Northern Voices 2008

Dave Olson's podcast features a rousing rendition of the Canadian national anthem, his antics in Amsterdam and an impromptu longboard hockey game at the University of British Columbia's Chan Centre.

Hockey Semantics
I'm in Vancouver for the Northern Voices Conference and I'd almost completely forgotten about the "hosers". I'd always assumed "hoser" referred to wrapping your mouth around the hose while doing a keg stand. Not so. It first referred to pre-zamboni hockey when the losing team hosed off the ice and has since evolved into a term that loosely translates to "beer-swilling hockey kook".

Northern Voices 2008
I'm spoiled because new product demos are a dime a dozen in SF. I'm less interested in the technology available than I am in the way it is used. For this reason, my favorite presenter was a fellow I'd never heard of, Dave Olson.

Dave Olson is a bit of hoser. He produces the Canucks Outsider Podcast, published a grade school punk zine featuring D.O.A and publishes Uncle Weed- a marijuana lifestyle blog and podcast.

Olson's lecture, entitled, "Fuck Stats, Make Art" was a welcome change from the widget wankery preached at most conferences. Olson entertained with embarrassing childhood anecdotes while still managing to deliver a great message.

He argues that somewhere in the process of monetizing and analyzing the web, content producers have sacrificed their need to create art and have fun. In essence, they've become meta-douches. It seems Dave Olson is putting the passion back into publishing and as long as this hoser keeps giving 'er, I'm behind him 100%.

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Northern Voices 2008

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