This past weekend, I had the opportunity to spend time with a roomful of people doing some pretty inspiring work (one of the best perks of my job!). One of those people was Richard Conlin, Council President for the City of Seattle.

For several years now, Richard has worked to help make Seattle a more livable city. This past Monday, Seattle become one of the few places in the States where you can:

• Grow food on your residential and sell it there too (think curb-side fruit stands in every community).
• Put a small, food-producing, greenhouse on your roof
• And — garnering a surprising amount of attention, and praise — the ability to raise up to eight chickens in your backyard.

This is only the latest development in what is an impressive record of achievements toward making Seattle one of the most green, low-waste, and energy-efficient cities in the US.

Richard — who biked from his home in Seattle to the gathering on Bainbridge Island — brims with enthusiasm when talking about urban farming, community gardening, and the potential for Seattle to become a zero-waste city.

Canada needs to find a way to import some of this vision and execution to our city councils. Toronto, I’m lookin’ at you.

Interviewing the venerable David Beers today, I was reminded about the power of stories.

David is the Founder / Editor of the award-winning daily news site The Tyee and we were speaking about the changing news environment. At times, David likes to make himself out to be a fish out of water (pun intended -- a "tyee" is a salmon): the "old fashioned" guy leading the news innovation pack. But it's clear to me that it is people like David -- these fish out of water -- that are learning to survive in this new environment.

If you want to hear David's stories about news innovation at The Tyee, you can find him (along with more than 200 other media innovators) at the "Journalism That Matters: Re-imagining News & Community in the Pacific Northwest" gathering in Seattle this week. You can be sure it won't be a firsherman's tale.

As the software landscape shifts from installed software to Software as a Service (SaaS), and as “support” for those services moves from asking a question on a mailing list to professional support teams — the one thing that is sometimes lost is that sense of connection to other people using the software. So, when I see innovative software providers like Democracy in Action launching a full-fledged networking and collaboration platform for their user community — I’m left inspired by what’s possible when engaged people put their minds to it.

Do me a quick favour. Take a moment and think of the exact opposite of a traditional Web portal — conjure up something like AOL or, in the non-profit space, something like TechSoup — and then think of the opposite and tell me what comes to mind? If you come up with something concrete, pop your thoughts in the comments below.

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.

Freshly back from the biggest Web of Change event ever, I’m excited to get some thoughts out of my head and into the noosphere.

This year it was my great pleasure to facilitate the ever-popular “speed geek” (think speed dating). With almost 100 people in the room, the energy and excitement was palpable. And ten passionate presenters managed to deliver their four-minute demos to ten small groups that rotated around the room. Undoubtedly, it was the most information packed 55 minutes of the entire event.

Have you ever asked yourself the question: Just how portable is my work? Before heading out last week — the first leg of a four-week, west-coast journey with Melanie — I asked that question repeatedly with increasing anxiety and trepidation. Now that I’ve safely landed in a workers’ paradise in downtown Vancouver, I can honesty answer that question and say: yep, my work is pretty portable.

Over the last couple of weeks, I was thinking a lot about “network leadership,” and the role of innovative technology, and how it all becomes part of a movement here in Canada that could change the field of innovation. The last burning question for me is: How can Canadian grant makers play a bigger role in catalyzing the necessary networks, and helping innovators build the necessary relationships?

Lots has already been said about the opportunities for a more holistic approach to financing non-profit technology initiatives. So, when it comes time to explore new ways of financing social innovation, I hope that foundations and grant makers will invest some time to integrate the “old” ideas too. But, when I return to the question “how can Canadian grant makers play a bigger role in ensuring that technology projects are successful and sustainable,” I always come back to the same conclusion: the funding model needs to be innovative too.

A couple of months ago I got to share my feelings about “digital editions” with a room full of unsuspecting publishers at the (first ever) MagNet conference in Toronto. The title of the session was Digital Editions: New Medium for an Old Magazine? and, in preparation for the session, I really had to do some research. The thing is that the session title and description got handed to us presenters (a complaint I heard across the board from other presenters) and we had to do our best. In my case, doing the research helped me to build a more complete argument for why I feel digital editions — in the traditional meaning of the term — just aren’t a good investment for publishers. Here’s why…

One of the questions that I’ve struggled with over the last couple of years is: What systemic changes are necessary to help catalyze innovation around social technology? I came back to this question the other week as the conversation swayed toward the opportunity for progressive organizations — and social innovators — to integrate social software, social networks, and the ideas of Web 2.0 into their work. I think for most of us who work in the non-profit technology space, the sparkle is off the Web 2.0 starburst, as we see organizations struggle to fully “get” what this new technology movement is all about.

What I do think is cool about Web 2.0 — especially when it comes to non-profit organizations and social innovators — is the operational style (business model if you must). Having a usable, interactive, data-exposing, read/write Web site is, in my opinion, more a function of a new approach to problem solving than a tectonic shift in the way the underlying technology works.