Find this article in The Tyee, rabble.ca, Common Ground, and VUE Weekly.

There is something uniquely powerful about everyday people having access to the Internet from tiny devices in their pocket. That ubiquitous access to each other creates possibilities that are worth fighting for and saving. The mobile- and wireless-accessed Internet, combined with emerging open web and open-data applications, has the potential to usher in a new era of connectedness and, with it, dramatic changes to social practices and institutions. If we get digital public policy right, Canada could become a leader in mobile communications, leading to empowerment, job creation and new forms of entrepreneurialism, expression and social change.

To harness this opportunity, politicians and policy makers will need to develop a digital strategy for Canada with a central focus on mobile communications and Canada's broadband infrastructure. To be successful in the long term, we'll need a "made in Canada" strategy that captures the imagination, vision and ingenuity of people from across Canada.

Find this article in The Tyee, rabble.ca, and VUE Weekly.

It was a holiday gathering much like any other, until I was introduced to a fellow "media person." To my surprise and amusement, he happened to be the Director of Communications for the Canadian Olympic Committee. I had a million questions: What did he think of independent and social media? What about the resistance to the games? What does his job actually entail?

Apparently, the Director of Communications is primarily responsible for keeping the "rights holders" happy and making sure they get to the front of the line of any sought media moment. His job seems to be to ensure that big media maintains its gatekeeper status. As for social and indie media, he didn't have much to say -- they aren't a part of his job. When I asked him about those critical of the games, he gave me a look that read, "Yeah, there's a few people who don't like the games, and that's too bad..." At the very least he seemed unprepared, at the worst, he's working in a media ecology that doesn't exist anymore.

Find this article in The Tyee.

And maybe eight times that, after misspending community media funds to further their own aims.

OpenMedia.ca is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to advance and support an open and innovative communications system in Canada. OpenMedia.ca is the organization that coordinates the SaveOurNet.ca Coalition.

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