“I don't know if any two technology companies have been better suited for each other. There's already been rumours of a strategic partnership
and, like the recent YouTube purchase, I think a formal partnership of
this type would be an ideal situation. Combine the technological
expertise and deep pockets of Google with the open-access policies and
“third wave of the Net” cultural impact of Wikipedia and many good
things are guaranteed to happen.”
…although I have no idea what I meant with the reference to YouTube? I
think I was saying that Google should put money into Wikipedia but
obviously, I didn't think Google would be able to buy Wikipedia outright…or did I?
The BC Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee has an unofficial blog with lots of good reading.
(I was going to title this post “The only BC-related post you'll read on a blog this week that doesn't mention the Olympics.” But then I realised that this would be like the Hawthorne Effect of blogs. )
Hard to believe that today marks two years since Willie P. Bennett passed away. Fred Eaglesmith has apparently started covering a Willie P. song at the end of his concerts as a tribute to his long-time sideman…
Rumours were swirling about the top secret torch bearer who would light the Olympic Cauldron during the Opening Ceremonies last Friday. The best suggestion I heard was that they were going to use current video editing techniques or another recently unveiled technology such as a hologram to have Terry Fox “run” into the stadium, symbolically ending the cross-Canada run he started almost thirty years ago.
In fact, if I'm being completely honest (and if you'll indulge a slight tangent), I think I'd vote Terry Fox over Tommy Douglas as Canada's Greatest Canadian. Because no matter how much I admire Tommy Douglas or agree with his politics, the difference maker is that Tommy Douglas was an elected politician doing what he felt was right and, as is inevitable in the political arena, there was opposition to him, both at the time and still today. Terry Fox was a young everyman without an agenda (other than defeating cancer obviously) who was like some sort of tragic Greek hero with the epic journey he took on for himself.
“Many years after I saw him run a couple of consecutive marathons –
his 136th and 137th or something like it – I ran one myself. I trained
for it for six months, on two legs, and spent the day after on my back.
When Terry finished a marathon, he had something to eat, maybe endured
an event of glad-handing (in order to raise more money) in some
godforsaken town, grabbed a few hours sleep, and then got up and did it
again.”
SaskTel Max, a Saskatchewan-based cable TV service has a feature where they have local content available on-demand for their subscribers. This might be a clip profiling an upcoming festival or visiting a few of the best known restaurants around town. Or, in a week or two, it will include a guided tour to the services available at Regina Public Library co-hosted by yours truly.
Our Marketing Department asked me to participate in the video along with our most recently hired librarian (she said that someone was joking with her that this meant she couldn't be fired since she'll now be the “face of Regina Public Library”. As the second-newest hired librarian at RPL, I hope this is true! )
It was a fun afternoon and definitely something out of the ordinary. I can't wait to see how it comes out (or maybe I can? My joke at the outset about needing thirty-seven takes just to say my name almost came true a couple times as I delivered my lines throughout the afternoon!)
Not sure if you heard but apparently the Wet & Rainy Olympics are in Canada this year and the opening ceremonies are tonight.
The Olympics are once again a lightning rod of controversy and having them on our own doorstep has perhaps brought this home in a way that doesn't happen when they're in Italy or Japan or even next door in the US.
Even Vancouver's libraries aren't immune, a controversy having stirred around a directive from VPL's marketing department about which sponsors to use during the period when the Winter Games are happening and which to avoid as well as asking staff to put pieces of tape over non-sponsor logos on things like electronic equipment. (I wonder if they were asked to do the same as what happened at the last Olympics when black tape was apparently placed over the logo of the urinal maker in the bathrooms at Olympic venues since Moens or Delta or whoever weren't the official plumbing sponsor of the Olympics!) [Edit: or worse]
I'm mixed in my feelings towards the Olympics. I like the idea of what they're supposed to represent – the pinnacle of athletic achievement taking place on a global stage for international competition within international cooperation. But I'm not naive enough to dismiss the rampant commercialism and corporatization of the Games which has long replaced the ideals of the games as the most important thing. That's not even mentioning the massive expenses associated with hosting the Games and long-term debts that are always incurred (I think Calgary 1988 was the only modern Olympic Games – summer or winter – that ended up being debt-free at the end of it.)
I've got lots more thoughts but I won't get into them there. I will say that I also have mixed thoughts about nationalism and patriotism. But one of the places where I don't is in regards to the Olympic hockey tournament. So Go Canada Go and here's a little clip to get your blood stirring, not least because whoever picked the song chose a great under-the-radar Canadian songwriter named Mike Plume…(ffwd to 2:57)
I gotta admit – I kinda like it. I like the Web 2.0-y logo. I like that the web site has lots of bite-sized goodies about the city I call home (although a broken video link three days into the campaign isn't a good sign!) I like that this new slogan isn't cheesy like our last one, “I <heart> Regina” (although the mayor is saying that one will stay too – not sure how that works?) I especially like how “Infinite Horizons” ties in so nicely to our provincial motto of “Land of the Living Skies”. (Next up: “Saskatoon: City of Bridges (Er, And Clouds)”)
There are some legitimate criticisms – the City used a Winnipeg firm when perhaps preference should've been given to a Regina company (plus the cost of the whole endeavour which was somewhere around $300 000.) For some, “Infinite Horizons” reinforces stereotypes of Saskatchewan as flat and boring. And of course, I always find things like this pretty funny in that they're trying to convey that Regina is Dynamic ™, Unique ™ and Independent ™ – all marketing buzzwords that couldn't possibly be used to describe, well, pretty much every other mid-sized city in Canada.
Not sure what my personal answer would be – maybe the print version of the Encylopedia of Saskatchewan? It's a massive book that's beautifully designed with tons of photos, charts and highly readable entries. Great for browsing.
Oh, okay, one more. Here's our family farm overlooking the Qu'Appelle Valley. (It's not documented but someone said that a lot of small towns are in the database now too. Indian Head didn't work but the major highways running by it (including #56 which goes from IH to our farm and on to the Qu'Appelle Valley) are mapped. Pretty cool!
Okay, I won't keep adding more maps in here but I just wanted to mention that I was wrong above – Indian Head is one of the small towns that's been mapped (I must've clicked wrong or something to miss it the first time) and I got to see a view of the house I grew up in. Then we flipped down to Shea's parents' house in Weyburn to see her parent's house and there's my brother-in-law in the garage, working on my father-in-law's truck!
