Anyhoo, I’m close to launching the interactive iPad optimized web app edition of my SuperSpud digital comics.

I thought I’d share a sneak preview of the three comics that will launch with the app. Particularly, their covers!

They are using Google products and services to record their military history and career. For example, using Google Voice to record their stories, Google Maps to plot out where their military careers have taken them, even using Google Docs to draw with family members while deployed. And many more ideas.

This is such an awesome, clever use of Google products and services that’s really making huge differences in lives.

I was interviewed by The Globe and Mail to talk about my latest digital venture, Stutter Social, an online virtual support group using Google Plus Hangouts. Read more about it in this blog post.

Journalist, Wency Leung, did an excellent job at telling the Stutter Social story. And interviewed two Stutter Social regulars further raising awareness for reader about how socially awkward stuttering can be.

I’m so happy to be part of something that is helping people and is a feel-good social media story!

I’ll be giving a session once again this year at PodCamp Toronto! Actually, I’ll be co-presenting with my friend and PodCamp Toronto co-organizer and community management team member, Dr. Vibe of The Vibe and Vegas Show.

Entitled, “Empowering and Enlightening Communities with Digital Media“, we will be talking about how digital media tools are being used to empower and enlighten non-mainstream communities. I’ll be representing my stuttering community via case studies of my podcast, Stuttering is Cool and online support group that I co-founded, Stutter Social, while Dr. Vibe will represent his community of Canadian black men and his award winning blog and podcast, The Vibe and Vegas Show.

In addition to podcasting, we will talk about how Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus Hangout brought each of us success stories and our new exploration into, yes, Pinterest.

Listen to our presentation live Saturday, February 25th at 11:45 a.m. Via the widget at the top of this page. If you missed it, don’t worry – it’s archived! Just press play.

It’s too bad the iPad doesn’t take very good photos indoors. But that still doesn’t take away my excitement of being interviewed on CBC Radio One’s superb afternoon drive program, Here and Now hosted by Laura Di Battista last night!

We chatted about my latest digital venture, Stutter Social, how social media tools are useful for support groups, The King’s Speech, and what’s it like to grow up stuttering. Best of all, I also had the chance to debunk a few common stuttering misconceptions and spread a little awareness. The host also mentioned my podcast!

It was quite thrilling to come into the studio and chat for 7 minutes (that’s a long time for radio!). Of course, I was nervous but once I was on the air, I was completely at ease and happy to stutter in front of CBC Radio One’s listening audience :) Much thanks to Laura Di Battista for making me feel totally comfortable. She’s a great interviewer.

It was also cool to see Jim Curran sitting beside me reporting on Toronto’s rush hour traffic. It was great to be able to put a face on the voice I heard many, many times as I listened to Hear And Now over the years.

To my delight, my interview is archived on the Here And Now website on it’s own page called, naturally, Stutter Social.

Related reading: I was interviewed on CBC Radio

I’m excited to announce that I will be leading the PodCamp Toronto Community Management Team this year! That’s my team in the photo above (I’m on the right).

This will be the first time that PodCamp Toronto will have a dedicated team for community management. Being a grassroots event, a co-organizer would always jump in to answer a question or two on the Twitter feed or Facebook page. However, as PodCamp Toronto grew, well, more questions came in and the need to communicate increased!

My first time leading a team

What is my leadership style? I like to ensure that all team members feel they are included in the creative process and that they can take ownership of their projects and shine. I know I’m a natural for setting up an environment where all ideas and suggestions matter. Especially since we will be working with digital media where ideas can sound strange at first but end up proving themselves as being the best thing ever.

I’ve got a lot of ideas for PodCamp Toronto’s digital strategy and after the community management team’s first brainstorming session recently, I know this is going to be an awesome experience! Meet my teammates over on the PCTO2012 blog at Introducing the PCTO2012 Community Management Team!.

I mentioned my 2007 trip to Paris in my last Sketchbook Video. So the sketchbook I used during my trip is featured in my latest episode (I like how that sounds. I guess I’m a video podcaster now).

It’s a Paris Moleskine City notebook. I highly recommend these little things. They are the tour guide you create yourself!

You’ll see quite the strange colour palette I used in this sketchbook. That’s the fault of some Japanese markers I bought in a Japanese store in Pairs (go figure!). They came in weirdest combination. Though frustrating, it did provide some creative ideas on its own (as seen in my previous video).

Well, thanks home video technology in my DSLR, iMovie and Vimeo, it can happen a little more than often. I’ve begun making short videos of my flipping through my sketchbooks. So, if you want to flip through them, you’re saved a trip!

Above is my first video which features my Moleskine sketchbook from 2006. This was a time where I was trying different mediums and techniques other than my usual pencil. You’ll see how some methods worked while others didn’t. I further developed those that did work and learned a lot from what didn’t.

But not exactly a vacation it will be: I am working on a few projects to improve some skills, learn a few new things and putting the digital devices away (well, maybe not the social networks) while the weather’s still nice.

I’m already seeing some leaves changing colour (AAAUUUGGGHHHH!!!).

I keep returning because the community is awesome. In fact, as I was unpacking last night, I came to realize that the appropriate term for PAB conference attendees is “participants”.

You go to the conference and your fellow attendees are speaking. It’s a more direct, friendlier form of “unconference”. No focus on using Facebook or Twitter to improve . PAB is exactly like getting together with your fellow social media and digital (and analogue) content nerds except it’s over 3 days and you really, really, really want to hear from everyone. And you learn so much from each other.

This year’s theme was “Your story needs to be told. Well”. Being a natural born storyteller, I was definitely in my element. PAB always proves without a doubt that CONTENT IS KING (get over it).

It’s interesting to note that a number of sessions centered around telling and preserving family histories. And a lot of the comments from the audience was along the lines of “My family did that, too!”.

Add to that the sessions by a director of photography at IMAX, artists, embracing and learning from your worst works, those (good) shiver moments that our favourite movies and music form, and learning from the Catholic Church’s appoach to one-to-many, one-to-one communication instead of prosthelytizing.

So if you’re a natural born storyteller like me who believes the importance of quality in the content you post online, then definitely check out PAB next year in Ottawa from June 15-17.