growing daily presence.

On March 1, 2010 Dustin’s journey will take him from quiet Winnipeg to fast-paced Toronto, and he will document it all online. Torontonians can help him choose an apartment, navigate parking and maybe even meet him for supper in the months leading up to the move. Fans are encouraged to follow Dustins’ big move at www.dustin2to.com and through the Snoo.ws blog, Facebook or Dustin’s Twitter account @dustinplett along with the hashtag #dustin2TO.

“When ICUC asked me to move to Toronto my immediate reaction was to laugh. Not at the offer, but at the thought of me – who only a few years ago, before returning to school, was a welder from the prairies - moving East on a fantastic adventure into the business hub of Canada.”

This social media campaign heralds the arrival of ICUC’s first office in Toronto, and full-time employee on its streets. Servicing clients such as CBC, Unilever and Molson, ICUC is the world leader in content and community moderation services.

“Setting up a full-time office in Toronto is a natural step as the company grows and evolves,” said Keith Bilous, president and CEO of ICUC Moderation Services Inc. “I’m really excited to see how involved Dustin can get with the Toronto community through this social media campaign. I’m hoping they’ll throw him a welcoming party.”

About ICUC Moderation Services Inc:
ICUC Moderation Services Inc. was founded in Winnipeg in 2002 and is the global leader in content and community moderation services, powered by real people. We manage, moderate and monitor millions of social media conversations, photographs and videos and work inside some of the largest online communities in the world.

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For more information please contact:
Alisha Paul, Social Media & Marketing Manager
ICUC Moderation Services Inc.
alisha@icucmoderation.com | 204.229.6004 | @alishaizanne