I’m presenting at the blogging and digital storytelling conference, Northern Voice. It’s happening in Vancouver over Friday and Saturday. I’ll present a Blogging 101 Q&A on Friday at 1:30 pm alongside the Devil (AKA Shane Birley, co-author of Blogging for Dummies). Sounds awesome, right? Know what’s even more awesome? Getting into the conference with a [...]

What is Obama up to kids? Between this article and the drone strikes, there is something rotten in Denmark America! ————————————– By Trevor Pott, Opinion So, America’s National Security Agency has been tapping up US internet giants to gather information about foreigners online, allegedly sharing that data with Britain’s GCHQ – and gobbling up details [...]

Jesse Brown on how the latest research challenges perceptions about teens and social media

Colby Cosh sets up today’s action in B.C. Supreme Court

None. Next question. No, seriously, what is the right amount? It depends. Do you have other things to do? Like, I don’t know, a job? Let’s assume yes, and let’s assume it’s about eight hours a day. Okay, so that … Continue reading →

And get ‘em fast! Discounted Early Bird tickets for Northern Voice, Canada’s first (and arguably, best) weblogging social media conference are still available until end of day — after that, you’re paying full price (though really, even at full price they’re a steal). Every year since 2005, the organizers have created an event that was inexpensive, [...]

By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: Canadians have strongly rejected react to Don Cherry’s suggestion that women aren’t equal with men and that female reporters should be barred from male dressing rooms. The 79-year old CBC hockey broadcaster made the sexist comments on Saturday night during his weekly Coach’s Corner part of the popular [...]

The post Canadians overwhelmingly reject Don Cherry’s sexist remarks appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.

The Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy, and Ethics has released its study on privacy and social media.
The report includes recommendations for new Privacy Commissioner
guidelines. The NDP supplemented those recommendations with nine…

Something very strange happened over the weekend. Out of the blue, and without a reasonable explanation, a stream of insulting, discriminating comments were posted to all of my Youtube videos; some were making fun of me and the kids singing abilities, others were making fun of the clothes I was wearing, most of them were just discriminatory and abusive.

I tracked down the author of those comments, went to his own Youtube channel, gave him a piece of my mind there, and then proceeded to block him, not before I deleted the comments he had made. I thought that was it, but just a few minutes after that, a new series of comments -all of the same kind- appeared on my videos again, this time made by another Youtube user. This time I didn’t even care to reply, I simply deleted the comments and blocked the kid. But then a third user showed. And then a fourth. By then, I had to take other measures. I reported all four of them for spamming and discrimination, and I ended disallowing comments for all of my videos.

When I thought ‘that was it’, they came back at it again, leaving comments on my channel (some sort of a welcome page we have on Youtube), so I had to go back and keep looking what other places were exposed to this kind of attacks. Fortunately, that was it.

The experience left me baffled. I don’t care of what a 15 year old with too much time in his hands can say about my singing ‘abilities’ and the way I look, but when they make disparaging comments about my kids I can get really upset. Luckily, they didn’t get to see anything, but I have been thinking about this incident since it happened, especially considering that some of my kids have been victims of cyber bullying in the past.

Looking at their Youtube channels, it became evident that this was nothing more than a bunch of bored teenagers, who spend their (lots of) free time just doing that: they pick a target (could be on Youtube, Twitter, etc) and they just flood the poor sap with very aggressive comments, looking for a reaction I guess. I did fall for it at first but then I simply chose to ignore them. But again, what kind of empty life somebody must lead, that they can find solace in verbally abusing people all across the world (these guys were all from Argentina), people they don’t know and that they hurt just for the fun of it.

Social media is powerful. It’s everywhere. I’ve seen idiots shooting video with their phones as they were provoking the Air Canada clerks because our flight had been delayed, just looking for a reaction so they could post it online. Nobody is safe, everybody’s lives are on the internet now, and our kids are (sorry) stupid enough to share EVERYTHING, without thinking of the consequences. We had a serious injury at our game last Saturday and I had to beg my players to stop taking pictures and even threaten them about not putting anything on Facebook, Tweeter, etc.

Facebook, as good of a tool as it is to reconnect with long-lost friends (and then realize why we stop having contact), is just a window for kids to expose their intimacy to the world. Twitter is pretty much the same, but with even less content and mostly used by kids to insult and bully each other. Few kids write blogs nowadays, but it’s just most of the same (and Tumblr would be to Blogger what Twitter is to Facebook). Then we have Youtube, where stupid, bored kids like the four I talked about can go and insult other people freely, feeling invincible, manly and untouchable just because they’re behind a screen. Their lives seem to be so empty that I feel pity for them, more than anger for what they said.

One day kids will realize that social media is PUBLIC and FOREVER, and that’s why it should not be used as a ‘Dear diary’; unfortunately, they will also realize that being behind a computer is not safe enough if they happen to piss off somebody knowledgeable enough to obtain their IP, track them down, and then hack into their computers or… pay them a visit.

It’s a scary place, this online world. I like it less and less every day. Having four kids in the house, and three of them very active online, I have to be always alert.

Pensé ‘Listo, ya está”, pero me equivoqué, porque volvieron al ataque, dejando comentarios en mi canal (la página de presentación de Youtube), así que tuve que volver a mirar qué otros lugares estaban aún expuestos a esta clase de ataques. Por suerte eso fue todo.

La experiencia me dejó sorprendido. No podría importarme menos lo que un chiquito de 15 años tenga que decir sobre mi capacidad para la música o la forma en que luzco, pero cuando se burlan y/o atacan a mis hijos por supuesto que me voy a poner loco. Por suerte ellos no llegaron a ver nada, pero he estado pensando en este incidente desde entonces, especialmente porque algunos de mis hijos han sido víctimas del cyber-bullying en el pasado.

Mirando a los perfiles de Youtube de mis agresores, se hizo evidente que no eran más que un grupejo de adolescentes aburridos, que pasan (mucho) tiempo haciendo eso: escojen un blanco (en Youtube, Twitter, etc) y lo inundan con comentarios muy agresivos, buscando una reacción, calculo. Yo caí en la trampa al principio pero luego los ignoré. De nuevo, pensé en qué vida tan vacía que deben tener, que encuentran placer en abusar verbalmente a gente del otro lado del mundo (estos chicos son todos de Argentina), gente que no conocen pero a la que lastiman sólo por diversión.

Los medios sociales son poderosos. Están en todos lados. He visto idiotas tomar video con sus teléfonos y provocar a los empleados de Air Canada porque nuestro vuelo había sido demorado, buscando una reacción así la podían poner online. Nadie está a salvo, todas nuestras vidas están en internet y nuestros chicos son (perdón) demasiado estúpidos como para compartir TODO con TODOS, sin pensar en las consecuencias. Tuvimos una lesión severa en nuestro partido del sábado y les tuve que rogar a mis jugadores que dejaran de sacar fotos y amenazarlos con que no quería ver una sola referencia al hecho en Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Facebook, tan buena herramienta que es para reconectarse con gente (y luego caer en la cuenta de por qué se dejó de tener contacto), es sólo una ventana para que los chicos expongan su intimidad a todo el mundo. Twitter es igual, pero aún con menos contenido y la herramienta favorita de quienes se dedican a insultar y abusar de otros. Pocos chicos escriben blogs hoy en día, pero es más de lo mismo (y Tumblr es a Blogger lo que Twitter a Facebook). Tenemos Youtube, donde chicos estúpidos y aburridos como esos cuatro de que hablé insultan a otros con libertad, sintiéndose invencibles, masculinos e intocables sólo porque están detrás de una pantalla. Sus vidas tienen tan poco significado que me dan más lástima que ira ver lo que hacen.

Un día estos chicos comprenderán que los medios sociales son PUBLICOS y PARA SIEMPRE, y que es el principal motivo por el cual no debieran usarse como ‘diario íntimo’; desafortunadamente, muchos van a aprender por las malas que estar detrás de una computadora no es suficientemente seguro si justo le joden la vida a alguien con conocimiento suficiente como para obtener sus IP, rastrearlos, hackearles las computadoras y arruinarles la vida… o peor aún, visitarlos.

Este mundo online es un lugar que da miedo. Me gusta menos y menos cada día que pasa. Con cuatro hijos en la casa, y tres de ellos muy activos en la red, no dejo de estar alerta en ningún momento.

Educators have bigger things to worry about

I’m becoming increasingly impressed with the degree to which some public and private organisations are using social media to improve customer service. Case in point: the hydro pole in my elderly neighbour’s back yard had begun to tilt dramatically over the past year or so. So much so that my cable and phone lines were [...]

By Michael J.W. Stickings

With information still coming in and speculation running wild, I don’t have a great deal to say about the attack — criminal and possibly terrorist, but it is premature to comment — that occurred in Boston on Monday, near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. (It’s a city, and larger metropolitan area, that I love a great deal and feel a deep connection to, from my four years at Tufts.)

I spent much of the day and evening on Twitter, reading my feed and also tweeting myself, and re-tweeting others. Say what you want about it, Twitter is a great tool especially during challenging times. Sure, there’s a lot of reckless tweeting in response to any such situation, much of it quite disgusting, and there’s a lot of unsubstantiated commenting, much of it fearmongering, but all that is going on everywhere, not just in the Twitterverse. For me, Twitter is a place to hear from some truly thoughtful people saying truly thoughtful things, providing helpful links and otherwise coming together to share information and ideas. It has its limits, but it’s very useful, and while I’m not as avid a tweeter as many others, I like to join in, and especially today, as we were all trying to formulate our thoughts, it was a better place to post than this blog.

If you want to see what I tweeted and/or if you wish to follow me, go here (@mjwstickings). I’ll just single out this one:

It’s terrible what happened in #Boston, but can everyone just stop the fucking fearmongering and paranoia? Take a step back. #bostonmarathon
— Michael Stickings (@mjwstickings) April 16, 2013

Okay, that’s strong language, but I meant it. There has been all manner of speculation — there were five other packages with explosives, there was a third explosion at the JFK Library, a suspect is in custody — but really we know almost nothing beyond the obvious. I assume that law enforcement agencies, led by the FBI, know a lot more than we do and for obvious reasons aren’t going public, and apparently there’s something going on in the Boston suburb of Revere right now, but to me it seems irresponsible to take any of this speculation or any unsubstantiated reports seriously, even more so to participate in spreading them. This is not to say the media shouldn’t be doing their job, just that there isn’t much most of us can add to the story right now.

And by the way, at some point it’s important to turn away, if only temporarily, from Twitter, other social media, and even most traditional news outlets (the New York Post was especially awful in its reckless and irresponsible coverage, but I found CNN’s coverage lacking as well; MSNBC was fine; I didn’t bother with Fox News or any of the other right-wing media outlets — I read enough about their various transgressions on Twitter) and hear from the few news outlets that actually do their jobs really well and have the resources to provide excellent (and sober) reporting, and today, for me, that was The Boston Globe and The New York Times, as well as NBC, which aired an outstanding one-hour special from 10 to 11 hosted by Brian Williams — really well done.

Don’t get me wrong, we’re all entitled to our opinions, and to sharing them. I just think we should wait before drawing conclusions — makes sense, no? After all, it makes a huge difference whether al Qaeda or some homegrown right-wing group was being this attack — or some other group entirely, or even a lone individual. Because right now we don’t know anything — who it was, the motive, anything.

This was a vicious attack on innocent civilians, “an assault,” Derrick Jackson wrote at the Globe, “on our civic life.” It took place on an important day in Boston — the day of the marathon, Patriots’ Day, a civic holiday in Massachusetts (as well as Maine). And as President Obama said, “make no mistake, we will get to the bottom of this, and we will find out who did this, we’ll find out why they did this.” Those responsible will “feel the full weight of justice.”

That time, hopefully, will come. Fow now, let us focus on the victims and their loved ones, and on the heroic first responders and others at the scene who bravely rushed to help the victims, now knowing what else might be coming, even as our thoughts turn to the search for those behind this attack, and to the reasons for it, as we try to make sense of what seems to have been so utterly senseless.

**********

I generally do not post editorial cartoons, out of respect for the artist’s right to his or her work, but I wanted to post this one, by the Globe‘s Dan Wasserman, which is making the rounds and which so beautifully captures the essence of this horrendous incident and the incredible response to it in Boston — even with so much bloodshed, one can see in the response the humanity that binds us all together. Amid such ugliness, it is a truly wonderful thing.

Dear Readers: A couple of celebrity notes today! (Even though we are not a celebrity rag) Justin Bieber put his foot in a cow patty over the weekend. It was a very unfortunate remark, but this proves that Justin is still a kid who sometimes says inappropriate things without thinking them through! I suspect he [...]

No one dies anymore without leaving a little of themselves behind—in this case, on…

Student articles contain errors

My Twitter feed has been fun the last few days, including an exchange with one of my favorite authors, and a literary legend. I was also surprised to discover that Margaret Atwood hasn’t seen the movie 300: And Christopher Moore … Continue reading →

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo) announced her support through her Tumbr site and called the question of marriage quality “a great American debate” By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: The fight for marriage equality in the U.S. and the world got a huge boost today when Democrat senators Claire McCaskill and Mark Warner [...]

The post Two U.S. Senators Announce Support For Gay Marriage Via Facebook & Tumblr appeared first on The Canadian Progressive | News & Analysis.

OK, maybe that headline over promises, just a smidge. But here’s the deal – you are doing some things in social media that make you look like an amateur. And I’m tired of gently pointing them out on an individual…

Canada spends more time online than any other country save for the United States, says a new report by internet analytics company comScore. Canadians spent more than 41 hours per month online in the last three months of 2012, representing the second highest across the globe. Americans logged 43 hours. And in terms of average number of pages viewed each month, Canada came in first with 3,731. Online video The average Canadian is watching 291 videos – 25 hours’ worth – a … Read More

It may well be as we suggested earlier that the Corrupt Party government-paid army of hacks were too busy with other ongoing trainwrecks to try to spin Tom Flanagan back out of the hole he’d pitched himself into.

But his brethren and sistren in the m…