Without a Yard

Wisdom handed down from the blog oracle advises against writing when upset, which is probably the same futile logic that propelled legislation against road rage, but in the world of ‘current affairs’ online – delaying a post 18 hours seems prudent enough, this barely qualifies as current anymore, even.

Of course I couldn’t really keep my online mouth shut this long – after receiving emails about the tragic death of a Toronto cyclist and the sad circumstances of the accident, I started posting thoughts and reflections on Twitter.

For non-Torontonians unaware of the online rubbernecking, review the national newspapers or television stations to find a breathless breakdown in hour-by-hour bullet points of assumed/alleged actions.  Don’t forget to watch videos from the various eye witnesses, the arrest scene itself, and the sadly-reminiscent-of-an-AG-press-conference car-towing.

Until officials fully review security tapes and statements from witnesses, there is no point speculating  culpability.  What was most stunning, and poorly articulated in my blurbs under 140 characters, was last night’s stark contrast to the fortunes of Ted Kennedy.

Today’s politicians live in a virtual fishbowl, many, like Bryant, tried to embrace it – speaking directly to constituents or stakeholders through YouTube channels, attempting to connect with new online audiences, and presenting a personal ‘self’ in media interviews.  Unfortunately, the hyper connected/accessible/affordable means to capture and publish media online tears down as well as it builds up.  The enthusiasm and momentum embracing a ‘viral video’ is equally powerful when packaging and distributing mass amounts of information, teasing it out under the guise of objective news and judging a case before a court date is booked.

Today’s newscycle illustrates that the impressively productive career following Kennedy’s tragic fatal mistake cannot be reproduced by allegedly erring politicians today.  Even the tone of Kennedy’s statement released after the investigation – less an ‘apology’ than a fierce rebuttal – seems completely opposite to the bleary eyed press conferences staffed by scrubbed-clean family members, or the vaseline-lensed ‘exclusive’ interviews to ‘set things straight’ after a scandal.

The Toronto Twitter community, at least the fraction in which I choose to participate, has a very large cyclist crew.  Reviewing their comments, I was immensely impressed with the respectful and sombre tone as they reflected on the sad news and awaited substantiated facts.

Most encouraging of these commentators was Mark Kuznicki, spearheader of ChangeCamp, TransitCamp organizer and now a force behind BikeCampTO.  Follow @bikeunion for more information & hopefully road-sharing/transit/infrastructure becomes an ongoing conversation with all Torontonians, unprovoked by a tragedy.

Two for two…blogger guilt is a powerful thing…

Wanted to send special thanks to blogger Mary for a lovely brunch in my fav Toronto haunt on Family Day – be sure to read her titilating reportage of our scandalous, witty, highbrow conversation in the days ahead.

Continuing the theme of shameless self-promotion – if you are one of the 8 people with Silverlight installed on your computer – feel free to cringe and wince along with all the grammatical fouls during my first french-language interview for TFO.  YIKES.  My Christian Bale-esque tirade filled with Crissedecaliseestidetabarnacdesacrament-s was sadly left on the cutting room floor.

Special invitation for all Torontopians in/around downtown on the 19th – Check out the Canadian Premiere of the doc ‘Us Now’ at Hart House, presented by Mass LBP.  Free ticket resos on EventBrite. Check out the trailer:

Stick around after the film for a panel of pundits, including Dr. Gillian Kerr from RealWorld, Author & InsidePR’er Terry Fallis, CBC’s Jesse Hirsh & our fav, ChangeCamp spearheader Mark Kuznicki.

Howdy.  I know I said I’d blog more about transparency issues – but you can see right through me – I’m swamped.  This entry’s a two-fer & being cross-posted over here at the ChangeCamp blog, too.

Whoddathunkit? ChangeCamp blogger expectedly expressing love of transparency and, plot twist of all plot twists, turns out to be a lobbyist. Yeah, I just dropped the real taboo L-word.

So I’m @withoutayard, meegs to my friends & a registered lobbyist in the province of Ontario. And you may ask yourself-well…how did she get here?

Living in Austin during the last not-quite-as-amazing American federal election, led me to blogging & playing with online communications tools to affect change, raise awareness & spread awesome.  Returning to Canuckistan, I served a tour at the Pink Palace, but never quite mastered the mysterious machinations of political parties.  Unlike @dchartier, I couldn’t cut it in the civil service, even though sound recording policy at Heritage Canada was pretty darn close to a perfect policy-wonkette fit during a brief federal foray.

Combine the forces (read: career failures & bad-fits) & it sort of makes sense, right?  Witnessing the Dean machine go off the rails as a viral video trainwreck, seeing Meetup’s potential beyond UT Japanese exchange & making campaign donations as easy as Amazon blew my mind in ’04 (& broke my heart the night of November 2^nd).  True patriot love of responsible government, parliamentary democracy & social justice/equity brought me home & hoping to see these transformative tools used in a Timmy’s.

I doubt I’ll ever get to geek out in a war room or a party HQ.  Partisan politics brings out the agnostic in me.  The thought of hundreds of thousands of dollars spent during a campaign on balloons, signs, buttons & miscellaneous paraphernalia drives me absolutely bonkers.  Working within the system, keeping abreast of legislative issues, regulatory nerdery & jealously eyeing the open source enthusiasm, technological progress & federal government’s paradigm shift to the South is a great fit for now.

Blogging about the last provincial & federal elections, especially the creative campaigns on provincial electoral reform & federal vote-swapping was encouraging.  A taste.   But not enough.

Enter ChangeCamp. Citizen-initiated, non-hierarchical, collaborative & generally all things old-school civics.  We have the tools, skills & thanks to some shindig yesterday in DC, the enthusiasm & momentum.  So let’s do some heavy lifting & make our standards for transparency and engagement the new status quo.  Liberate APIs, wiki-fy policy docs, de-PDF the whole shebang.  Easy.