HotDocs, Aaron Swartz and Cory Doctorow

Cory and me

My friend Mariann has been an avid promoter and attendee of Toronto’s HotDocs festival, lo these many years. So it was no surprise when she called to recruit me to be part of her entourage while attending said festival. I had, in fact, discussed one of this year’s selections with colleagues at my new place of employment (well, perhaps not so new any longer: I’ve been there about six months now; but more on that another time), and was keen to attend a screening of The Internet’s Own Boy: Aaron Swartz. But not just any screening: one of the several screenings was to feature a panel discussion with Cory Doctorow, Lawrence Lessig, Gabriella Coleman and the director, Brian Knappenberger.
Continue reading

Remembrance Day at the Canadian Air and Space Museum

A few weeks ago I heard that the Canadian Air and Space Museum was embattled, under attack from its landlord, Parc Downsview Park.

David Soknacki, Chair of the Downsview Park Board of Directors has pulled every dirty trick in the book to evict the museum from its current home, the former de Havilland plant, where Tiger Moths and other gems of aviation history were first designed and built. Among his underhanded shenanigans, Soknacki has refused to recognize the historical and heritage significance of the building. Continue reading

One Web Day 2009

This year I participated in One Web Day. OWD promotes Web issues to the public. It celebrates that every participant to the web is also a contributor.

As part of Tucows’ support and involvement, we collected over 10GB of public domain and Creative Commons ebooks. These will be loaded onto computers we donated to the Little Geeks Foundation, and sent to Northern communities.

Andy Walker, who started Little Geeks, and happens to be my boss, tells us these communities are rife with social problems, resulting in high rates of teen suicide. The last time books were sent there, the suicide rate dropped by 50%. So I’m hoping our efforts here will have a real, positive and lasting effect on these peoples’ lives.

Mozilla also supported One Web Day 2009. In fact, it capped off their Web Service Week; which is like seven days of One Web Day.

They had these cool OWD posters you could print, have your picture taken with, and uploaded it to flickr.

Finally, we had a terrific soiree at Cafe Taste, around the corner from Tucows HQ, sponsored by Tucows, Mozilla and WikiDomo.

If you missed One Web Day, don’t fret: it’s an annual thing. This was the 3rd, and only my first. Keep an eye on the OWD site. I expect I’ll also say something about it here, before the 2010 event. Until then, be good to our web: create some content.

Ross Rader: Slayer of Records

rossrader460While I’ll be lapping up the WordPress goodness at WordCamp this Friday, Ross Rader, avid cyclo-fanatic and director of TucowsHover division, will be hard at work on trashing the cross-Ontario cycling record.  He’s doing this to raise awareness, and funds, for the Coast to Coast Against Cancer Foundation.

Ross will be cycling 874km, trying to beat the 1987 record set by Ron Dossenbach of Windsor, Ontario, of 35 hours and 39 minutes. He figures he’ll have to maintain an average speed of 27km/hr.

You can find Ross at his blog: https://ultrarider.ca/.

You can sponsor Ross and help a child with cancer lead a better life at: https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/donate.aspx?EventID=28290&LangPref=en-CA.

Thanks for your support, and all the best to Ross and his team!