Media and Speaking

Here is where you can see raincoaster and raincoaster media other than, you know, the coffee shop, the pub, and the beer garden at the track. You’re welcome, stalkers!

Professional Bio:

I have Asian fangirls, too, Julian Assange!

I’m the founding editor of the soon-to-launch The Cryptosphere and a contributor to The Intercept; a digital reporter focusing on Anonymous, hackers, and global hacktivism. I cover what Anonymous has up its sleeve as well as the international hacker scene. My specialty is covering the stories that happen where hacking meets revolution. Broke the story of Kylie Kylem, a bullied teen whose bullies were taught a sharp lesson by Anonymous, and covered the original formation of OpAntiBully right through to the unravelling of the Op.

Freelancing for the Intercept and other publications including Slate, Salon, and the Daily Dot. In the three years I’ve covered this field professionally I have broken many stories thanks to my contacts in the field, and introduced many more to the Western world including OpCambodiaFreedom and OpGabon, an operation to expose ritual murder and gross corruption among the Gabonese elites.

On the softer side I’ve also featured a heartwarming story about a Haida artist who auctioned off a bracelet of spiritual significance to help the family of a friend pay funeral expenses, and covered Anonymous’ OpSafeWinter, an initiative to ensure that however cruel the season can be, no-one need die for lack of warm clothes and bedding.

At 2600 The Hacker Quarterly, I am an administrator on the very active Facebook page. Volunteering to help keep hackers in line. Or at least not at each others’ throats. It’s a challenge.

You can seem my Twitter video on Vizify.

As for my social media side, I was one of the first professional social media and blogging trainers in Canada. I do public speaking and training around the use of technology for transformative purposes. Was responsible for all web training at W2’s Fearless City project, teaching the homeless and marginalized to use digital tools for empowerment. I’ve also answered over 60,000 questions in the WordPress.com technical support forums.

Here’s my potted bio for that:

Lorraine “raincoaster” Murphy is founder of raincoaster media, specializing in transformative social media training, as well as President Emeritus of Social Media Club of Vancouver, and has been a professional blogger and social media trainer since 2002. She specializes in teaching beginners and those with barriers to internet use, and in social media for social change. She was in charge of Web and Social Media training for the Fearless City project, and her students there included citizen journalist April Smith and poet Henry Doyle.

Her flagship blog, raincoaster.com, has been studied as part of the New Media curriculum in three universities, and the comments thread on her Mummified Fairy post has been called “one of the most beautiful things on the internet.” She once got into a flamewar with the nation of Albania, and won. She conducts workshops in the transformative use of social media on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, and blogs regularly to many different sites, including:

http://raincoaster.com: 49 degrees latitude, 360 degrees attitude!

http://thedailydot.com The internet’s hometown paper

http://trueslant.com/lorrainemurphy The Celebrity Industrial Complex

http://raincoastermedia.com Transformative Social Media Training

http://theshebeenclub.com Vancouver’s Practicing Literati (practice makes perfect, right?)

http://lolebrity.net Mai Lak Uv Dignitty: Let Me Show U It

http://ayyyy.com Gently Making Fun of the Famous

http://manolofood.com Eat! Drink! Be Merry!

http://www.offsitedatabackup.com/blog/ Simple. Fast. Secure.

Guest Posts:

• The Challenge of Housing and Homelessness on the blog of Boris Johnson, Mayor of London
• Peaches Geldof, Marked Down on CelebrityBeehive
• Dear Diane on Pivot Legal Society’s HomelessnessIsOver blog

In the Media:

• Chosen Best of the Web: The Guardian newspaper, January 3, 2007
• Breakfast Television: Blogging segment June 12, 2007
• Quote of the Day: the value of social media on Jan Karlsbjerg, Apr 30, 2008
• Vancouver Blogger Profile: Lorraine Murphy on Miss604.com, August 18, 2008
• Making Meaningful Blog Connections on The Art of the Biz, Sept 28, 2008
• Twitlight: Who Are You, raincoaster? on carocat, Aug 14, 2009
• New shared workspace opens in Vancouver’s inner city in the Vancouver Sun, Dec 21, 2009
• The Power of Social Media for Writers on BooksOnTheRadio Dec 30, 2009
• Co-workspaces: No colleagues? Why you should consider renting some in Canadian Business Magazine, Apr 26, 2010
• True/Slant Blogger Takes a Swipe at Forbes in Adweek
• Beware the Social Media Guru with More Guile than Knowledge in CanWest News Service 2010
• Defining Value in Social Media: Make the Offline Time in Wildfire Effect December 2011
• Laptop Hobos Face Crackdown in the Vancouver Sun, January 8, 2012
• Jeremy Hammond, Anonymous, and Aaron Swartz on Viewpoints, CJAD 800 AM in Montreal
• Meet a Forum Volunteer: raincoaster/Lorraine Murphy in WordPress.com, May 18. 2013
• Bitcoin Ticket Sales for Sacramento Kings on Simi Sara’s show on CKNW, January 17, 2014
• Talking Bitcoin Basics on The Morning News with Philip Till, guest host Jon McComb, January 20, 2014
• BitInstant arrests and the impact on the Bitcoin market on the Simi Sara show, CKNW, January 28, 2014
• Bitcoin Basics on The Rush with Fiona Forbes, Shaw TV, February 6, 2014
• Bitcoin, Flexcoin, MtGox, and Satoshi on the Weekend News with Sean Leslie, CKNW, March 9, 2014
• Potkaars Podcast speaking on Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning, Jeremy Hammond, and the relationship between whistleblowers and the media. (at 1:34:10)

Upcoming Engagements:

Contact me via the Contact form to book an appearance.

Past Speaking Engagements:

BIL conference on Anonymous and the Tools of Revolution, March 21 and 22, 2014

WordCamp Victoria, January 14, 2012

WordPress for Activism

Using WordPress for a mulit-user activist/organization site. How to maintain security while maximizing ease of use. Learn how to safely accept submissions from the public, and how to curate them and your own posts to make the most effective website for your organization. Examples from Occupy Vancouver Media Blog and other recent activist sites.

EatDrinkTweet, February 17-19, Penticton, BC

Blogger Panel, WordPress Bootcamp, Social Media Case Study: Xi Shi Launch with CathyBrowne

Yellowknife Rotary Meeting: September 8, 5:30-6:30, Top Knight

Just a lightning introduction to who I am and what I do.

Social Media Week Vancouver: September 18-26, Various Locations

An international event with a wide variety of different talks, presentations, round table discussions, and more!

Social Media Camp Victoria, October 3:

11am-11:50 Social Media for Beginners

What do you need to know before you know what you need in social media? How do you master Facebook so you don’t end up a sad, starving Farmville sharecropper? Want to avoid looking like a twit on Twitter? This session is for you.

Lorraine Murphy is the president of Social Media Club Vancouver and has been teaching and consulting in the social media field since the days when it was called New Media. She’ll explain the common pitfalls and pratfalls of social media, and give you easily-implementable advice about which platforms, apps, programs and gizmos are useful, effective, and practical, along with tips on how to use them most efficiently.

Simple. Straightforward. Social.

Social Media Camp Okanagan, January/February 2011

Details still in the works, but this will be a solid Unconference introduction to social media with Beginner, Business, and Tech streams of workshops. Talks include: Social Media for Wineries presented by Bradley Cooper of Township 7 and Black Cloud Wines; Social Media for Tourist Attractions presented by Chris Mathieson of the Vancouver Police Museum. Bring a laptop and an open mind!

NetSquaredCamp, August 14th

Social Media for Absolute Beginners

Social Media is perceived as a minefield for nonprofit organizations; how do they use these new tools for outreach and communications without upsetting their existing stakeholders, or sending the wrong message? Learn guidelines for professional use of social media platforms on behalf of your nonprofit.

Summer Dreams Literary Festival, August 13:

5:10-5:50 Panel Discussion: Panel Discussion: New Media: Surfing the Tsunami

Ready to catch the curl of New Media like Facebook, Twitter, & ______? Will you ride the wave, drown in indecision, or just get left behind in the backwash?  Explore the currents and calamities of an ocean of marketing potential.

Moderator: Sylvia Taylor. Panelists: Trevor Battye, Dennis E. Bolen, SR Duncan, Lorraine Murphy. (why am I the only one on this panel with a website?)

WordCamp Victoria, May 15th

Comments and Community Management

You’re not just a blogger: you’re also a cat wrangler, a teacher, a babysitter, an executioner, and a troop leader. What do you do now? Learn creative, accessible ways to interact with your audience and turn them from readers into fans and from fans into evangelists. If we have time, we’ll also cover how to terrify and intimidate trolls while actually improving your reputation. Yes, it IS possible.

Registration is open now, and you can find all the details in this post.

Federation of BC Writers Annual General Meeting May 13th

Keynote: Social Media Marketing for Writing

Social Media: you’ve heard about it, you’ve probably used it without even knowing; now learn how to make it work for you. Social Media is the most effective, most affordable way for a professional writer to promote her self and her works, develop a following, and gain experience in the public eye if she knows what she’s doing. Canada was the birthplace of that truly revolutionary social media device, the telephone, and as the heirs of Bell and Watson, Canadian writers have every reason to put themselves at the forefront of this increasingly-critical, literary communications platform.

Full Fed workshop June 19th

Northern Voice, May 7th

Social Media Speed Dating: Dealing with Negative Online Interactions
(I believe my original title was something more like Flamewars for Fun and Profit, but whatever)

Join us for Social Media Speed Dating where you can ask the experts every social media question under the sun.For an hour-and-half on Friday afternoon, experts are setting up shop in the atrium. Choose from topics that interest you most and get 20 minutes to ask questions and glean top tips before moving on to your next session of choice. Over the course of the afternoon you’ll get a chance to attend four “speed dating” sessions.

See the full list on their website.

WordPress Genius Bar

I’ll be staffing the WP Genius Bar at some point on Saturday, so bring all your questions except the one about why WordPress.com doesn’t allow Adsense, okay? See you there!

Sorry, the list only goes back till May 2010. What can I say: I’m lazy.