Blogging – Page 4 – Consolation Champs

Welcome To Our Panel

Ok, this entry is really just for those folks who are sitting in the Austin Convention Center Room 9C between 5:00 and 6:00pm Central Standard Time today. Welcome! I hope you’ll enjoy our panel “Ghost In The Machine: Spirituality On The Web.” I hope you’ll leave me a comment with some feedback on the panel. I hope we can do this again next year, and I know we’ll learn a lot. I want to thank Hussein, Rachel, Kevin and Gordon for agreeing to be the “smart guys” on the panel and am so glad to have finally met them in person.

And oh yeah, if you’re wondering about why I’m moderating a panel on spirituality, you might want to look here and maybe here.

7th Annual Pre-SXSW Post

Yes, it’s hard to believe, but I’ll be attending my seventh South by Southwest in a few weeks. Things will be a little different this year for a number of reasons.

This year, for the first time ever, I’m speaking on a panel. Not seeing anything on the schedule about the subject, I proposed a panel on faith, and it was accepted. It’s entitled Ghost in the Machine: Spirituality Online and it’s scheduled for Saturday March 10 from 5:00-6:00. I’ve assembled a panel of rock stars who will say most of the intelligent things, but I’m still nervous and excited.
As a panelist, I received a free Gold pass this year, which means for the first time I can attend both Interactive and Film events. I’m still unclear how ticketing to film screenings works, but I’m hoping to actually see a few films this time. A few of the scheduled films recently screened at Sundance, so it might be a good chance to see some stuff that won’t make it to Toronto until at least the fall, if at all.
The Interactive section of the conference ends on Tuesday, but I’m not leaving Austin until Saturday morning, so I’m hoping to catch a few bands during the Music portion, and just generally hang out in one of my favourite American cities with some of my favourite Americans.

If you’re going to be there, make sure you say hello! And it’s also acceptable to buy me a Shiner. After all, I’m a crusty conference veteran now!

P.S. Make sure to check out SXSWBaby for the latest news and updates.

Seek And Ye Shall Find

I’ve realized that switching to WordPress has broken all my archive links. If you arrive here via Google and are not at the page you’re expecting, please use the nifty live search box in the top right corner and you will be whisked away to the place you want to be. It’s that simple!

Dear Movable Type

Dear Movable Type,

Remember a few years ago when our relationship was fresh? And I wrote a Dear Blogger letter? Well, I’m sorry to say that I’m doing it again. I think we should go our separate ways.

It’s been a great four and a half years. In fact, it’s the longest relationship I’ve had with any blogging platform. But I have to admit that I’ve been fooling around for a while with someone else. And although it will be hard losing my relationship with you and your family, it’s probably best if we make a clean break.

If I’m honest, I’d have to say that you kind of let yourself go once we were together. You were always a bit slow, but you’d become kind of bloated, and trying to communicate with you had become a chore.

I’m not saying this new relationship will last forever. I think I’ve realized that it’s unwise to commit, though I’m willing to see where this goes. But I do want to say thank you. We’ve gone through some crazy stuff together, good times and bad, and you’ll always be a part of my life.

Now, let’s just say goodbye. No tears. Just goodbye.

Bloggers Show The Better Way

I just heard that the new chairman of Toronto’s transit commission (slogan: “The Better Way”) has asked bloggers to improve the commission’s “abysmal” website. This is potentially good news, but I hope these wizards of the web are willing to go in and get their hands dirty rather than just complain. The site hasn’t been updated since it was designed back in 1998 and it takes far too long to find even the most basic information.

There are some very talented web designers and developers in our city who could make a real contribution and I hope that this project raises the profile of this sort of citizen activism. It would be nice, though, if the TTC recognized the value of this kind of work and actually paid somebody to redesign the site. So far, the readers of BlogTo, Torontoist, and Spacing magazine have become involved.