Put the Pocahontas back in the closet – Ethnic Halloween costumes challenged by Ohio student group
Racist Halloween costumes aren't all the rage this year, thankfully.
Policy
Occupy Wall Street: The emerging global pro-democracy movement, where it stands, what it means, and where we go from here
The Occupy Wall Street movement, which has already become a global grassroots populist pro-democracy movement, if we have eyes to see, has clearly already won a broad and growing base…
Russian artists VOINA detained, harassed – Russian police pose as German journalists
MOSCOW — Yesterday, members of the Russian artist collective VOINA were arrested without charges by Russian police posing as German television journalists. Natalia Sokol and her two-year old son were…
Occupy Montreal & Toronto — Videos from the Media-Coop – More videos of the growing movement North of the 49th
And here are some artfully assembled videos from ‘occupy’ movements in Canada. Enjoy these, too. More media, testimony, photos and coverage can be found at the Media Coop.
Andrea Horwath has a Complaint about the Health Care System.
For my American friends and readers, we’re having a provincial election here in Ontario. Since health care is deemed a provincial responsibility (though funded extensively by the federal government), it’s…
Earth Overshoot Day – cause for a pause to reflect
Yesterday, September 27, the Global Footprint Network declared as Earth Overshoot Day: the day that humans have used up all renewable resources available for the year. Not good. This obviously…
Mediacaster: Structural separation removed from Shaw’s license conditions
From Mediacaster Magazine Shaw Communications has been given the go-ahead to merge its satellite and cable operations. In a decision released this week, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission approved…
The Vertical Integration Elephant in the Room
Cross-posted from Mediamorphis read more
The importance of Canada’s media economy
Editor's note: This Policy Watch piece is a rare look at Canada's media economy from the perspective of an academic researcher, rather than the usual commercial consultants. In this detailed…
Our submission to the UBB proceeding: A summary
We recently made our final submission to the CRTC's usage-based billing (also known as "UBB" or "Internet Metering") hearing, which was brought about because of the hundreds of thousands of…
Rogers LTE and 4G: Beyond Sales Puffery?
This blog post comes courtesy of Mike Fujimoto, PIAC's summer student intern. I hope to add occasional pieces on the open internet from a telecom-regulatory-consumer-advocate perspective and not to make…
Ex-Politicos in Big Telecom Boardrooms
Cross-posted from Mediamorphis Where do ex-politicians go when they retire? It would appear that they take up sinecure amongst the boards of directors at Canada’s leading telecom-media-Internet (TMI) companies. read…
Happy birthday, High-Tc. I miss you.
Twenty-five years ago, the first so-called high temperature superconductor was discovered — unexpectedly, almost out of nowhere. Suddenly, the interest of physicists all over the world in the phenomenon of…
A new generation of threats to online freedom – Report by ONI details 3rd generation strategies for online interference
Worried about how the Internet is being transformed from a creative playground into a structure for dominance and control? You should be, at least that’s the warning from the OpenNet…
Usage Based Billing and the Liberal Approach: Andrew Moore’s Appearance at the CRTC 2011-77 Public Consultation
Rarely does one hear politeness, somber, and well versed folks speak in politics. This–this here–is a video of a talent person that encapsulates the need for change in the CRTC…
ALEC Exposed: Center For Media and Democracy Details ALEC’s Industry-Friendly Legislation Machine
ALECexposedLogo_AProjectOfCMDflat.jpg The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has launched a new website, ALECExposed.org, to help consumers understand more about the secretive business group th...
$16.8 million in arts funding goes to BC Arts Council
Last Thursday, July 7, BC’s Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development, Ida Chong, announced $16.8 million in funding for the arts, to be administered through the BC Arts Council.…
It’s the icing, not the cake: key lesson on open data for governments
At the 2010 GTEC conference I did a panel with David Strigel, the Program Manager of the Citywide Data Warehouse (CityDW) at the District of Columbia Government. During the introductory…
Fundamental guiding rules for telecom-media-Internet politics
Cross-posted from Mediamorphis read more
Toronto theatre fest gets funding pulled – A conversation with Artistic Producer Michael Rubenfeld
Toronto’s indie theatre festival SummerWorks has recently reported that core funding from Heritage Canada has been pulled at the last minute. Given the ire the festival drew from the government…