Alex Reid

Watching this TED Talk by tech activist Jennifer Pahlka reminded me of my days working at City Hall over a decade ago. It was the turn of the century and the City of Winnipeg was just starting to use GIS and geo-mapping tools, and ten years later, they’re using a 311 system, but there still lacks a collaborative community system for neighbours to help neighbours.

The tools exist for cities to engage its citizens, and those tools are easy to use, low cost and offer a wealth of information, whether it be a Twitter feed, a wiki site, or a collaborative knowledgebase.

We’re not going to fix government until we fix citizenship.

~ Jennifer Pahlka

Rick Mercer says it true:

I may not agree with everything that anyone says.

I like to keep my politics loose and my morals solid.

However I have a weak spot for Jello Biafra, specifically because his “don’t hate the media, become the media” mantra was the source of many of my successes, so I give him my audience.

If you listen to the end, you’ll find me agreeing with him.

Run policy like politics.

It was 40 years ago that Gil Scott-Heron stated that the revolution would not be televised.

He was partially right.
The revolution will not be televised for the first three weeks.

Coming from a family of journalists, I’ve been disappointed, perhaps even angry, that the Canadian mainstream media was quick to jump on protests in the Middle East yet ignored the same closer to home for weeks. I’m specifically referring to the likes of the CBC, The Globe and Mail and Global TV.

I expected this sort of pandering from The National Post, so they didn’t disappoint.

The Globe and Mail only had this to say about it - that it was Adbusters (a Canadian publication) who encouraged it with other groups, two days ago. Global repeated what the Globe storied a day later.

The CBC just picked up on it earlier this afternoon; three weeks late.

CTV looks like a winner here, having reported on it a week later (two weeks ago) though for the most part they’ve been obsessed about the police presence and arrests.

No matter what happens during or after the #occupywallstreet protests, many of my friends wondered on Twitter and Facebook why they weren’t seeing this or hearing it reported on the mainstream news, and have to come to the same realization I have, that mainstream news is outdating itself.

I have little faith in the CBC for sure. It’s clear now that the CBC only covers natural disasters and when the Prime Minster passes stool, for fear of cutbacks.

MSNBC, in the states, gets kudos for being perhaps the only American mainstream media to report the protests as well as boldly criticizing the people who were causing the most trouble.

Food for thought from canada dot votes 2011

In a news release, NDP Leader Jack Layton bragged that his party had nominated the most women of any other party, boasting a “historic first among Canadian federal parties” with 40% of the candidates being women.