Although COVID-19 has delayed the release of the print edition of my new children's book, Born, I am happy to report that my publisher, Groundwood Books, has gone ahead with the release of the ebook edition. Thanks to everyone at Groundwood for your support and hard work in bringing this book to life! It has... Continue Reading →
Social Media and Democracy: What Can Be Done? A Response…
Last night I attended an excellent event put on by the Public Policy Forum called Social Media and Democracy: What Can Be Done? at which no less than 5 smart and highly informed guest speakers from journalism, government, academia, civil society and the tech sector discussed the state of the internet and the threat of 'surveillance... Continue Reading →
A Look at the Canada Council’s New Digital Strategy Fund
The Canada Council for the Arts recently published additional information about its new Digital Strategy Fund, which will grant $88.5m to Canadian artists and arts organizations over the next 4 years. This blog post is an introduction to that fund and what it could mean to you as an artist or arts professional. Disclaimer: although... Continue Reading →
What I learned at SXSW Interactive 2015
Madness. SXSW Interactive is utter madness. 75,000 people, 400 scheduled conference sessions a day, just one poor brain and one weak body to drag back and forth, into which only so many ideas and contacts and information and free food and liquor can be poured before you break down and beg for mercy. "Please, just... Continue Reading →
Array of Words and The Manilla Street Kid Digital Gift Economy
Last night at the Capital Slam I met a poet who recently returned from several months in the Philippines and Nicaragua. In both countries he gave numerous poetry workshops. Very cool. He is a hard-hitting poet whose piece about the selling of girls into sexual slavery in Asia last night was brutally intense. His name... Continue Reading →
Public Gifting as Good Times and Good Business
I believe that networked culture - what I call OS3 - has a great deal to learn from oral culture, which I call OS1. Because they are both all about dialogues. Whereas OS2 culture - which currently dominates our world - is all about monologues. The reason that OS3 has a lot to learn from... Continue Reading →