Wish I could make this one. Maybe you can?

Cycling Advocacy Workshop!

Sunday April 13 - 11:00am to 4:00pm

Council Chambers, Toronto City Hall (Queen & Bay)

Learn how to improve cycling conditions in your Ward. Become a positive force of change. Learn political process and leadership. read more »

“Yesterday the powerful World Association of Newspapers (WAN) issued a rather terse statement, calling on Google “to respect the rights of contentcreators” and embrace a new access protocol for search engines indexing Web sites, known as the Automated Content Access Protocol (ACAP).”

Excuse my ignorance here… the w-h-a-t protocol?

(Excerpt from Poynter Online.)

Still cleaning out my inbox from a couple weeks on the road (and a few hectic weeks in general!) and ran across these goodies…

The Social Entrepreneurship Summit that was held on Dec 3-4, 2007 at the Centre for Social Innovation and the MaRS Collaboration Centre has posted the event proceedings online. Sounds like they’ve received some good feedback on the event, and there’s momentum to keep it moving forward. read more »

The days that we can continue to pretend, despite all evidence to the contrary in a world of rapidly increasing wealth stratification, that mankind will anyminutenow be emancipated by Ubuntu, Wikipedia and Facebook are over.

Just getting caught up on e-mail after two weeks on the road and ran across this enjoyable essay by a friend and colleague Dmytri Kleiner. read more »

That’s right. I’m hitting the road again to bring the “Web love” to magazine folks in Vancouver. This is the second-last stop on a cross-country tour that started in Toronto, got snowed-in in Halifax, and will conclude its first circuit in Edmonton at the end of March. So far, it’s been a hell of a lot of fun — the faculty is top-notch and the participants are reporting back that they’ve embarked on new Web initiatives already. What more could one ask?

So here are the details for Vancouver:  read more »

I first heard of the Guerrillagirls and their creative culture jamming through Andrew Boyd, and learned a bit more when I found myself delivering a workshop for Greenpeace with Frida Kahlo here in Toronto. The power of their work continues to be a lace-lined and guerrilla-masked battle cry for what’s right: read more »

Just a reminder that there are only 3 days left to register for Web Weekend. Registration closes on November 9, 2007 and only a few spots remain. Don’t miss the chance to take part in two-day online marketing program designed specifically for magazine publishers.

Small Magazines staff: Inquire with Magazines Canada about bursaries.

It has been a hectic couple weeks since we returned from out west; catch-up sure can be a killer. Either way, I’m not letting my overly-tired ass stay put tonight, tomorrow, or Friday, as Toronto becomes ground zero for some of the most exciting conversation in online news, citizen journalism, and media democracy.

Thanks to Lisa Rundle, I’ve got ring-side seats for what is sure to be one of the week’s more exciting events: CBC’s The Future of the Future of News forum. Sparks are sure to fly when Andrew Keen and Leonard Brody go head-to-head on the topic of citizen journalism. Andrew is the author of The Cult of the Amateur — a book that refuses to accept that the Web is changing the rules — and Leonard is the founder of Now Public, a Vancouver-based citizen journalism start-up that is catching mainstream attention.  read more »

Marc Fest (Director of Communications at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation) asked me to pass this on:

The Knight News Challenge contest awards $5 million for innovative media ideas, however the October 15 application deadline is quickly approaching. The streamlined application takes less than 20 minutes. Anybody worldwide has a chance to win. For more information and to apply visit www.newschallenge.org.

The Knight News Challenge is one of the more innovative funding models that I referenced recently in a post about changing technology funding practices. Their approach to granting — both the application process and the fast, iterative funding cycles — is having a catalyzing effect, and a noticeable impact, on the shape of local news around the world.

If you’re involved with a citizen or local media project: get that pencil sharpened and start writing.

So I’ve just started replacing sugar and milk in my coffee. It’s been a few days now and I barely miss it; the secret was Silk and honey. I can’t stand Stevia or those other “healthy” sugar replacements — but this combo works beautifully. And what else is like silk and honey for us Canadians? Why the CBC of course.

I stumbled on a great five-part series on CBC radio this weekend called Spin Cycles. The series covers the history, and current state, of the PR industry. The host explores this industry in relation to US and Canadian politics, and the war in Iraq and Afghanistan — the result is a thorough investigation “how those in power can manipulate facts in order to make their case for the rest of us.”

I highly recommend a listen.